Robert Grave "The Shout"

The narrative takes place at an asylum, where insanity is not of rare occurrence, from which I immediately realized that it is not just a random story dealing with casual things, but it is the kind of story that plays tricks with your mind. The title of the story also stands for something emotional and soulful, except in this case it is more concentrated on things that are soulless. The first time I thought of that was in the very beginning, where the doctor of the Asylum made it clear that the patient Crossley has his soul split into pieces. This sentence never seemed odd or unclear, because I have always thought that the people who could not deal with reality and became insane had lost their souls. It is not as much about the brain that cannot deal, but it is about the peace of mind that just had been lost somewhere on the way. Crossley is an intelligent man who had been sent to the Asylum for delusions. Although he is maybe obsessed and ill, he does not seem like it at all. On the contrary, he seems perfectly normal at the beginning. The ideas he shares are interesting. For example, his explanation about retelling the story in new and different ways each time helps to keep it “fresh and therefore true”. The aim of a storyteller is to excite curiosity of the listener, and to do that it is important to be interested in things you are telling about, but you cannot be interested if you are telling particular story for hundredth time in exactly the same way. …