Run for your life

Jair A. Cano

Basic English I, Group A

Teacher: Hans Oviedo

Florencia, September 2nd, 2015

“Run for your Life” by Stephen Waller

Setting:

-Geographical:

Barcelona, Spain: this is the location where the story took place.

Old town close to the market: in this place there were little streets, but there wasn’t a big shopping and it was dangerous.

-Historical:

It happened the fourth day of their stay in Barcelona, exactly on holiday.

-Atmosphere:

The atmosphere was developed in a suspense action tone. This can be evidenced when “Vidal suddenly jumped at Kim and caught her… then she saw the knife” (p. 21).

-Social Conditions:

The story was developed in a context of a mid-social condition. As it is shown in the market in an old part of the city, we could see people buying food in the street. The characters also reflected those conditions.

Plot:

-Rising action:

The exciting day of Dave and Kim began when they decided not to follow the route and visit the old and dangerous part of town. “Dave did not want to go by bus. He wanted to look round the old town” (p. 3).

-Climax:

We can see that the story took its climax, when Dave and Kim met Vidal. From that moment they began to have a bad day. “The man was very near them now. He was not very tall, with a thin, white face and dark, dangerous eyes” (p. 8) “Then she saw the knife in the man’s hand. She started to run” (p.9).

-Falling action:

After a long run and escape, Dave and Kim work with two detectives place to catch Vidal and stop dangerous day. As story shows: “Dave run to the rubbish bin. He stopped, took the bin in his hands and held it up over his head. Them he threw it” (p. 23) “The rubbish bin went over Kim’s head and hit Vidal… Nacho held Vidal’s hands behind his back and took him away” (p. 24).

-Resolutions:

Dave, Kim and detectives caught the dangerous subject, they ended the criminal life of Vidal. So they could continue their holiday. “Later, they drove back to hotel in a police car” (p.25) “I’ll go for a walk with you tomorrow – to the bus stop” (p. 26).

Point of view:

The story is told from a third person angle.

The third-person narrator. It is the voice that counts and recounts events, stories or anecdotes, in a certain order and a certain presentation.

We can demonstrate this type of narrative with these examples.

Examples:

- “Kim and Dave were seventeen.”(p.2)

-“They came to a little open place with two or three trees and sat down.”(p.4)

-“Ana and Nacho will be near and they know all about these things…” (p.17)

-“Ana and Nacho moved back to the car.”(p.22)

-“We didn’t see all of the old town today.”(p.26)

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