Allende's "And of Clay We Are Created"

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Allende's And of Clay We Are Created is a story about a reporter who accompanies a girl who is dying and finds himself opening up to her. I think the gradual shift from an optimistic tone to a pessimistic tone and back to a relatively neutral tone was written well. The details given about both of their lives and the similarities begin to align as the story progresses. One of them is physically trapped and in pain, whereas the other is emotionally trapped and depressed. The fact that both of them are terrified even though one appears to be comforting the other is subtle in the beginning but more obvious in the end, which was a great addition to the story. The conversion of a fictional news story to a summary of the events in the perspective of a person who knows to the reporter is smooth, as opposed to being relatively awkward.

I think that the news story that I linked could be used as the basis of a short story with a writing style similar to Allende's.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4290906.stm

Overall, I would give And of Clay We Are Created five out of five stars for Allende's poetic writing style and the transitions between subtlety and obviousness.

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