Themes Though it is a remarkably short piece of fiction, “The Open Window” explores a number of important themes. Mr. Nuttel comes to the country in an attempt to cure his nervous condition. He pays a visit to the home of Mrs. Sappleton in order to introduce himself, and before he gets to meet the matron of tha house, he is intercepted by her niece, who regales him with an artful piece of fiction that, in the end, only makes his nervous condition worse. Appearances and Reality It is no surprise that Mrs. Sappleton’s niece tells a story that is easy to believe. She begins with an object in plain view, an open window, and proceeds from there.
Eventually, he tries to find a friendship by attempting to join the dream of Lennie and George. This is one of Candy’s desperate attempts to find a place in society and meaning in life. “I’ll wash dishes an little chick stuff like that.” Candy also offers to do it for free, in fact he offers to pay Lennie and George; “Maybe if I give you money, you’ll let me how in the garden even after I’m no good at it”. After Candy lost his dog, his only true companion that he had had most of his life, he suffered tremendously. Candy and his dog almost shared the same relationship of George and Lennie.
Sam had a few people in his life during his journey of parenthood on his own. He had his male friends who had disabilities themselves. These guys loved to give advice and support but where not able to advocate on behalf of Sam or give reliable, meaningful information to help Sam. Annie, who lives near Sam and is Lucy’s godparent was able to give advice, do the occasional babysitting and teach Lucy the piano but due to her own problems was not able to be a person to help Sam in many other ways. There was also Sam’s employer at the coffee shop who was just his employer and maybe not aware of what Sam was really facing in day to day life.
This is represented when the narrator says “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away…” (704). If he would not have done this, Emily would have most likely had someone to care for her and her to care for. Instead, he died and left her alone to try to fend for herself without any experience of independence. Even after her father passed away, that “crayon portrait” still had a large role in her life, and the effects of his neglect were still being felt. His neglect is still being felt because he has her living in the past.
The story is enjoyable for its humorous portrayal of a family embarking on a vacation; O'Connor has been unforgiving in her portrayal of these characters. Misfit can be determine as sympathetic because he was wrongly punished, he had no other option than killing the family and polite and well mannered. Firstly, Misfit was wrongly accused for killing his father and was punished and sent to jail. I think Misfit did not killed his father because if he did he would remember it. He asks for the proof and paper work from cops but they did not show him.
He was obviously homeless, but the part of me that felt sorry for the guy and wanted to give him change was quickly stopped by the curious side that was asking why the man had scars up and down his arms and a dog in his possession. I thought it was strange he had a dog because if he couldn’t take care of himself why try to take care of the dog. Also, when I watch the news sometimes the reporter talks about the loss of jobs and how desperate people are in need of jobs, but the people on the streets who seem to need it the most are always asking for change or laying on a bench or the bare ground not pro-actively seeking jobs. Although, after reading “Dumpster Diving” I thought about specifically these two instances and maybe what background these men came from. For example, when Eighner is talking about value of material objects and says “I do not suppose that ideas are immortal, but certainly they are longer lived than material objects” (Eighner 184), I instantly thought of the man with his dog and that maybe the dog, besides keeping him company, reminds him of an earlier life of fun without all of his worries.
Other moves took the Weisses to Milwaukee and, eventually, New York. But the family remained poor. Completely devoted to his mother to the point of obsession, the young Erich sought ways to ease her hardscrabble life. At one point, he took to begging for coins in the street. True to his illusionist ways, he hid the coins around his hair and clothing, then presented himself to Cecilia with the command, "Shake me, I'm magic."
Where he stood a little apart from his family. Not looking down at his hand. The color black can represent sadness, mourning, and fear. Every time the box is mentioned before they find out which family has to choose a slip of paper, the box is always preceded with the word black, showing the readers that this box isn’t taken lightly by the villagers, and is a symbol of the death that could so easily be theirs. Word choice [Mr. Summers and Mr. Adams] grinned at one another humorlessly and nervously.
In the beginning Davis writes: On a cold and gray Chicago mornin A poor little baby child is born In the ghetto And his mama cries. Which Davis uses to describe how it’s like to live in the ghetto. What it’s like not to know how to pay for the next meal, or clothes for your children and at the end of the poem he writes: On a cold and gray Chicago mornin, Another little baby child is born Where he uses repetition to show the bad circle people get caught up in, repetition is often used too emphasize certain elements in the mind of the reader or listener, in this case the horrible circle of the poor and possibly sick. The entire text is written from the point of view of someone that has gotten more from life then the main character of the text, and he feels guilty which is quite clear from the part of the text: Take a look at you and me, Are we too blind to see, Do we simply turn our heads And look the other way Where he seems to feel guilt for not doing more for the people with less than him and he also asks rhetorical question as to get more attention to the problem. The theme revolves around sad feelings, everything is written with a feeling of despair and sorrow, for the mother who cries, the son who dies and the child who is born into a broken world.
One very noticeable difference is the main idea of each. In the short story, it is very straightforward and tends to get to the point very quickly, without giving much information about anything except the preparation for the lottery. The movie, however, starts with Jason receiving a call saying his father is dying, and his father's last wish was for his ashes to be put on Jason's mothers' grave. The only problem was that he did not know where his mother died, or how. Which creates the entire plot of the movie, Jason figuring out how his mother died and the controversy over him placing his father's ashes on his mothers grave.