The Storm Essay, Research Paper
Analysis of ?The Storm?
In McKnight Malmar?s frightening story ?The Storm? she
weaves a violent storm and murder together to heighten the
horrific fear that engulfs Janet Willsom. The storm is a
combination of mother nature, Janet?s emotions and her
heartbreaking dilemmas.
The story begins with Janet Willsom coming home from a
vacation seeing her sister who is very ill. She has come back
a week early hoping her husband, Ben, would be home so
she could surprise him but he?s not. There is a very strong
storm unfolding outside and Janet gets concerned with
Ben?s whereabouts. She wonders if he is still in the city
working late. There is a letter addressed to Ben on the table
but she destroys it because she knows that this letter is
probably no different from the others that have been sent to
him in the past.
Throughout this suspenseful tale she is lonely in the isolated
home far away from the busy urban city. As the storm got
worse, she started to hear footsteps and she thought she
saw a face at the window in the living room. Was this
ghostly face in the window her husband? Realizing that
maybe it was her imagination, she went to the basement to
get wood to make a fire.
The basement was damp and dark and there was a chill in
the air because the basement door was wide open. Janet
wondered if the wind was so strong that it blew it open or if
there was an intruder. She grabbed the doorknob and closed
it as hard as she could because the wind was so strong.
The fire wood was in the corner so she walked towards it.
All of a sudden she noticed that her old trunk was opened
just a crack, she walked to over to it and threw it open.
Lying in there was a body of a woman in a red dress with a
man?s diamond ring on her finger. In terror Janet ran up the
basement stairs, locked the door and reinforced it with a
heavy wooden chair. Simutainously she heard glass
shattering from the cellar window and ran into the living
room to calm her fears.
Soon after, Janet?s husband Ben walked in the front door
soaking wet, dirty and pale. She started to tell her husband
th
believe that there was a prowler lurking around outside and
that there was a dead body in the trunk. Janet took him to
the basement, they looked in the trunk but there was
nothing in it. She wondered if she was seeing things until
she saw the same diamond ring on her husband?s finger that
had been on the woman?s finger. She realizes that her
husband killed the woman. With all of the fear and strength
in her body she runs up the basement stairs, ignoring Ben
screaming her name she runs out of the house and never
looks back.
The story gave me a feeling that I was there out
of sight from her but watching her every move. It was
also from a very suspenseful third-person point of
view. Throughout the story she thinks about all the
good qualities her husband has and at the same time
is missing him. The letters that are addressed to him
says New York City on the envelope; he is always
angry about those letters but Janet never sees the
contents of those letters. My theory is that these
letters are from his mistress; she was
blackmailing him to leave his wife. There was a lot
of emphasis on the storm itself , She starts to
become apprehensive about the storm because of
its increasing power ?The wind hammered at the
door and the windows, and the air was full of the
sound of water, racing in the gutters, pouring from
the leaders, thudding on the roof.? (244) I feel that
there is a storm outside but there also a storm going
on from within Janet because she has doubt about
her husband?s fidelity.
As for the ghostly face in the window and the dead
woman in the trunk; her husband killed his mistress,
heard his wife walking in the front door, put the
dead body in the trunk and ran out the basement
door to the outside. He was the face Janet saw in the
window. Once she went to the basement to get fire
wood and left, he couldn?t open the basement door,
so he broke the window, took the dead body and
disposed of it. Janet yearns for her husband to
protect her from the storm and in the end she takes
comfort from the storm.