Death By Scrabble Story

UJIAN TENGAH SEMESTER

PENGANTAR KESUSASTRAAN INGGRIS

OLEH :

                        NAME                                    : ROBBI NURDIN HIDAYAT

                        NPM                                       : 1006756484

                        LECTURER                         : ASRI SARASWATI M. Hum

UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA

COMPARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY DEATH BY SCRABBLE AND THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN

Bab I   ANTECEDENT

            Death by scrabble and unicorn in the garden are the excited stories I had ever heard in my life before I got in University of Indonesia. Actually when I read the stories and I was getting surprised. Why did I say like that?  Because first, I had just known that I found the nice story for reading, then I saw the beauty of the story, the meaning of the story and good story. The story “Death by Scrabble” by Charlie Fish. It is the beautiful story according to me. Because we know that the story tells us about the husband and the wife who are playing scrabble. In fact, the husband does not want to play scrabble because I read in this story “I should be out, doing the exercise, spending money, and meeting people. I do not think I have spoken to anyone except my wife since Thursday morning. I would be doing something interesting right now. I would be climbing mount Kilimanjaro, starring in the Hollywood blockbuster, sailing the Vendee Globe on a 60-foot clipper called the New Horizons”. From those sentences, we know that the husband dislikes the wife’s way to him. So, it makes him hate with her. Angrily, he accepted her to play scrabble. In that story, all of the words which the husband put on the scrabble board are come true. For the example, he put “Quake”, just as the room starts to shake. So, it proves that what the word he put is come true. And then in the end the word that he chewing on his mouth gets lodged and his throat swells up and he fall down to the floor but his wife just watching.

            And the story “The Unicorn in The Garden” is nice story. Why did I say like that? Because first the story tells the reader that the husband looked the unicorn in his garden, and he told to his wife but his wife ignored her husband’s story.  Not a long time, the husband went away. During his husband went on, she called the psychiatrist and the police. She wants them to go to her house because she said that her husband is mad. And then suddenly her husband goes back. The police ask her husband, “did you tell your wife you saw a unicorn?”. And he reply, “of course not”. So, the police are getting confused and the police know who is the mad?  Just as the police catch her and take her to the police office. Eventually, the wife is mad and then the wife realizes that she had been cheated by her husband.

Bab II   THE SUMMARY OF THE STORY “DEATH BY SCRABBLE”

            The story from Charlie fish “Death By Scrabble” tells the reader about a couple of husband and wife. I think, they are a sensational couple before the wife change it all. O n the Sunday afternoon, the husband had had plans to spend his weekend times. He want to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, starring in the latest Hollywood Blockbuster, sailing the Vendee Globe on a 60-foot clipper called the New Horizons and all, but I must doing something.

            The wife as housewife according to me does not want to do anything. Because she does not have plan, so she decides to invite her husband to play Scrabble. But the husband does not do it with her. She forces him, so he obeys his wife decision. That is why, he hates his wife. First, he plays BEGIN, twenty two points. And then, his wife plays JINXED (bad lucky) and so on till the last event, when the husband is chewing the B in his mouth gets lodged and it makes his throat swell up and making a blue face of him. Just as he falls down to the floor and his wife is just sitting and watch him.

            As we know, all of the words which he had been playing are become true. He played WARMER, the air in their room get hot, he played ZAPS, the air conditioning get a static shock off, he played CHEATING, suddenly the wife gives him a suspicious look like she knows that he cheated her. He played EXPLODES, there is a deafening bang from the air conditioning unit, he played FLY, there is a fly buzzing around him. And then he played QUAKE, just the room starts to shake and his wife played DEATH, it is mean that the word DEATH toward to her husband. It makes what is going to happen in the sooner time. Surprise, the husband move on and he does not realize that he is chewing the B on his mouth, so it lodge to his throat and makes it swell up. The husband fall down in the floor and the wife do not have desire to help him

            Hence from that, we can see how the characterizations of the characters build the story and makes the story to be interested to read by the reader. So, we can get a message that “Do not doing what your heart does not to do it and try to follow your conscience because the best decision of your life is your conscience.

