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| Did you know a cockroach can live up to a week without it's head? |
At only two-and-a-half pages, Fifth Story by Clarice Lispector is well, quite short in length but a tightly woven narrative. It cleverly sets up a metaphorical conceit to contrast the death of cockroaches to the narrator's own philosophical meditations on life and mortality. The focus here is on narrative technique and imagery.
The use of repetition and playfulness in telling the same story from different angles creates a cohesive unity to the different stories. Most people have an aversion to cockroaches as vile pests and yet they become humanized in this story by the narrator's poetic reflections on their cruel death. No small feat. This is my first introduction to Clarice Lispector's work and consider me intrigued to discover what other literary tricks she has up her sleeve.
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