First off I think the conflict in this story was very interesting because there are several layers to it. At first it is immediately obvious that these two people have become bored with their marriage. It's then revealed that is because of the death of their child at birth.
This conflict seems to be mirrored via the setting which we learn has steadily detoriated along with their marriage. This story also uses some interesting elements for setting especially food and the descriptions of the mountains of food they had when their marriage was still a functioning entity.
The plot device of secret telling also does a lot to make the reader identify and feel with the characters. Since they are sharing details of their lives that they have never shared with anyone we are getting a glimpse of a moment between them that is incredibly intimate.
It seems like this story is also very authentic because it so detail oriented concerning each person's behavior and how well they have each other's behavior memorized. It seems like the author has a very inside perspective on what married life is like.
This story also utilized dialogue in a way that emphasized that what each character said was extremely important. Dialogue was used very sparingly and on the third and fourth nights Shukumar obsesses over what to tell his wife. Most of the story takes place in terms of what he is thinking and explaining to the reader how their lives have changed.
I think what I'd take from this story is how to use dialogue in a way to make it both pivotal and meaningful to the reader. By minimizing dialogue usage it becomes very important to the story and the interactions between characters become very important to the reader.
Good point about the dialogue--and as we noted in class, it's so sparse because of the disconnection between the characters.
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