EMBROIDERY
Ray Bradbury
“Embroidery” is a short story written by an American author and screenwriter Ray
Douglas Bradbury. He is one of the most celebrated 20th-century American
writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror,
mystery, and realistic fiction..
The short story begins with three women sitting on the porch of a house. They are
all creating embroidery. One of the women asks what time it is. They are all
thinking about the event that will happen at five o'clock. They continue to create
the embroidery, but they constantly worry about what time it is. One woman
argues about whether she should cook dinner. Another spoils her embroidery
halfway through. They talk about what they won't have to do again after the night
they have to endure. One minute to five they are all trying to finish their work.
Finally, the time has come. On the horizon, fire rushes towards them. Everything
in its path disappears.
The story “Embroidery” belongs to the belles-lettres functional style, the main
aim of which is to give the readers aesthetic pleasure, to make them think. It is
rather a psychological story because it deals with the feelings of the protagonist.
The story is written in the narrator's 3rd person combined with dialogue.
Symbolism is the whole idea behind the embroidery they are working on. The
beautiful bright flowers and the look on the man’s face slowly being destroyed is
an example. There is also symbolism in the time of 5:00, the reader also realises
that this is a very important event because women are always asking for the time.
A few minutes before the destruction began around them, their hard work began to
crumble too.
The text starts with implication of precedence. The main aim of implication of
fore-knowledge is to grab the reader’s attention from the very beginning and to
show the general state of affairs.
The complication starts when 3 women peered more intently at what their hands
were doing. They recounted to themselves the lids they had lifted, the doors they
had opened and shut, the flowers they had picked, the dinners they had made, all
with slow or quick fingers, as was their manner or custom. Looking back, you saw
a flurry of hands, like a magician’s dream, doors popping wide, taps turned,
brooms wielded, children spanked
The moment when the woman saw the world brighten and catch fire. represents
the climax of the story. “Somewhere, at the side of her vision, she saw the world
brighten and catch fire. She kept her head down, for she knew what it was.”
The three characters in the text are three women reflecting on their lives and
embroidering their work. "The three women's mouths twitched over their work."
(characterising and implying detail). This quote shows how focused these women
are on their work, how they try not to think about their disappointing situation.
They are all quiet and trying to change the subject. The author does not describe
the women's emotions, but we can see the anxiety in their dialogues. “And they're
not sure what it will do to anything, really, when it will happen?” “No, they're not
sure.”
Women try to distract themselves from reality through embroidery, they hope that
nothing will happen and keep embroidering, but their anxiety does not go away.
“It’s twice as big as ever before. No, ten times, maybe a thousand” (characterizing
and implying detail).
The temporal continuum in the text is presented by simultaneous, prospective and
retrospective temporal planes.
The simultaneous temporal plane of the text is represented through lexical and
grammatical markers. Grammatical markers are represented through Present
Simple, Past Simple and Present Continuous tenses. “What time is it?” “I believe,’
said the first lady, “that our souls are in our hands”. “It seems at times like this
that it’s always your hands you turn to”.
Retrospective temporal plane is represented through grammatical markers through
Present Perfect, Past Perfect and Past Continuous Tenses. “Each woman looked to
her own hands, as if quite suddenly she had found her heart beating there” “Now
look what I’ve done!” cried the second lady exasperated. The man was gone from
the road. She had taken him out entirely.”.
Prospective temporal plane is represented through grammatical markers – Future
Simple, modal verbs – “I’ll just have to rip out the whole pattern, practically, to
fix it right,” “And they’re not sure what it’ll do to anything, really, when it
happens?” “This won’t help things”
The text under consideration is abundant in different stylistic devices: The author
uses a lot of epithets that function as implying details, parallel constructions,
metaphors: was on each motion, a magician’s dream, the flutter of pink hands, the
embroidered green field, at the thread with her little deft scissors (epithets) the
finest, most delicate piece of embroidery, Her quick black glance (epithets). The
scene grew under hand (metaphor), a miniature beauty (metaphor). ‘No supper to
fix tonight or tomorrow night or the next night after that,’ said the third lady. They
recounted to themselves the lids they had lifted, the doors they had opened and
shut, the flowers they had picked, the dinners they had made (parallel construction,
repetition), all with slow or quick (antithesis) fingers, as was their manner or
custom. untwisting the yarn of her being so painstakingly that she could see it in
all its devilish beauty (oxymoron).
The title of the story “Embroidery” belongs to the key vocabulary of the text and
implies the main process in the story. They are sewing because they know that
their lives will end soon. Three women are denying the event will occur and
focusing on something that seems to make them happy.
