Sunday, October 31, 2010

Inquiry Question on Short Stories

1 comment:

  1. The universal theme, behind all of the short stories we read, was the self conflict that all of the main characters inevitably had to face. An external pressure by societal influences caused the characters to reflect back upon their own experience and judgments, and again in an instance they would later encounter. In the story “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro, we are shown as the young girl’s perspective is transformed due to the heavy influence of the beliefs of her family and everyone else around her. In the story “Kid in a Bin” by Robert Carter, we see as the child, Anthony O’ Neal, had to make the decision whether to continue his life as a normal child participating in regular activities, or change his ways of living due to the tragedy that the sun had done to his mother. The commonality that all of these conflicts shared, was that they would all greatly alter the lives of the people dealing with them. A prime example of this is in the story “I’m a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy” by Louise Erdrich. While given the choice of stealing a stuffed toucan from a local store, the main character is faced with a far bigger problem than he may think, and the choice he makes can be looked at as the major step in deciding whether the catastrophic events to follow, would or would not have occurred.

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