The Last Rung On The Ladder Analysis

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A medieval kingdom and a barn, two very different settings. Two stories with very different conflicts. How does Katrina from The Last Rung on the Ladder (by Stephen King) and King Gralon from Firebirds (by Sharyn November) relate and differ from each other in terms of dominant personality traits and their reactions to adversity or internal conflict? How did the characterization techniques differ from the stories? While there isn’t much similarities between the stories, there are many things that could be used to contrast, such as their dominant personalities. A big difference between Katrina and King Gralon are their personalities. While Katrina has the personality traits of being friendly and trusting, as her nickname implies, King Gralon has the personality traits of being selfish and controlling. A quote from The Last Rung on the Ladder: “'Kitty!' I bawled up at her. 'Just hold still! Hold still!'
She obeyed me instantly. Her legs stopped kicking and she hung straight down,
”, (King) shows how trusting she is, especially towards her brother. She followed his instructions immediately in
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“Kitty's face. It was deadly pale and her eyes were shut. She was dead, I knew it as I looked at her. The world went grey for me, November grey. The only things in it with any colour were her pigtails, bright gold.” (King) Stephen King is describing her face and hair, which is direct characterization. He also uses indirect characterization, for example, “Then I stepped off into space, holding my nose for effect, and as it always did, the sudden grip of gravity, yanking me down brutally, making me plummet, made me feel like yelling: Oh, I'm sorry, I made a mistake, let me back up!” Sharyn November also uses indirect characterization, making King Gralon do things like, “cursing the queen and all women.”