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Grand Canyon University

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Surname 1

Student's Name

Instructor's Name

Course

Date

Confusion or Mystery?

Excerpt

The extraordinary incidents began about 1 a.m. on the night of June 8-9, 1935. I was

walking through Patton Place, in New York City, with my friend Larry Gregory. My

name is George Rankin. My business—and Larry's—detail quite unimportant to this

narrative. We had been friends in college. Both of us were working in New York, and

with all our relatives in the middle west, we were sharing an apartment on this Patton

Place—a short, crooked, little-known street of not particularly impressive residential

buildings lying near the section known as Greenwich Village, where towering office

buildings of the business districts encroach close upon it.

This night at 1 A. M. it was deserted. A taxi stood at[27] a corner; its chauffeur had left

it there and gone to a nearby lunchroom. The street lights were, as always, inadequate.

The night was sultry and dark, with a leaden sky and a breathless humidity that

presaged a thunderstorm. The houses were mostly unlighted at this hour. There was an

occasional apartment house among them, but mostly they were low, ramshackle affairs

of brick and stone.

We were still three blocks from our apartment when, without warning, the incidents

began, which were to plunge us and all the city into disaster. We were upon the

Surname 2

threshold of a mystery weird and strange, but we did not know it. Mysterious portals

were swinging[28] to engulf us. And all unknowing, we walked into them.

Larry was saying, "Wish we would get a storm to clear this air—what the devil? George,

did you hear that?"

Analysis

In the second section of Astounding Stories by Edmond Hamilton, the first story is

"Mysterious Girl." The passage to be used in this section is the first paragraph. In that

section, two men; George and Larry are walking down the New York City streets at 1 a.m.

From the description, it is evident that the two men have been friends for a while and that

they were accustomed to walking in New York City at night. During this particular night,

events had changed a little, and Larry said, "Wish we would get a storm to clear this air-what

the devil?” The above statement illustrates that the occurrences of that night seemed off to

what they were used to, and as such, the use of the above imagery helps in describing the

night. The passage describes how two friends encountered strange activities one night they

were walking in New York City. Their experiences are essential in building up the other

sections of the story because that section sets the pace for the other mysterious events set to

occur in the story. Activities that took place during the night Larry and George walked down

the New York street were strange and their experiences in that night acted as an element that

described other strange occurrences set to happen later on in their lives that night.

In that section, the writer used imagery that helped to reinforce the theme. For

example, George stated. "The night was sultry and dark, with a leaden sky and breathless

humidity that presaged a thunderstorm." The above quote is purposeful in explaining how the

events unfolded during that night. The use of imagery, therefore, acts as a factor that

enhances the theme of the story, and it also describes the activities that took place that night.

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Surname 1 Student's Name Instructor's Name Course Date Confusion or Mystery? Excerpt The extraordinary incidents began about 1 a.m. on the night of June 8-9, 1935. I was walking through Patton Place, in New York City, with my friend Larry Gregory. My name is George Rankin. My business—and Larry's—detail quite unimportant to this narrative. We had been friends in college. Both of us were working in New York, and with all our relatives in the middle west, we were sharing an apartment on this Patton Place—a short, crooked, little-known street of not particularly impressive residential buildings lying near the section known as Greenwich Village, where towering office buildings of the business districts encroach close upon it. This night at 1 A. M. it was deserted. A taxi stood at[27] a corner; its chauffeur had left it there and gone to a nearby lunchroom. The street lights were, as always, inadequate. The night was sultry and dark, with a leaden sky and a breathless humidity that presaged a thunderstorm. The houses were mostly unlighted at this hour. There was an occasional apartment house among them, but mostly they were low, ramshackle affairs of brick and stone. We were sti ...
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Tags: new york city George Rankin Edmond Hamilton Astounding Stories Mysterious Girl