Short Story Techniques

I think that the use of dialogue in Emergency is extremely powerful and makes the story much more believable, even if it may not be realistic. Dialogue takes up so much of the story leaving a lot of the characterization and plot development to the characters to relay to the reader. Having a character that works in a hospital that is freaked out by blood is a great character trait that makes this character three-dimensional. Creating a character like that I think makes dialogue both surprising and interesting to write and read because the character seems to talk completely from his own head, you seem to forget that this is a constructed narrative, and the character feels realistic. Other people's dialogue toward him also shape how we understand and know Georgie. When asking if he should prep the patient, the doctor asks "Is this a hospital? Is this the emergency room? Is that a patient? Are you the orderly?" (277) and the sarcasm here shows how people at the hospital view him. Instead of writing outrightly that people at the hospital see him as a joke and that they think he's not the brightest, this piece of dialogue conveys it perfectly. We also understand how much Georgie cares about living beings through his dialogue because instead of saying "he cared a lot about animals" we see him questioning the narrator repeatedly about the bunnies and trying to figure out ways to help them out even though they were already dead. Through dialogue we understand Georgie, a guy who works in a hospital, is freaked out by blood and death, but really wants to save lives.