Stolpestad Essay

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Stolpestad by William Lychack The short story, Stolpestad is about a police officer whose life has become a little bit triviality. He goes to work, waits for the next shift to end, makes an excuse about working late to postpone his arrival at home, gets home and goes to sleep. Then one day, just before his shift ends, he is asked out to help a boy with his dog (the dog is a symbol of Stolpestad: It just lies there, has given up and waits for its life to end, but no matter what happens the dog stays alive. It is the same with Stolpestad, he is not living his life, but it is not ending either). At arrival he finds out that nothing can be done to help the pure dog, because it is really hurt and just waiting to die, and he agrees with the family to put the dog down – by himself. He walks around the corner, sits down and talks to the dog and then he shoots it. After the episode he drives in to the city, calls his wife and tells her that he is late, and then he goes to the same bar as he always do after work. His wife knows what he is doing and calls the bar to tell him that someone is asking for him at his home. Even the dog did not die even though he thought it, does is not compel any emotion to surface. But maybe the narrating angle has say in this matter. The story is written with a narrator bound to the main character and unable to shift between characters and to see emotions of Stolpestad who is the main character, in the story he is always referred to as “ypu” or “Stolpestad”. Using this form of narrator, we, as readers, get the same kind of experience as if we ourselves were watching someone. The main character is observed, and the observer is incapable of letting any emotions be described, which also symbolizes Stolpestad’s life, because he seems just to be a spectator to his own life and that why he feels no kind of emotions. The fact that he is trying to make

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