Analysis

An analysis of the short story “The Disaster Store” by Helen Phillips shows that the story has a non-traditional structure. The main events happen over a few hours, but the story introduces flashbacks that reveal information about the characters and their social context.

The main character is an unnamed woman who is also the story’s narrator. She lives in a dystopian world, where society has to deal with the effects of climate change.

The main setting of the story is a dystopian future, where climate change has affected society and has transformed the way people deal with their surroundings. Part of the events takes place in a disaster store, where people buy emergency supplies to help them survive natural disasters.

The story has a first-person narrator, who is also the main character. This stylistic choice helps readers experience the narrator’s emotions first-hand and to get access to her thoughts and feelings.

The story’s language foreshadows the disastrous event that the narrator prepares for. The language also helps readers identify the narrator’s feelings of numbness and anxiety regarding the events she experiences.

You can read a full analysis of the short story on the following pages.

Engelsk

Short story analysis

I denne vejledning får du Studienets hjælp til at analysere noveller (short stories) i engelsk.

Excerpt

You can read an excerpt from the study guide below:

The narrator’s tone tends to remain relatively constant and resigned throughout the story, which reveals that she is probably accustomed to dealing with the effects of climate change. Nevertheless, her tone changes and she finds an urgency inside her whenever she feels that her daughter is in danger:

Something surges through me then, something fiercer than fierce, and I recognize it as the force that will enable me to survive the next few decades—if I do, indeed, manage to survive. Despite the ridiculous bag, I run terrifically fast; it is just a few superhuman strides until I reach my daughter and encircle her with that force.