In the short story, The Knife Thrower and Other Stories by Steven Millhauser discuss the ambiguity on the knife thrower’s act. The townspeople learn that the renowned Knife Thrower, Hensch will be presenting a performance. Hensch is the antagonist of the story who himself symbolizes death. He is a skilled artist on the knife throwing, young women voluntarily let themselves be wounded by him. The story is told in the first person plural as a community speaking as one character. The audience experiences a variety of feelings such as confusion, sympathy during the knife thrower act. In this act, the last volunteer is a girl named Laura, who becomes the last victim in the act. This last performance of Hensch is what puts the audience in confusion. Laura is alive in the end because Hensch is a skillful artist, no one was coerced in any way throughout the act.…show more content… However, Hensch final performance is what puts the audience in confusion. The audience leaves the theatre with doubts in their minds whether Hensch has killed the last candidate Laura. “In any case we reminded ourselves that she hadn't been coerced in any way, none of them had been coerced in any way.” The reader gets this perspective from the audience that most of them agree that Laura is alive. They were witnesses of the act, which they didn’t witness any acts were the candidates were coerced in any way. In his every act, he was showing his artistic talent and wanted to convey to everyone how skillful knife thrower he
