The Man with the Scar

he story “The Man with the Scar” I would like to speak about is written by W. Somerset Maugham who is one of the most popular and widely read English writers. He wrote novels, short stories, plays and most of them had a great commercial success. W. Somerset Maugham traveled a lot during his life, he met different people, saw their lives so he gained a lot from his trips. Sometimes Maugham’s stories were thinly disguised episodes involving his host or others he had met on his travels-circumstances that occasionally resulted in threats and lawsuits.

The text for analysis is a short story. The main character is the storyteller who speaks about events from the first person. The secondary character is a friend of the storyteller, we know nothing about him: his name, age, his prof, etc. He’s just a companion which answers the author’s questions but he also plays a particular role in the story, because the author reproduces the life of the man with the scar with the help of his companion.

The story takes place in The Palace Hotel at Guatemala city in Central America. Author uses the Spanish language “Que tal, general”, “Gracias”… for underlining the local coloring of the place and the nationality of the men which speak this language.

The narration begins with the description of the scar on the man’s face. Author uses epithets like “broad and red, a great crescent” that’s why storyteller notices this man, because of his scar, and immediately he tries to understand why this scar appeared on his face. Author gives us a man’s appearance and characteristic features using epithets “undistinguished features, artless expression” what about man’s appearance “He wears a very shabby grey suit, a khaki shirt and a battered sombrero”. From this description given by storyteller we can suppose that the man with the scar could be a military man, maybe Spaniard but a poor man. His work consists of selling lottery tickets.