Using Laughter to Signify Change

How one literary tool can do so much without giving anything away.

Change is hard.

And for readers, sometimes a change occurring in a scene or between characters can be too much too quickly. This can be especially true when a piece is short.

So, Etgar Keret uses laughter in two different ways in his short piece “Crazy Glue” to alert readers that massive shifts are about to take place in the narrative.

Photo by charlesdelu…