In Grand Opening by John Hassler, Wallace Flint bears the weight of misfortune, his resentment and blame become his ultimate fall.
Towards the beginning of the story, two characters are introduced: Wallace Flint and his more elusive counterpart, Wallace Flint. Wallace Flint, the second one mentioned, was the alter ego of Wallace; an awful, selfish, jealous, and hating person. At first Wallace is able to hide his alter ego from the world but it was still present inside of him. Out of jealousy Wallace’s alter ego sprung up in him as he attempts to harm Brendan,
Wallace, whose dark, bearded face was unaffected by the sunlight, was setting Brendan up for dogs. Until this afternoon Wallace had not realized how intensely he despised Brendan.
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From the time he was sixteen he had overseen the goings and comings of the villagers from the the window of the grocery store; Plum had been his princedom, and now he was overthrown and banished to the horrifying boredom of his mother’s house. But he was not banished forever. Sooner or later, he vowed, he would reclaim his rightful place in the store.(228)
His ego and jealousy had reached the tipping point shortly before these events. It was at this point all that remained of Wallace inside and out was his alter ego,
He’s saying it’s my turn to go out and earn the money...I’m not helpless. I know what work is’...She feared this was no two-day snit Wallace was going through; she had never seen such fierce anger in his eyes as when, last night, when she rapped on his door with food on a tray, he burst out of his room and called her a repulsive sow and smacked the tray out of her hands.(211-212)
Wallace had then let his emotions control him into burning down Hank’s Market. Although he was not convicted, the townspeople knew it was him who committed arson. People need to step back and take a breather whenever they feel like they’re losing control over who they are. Wallace could have prevented his damnation to his mother's house if only he had done just
The book opens with, “small trees had attacked my parents' house at the foundation” (Erdrich 4) The initial conflict in this story is that Joe’s mother, Geraldine, is raped. This event becomes the seed of all other problems that come to exist in the story. It is detrimental to the foundation of their family. The opening line is the greatest metap...
John Wheelwright in A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is a depressed and bitter man who leads a solitary life in the confinements of his past because he has been so traumatized by catastrophic events in his life that he cannot bring himself to move forward. He is bitter about the future because he accepts that everything in life is predestined and he feels angry because he has no control of what the future brings. As destiny has it, he has no control over the death of his mother, the indirect death of his best friend caused by the Vietnam War, and the current to future issues facing the world.
Witkoski, Michael. "The Great Gatsby." Magill’S Survey Of American Literature, Revised Edition (2006): 1-2. Literary Reference Center. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.
Wallace uses a tremendous use of examples to portray his message, for example he uses many analogies that a reader
Goodman Brown does not emerge from the forest tougher or braver but hateful and spiteful because he becomes enlightened to the ways of world. He comes to terms with the reality tha...
by some of the villagers to fight against the English but refuses to because he doesn't
Ambrose Bierce wrote "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" during the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century. During this time period the two writing styles of romanticism, and realism were coming together. This melding of styles was a result of the romantic period of writing and art coming to an end, just at realism was beginning to gain popularity. "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a perfect example of this transition of styles as it combines elements of both romanticism and realism to create a story that can be far-fetched while still believable at times.
One of the most enjoyable books I’ve ever read is a compendium of non-fiction stories written by that master storyteller, Irving Wallace. This author is more famous for his novels like The Man, The Plot, The Seven Minutes, etc. The book I speak of, though, is called The Sunday Gentleman, its out-of-print status adding some worth to what is a phenomenal work to begin with. What a wonderful title too, I thought when I first saw the book, inspiring me to look for an explanation inside. I wasn’t disappointed. It was there in the first few pages. This opening moved me so much I visited it a dozen times in the coming years. Permit me to quote from it in relevant parts. “Under the severe criminal laws of seventeenth-century England, a man in debt was liable to arrest and trial. If found guilty, and if his creditors demanded that he be incarcerated in insolvency and financial default, he could be taken into custody any day of the week save one—Sunday, the Lord’s Day. “As a consequence, a man wanted for debt would usually go into hiding six days of the week—but on
Stump, Colleen Shea, Kevin Feldman, Joyce Armstrong Carroll, and Edward E. Wilson. "The Epic." Prentice Hall
Gardner, R. H. "Tragedy of the Lowest Man," in his Splintered Stage: (1965) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 2l6:320
In the sheltered, cut-off village, the young Pip has not experienced society; however, it still manages to reach him. The first experience is a chance encounter with an escaped convict, who scares Pip into stealing some food and drink (Hobsbaum 223). Pip has no way of knowing, but the convict will turn out to be one of the most im...
A reader could infer that the speaker is passionate about his job when he states, “With what was another man’s gain. My right might be love but theirs was need.” This statement lets me know that he loves his job and not only works for money but for his love for chopping wood. I can also infer that the people he works with or “tramps” don’t chop wood because they like their job, they work because they need the money. In the poem it states, “And one of them put me off my aim by hailing cheerily “hit them hard!” I knew pretty well what he had in mind: he wanted to take my job for pay.” This excerpt from the poem clarifies that the “tramps” work because they need the money. The worker needs more money so he tried to make the speaker miss his wood so he would get fired and the worker would take his job and make more money.
This story also gave me a lasting impression because it showed the process of becoming a well rounded person. The story started off with Wallace feeling down about a fight he had lost and lost contact of is coach for a few weeks. Because the readers saw Wallace’s low points in his life, we can understand the difficulty there is just to transition into living the examined life. Just one apology may not seem very important but I appreciate Wallace’s
Gardner, R. H. ("Tragedy of the Lowest Man," in his Splintered Stage: (1965) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 2l6:320