Wallace Flint In John Hassler's Grand Opening '

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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. …show more content…

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

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