Q: “But,- I was so hungry; so famine-goaded, what would I not have given to have lighted on something good to eat! I moved a step or two forward, gingerly, reaching out with my hands, lest I struck, unawares, against some unseen thing. When I had taken three or four such steps, without encountering an obstacle, or, indeed anything at all, I began, all at once, to wish I had not seen the house; that I had passed it by; that I had not come through the window; that I were safely out of it again. I became, on a sudden, aware that something was with me in the room. (49).
C: I chose this passage because I was shocked about how everything seemed to change so quickly. He had gone from entering the house and being grateful for the shelter and to get out of the rain and in an instant he became scared and wished he had never entered the house. The way this scene played out made my stomach drop as I read it. There has only been one other instance where I had been “scared,” for lack of a better word, while reading something. To me, that is an indication of excellent writing. I love reading mystery books and horror stories and there are very few that I’ve read that do a good job at invoking the emotion of fear. I remained nervous/frightened throughout the rest of the chapter.
Q: I wonder if Marsh is/was scared of bugs and this is how he viewed them. Personally I am not scared of bugs, however I was scared while reading this section. I wonder if his intention was to target an audience that was also scared of bugs and beetles or to help other audiences, such as those who do not understand the fear of bugs, understand those are. I’m just curious what his intentions were in writing this story about a beetle in comparison to other stories written at the time which were about different kinds of monsters. Maybe it has something to do with being scared of things, such as beetles, which are very common and can play a role in everyday life.
