Analyzing the differences and the similarities of the two short stories “Videotape” by Don Delillo, and “The last day of Muhammad Atta” by Martin Amis, it is important to mention some facts about the stories and the authors. In the story “Videotape” by Don Delillo the girl had the experience to tape a real crime by the chance, and the tape was so real that the reader had the feeling that random in our life can be definitely predetermined. And if the reader is involved in the story he/she realized that the accident can happen at any time and it is anticipated. One more discussed story is “The last day of Muhammad Atta” by Martin Amis. The events of this story are based on reality, and it is a monologue of the person who dies.
Speaking about the similarities in the stories we can definitely admit the first one when we just read the annotation to the stories. This similarity is as following: both stories are based on reality and when the reader has the opportunity to read them, he/she feels all events as though they were in the real life and feels like the character of the story. So, the first similarity is
The plot is based on reality
The main difference between the stories is that the information of the story “Videotape” is presented as the description of the video that the girl chanced to the tape: It is not just another video homicide. It is a homicide recorded by a child who thought she was doing something simple and maybe halfway clever, shooting some tape of a man in a car (Delillo 1); but in the story “The last day of Muhammad Atta” the information is presented as a monologue of the person who dies: In September 2001, he opened his eyes at 4 am, in Portland, Maine; and Muhammad Atta’s last day began. The worst yet to come: shaving. Shaving was the worst because it necessarily involved him in the contemplation of his own face. He looked downwards while he lathered his cheeks, but then the chin came up, and there it was, revealed in vertical strips: the face of Muhammad Atta (Amis 1). So, the difference lies in
The form in which the information is presented
One more similarity can be admitted between the stories. Both stories describe the events of the crime, in the story “Videotape” Don Delillo focuses the reader’s attention on the event that the girl tapes the death of a man driving the car and do it till the end where the man was shot by another driver: You look because this is the nature of the footage, to make a channeled path through time, to give things a shape and a destiny. Of course, if she had planned to another car, the right car at the precise time, she would have caught the gunman as he fired (Delillo 4). As well as in the story “The last day of Muhammad Atta” Amis concentrates our attention on the monologue of the terrorist focused on the terror itself and its agents. So, the similarity lies in
The theme of the stories
In the story “The last day of Muhammad Atta” the author tries to present the thoughts of the real terrorist and does that by means of putting the question of why such horrible things have happened in the world. But, also it is mentioned in the story that people committing crimes must like doing such things. The plot of the story has the image of circled hell in which the main character Atta tries to live and to stay alive all day during his terrible punishment.
The main message the author wanted to send to the readers is what ways can we find in order to stop people behave in such a way disturbing everything and getting the punishment which leads to death. Amis states that this is a real problem but it is not so, because people behave themselves in the same way as before. And the main consideration that Amis wants to give the reader and people can be formulated in the following way: “People, do not be cruel, do not fulfill the actions in the result of which we will suffer.” Amis describes the image of a sociopath where there is no love, friendship, laugh, and sex. His world is full of cruelty and certitude. Only with these things he feels the enjoyment. So, the image of the story is
The image of a sociopath
Considering the main point that the author of “Videotape” Don Delillo wanted to admit, it is necessary to say, it is not so hopeful: The horror freezes your soul but this does not mean that you want to stop it (Smith 85).
By this, the author means that even if the person suffers from horror, even if this horror disturbs his life, the person will do nothing to stop it. The narration of the story is like a commentary on the influence of the media and reality programming on our culture.
If we consider the messages that both authors wanted to send us, we could easily admit that on the one hand, they are a little bit different but on the other hand, they have a similar purpose. The purpose of preventing people not to be so cruel lies in the center of both messages, and if we suffer from this we should do something to stop it. As has already been mentioned, there is also a difference between them. In the story “Videotape” Don Delillo concentrates attention on how media and reality programming influence the culture, which means that the example of such video described in the story can make people cruel and lead to certitude.
And in the story “The last day of Muhammad Atta” the author concentrates attention on how terrorism influences the culture and why people do not want to stop it: Whatever terrorism had achieved in the past few decades, it had certainly brought about a net increase in world boredom. If the plane’s operation went ahead as planned, Muhammad Atta would bequeath more, perhaps much more, dead time, planet-wide. It was appropriate, perhaps, and not paradoxical, that terror should also sharply promote its most obvious opposite. Boredom (Amis 5). Making the conclusion we can underline that the similarity is
Purposes of the message
And the main difference is only the authors describe different agents of cruelty (the terrorism and the reality video).
References
Amis, Martin. The Last Days of Muhammad Atta. New York: Amis, Martin, 2006.
Smith, Patrick. Thematic guide to the popular short stories. Westport: Smith, Patrick, 2002. Print.