128. Nooses

"Old Man with Noose" (1923)
by Kathe Kollwitz

When Noah tells the narrator that he likes "'nice stories' before bed," the narrator describes such stories as "the kind with happily-ever-afters that end in a neat little bow like a noose around the imagination" (128). That's a particularly dark way of describing stories with happily-ever-afters.

Why might the narrator think that happily-ever-after stories strangle the imagination?

Consider how this observation might relate to Sam's strategy of jumbling up bedtime stories in a crazy way that the children find delightful?

Does the author herself have a penchant for metaphorical flights of fancy and jarring juxtapositions that interrupt traditional reader expectations of narrative flow as she jumps from one section to the next?

How is the author's narrative style different from or similar to the main character's way of reading the children bedtime stories?