Literature is not a sure thing.  Any old person cannot sit down and write a piece that will last throughout time.  It takes careful planning and a dash of good luck to reach that level.  There is a simple way to tell if a piece of writing has “it.”  Has the power to enthrall the reader into exploring its lines over and over again and it, is called the “what thuh?” affect.  Perhaps the easiest way to explain the “what thuh?” affect, would be to take a deeper look into Guy De Maupassant’s “The Jewelry.”

 “The Jewelry” gives the reader pre-formed images of key characters, so that from the beginning, the reader will form conclusions about them.  M. Lantin describes that “The young girl seemed to be the very ideal of that pure good woman to whom every young man dreams of entrusting his future.” (Pg. 9, paragraph 1.)  By this, we as readers come to the conclusion that this girl is sought after by many men because of her saintly qualities and is quite the catch.  In the following line, M. Lantin sets up a mental image, so readers will understand why he is even more compelled to fall madly in love with her.  “Her modest beauty had a charm of angelic shyness; and the slight smile that always dwelt about her lips seemed a reflection of her heart.” (Pg. 9, paragraph 1.)

 The author, Maupassant, goes on to further explain the perfection of M. Lantin’s wife by bombarding the reader with ideas that draw us to believe certain things.  He emphasizes how she would “drag her husband with her” to the theater and when he “begged her to go to the theater with some lady-acquaintances... she refused for quite a while, but finally she yielded, just to please him.”  (Pg. 9, paragraph 6.)  What else would pop into the reader’s head except for how much she must care for her husband to make such a sacrifice to go without him to the theater, and what a considerate person she must be.  As Maupassant furthers with his writing, the reader takes note that Madame Lantin also settles to wear fake jewelry because she cannot afford real and loves wearing the jewelry so much that it does not matter whether it is real or fake.

 In time, it is also brought to the reader’s attention that M. Lantin loved his “perfect” wife so much, that after her untimely death, he went through such grief that “he wept from morning till night, feeling his heart torn by inexpressible suffering.” (Pg.10, paragraph 15.) 

Then it happens.  In M. Lantin’s awful despair over losing his wife he goes to sell the fake jewelry, finds out it is real and in turn realizes that his wife was not what he, (or the readers,) thought, she had deceived him.  “What thuh?” goes through the minds of the readers because up until this point we were also fooled by Madame Lantin and we think, how did we not see this coming?  Then the urge comes to go back through Maupassant’s twisted writing to look again and see what he has hidden in the text.

 Throughout the second (and third and fourth etc.) reading we find that many lines were a mockery of M. Lantin.  Such as how the reader was fooled to think that Madame Lantin “finally yielded,” and decided to go to the theater without her husband “just to please him.”  When in reality she was thrilled to get the chance to meet her lover on a more regular basis and made her husband feel grateful at the same time that she was so considerate on not forcing him to go.  Also when “she would insist on putting one of the necklaces round her husband’s neck, and laugh till she couldn’t laugh any more, crying out: “Oh! how funny you look!” (Pg. 10, paragraph 13.)  How foolish both M. Lantin and now the reader feel for going along with such a flagrant disrespect she has for everyone but herself.

 “The Jewelry” is literature because Guy De Maupassant incorporated the “what thuh?” affect.  He paints a picture in the reader’s mind that cleverly overshadows what is truly happening.  Maupassant’s writing is enthralling and in essence tells two completely different stories.  The first time the story is read, the reader has specific expectations and shapes the story into a sort of a sad fairytale.  As the reader begins to understand what truly happened, “what thuh?” goes through the reader’s head or perhaps they speak it out loud, because it was not what was expected and they were thrown off by the twist of events.  The second time (and all other times the story is read,) the reader is captivated by the meanings behind every phrase and finds it more interesting to read then the first time because they want to know the meaning behind everything to not be fooled again.  A writing that gets better and tells a different story each time it is read is a true mark of great literature and “The Jewelry” is certainly a great example.