In the essay, ‘The Step Not Taken’ by Paul D’Angelo, the author depicts a story of a man caught between doing what he feels is the right thing, and doing what makes him comfortable. By analyzing the archetypal structure of the story, the reader clearly sees how the man in the elevator experiences the cycle of the monomyth. The first stage is the separation – upon seeing the other man in the elevator break down in tears, the narrator refuses to rise to the occasion and offer his help. During the struggle, or initiation, the narrator realizes that what he has done by walking away from the elevator without saying a word was the wrong thing to do. And finally, throughout the return and reintegration, the narrator realizes his mistake, and refuses to go back to being the way he was previously.
A sudden strained gasp. Turning toward the noise, I was astonished to see the young man drop his briefcase and burst into tears.” This quote introduces the protagonist to his challenge; he is being initiated into the main event of the story which he must internalize, then proceed with an action. The unexpected shock of seeing the stranger cry, and being the only other person in the elevator is the start of this journey. Being confused and unaware of what to do, the protagonist opts to do nothing and thus leading him to his deep-rooted feelings of regret and guilt. “The elevator stopped on the 10th floor and, without looking back, I stepped out.
The Step Not Taken In the essay The Step Not Taken, the author is a hero engaged in a personal search for answers on how to respond to others’ suffering. He experiences in his search the three stages of a monomyth; separation, struggle, and return. From the beginning of his search to the end, the author changes his views significantly, resulting in an epiphany when he finally realizes he has found the answer he had been looking for. The story begins when the author is separated from his everyday life and is placed in abnormal situation in which he must make a decision. When the man in the elevator with him starts to cry, the author is faced with the decision of either helping the man or giving him his space.
I heard a loud snap, when suddenly I went limp. He quickly dropped me, when I took one last look into his terrified big
Morality in “the Step not Taken” by Paul D’Angelo Paul D’Angelo addresses an interesting subject in “The Step not Taken,” through his own personnel monomyth he presents the moral question of whether it is morally right to ignore the obvious suffering of another human being. The story begins with a man entering an elevator with a “junior executive” looking man in an office building, just a normal day with nothing unusual. Just as in the first stage of the monomyth all seems normal with no warning to the approach of a challenge; “then it happened.....I was astonished to see the young man drop his briefcase and burst into tears,” the main character, has now been faced with his quest. Has in true city tradition he ignores the crying man and leaves the elevator, which is his initial refusal. This point in the story signifies the transition from an external journey to an internal struggle of the protagonist.
My thought on this is that the lawyer is feeling sorry for Bartleby. The lawyer believes that the refusal means that something has disarmed him. It is more of a confusing for the lawyer because he knows what the potentials of the character, the lawyer even starts to blame himself for Bartleby’s refusing to do anything. Bartleby never leaves the office so the lawyer begins to watch him carefully. Why is the lawyer so concerned about the change in his behavior?
When Karl finished his story and asked forgiveness from Simon, Simon became psychologically overwhelmed with everything that had happened. His choice was to not forgive the dying man. He chooses simply to walk out of the room in silence. That night he discussed this with his friends and they applauded him for vengeful, religious, and logical reasons. But that was not enough for Simon.
However as he works with the patients, he develops a new perspective and insight into certain matters and himself. When Nick and Lucy denounce him for doing a play about love, by declaring that ‘only mad people in this day and age would do a work about love and infidelity’, Lewis is able to realise that love and friendship is more important than politics. He learns about the importance of friendship, clearly evident, that he attends the moratorium, helping the patients prepare for their performance with an additional rehearsal. Lewis also finds strength later in the play, which he was devoid of to begin with . At the start, he is overwhelmed by the patients such as Cherry, Doug and Roy by their 'crazy' behaviour.
Curley’s hand swings at Lennie again but Lennie grabs for it in a split second. Lennie crushed the hell outta of Curley’s hand. Now George tries to stop Lennie, he says again and again “Leggo his hand, Lennie.” He asks me to step in. Finally Lennie let go and crouched down cowering against the wall, turning back into his childish self. Curley was in shock, looking at his crushed
Many stories throughout literature follow the pattern of a monomyth, depicting the journey of a hero. ‘The Step Not Taken’ by Paul D’Angelo follows the story of a particular hero who’s quest is learning to deal and cope with others suffering. The story follows the three main stages of the monomyth, these stages include separation, struggle or initiation and finally return and reintegration. Within the first paragraph we see the protagonist of the story enter the struggle stage. He describes the process of entering the elevator with such normality as if nothing in his life is about to change; he states ‘Nothing at all to indicate what was about to take place’.