THE NIGHT THE BED FELL

The Night The Bed Fell by James Thurber


Introduction of Author & SettingWhen James Thurber was a child, he was hit in the eye with an arrow. He lost his sight in that eye, and was troubled with vision problems the rest of his wife. Despite this setback, Thurber attended Ohio State University for five years. From 1918 to 1920, Thurber worked as a code clerk at the State Department in Washington and later in Paris. He then turned to journalism, working for the Chicago Tribune. By the age of 57, Thurber' s childhood eye injury had resulted in almost total blindness. When his vision began to fail completely, Thurber started dictation his stories to a secretary. His memory was so sharp that he could easily compose a 2.00-word story in his mind, remember it overnight, and dictate it to his secretary the next day. In 1927 the New Yorker magazine published one of the Thurber's stories, THE NIGHT THE BED FELL, The setting of this story is the author's house when he was a child, in around 1920-1930 in Columbus, Ohio. Although Thurber left the New Yorker after six years, he continued to contribute stories, essay, poems, and cartoons to the magazine for the rest of his life.

CharacterThere are seven main characters, including James (the narrator) narrator; The little boy with very unusual family members who collapsed in his cot. Father; the deepest sleeper who decides to sleep upstairs in the old bed against his wife's wishes, and he wants to be alone. Mother; afraid the old bed will fall and kill father. Hence she goes hysterical in the night, worried about her husband. Briggs Beall; Believed that he would suffocate during the night; cousin to James, it means he will die in his sleep. Grandfather; who had disappeared some days before, believes he is in a Revolutionary War state of mind. Herman; James younger brother who sings "March of the Christian Soldiers" while alseep. Old Aunt Melissa Beall; believed she would die on South High Street, it shows superstitious about the street she lives on. Aunt Sarah Shoaf; believed that someone would blow chloroform through a tube into the room.Aunt Gracie Shoaf; believes that burglars come into her house every night, so she throughs shoes down the hallway and yells Hark.

Plot

The plot for "The Night The Bed Fell" starts with James Thurber's explaining his "interesting" family, including a crazy cousin that thinks he will die of suffocation during his sleep, and a grandfather that leaves the house for several days, coming back talking about the Civil War as if it was still on. When James falls out of his army cot and his mom mistakes the crash for his father's death, the story starts to get chaotic. One night when Thurber crashes down from his army cot, his mother comes to the immediate conclusion that the heavy headboard up in the attic had crashed down on the father, fatally injuring him. She started shouting and on hearing the shouts, Herman who is the narrator's brother thinks that mother has become hysterical, and so assures her that she is alright,then wakes up Briggs Beall who is the narrator's nervous first cousin who wakes up thinking that the hue and cry in the house was going on due to his ceasing breath, and so he pours over himself a glass of camphor spirit to revive himself. Roy and the dog wake up. At last, the father who's the deepest sleeper in the house wakes up thinking that the house is on fire. When he says that he is coming to his wife thinks that he's going up to the heavens. After a while, the incident gets sorted out and mother who was quite optimistic in nature concludes and feels safe that her father-in-law was not at home.

Theme

The theme of this story is family is always there for each others, the story is  not that hard to read I encourage reader can try to read while understanding.

Moral

This story tells us that the differences are what make each individual unique, we must learn to appreciate differences in others and ourselves.

Evaluation

Within this story, the author used characterization method to create a character's personality. Author also used a contrast between what is said and what us meant, called Verbal Irony. In the other hand, James Thurber used when the audience or reader knows something a character does not, called Dramatic Irony.