In Maria Dahvana Headley’s short story, Moveable Beast, in Neil Gaiman’s book, Unnatural Creatures, Headley tells the story of Bastardville’s Beast through the perspective of Angela. In the beginning of the story, Headley portrays Angela by having a sarcastic tone, being terse with others and barely caring about anything in Bastardville, including herself. Angela later has a coming of age story and realizes what the beast of her town represents and what she has to do to protect and maintain it. The details of the story paint an image inside the audience’s mind that leaves open interpretation to what or who the actual beast is. This effect is achieved by Headley’s complex style and uses irony, epiphany, and imagery to display her wild imaginative and open interpretation to the audience. Irony is an element used to appear to the audience for comedic purposes which usually defines …show more content…
I got over Possibility when I was seven, right along with Santa Claus and Easter bunny and Tooth Fairy (Headley 187). In this passage, Headley already introduces irony by the use of the name of the town, Bastardville, where awful customer service is a major tourism draw” 1. Also, by saying that “not expecting anything life-changing” is expected, Headley hints at the irony already in play for the rest of the story. The story continues and Billy Beecham is introduced. While he is “innocently” just a collector, he is the person who gives Amanda this life-changing adventure. David Schmidt argues that “While the names and characteristics of specific monsters will vary, their deviance is a given” 2 . This furthers the point for open interpretation as to what or who the real monster is. In addition, the Beecham’s role, calls himself a collector (Headley 188) which causes irony that while he looks for the beast in the wilderness, the real monster was right in front of him,