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Hashmat Khorsand (600)
Anne Walker
Writing 10
March 10, 2014
Testimony or Testiphony
The term testimony can sometimes come in many different formats when
analyzing literature. Testimonies are descriptions of places or events relayed from
one person to another. In the book House with the Blue Bed by Alfred Arteaga
testimony is clearly used. There are many instances where Alfred includes detailed
descriptions of things that have happed throughout his life. Whereas
autobiographies tend to focus on a timeline, such as facts and dates of certain
events, Alfred specifically focuses on the descriptive details of his stories. A majority
of people never really get the chance the experience most if not all of these
descriptions, and it almost forces them by default to trust that he is telling the truth.
In his book Alfred includes many eloquent descriptions that help paint pictures of
various landscapes and scenarios, giving the readers a chance to imagine events or
places they never witnessed.
In the beginning chapter of his book Alfred testifies to some vivid
descriptions about the sand found on Donegal Bay. He notes that the sand is
something he has never experienced beforet this were an autobiography it would
tend to focus on the actual event-taking place rather then going into such detail
describing the sand. He describes how each step into the sand seems to sink up to
the knee, making it very difficult to walk. The level of description Alfred gives to the
consistency and structure of the sand can give you the sense of actually stepping
into it, he mentions, “the sand has a consistency of something like [stiff] cake
frosting…”. These descriptions allow the reader to imagine how it would be to take a
stroll down Donegal Bay even though they have never been there.
Alfred also testifies about certain events that take place in his life, such as
one occasion mentioned in his 5th chapter titled “bodies”. Alfred describes a series of
disturbingly similar accidents that he happed to witness over his lifetime. If this
were an autobiography then perhaps these would be just random events, bleeps on
a timeline not thoroughly described. However, Alfred gives “court case” descriptions
and details of what took place. He goes in graphic detail particularly when he
mentions the incident in France. Alfred goes in depth about seemingly insignificant
aspects in the story, such as the way the phone was broken, that would not have
been mentioned if say this was an autobiography. He would not have talked about
how the woman’s cries sounded like “roars from a lion house at the San Francisco
Zoo”. Instead he would have just focused on the fact that an accident happened and
a lady had been hit by a car. He talks about how some dark Arab looking person had
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hit her, and how some pale man vengefully slapped him. It was almost as if Alfred
was testifying in a court case, telling the judge exactly what he witnessed and
allowing everyone to have lucid sense of what happened.