Pentti Kirstilä is an experienced detective fiction writer, who had written several short stories and novels, and one of the short stories Brown Eyes and Green Hair will be reviewed in this paper by carrying out literary analysis and evaluating the main parts of literature and the ways of how these parts relate to the main theme of the story.
There are many elements of literature, which make the work really successful and captivating for the reader, and in this story, the author uses almost each part of literature in a proper way and creates an interesting story, full of events, sense, and mystery. “A lot of people don’t know what they want” (Kirstilä 510) – this is one of the central ideas of the plot in the story that allows to comprehend the true nature of the characters, their dreams, and goals.
Human uncertainty and desire to have something that people are not aware about is one of the story’s themes, which the author perfectly describes by means of such characters like Timo Karvoven and Tiina Salmelainen, their points of view, and the setting of the short story under consideration.
The use of parts of literature in the story is considered to be crucial for both the reader and the author. With the help of a proper choice of characters and the setting, the author gets a chance to create a captivating story that may attract readers’ attention. Pentti Kirstilä starts the story with rather a provoking statement that people can guess what they want, but “they usually guess wrong” (Kirstilä 510).
The author makes a clear introduction that the plot of the story is not only about people and their actions, but also about the reasons of why people take this or that step and what the results can be expected. The point of view is strong enough and provokes the vast majority of people to continue reading in order to clear up what makes people so uncertain about own actions and thoughts.
Uncertainty is one of the characteristics, which are inherent to many characters in the story. Karvoven with his desire to have melanin: “melanin was what he wanted, but he didn’t even know it” (Kirstilä 510), Tiina’s desire for “a new look” (Kirstilä 511), and Tauno’s hatred of own name.
Even the element of uncertainty of the setting attracts much attention: the murder unites all the characters, and the reader becomes one more participant of the story, an observer, who should know everything, but by some reason, knows absolutely nothing till the end.
“The world has sunk to the point where only exaggeration and irony work even to some extent. The rest is dross” (Kirstilä 518). This phrase by Hanhivaara is not taken seriously by the rest of the characters, and he called an ordinary philosopher. However, on my opinion, this very phrase reflects the essence of the story and a true nature of each character.
Characters’ unawareness of what they want or have to want, desire to find an alternative but lack of experience and knowledge, and inability to cope with the challenges independently – all these points are exaggerated in the story and prove that irony is the only thing that control people’s actions and thoughts.
Brown Eyes and Green Hair is a thrilling story about how human ambiguity may influence their lives and the outcomes of their actions. Pentti Kirstilä learns the reader to be confident concerning own steps, to be smart in order to evaluate own actions, and to be ready to assist the others and show the necessary way from the “dross”, they live in.
Works Cited
Kirstilä, Pentti. “Brown Eyes and Green Hair.” Suomen Kuvalehti, Finland’s Picture Magazine Translated by Garner, Michael, The Oxford Book of Detective Stories, The Oxford Book of Detective Stories.ed. Cross, Patricia, 1989.