Chapter 4: many things happen in this chapter, but the event that interest us is, indeed, the incident at the window. We have already talked about doors at the beginning of the course, it's now time to talk about windows. We said that doors were misterious because they represented the pass into the unknown. What about windows? What effect do they produce?
THE WINDOW EFFECT
In contrast to doors, windows show us something. But this doesn't mean that the effect is lighter or smaller. In fact, the effect is quite
deceiving (click the word). We can see something, just as Mr. Utterson saw Dr. Jekyll behind the glass, but he only saw a very, very little part of the whole scene. He couldn't see what was behind Jekyll, and when Dr. Jekyll closed the windows he didn't knew exactly what had happened. Many things could have happened. It's all up to our imagination.
So, a window shows us only a part of a complete scene, we can't see the whole scene, we have to imagine it.
THE ACTIVITY
This is an experiment: we listed a series of 10 different sounds. We had to imagine that we were laying in our beds just about to sleep. There's no chance we could see anyhing because it was a very dark night. Suddenly we started hearing all those sounds. In groups of two, we had to write a story using them. We had to imagine how those sounds were related. Just as the window effect, we only know a small part of the scene, the rest is up to our imagination. Everyone is going to have a different story. We hope to understand how can we interpret a series of facts in many ways and create completely different stories.
FIRST AND SECOND YEAR
LIST OF SOUNDS:
1) Helicopter.
2) A woman laughing.
3) Bell ring.
4) Surprised exclamation.
5) Jump.
6) Ambulance.
7) Loud music.
8) Dog barking.
9) Door that opens.
10) Door that closes.
Havenstein - Orlando
I was almost asleep when I heard the sound of a helicopter and I remembered that two thieves had escaped from jail that afternoon, then I heard that my neighbor was laughing, probably she was talking by phone. The neighbor’s bell rang loudly then the woman seemed very surprised and started to shout maybe the thieves who had escaped were in her house or had jumped over her!
Some minutes later I heard an ambulance that stopped there, at the woman’s house, my neighbor. Then for a while I couldn't listen to anything because a party near my house started to play very loud music. When the music stopped my dog started to bark a lot. My house door had opened and my dog went in, then I heard that someone came into my house and closed the door, leaving my dog outside and someone I think I didn’t know inside my house…
Later I realized that “that person I didn’t know” was my mom that was coming to tell me that I had to sleep because it was too late already.
Álvarez - Gonzalez
It happened in the prision. One day I was laying in my bed and I heard a helicopter. I thought that it was the police. Then I heard a woman laughing and it was a very strage laught. Some minutes later I heard a bell ringing, and also at that moment a surprise exclamation. I thought that was a woman.
I heard people jumping a wall. 5 or 10 minutes later I heard an ambulance, the ambulance stopped and I heard some loud music and a dog barking and I got scared.
I thought that one prisioner was escaping and I heard a door opening, and two minutes later, the door closing.
Freites - Gigena
I was in my bedroom staring at the roof. In that moment I could hear a lot of sounds. I was listening to a helicopter, it was far away, but it was to noisy. A girl was laughing, it was a silly laugh. I could listen someone that was surprised. Someone was jumping, and I thought it was my mum. I listened to someone screaming and during the following minutes I heard an ambulance coming. So I supposed it was related to the scream before. I also Heard, that in the other street someone was playing music. I thought that the barks of my dog were because of that music. Then someone opened the door, it was my mum who was entering and going out of the bathroom.
García - Rodriguez
First I was trying to sleep when I heard a helicopter and I thought that it was over my house. But I realized that was over my neighbor’s house, suddenly, I heard a woman laughing, and I thought that was a member of the bad girl's group that met every night at the corner of the street. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep but my bell started ringing, I got so scared that I covered my face with the sheets and I didn’t went to open the door because I was frighten. I was paying attention to hear others sounds when suddenly I heard a surprise exclamation, and someone jumped my back wall and fell to the ground. Some few minutes pass and I heard an ambulance and people shouting and a terrible loud music came from the corridor and my dog started barking very loud , then my door opened and suddenly it closed making a lot of noise. Finally I got up and I say “'OMG', I was dreaming.”
Issidoro - Bett
When I was about to sleep I heard a helicopter. I thought it was the police because some hours before I had watched on TV that some thieves were escaping from them. Minutes later I heard my neigbour laughing, she is a little bit wrong, so I thought she was laughing about of the helicopter. A bell rang at my neighbor's, and I imagined that it was the police to alert my neighbor about the thieves, my neighbour got surprised because she saw them climbing a house! An hour passed and I couldn't sleep yet so I tried to listen what happened…I heard some people dumping over my neighbour's hall. I started to get scared. 30 minutes later I listened an ambulance, I couldn't imagine that my neighbour's husband was dead. My neighbour turned the music so loud and I thought that she was going to forget what had happened. I started to listen my dog barking because the thieves oponed my garden door but they got scared and they closed it loudly. Finally, I fell asleep.
Ludueña - Ibarra
I was just going to sleep ,when I started to hear sounds. The first noise I heard was a helicopter and I thought that was the police. Then I heard a woman laughing but I thought that she was drunk. I imagined that the helicopter was looking for a thief, so the man was running. Then I heard a bell ringing and a girl shouting. So I imagined that the thief hit that girl and jumped the neighbor's back wall, and that they called the ambulance. The man turned on the music loud and the dog started baking at him. He left the house afraid through the garden door so he opened and closed the door.
Reynoso - Valverde
One day I was in my bed, just about to go to sleep and suddenly I heard the sound of a helicopter. Then the sound became smaller because it was going away. After that I heard a woman laughing, I thought that was mi friend, Emily, but I couldn't see anything because I was in bed with my eyes shut. The bell rang at my house, but nobody opened the door.