Bab III   THE SUMMARY OF THE STORY “THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN”

            The story from James Thurber “The Unicorn in the Garden’ is excited. It starts on the sunny morning. There is a husband and wife. The wife is sleeping while the husband is having breakfast. When he is enjoying the breakfast, the unicorn come to his garden and cropping the roses. Then, he tells to his wife, honey “there is the unicorn in our garden”. But his wife is still sleeping. And then he sees the unicorn still there. So twice, he tells to his wife, honey please, see it the unicorn. She open one unfriendly eye and look at him. Because the wife stills a sleep, he decides to go away.

            When her husband is still going away, suddenly she wake up and she is looking around at the garden, but she did not see anything moreover the unicorn. Because of that problem, she get the telephone and call the police and the psychiatrist to come to her house. Not a long time they need to go, they arrive to her house swiftly.

            Excuse me miss, could you tell me the truth? She said “my husband saw a unicorn this morning”. So, they do not believe about her story, confusedly, they face to face. I do not know what they are thinking of. Maybe they are thinking of her story or the think about the wife is crazy. I do not it surely. After they hear the wife’s story, suddenly, her husband is coming on the house. It is the truth of the story. The police ask to her husband, “did you tell your wife you saw a unicorn?”. “Of course not” he said. The unicorn is the mythical beast.

So, her husband is the clue of their confusing. So, the police take the wife away to police office. She is getting curse and scream when she is taken by the police. After all the events, the husband is the lucky man because he does not be the deceiver. And he lives happily in the house ever after.    

Bab IV   COMPARE THE CHARACTERS HUSBAND AND WIFE IN DEATH BY SCRABBLE AND THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN

            Well, in the above section, we had told about the story Death By Scrabble and The Unicorn in The Garden. I am sure that we have known the characters both of the story. As we know, the characters in both of the story are same. The husband and The wife. First, we talk about the husband in both of them. The husband in Death By Scrabble is the nice husband, he obey what his wife say to him, and he is the handsome man I think. What about the husband in the unicorn in the garden. The husband is the cruel man, the deceiver, clever because he can return the fact, and he is handsome man. Both of them have different characteristics in their story but the same characteristic of their is handsome man. The husband is Death by scrabble, he is the soft man but the husband in the unicorn in the garden is the cruel  man. The husband in death by scrabble

What about the wife in the both of the story? The wife in the Death by Scrabble is the cruel woman, she likes forcing her husband and lazy girl because he do not want to do anything in the weekend. And the wife in the Unicorn in the garden is the soft woman, kind woman because he care with the madness of her husband, and he is a lazy woman too because his job is just sleep. The same characterization of their is lazy. Both of them are lazy woman.

            In the death of scrabble, the husband hates his wife because his wife force him to obey what she said, and in the end of the story, the husband lodge his letter that he chew on, so his throat swell up and fall down. But the wife is just watching him, there is no need to help him. But in the unicorn in the garden story, the wife hates her husband because her husband cheat her about the unicorn, he said to her that he saw the unicorn crop the roses in the garden but when the police that I had been called asked to him, he reply that he did not see the unicorn wherever. So, she is wrong. She does the worst thing. And then, the police take her away and the husband live happily without his wife..

            So, in the death by scrabble, the husband is the victim of the wife’s crime in the end but in the unicorn in the garden the wife is the victim of the husband’s crime in the end.

Bab V   CONCLUSION

           

Death by Scrabble	The Unicorn in The Garden
The antagonist is the wife	The antagonist is the husband
The protagonist is the husband	The protagonist is the wife

           

From that story Death By Scrabble and The Unicorn in The Garden we can conclude that, the characters build their characteristic with the different way but the same meaning. The characters of the husband in death by scrabble are the characters of the wife in the unicorn in the garden and the characters of the wife in the death by scrabble are the characters of the husband in the unicorn in the garden.