Below is an extract from a short story called 'An Easy Cure for Insomnia' by Pratima Mitchell. Look at how new speech starts a new line and how the punctuation comes outside or inside the speech marks depending on how and where it is reported in the sentence.
Grandfather Singh hadn’t slept properly for days.
He complained, “I just nodded off when an ambulance went by!”
“Dee daw dee daw,’ sang six-year-old Baba.
“It got worse...”
“Cats?” asked Minnie, Baba’s sister.
Grandfather sighed. “And the party down the street – people shouting, doors slamming. Then the
dawn chorus started...”
“Better consult the doctor,” said Minnie’s mum, hurrying the children to school.
“Never,” replied Grandfather. “He’ll just give me sleeping pills.”
A week later, Grandfather’s eyes had sunk into their sockets. He felt exhausted.
“A prize to anyone who comes up with a cure for my insomnia,” he announced. “Anything you want,”
he added recklessly. “Any treat that lasts a day.”
“Like the zoo?” Baba asked.
“The zoo with ice creams and a bar of chocolate each,” said Minnie, who had bargaining power.
“The zoo and London Eye. No, no! Wembley and the big match,” shouted Baba.
Minnie suggested roller skating in the park. “We’d need to buy Rollerblades.”
“Just come up with the goods,” Grandfather grumbled.
Baba and Minnie tried lots of cures – evening massage, which didn’t work; hot milk with honey at
night; a tape of the sea. Nothing did the trick.
Finally Minnie got Mum to invite Mrs Chatterjee to supper.
Mrs Chatterjee was the most boring person they knew. Her voice was like a hornet droning... Or a
tropical frog. She talked and talked but never said anything interesting.
When Grandfather heard, he said he would eat in his own room.
“She will be very offended,” said Minnie’s Mum.
When I first read this short story, I didn't really know what I should write. The first time I read it through I found it quite funny, mainly because they are trying to cure his insomnia but nothing works, and the fact that the really boring person is called 'Mrs Chatterjee', which would usually imply a not so boring person.
ReplyDeleteHowever, when I read it through a second time round, I almost felt bad for the character even though it is just as story, because it must be horrible not being able to sleep no matter what he tries, up to the point where his eyes sink into his sockets. Being sleep-deprived would be unbearable.
This section of the story never actually tells you whether he gets to sleep or not, which is good because it means I can use my imagination. It tells me that he does get to sleep, because if the story is a slight bit amusing, then it should have a happy ending for the main character.
I do like this poem because I feel different things each different time I read it. For example, sad, happy, amused, confused, etc.
-Lizzie
Is this the poem or is it something just to show us how to write out speech?
ReplyDelete