Expressions of Emotions in Seamus Deane's "Feet" Anonymous 11th Grade

In Seamus Deane’s passage “Feet”, a young boy narrates his household and his surroundings under a table through the experiencing eye when his sister is being carried away to the hospital, only to pass away later. With the use of focalization, how the narrator is chosen, and descriptions of the family, Deane shows the reader both the intense inner emotions of the boy and of the wider context.

The choice of Una’s brother to be the narrator makes sense, the first reason being that if the author had chosen the sister, the story would end there and she would not be able to recall her feelings during the incident accurately. The second option is another relative - but an adult - as the narrator: this is not appealing because adults’ reactions are usually more limited and more typical than a child’s. Their way of expressing feelings may be expected by the reader already, offering not much deeper reading, as they have gone through society’s expectations of how they should behave in order to fit in. In contrast, a boy’s expression of emotions may be quite unique as he has not been through as much of society’s “training.”

Choosing a young narrator can also lead to an interesting element: we now have a naïf unreliable narrator. There may...