This week’s blog post required us to read a short story and create a network graph using Google Fusion Table. For the short work of fiction, I chose to read “The Headless Women” by Gonçalo M. Tavares. It is an invigorating story about a mother who has her head chopped of with an axe by her husband because he wanted more room in bed (a ridiculous, but relatable, reason to chop of someone’s head if I do say so myself). After having her head chopped off the mother wonders off, searching for her children and eventually gets lost in a labyrinth. Without any eyes, the mother knows the only way she can retrace her steps if to use her blood to mark her way back. Unfortunately, her three children, who are also searching for her stumble onto the the trail of blood and clean it up. The children scream for their mother, but without ears, their screams go unheard, but miraculously, the mother is able to scream and her screams are heard by her children. Following the noise, the children are able to find their mother, but leave her to find her head. When they find it, the head doesn’t recognize any of them. Angered, the children leave the head to find their mother’s body once again. They split up and the oldest finds the mother dying and attempts to scream to notify his siblings, but he is unable to.
I created a simple network graph using an edge list with the characters in the story. Two nodes are connected if they interacted in the story. The network graph is able to show the connections and relationship characters have with one another in the story, but is limited to showing one type of connection because you have to decide what constitutes a connection. In addition, while this network graph was very simple because there was only four main character, network graphs can be very useful showing the connections between characters with stories with many subjects. Another limitation of my network graph is that is doesn’t show how close the characters were to one another; it only shows that they interacted in the story. Showing how close the characters will be useful to see which characters are more important than other characters.
You can also view the network graph here.
Hi,
I really enjoyed reading your summary of the story. I think it’s very useful how you noted the limitations of your network graph. It allows the readers to understand that this network isn’t what it seems to be– that there’s more depth behind it.
Providing a summary was really helpful to understand the network graph. However, I feel like there has to be some connections between the sons, since they should know each other with them being siblings. Overall, nice job on the analysis!
Hello! I really enjoyed your take on the story. I found it pretty invigorating as well. I noticed that limitation as well, in it that I couldn’t really display how close of relationships the mother had with her sons. Great work!