''Something Funny: Story Analysis.''

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk  (1928 - )

 

A short biography of the author

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk was born in 1928 and grew up in Illinois. She has written more than 40 books for children and young. She started to write when she was ten. Her first history was about a ballerina who had broken her leg and it was doubtful if she could dance in the recital to which the prince had been invited. Then she wrote plays for every holiday and her class performed them for the rest of the school. In Junior High she began writing for radio. Before her freshman year at Knox College, she had her first part time job at the local radio station. Later, she got married with her true love and they began our family. She has won the Texas Bluebonnet Award and Vermont's Rebecca Caudill Award and also The American children's author. Now she has about 70 titles to her publishing credit plus a couple of movies.

The summary of the story

The story “Something Funny” is about a couple Janie and Bill. Janie has a problem she is getting tired of Bill because he was very dull. One night they were going out, but as usual Bill came late. They went to a party during a terrible storm. On the way Bill told her what had happened. He had a weirdest dream about a flying saucer and people who had three eyes. At the end of the story Janey was tired of pretending to be somebody else, so she showed Bill the truth.

Plot analysis

Conflict

Janey was getting tired of Bill, because he wasn’t too interesting.

Rising Action

● The arrival of Bill
Janey heard a car screeching as it stopped outside. It was raining so hard. It was difficult to see, but she was able to recognize Bill’s car.

● Bill headed for the country
They went to a party at an old abandoned farmhouse.

●The storm
It was raining so hard. They had trouble seeing beyond the windshield.

● The weirdest dream
Bill dreamed that there was a terrible storm and a flying saucer suddenly flew out of the tornado. The flying saucer stopped outside his window and some people got out. They didn’t look like everyone. They had three eyes. They hold him to follow them. He went inside the flying saucer.

Climax
They arrived to the barn and she was tired to pretending to be somebody else, so she decided to show her extra eye.

Resolution
Bill's being replaced.

Analysis the story’s characters

Psychological traits
Janey	Bill
Impatiently	Dull
Nervous	Confident
Thinking	Interesting
Fearful	Smarter
Serious	Concentrated
Tired	Sympathetic
Liar	Prankster
Untruthful	Asleep
Deceptive	Deceived

Physical characteristics

Janey: She had three eyes.  She had a long hair and she was young.

Bill: He had black eyes. He had short hair and he was young.

The irony in this story

The irony of the story is that Jane was tired of Bill because he enjoyed so much the things of the space, so turned out to be that Janey was an alien so obviously she thought that bill was very dull and he was not interesting.

Personal opinion

I think that the story was interesting but still doesn't reach my standard. I like the way in which the author put the fictionalized accounts of real-life events. I like read and research about strange things so when I read the story, I thought that was about something more exciting, but it is fine. I liked the message that the author wanted to convey and also I liked the unexpected ending.