Far away I heard the exclamation of surprise from a woman but I didn't know why she was like that. I got scared because I heard someone jumping, I thought that a thief was trying to jump into my house. I covered with my blanket and suddenly I heard the sound of an ambulance, the sound of jumps were smaller. I thought that near my house was an accident because of the ambulance. Then the ambulance went away, and I started to hear loud music. I knew that was a party because my friend Emily told me yesterday that she was organizing one. Then I listened a dog barking because I think that my neighbor was coming into his house. After that I start hearing that a door was opening, so I realized that my neighbor was in his house. Then he closed the door. Finally, could sleep because there weren't any more noises.
THIRD YEAR
LIST OF SOUNDS:
1) Dog barking
2) Cat mewing
3) Woman screaming
4) Door opening
5) Man shouting
6) Footsteps
7) Door closing
8) Car starting
9) Woman shouting (again)
10) Alarm ringing
Altamirano - Lazo
At 9 o'clock I was trying to sleep. It was the third time. I went to bed at 8 o'clock but lots of noise were bothering me. The neighbor's dog was barking and the cat was meawing, maybe they saw something strange. I didn't care about it and I tried to sleep again, but another noise started: a woman was screaming. I guessed that it was mrs. Jacky, my neighbor. Probably she saw the cat and the dog that they where distroing some furniture. But immediately I heard a door opening and a man shouting. It was easy to think it was Mr. Jacky that saw the disaster. I thought that what the pets did was horrible. I tried to sleep again but I couldn't because I listened a lot of strong footsteps and a door closing. Then a car starting, maybe Mr. Jacky was very angry and decided to go out for some minutes and Mrs. Jacky was desesperated and starte to shout again. My neighbors were verry crazy! But finally I realized that this was not the fault of the pets. It was a robbery because of the alarm ringing.
Escobar - Márquez
One day I was in my house trying to sleep and I heard a dog barking. Some minutes later I also heard a cat mewing I thought that it was because the dog was barking at the cat. This happened in the street around five o'clock. Then, a woman started yelling and said "don’t kill me please I didn't do anything. I was so scared because I thought it was mi mother. Later I listened a door opening: it was mi mother coming back to her bedroom and she saw mi father next to the door screaming because he want to scare her.
After that I heard some footsteps coming to my bedroom and suddenly the door closed. I went to the kitchen to drink some water. Later I heard a car starting, I imagined that my neighbors had gone out and at the same time I heard a woman crying again, I thought that she had cut herself with a knife.
Faraco - Pereyra
It was a dark night when I was reading my favourite book. I was in chapter 4 when I heard a strange sound. I thought that was a dog barking so I didn't get scared, but 10 minutes after I heard cat mewing, I thought that it was my neighbor's cat. When I finished reading the book I went to sleep. Unfortunately I heard a young woman screaming, when I wanted to call the police, suddenly, the door was opening. I knew that because I recognized the sound of that old door. After that I heard an old man screaming when he got quiet I heard foot steps. I was very frightened because something strange was happening. Then I heard that the door was closing. I thought that was a window that was closing. But I heard a car starting so there I became sure that one person was murdered because I heard the sound of a trunk opening open, the young woman started to scream again so I was sure that the father of the girl was the victim. A few minutes later my alarm clock ran. I knew that all this history was only a strange dream.
Quintana - Karakas
I was in my bed when I heard a strange noise... It was a dog barking. At first I didn’t care about it but then the dog started barking louder. I started to get worried and I heard a cat mewing.
Then I heard a woman that shouted “Help, help!! a dog is eating a cat” and immediately the a door opened then suddenly I heard a man that was screaming and his footsteps were very loud too.
Five minutes later the door closed and a car start going out. And then… I heard the same woman shouting “Stop there were a cat and a dog , wait you are going to ran over them”. At last, I heard a broken windows and I thought that the driver threw a rock at the house of the woman because the alarm started ringing, then in a moment I slept and I didn’t hear anything else.
Malbrán - Carrizo
A week ago on a rainy day a dog started barking. My cat called yogi, started mewing, while the dog was barking. Some minutes later a woman start to shout and a door opened very quietly. A man was saying something to the woman and suddenly the man started screaming, he sounded like a woman, then, I fell asleep. When I woke up I heard footsteps in the corridor. My main door. Suddenly it closed very hard and a car started and went a way. The woman shouted again and started running towards my house. She entered and turned on the alarm, then she entered to my bedroom and she told me that a thief had stolen me.
Solanot
I was sleeping. Suddenly I woke up because I heard a dog barking and a cat mewing. I started to see by the window and a woman was screaming because she had seen something. Then the door opened and my dog bit him the man screamed. But after 30 seconds he stopped shouting. I heard footsteps near my bedroom. I shouted “go away I have a shotgun” the man went away, and closed the door. The police was coming so he hurried to steal any car. After he broke the window of the car and got into. I heard the sound of the car starting. The woman shouted again because the thief had just stolen her car. After 10 minutes I heard an alarm ringing: it was the police came.
Claure - Velázquez
One night when I went to bed I heard a dog barking I didn’t pay attention so I went to bed, a few minutes later I heard a cat mewing so I got scared because I thought that someone was breaking in a neighbour's house, then a woman was yelling so I felt very scared but maybe it was just a spider so I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. Few seconds later I heard a door opening so I thought that the neighbour had gone out to another place but then I heard a man screaming so I said “it is my imagination” and but seconds later I heard footsteps but I do anything. Then I heard a door closing and a car strating and some woman's screams, so I thought “hahaha” the neighbour almost ran over Miss Eva but then I heard an alarm ringing, I knew that the neighbour's car was stolen.
