Stories A Case for the UN by Miriam Allen de Ford and Death Speaks by W. Somerset Maugham may seem different, but they are actually very similar. While de Ford identified her characters by name, Maugham used common nouns and even apostrophe. de Ford settled for a familiar setting but shocked the audience with an unexpected conflict. On the other hand, Maugham created a familiar conflict but chose an exotic country for his setting. It is noticeable that Maugham can confuse some readers because of his lack of punctuation marks, whereas de Ford s story could be flawless in grammar and spelling. A Case for the UN was written to show the readers a loophole in laws in the world. The latter was written to entertain and yet convince people of the inevitability of death. Therefore one could easily assume both stories are different.
Despite the differences, the two stories are similar in many ways. They are both well written and showing a cliché. One is Every law a loophole in A Case for the UN and another is You can t escape death in Death Speaks . Both of them used slightly omniscient characters. As Evans (A Case for the UN) knew the faith of his victims and his can be cheated, Death (Death Speaks) also knew the merchant s servant s. Evans and Death were able to predict the ending of the excerpts because only of that were they sure of. Evans was only sure of the loophole in the law and so, he based his actions on it. Death was even surprised to see the servant in the market, he was only sure of their meeting at Samarra. All the other characters had affright for these two because of what they know. In the end, both authors were able to succeed in demonstrating two familiar clichés with entertaining and witty stories.