Notice how in the story of release,despite the fact that Eileen continually tries to appear nice to her neighbours,they make life difficult for her and even appear to trample on her personal rights and eventually cause great inconvenience on her social life?
In this story,a great deal of symbolism is used;
- Eileen who tries to achieve a good impression on her neighbours=us trying to find acceptance in the eyes of higher authority
- taking care of the baby(something very important to her)='O' levels,something very important to us
- the unkind and rude neighbours=Anyone whom we find to make life difficult for us and whom we share a boss-worker relationship with.
- the annoying dogs=the meagre time limit that we have to spend time on our studies.
- the unkind deeds of her neighbours=the bulk of homework presented to us when most inconvenient
- the killing of the dogs that Eileen was responsible for unexpectedly=the stress inflicted evertime a student gets clumsy in his/her studies and expects trouble for doing so(sometimes its the fear itself that stings more)
As you can see,the story relates to the factors faced by modern youth.The story highlights the stress experienced by the youth and questions the irony of it all;especially when eileen starts off with trying to be nice to her neighbours.
3 comments:
Well...
I'm going to try to burn through the storm a little longer...
It is observed in release that Eileen's new neighbours are extremely indolent and inconsiderate people.
This is a sure fact proven everytime an unpleasant factor caused by them occurs in a shocking manner.
For example,back to the theme of irony,in the first paragraph of the story,you can see how much effort Eileen takes just to be a friendly neighbour.This itself is already a rare factor in modern society;making the EXTRA effort.She is even described as barely even being able to walk down the street without heaving like a dying dog.
However,within the first conversation with her,Eileen was glanced at and snarled at even as she shows concern by asking if her neighbours were moving in alright.
Such arrogant behaviour depicts the presence of an extremely unreasonable person.
Catheryn lim uses analogy here to increase the tension of the story to relate to the additional stress caused by an existing RIVAL or a competitor(it may be in terms of competing for a better impression on a shared figure of higher authority).
She further ensures the lack of empathy towards Eileen's neighbours from readers when she choses to exclude the names of the characters,and refuses to describe anything that occurs within the house.When this happens,the reader finds it much harder to relate to the neighbours.
Even on pg143,Eileens eyes are described to be sunken deep in shadow.This is a symbolism of extreme hatred,further intensifying the sense of rivalry.
So you can really see the sense of rivalry that Catheryn lim uses to intensify the anology of the stress and fatigue of the Singaporean society.
I think you made a slight mistake. Release's written by Tan Mei Ching :)
From the title, we should be able to see what the story would be talking about. Though it isn't conveyed in a very direct way, I believe just by reading the story we should be able to feel the tension that is slowly intensifying or the feelings that Eileen tries hard to suppress. All of which we can relate to - the Singaporean society, education system, stress etc.
So, I agree with Andre on the part of how Release can be compared to us taking the O levels.
yah,i realised that...only this morning,but it was too late to change...lol
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