Julio Cortázar

In Julio Cortazar’s story, “House Taken Over”, Cortazar creates an atmosphere of fear by not telling us what took over the house. The house is taken over by something and the people who live in the house don’t know what is it that has taken over the house. First, Cortázar heard something in the library or dining room. “I went down the corridor as far as the oak door, then turned into the hall toward the kitchen, when I heard something in the library or the dining room. The sound came through…

Literary Analysis of The Metamorphosis and Axolotl Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis and Julio Cortazar’s short story Axolotl are not only based off of the writers themselves; they also exhibit a plethora of similar themes and concepts, including absurdism, alienation, Marxism, and magic realism. Oftentimes in fictional literature, traces of emotions exhibited by characters and events that occur within the fictional work are heavily influenced by the writer’s own dilemmas. This parallel…

Near the ending of the letter, the narrator talks to Andrea of how the stress of the eleventh rabbit leads to anxiety and depression. “But not eleven, because to say eleven is to already say twelve for sure and Andrea, twelve would be thirteen” (Cortázar 10-11). The narrator feels all of his anxiety which is represented by the rabbits, closing in on him.When readers see this, they must not see the rabbits as actual rabbits, but rather personification of his self…

transformed into one of the best weeks of my life, to one of the scariest events in my life. Transformation obviously creates fear. This can be seen in the following three stories as well. Oate’s “Where is Here,” Arthur Tress’ “Dream Collector” and Julio Cortazar’s “House Taken Over” uses transformation of an ordinary person and an ordinary setting to show us how…

middle of combat, he dreams of paramedics “[encouraging] him cheerfully with jokes and assurance” (Cortazar 265). This shows that the protagonist is not fighting for his people and is instead off dreaming of a better time. In addition, he is not even fighting while he is awake. In fact, while his other squadron is off fighting, he is commenting on how “[being] afraid [is] nothing strange” (Cortazar 267). This shows that he is not out fighting, but instead hiding off, and leaving his friends…

begun to read (363 Cortázar). “He tasted the almost perverse pleasure of disengaging himself line by line from the things around him, and at the same time feeling his read rest … beyond the great windows the air of afternoon danced under the oak trees in the park” (363 Cortázar). Cortázar uses “magical realism” in the story to show how the man in the story got lost in his mind and left the real world in which he was in. By using this genre and the theme of loss from reality, Cortázar…

The Power of Transformation When I was in seventh grade, my friend and I went to In-N-Out. We ate outside and my friend pointed out to me that some guy kept looking at us through the window. The guy looked like he was in his forties. I didn’t think much of it at first, but when he left the restaurant and made his way to his car me and my friend were watching hit. He got in his car and closed the door, so my friend and I turned around and begin to walk away. As I turned away, I saw his car…

“House Taken Over” by Julio Cortázar is about two middle aged siblings living in their ancestral house together and describes their daily routines during the tragic time when everything was magically taken away from them, including their house by an some entity that represents fear. The story presents the loneliness, love, and the fear that takes place in both Irene and her brother that contributes to the overall depiction of the story. Irene and her brother are presented as very secluded…

photos. Transformation causes fear because what can originally seem good can always turn into a bad situation. Transformation in “Where is Here” by Oates creates fear because the stranger is very suspicious. Transformation in “House Taken Over” by Cortazar creates fear because the houses’ setting is very old and spacious. Transformation in “Dream Collector” by Tress creates fear because the photos can be very tricky as of what is actually…

Explanatory Essay In scary stories authors use things that could scare us like someone dying, a ghost,an abnormal figure, or even death. In addition , “House Taken Over” and “ The Fall of the House of Usher” the authors used transformation within the characters to scare us as well as the aid of the other scary elements I just stated. How exactly, well the transformation in both stories is used show how characters go from being fearful to accepting the irregularity of their abnormal fate. And…