Perspectives

Literary perspective

The short story “This is My Living Room” by Tom McAfee is a modernist work of fiction. Modernism tends to present realistic experiences and events. In “This is My Living Room”, the narrator presents ordinary events which happen on a daily basis. The use of realistic language is another feature of modernism. In his story, McAfee employs language that highlights the characters’ background, as many of the words used by the narrator are part of the dialect spoken in the South of the US. 

Modernist stories also rely on symbols, a feature which can also be noticed in “This is My Living Room”, where the rifle, the store, and the living room highlight the narrator’s need to constantly have control over others. The unusual structure of...