The Zoo Story...

Again and again I have to be thankful to Miss Dzeelfa and whoever that designed this course because it has and still is giving me a strong platform in understanding literary text. I must say that the ‘Zoo Story’ by Edward Albee has surely stunned me. Although Albee deserves credits in many aspects of his story but I truly appreciate the way he portrays his characters. Having experienced in writing script for my play for our theatre with Madam Juridah and also some of my own short stories, one of the most difficult things that I experience is to present the characters exactly how I want them to be read. And I believe that a successful writer or narrator is the person who able to create an imaginary character that ‘lives’ in the minds and hearts of the readers. Even though the text was quite lengthy (I was extremely sleepy due to lack of sleep for the past two days) but I managed to finish the story in a single reading with no pauses. I believe that even though there are only two characters, but they are well presented and sufficient for the development of the story. Jerry and Peter who are of two extremes seem to complement each other. Thus, these two ironically contrasting character seems to oppose each other and creates “friction” to the storyline. Albee had used a trifle object-the bench to expose the characteristics of Jerry and Peter. The dispossession of the bench has made the reversal of roles in the story. Reading this story has truly given another perspective for me into reading literary texts and would be very helpful in my future writings.