Blivens The Babysitter Analysis

The Babysitter-Coover Analysis

      In understanding the Babysitter the reader is pulled into the lives of several characters. Each of the characters’ stories is interwoven with their sexual fantasy. These racy stories are spliced together and create two narrative levels: what actually happened and the characters different fantasies. Several endings are proposed which are all mutually exclusive so the reader is left to interpret for themselves what actually happened. The sexual language used in the short story is a clear indication at the start of the reading that sexual imagery will play a key role in the story.   While there are many elements that could be discussed including each characters fantasy and what that says about them, the connection between the characters, and the use of violence the structure is what stood out to me the most.  The way the short story is structured makes it hard to understand. I quickly realized this was not going to be a fast, easy read but through examining the overall structure the reader can gain a better interpretation of the short story. A clear correlation can be found between the television scenes, plot, and characters.

     

    The story clearly incorporates details from the different television shows as it tells the plot and fantasies of each character. On the television we see a musical, western, spy, mystery, romance, and news. Each one of the television shows has a connection to one of the characters fantasies. For example, the spy show is mentioned before Jack’s spying fantasy with the babysitter. Jack and Marks fantasy matches with the mystery television show. Each one of the shows links to a fantasy that a character has in the story.

    

    Also, if we look at the overall structure of the short story it speeds up when the babysitter, using the remote starts clicking through channels on the television.  Both the story and discourse time speeds up at the end. The story speeds up because there is more switching between characters with shorter paragraphs. Not only does this link to the babysitter switching channels quickly but speeds up of the story as whole.

   

    While the structure may not be what stands out the most in this short story it does establish a clear link between the characters and fantasies. It also points to greater meaning behind the fantasies and allows for more interpretation.