Pullin Up Daisies Analysis

Pullin’ Up Daisies is a well-written and interesting story that follows the protagonist, Sebastian, and his desire to sleep with Daisy, a girl he has killed. At the end of the story, it is revealed that Daisy and Sebastian share a surname. Initially, I suspected Daisy was a relative of Sebastian, like a sister or cousin, however, Daisy could also be Sebastian’s wife. Alternatively, the shared surname could be a coincidence. This story uses a variety of literary techniques and effectively uses dialogue, repetition, short sentences and focuses on action to construct realistic characters and events in an interesting and surprising story.

The characters in the story are motivated and realistic which add to the initial intriguing nature of the

The criminal, Sebastian’s grave robbing accomplice, speaks with a distinct voice littered with curse words and the use of ‘kid’. His pressing tone helps to drive the story forward, however when he first speaks, he does not use the word ‘to’, yet in later places in the text he does. Although this is not a major discrepancy, by ensuring that the grave robber’s voice is consistent throughout, the character seems even more realistic. Additionally, Sebastian’s character is well-developed, and his motivations are effectively revealed through flashbacks and his actions. For example, when the grave robber presses Sebastian on his relationship with Daisy, Sebastian changes from sarcastic to angry then murderous. His emotional shift is effectively revealed through dialogue and is believable. Since his feelings are so understandable, I felt that I was able to identify with his character, which was disconcerting as Sebastian is a murderer, engages in necrophilia and is possibly

The narrative progresses linearly, however contains frequent flashbacks to moments that reveal more about Sebastian’s fascination with Daisy. These are introduced at excellent places in the story which intrigue the reader at first as the information provided does not seem relevant, however link cleverly when Sebastian’s necrophilia is revealed. The intriguing first sentence “They’re making a mess of it” (p.2), was an excellent start to the story as I wanted to discover what ‘it’ was, and who ‘they’ were. This example of tension is intensified and carried throughout the text, as the lack of information encouraged me to read further. The tension reaches a peak once Sebastian kills the grave robber, however I still wanted to discover what Sebastian planned to do with Daisy’s corpse. The short and disjointed sentences used in this section were effective in emphasising individual actions and details, however were a little repetitive and hence detracted from the tension. Despite this, the consistent use of present tense adds to the engaging story as it placed me amidst the action. The third person limited point of view is also effective, as Sebastian’s actions are revealed with some insight into his thoughts, however I was not immersed completely. This is fantastic, as I related with Sebastian, however the distance provided meant I approached the events with some scepticism. The controlled use of structure and point