Mark of Satan

I like some of the metaphors that the author uses in this story. For example, she says that Thelma is astonished "like a cow...in the instant that the sledgehammer comes crashing down on her head" (pp. 472-473). This is a great image of how Flashman's words seem to her, violent and unexpected. The image of slaughter is used elsewhere, for example, when the neighbor is running a chainsaw (pg. 471), and when Flashman regrets not keeping his sister's room cool (pg. 472), in case he has to drag them there like a butcher to the cattle freezer. This makes him seem even more grotesque.

I also like Flashman's observation that "if this was a movie...the missionary would be walking out of the frame, leaving him behind -- just him" (pg. 474). The author could have described his emotions in great detail, but instead she makes a comparison, which works better. Everyone has probably felt like their life was a movie. These kinds of analogies help to relate the story to the reader with an idea instead of words. For example, she could have said that he was suddenly "self-conscious," but that wouldn't have the same impact as comparing his new consciousness to being the only character in a movie scene.

I think his point about movies also fits into the theme. The author mentions Flashman's irony (pg. 467). What is more ironic than Flashman telling Thelma that she can't cope (pg. 474), when he is the "parolee kid brother, once an honors student, now a balding, middle-aged man" (pg. 476) who has "crying jags" (pg. 475)? At the end, his sister wonders about everyone coming to see the fire, to draw attention to herself. The great irony is that the most despicable person imaginable (Flashman) has a moment of Divine grace, while his sister looks at him as a "begrudged guest" (pg. 466). She's angry that God looks at the most despicable and saves him, as if he were a character in a movie, and she's too prideful to admit that she needs the same thing, so she just waves the pamphlet at him in anger (pg. 475).

Was Harvey actually abandoned as a child as he says (pg. 472), or did he grow up with parents as his sister says (pg. 475)?