The Mark Of The Beast Analysis

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Reading short stories are and will continue to be a treat for everyone. Being able to fit a fully developed story in just a few pages is amazing. For a freshman in ISM who always needs to write an essay after finishing a story, short stories can be quite helpful. Not only do they entertain people in a short amount of time but they also ease the process of understanding the story. “The Mark of the Beast” is one of the few short stories that 9th graders encounter in English class and arguably the best one out of all of them. This story in particular, is intriguing. When you first approach this story it has one meaning but after you know the role that Hanuman plays, the entire understanding of the story, the beginning, the end, and the characters changes. The evident change that the audience becomes aware of after reading the commentary is the plot. In the beginning of the story Fleete, drunk from the New Years Eve party wanders off with his friends (Strickland and the narrator) to a Hindu temple. He goes to the statue of Hanuman, the monkey god and grinds his cigarette on the forehead of the god. He then says “Shee that? Mark of the B-beasht! I made it. Ishn’t it fine?” (Kipling). This is a dishonorable act because Fleete makes fun of Hanuman and calls the god a beast. It is extremely rude to the point that it becomes obvious to the reader that Fleete will not leave the temple without a punishment. And that is exactly what happens next. A Silver Man, “a leper as white as