Analysis Short Story "A Rat And Some Renovations"

Literature analysis of “A rat and some renovations” by Bernard MacLaverty.
Introduction
In this opportunity, the purpose of this paper is to analyze a Bernard Maclaverty’s short story which is
called “A rat and some renovations”. Some aspects of the story will be taken in account such as the
genre, the context in which it was written, the setting in time and place , among others. As we havelearnt, this analysis will allow us to understand this story deeply and it will show us a lot new
information about the story, which is not easy to notice with a simple reading. In order to get this goal,
the story will be analyzed according the criteria that we have used during the Literature Workshop.
Genre
It is a narrative text which is presented in short story form. We can infer thisbecause the text is short
and it does not have many details. Also, it is not divided in chapters and who tells the story is a
narrator.
Context
Bernard MacLaverty was born in Ireland in 1942 and he lived in Belfast until 1975. After leaving school
he became a Medical Laboratory Technician, later studying at Queen’s University, Belfast and
becoming an English teacher3. He lost his father when hewas twelve1 and his family life had a big
change. Then, he wrote about a child of twelve years old and his experiences and feelings as in “A rat
and some renovations”, where the father’s figures is not present.
This short story is part of a book called “Secrets & Other Stories” 2 which was written in 1977. The
author, who was born in Northern Ireland, put in this story his experiences from hisown childhood3. In

1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/learning/getwritingni/wh_maclaverty2.shtml
http://www.bernardmaclaverty.com/works/short_stories/secrets.htm
3
http://literature.britishcouncil.org/bernard -maclaverty
2

1

this book, Bernard MacLaverty shows us the life of a simple family in a small town, and how this family
faces the arrival of American people to theirtown. He describes ordinary circumstances and a little of
humor from Ireland; also, he makes noticeable what Ireland people thought about American people.
Setting
The story occurs in an old Victorian house, in Ireland. This house is placed into a neighborhood where
everybody knows each others; this characteristic makes the idea that people lived there a long time
and they share the samecustoms.
“We lived in a terrace of dilapidated Victorian houses whose
front gardens […]” (pg. 9)
“The man from next door, a Mr. Frank Twoomey, who had lived
[…]” (pg. 10)
“At this my mother took her nightdress and toothbrush and
moved in with an aunt across the street,[ …]” (Pg. 10)

The story happened during the 1950s. We can infer it because the author was born in 1942 and lived
in Irelandduring his childhood. It was during the summer, on July.
“At home by a roaring fire on July day,[ …]” (Pg. 11)

Plot

The events in the story happen in a chronological way. They respect the classical form of the stories.

The story is presented by the narrator giving us information about the customs of the people in the
story and how they think; the family were starting to work receivingtourist, then the mother decide d to
do some renovation in the kitchen, so some workmen had been called in order to do this job.
2

“Almost everyone in Ireland must have experienced American
visitor or […].” (Pg. 9)
“Just before we were visited for the first time, my mother
decided to have the working kitchen modernized.” (Pg. 9)
“She engaged the workmen early so the job would be finishedand the newness worn off by time the Yanks arrived.” (Pg. 9)

The conflict in the story starts when they found excrement of rat in the kitchen. At that moment, the
mother was terrified about it and she moved in with his sister across the street, leaving the problem to
her sons.

The first sings were discovered by Ma in the drawer of the new
unit.” (Pg.9)
“At this my mother took her...