Symbolism In The Kugelmass Episode

Mary Carrell
Composition II
Dr. Davis
4 February 2018
Literary Elements
Many people often enjoy reading something that brings a smile to their face. Authors use different literary elements to help this happen. Humor, being a main cause for one to enjoy a reading, is heavily associated with irony. Irony happens when the author uses words, actions, or even events to show something conflicting to what he or she means literally. These elements are demonstrated in the short story, “The Kugelmass Episode” by Woody Allen. He tells the story of Mr. Kugelmass as he goes through a “sexual calamity”. The irony the story creates makes for a humorous read, which helps catch the attention of the reader. Other frequently used literary elements include: symbolism,

They are brilliant, conniving, power hungry children who rely merely on technology to cart them through life. In the story, a rich family of four live in their fully-functioning house that does everything imaginable for them. One can infer that the great technology of the “Happylife Home” (Bradbury), could possibly be what Bradbury’s ideas were about what the future would be like. The story consists of a mother (Lydia), father (George) and the twin brother and sister, (Peter and Wendy) both ten years old and insanely smart. Also included with the house is a nursery, which three dimensionally shows anything that comes into the children’s minds. The children spend a majority of their time in the nursery. However there is something strange about the nursery. After badgering her husband to have a look at the nursery explain that “It’s just that the nursery is different now than it was” (Bradbury). When he goes to have a look he finds that the room is an African veldt and the feeling he receives from the room is not pleasant. There is a pack of lions feasting on what is left of some poor animal out in the distance and buzzards circling above waiting for scraps. The lions are always eating “Some animal” (Bradbury), and the screams that come

In this story, Mr. Kugelmass, a professor of humanities at a college who is “unhappily married for the second time” (Allen), longs for romance and excitement. He explains how his wife had “let herself go” and was basically just boring and had gained too much weight. In his search for this he meets Persky, a magician who says he can transport Mr. Kugelmass into any book that he wants. After picking a book, Mr. Kugelmass gets into the magic box with his book of choice and Persky wraps it three times. Next thing Kugelmass knows he is standing in the room with the books main character Emma Bovary, a married woman who is bored with her life and longs for excitement and passion. For a while this continues, Kugelmass goes into the book and sees Emma they have their fun and he returns home to his boring wife. Eventually Kugelmass gets greedy and decides that he wants to bring Emma out of the book to see where he lives. After bringing her out and keeping her hidden in a hotel for a weekend, it is time for her to return to the book, however the machine breaks and she remains stuck there for several days. While she is there she racks up Kugelmass’ bill and stresses him out. The life there with Kugelmass has become boring for Emma and she wishes to go home. When Persky finally fixes the machine and sends Emma back Kugelmass says he