A Friend In Need Somerset Maugham Retelling

This is the possibility of meeting a stranger and making a friend. Right there, right then. Forever . . . It is because we are not needed any more. No one has any use for us. They do not see trips abroad in our eyes. These trips are something they can themselves afford. And there are so many of us. We have become common . . . I am speaking of regretting imperialism, I know. I ought to rejoice that Japan is no longer subject to it, but I do not want to. It was too much fun being treated as someone quite special. In Appointment in Samarra, part of his last play Sheep, Maugham retells an ancient Arabic fable. W. Somerset Maugham was one of the greatest storytellers of all time. In the simplest form, he ties together the basic elements of a story: setting, plot, characters, and theme with amazing perfection. The setting is Baghdad, an advanced city of the time. Maugham takes us through the transition of the servant in the marketplace, to his Master and then leaves us with the assumption that the story closes in Samarra, where the servant meets his fate. Why was Death strolling the marketplace? Did she have an earlier appointment? The marketplace is bustling with life. Maybe Death was there to show us that where there is life, there is Death. Samarra has long been a city plagued with death, from the time of this ancient tale to Maugham's retelling and still today. A civilized city of the time, even Baghdad cannot escape Death. Is the plot woven around the theme of destiny, as commonly interpreted? The servant is trying to escape Death. He runs. However, he runs right to the place where Death has an appointment with him that very night. The plot of any story must have a beginning, middle and an end. A good suspense story contains a sense of foreshadowing, a crisis, a turning point and, finally, a resolution. In the beginning of the tale, the reader can feel darkness. Who is it that speaks? Death. The very thought of death is