Prologue: The Parker Murder

An Analysis of "Prologue: A Dark Night":

"Prologue: A Dark Night" employs many psychological and literary aspects to present a psychotic protagonist that readers will wish to strive to understand, which will be examined in this analysis.

Immediately, an ominous foreshadowing is created in the opening lines "A dark night. A moonless sky. And no stars in sight." The removal of the things that define the night for humanity symbolises the removal of all things human and moral from what is going to happen in the piece as we read on. Also, the moon and stars are both direct and indirect sources of light in Scientific terms. We can read them as an allegory of hope in an otherwise dark and turbulent world. In contrast, we can apply the Jungian idea of the Collective Unconscious to show that humanity's collective fears of the darkness and unknown are going to be a key feature of the text.

The use of the third person narrative voice is interrupted at various points by an italisised firt-person voice. The most striking of these is the first example "When the mortals are asleep, then I strike." This immediately distances "The Creature" from humanity instilling a sense of fear into the reader and also adds to the dehumanising qualities of the naming of "The Creature". This dehumanised character makes it easier for us as readers to fear it, which is another manifestation of the Jungian ideas cited previously.

A microcosmic sense of place is also present in the piece "This highway, as the citizens in the city called it, linked two major cities: one famous for oil, and the other famous for its scenic beauty and extra-ordinary beach." This potentially reads as a microcosm for the US states of California, Alaska or Texas. The use of words such as "scenic" and "extra-ordinary" provide connotations of beauty, cleanliness and calmness. These are juxtaposed by the connotations of "oil" as a bleak, destructive substance. Also, oil is black which could potentially link back to the dark night, symbolising very little hope for humanity within the substance. This adds to the impact of the piece as, with this reading, it acts as a very sublime political statement.

Other sublime political messages occur in this text. Most notably in within the concept of education "it saw to its right a magnificent building: a school for the higher students... Mustard... What a color for such a school". Here, the colour of mustard in the physical sense can be seen as a symbol of the "higher" students and their presumably higher intelligence or sense of creativity being tainted by institutionalisation.

The Creature is shown to have some human qualities "This beach, as the creature remembered well, was the landmark of this city." This implies that the Creature has had happy memeories at this beach earlier in life. This warm, childlike episode is felicitously juxtaposed by the psychotic nature of the Creature "All your relatives are dead, it thought coldly, as it slowly inserted the key, and now it's your turn..." This could be interpreted as the Creature viewing the family bond as the integral piece of making someone "human" (this is shown both through the memories alluded to when the beach is passed and its views of a home being built through strength and emotion). The key was originally intended for use by visiting relatives who would have provided a source of strength and emotion for the mansion's inhabitant; which has been taken away due to death. Maybe, with the views expressed previously the Creature sees those without strength and emotion within the home as a waste of humanity ergo, in the Creature's eyes its not immoral to destroy that person's humanity through murder. This is also alluded to in the line "The look on their old and wrinkled faces showed the sign that they would like to sleep like that forever". This shows a sense of psychopathy, immorality which is easy for the Creature to distance itself from as it views itself as providing a service to humanity rather than committing a crime.

Another sublime message (this time more of a perception rather than a political stance) is present in the lines "the lady had a rather small, round face with many a wrinkle on it. She must have been very beautiful in her age, but now her wrinkles showed her vanity." This could be seen as an allegory of those who are trying to "cheat" the process of aging by using various chemicals and the such which leave permanent damage to the skin in some cases. The damage that the lady has experienced in the text has left her wishing for her life to cease, which could be symbol of many older ladies around the world who have lost their once ravishing beauty.

A narcissistic aspect of the Creature is also explored towards the closing of the text "a huge mirror met its way. It couldn't help but to stop and gaze at its beauty: not the mirror's, but the creature's." This shows that the Creature has a very high opinion of itself even though it has committed a terrible crime, adding an ironic tone of finding beauty in among absolute terror and destruction. If we look at the symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, one of these is the craving of attention from others around you. The Creature is somewhat content with the attentions that the actions will receive "Today will dawn with another Parker Murder". The naming of the Creature shows that significant attention has been given as a result of his crimes as the society around him is aware of his actions upon hearing his name. His actions of the night are also poised to define the next day, which satisfies the narcissistic needs for power and dominance.

In conclusion, this piece employs many powerful literary devices to entice the reader to achieve a greater understanding of the Creature's psychology. Delayed exposition has occurred in the sense that we have not found out why the Creature is psychologically made up in the way that it is, which reminds us as readers that this is merely a prologue and we must read more in order to understand the mind of the Creature.