The Day They Set Out Analysis

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The Day They Set Out Response Brandon Moreira In the short story “The Day They Set Out” by Beverly Harris, the protagonist, Jean is stuck in a life in which she does the same predictable routine. This makes her feel empty inside, and that she needs to try something new. The causes for her emptiness and difficulties are that, because of her lack of social skills, she has almost no friends. Her husband, Ross does not love her anymore, so he looks at other women to satisfy himself. Also, her lack of intelligence has left her with no job and an inability to get a job. In the story, there are many reasons contributing to Jean’s feeling of emptiness and difficulty in her life. To begin, her husband, Ross feels as though he has married beneath himself, and he does not love her anymore. Their marriage was most likely caused by Jean getting pregnant with their son, which made Ross feel like he had to marry her out of force. In the story, Ross specifically tells their son, Kevin that he should try not to marry beneath himself because he will end up stuck in the same situation as him. This demonstrates Jean’s life being difficult because, she constantly has to deal with her husband not caring about her and looking to other women to satisfy himself. To continue, Jean lacks proper…show more content…
Hugh leaves his house without anyone knowing, so Jean tries to find him by calling the hospital first because that’s the only place she would expect him to be. She then finds Hugh at a restaurant awaiting her arrival, as a surprise. She accepts this because she knows that her husband does not love her anymore, so she wants to look elsewhere. The outcome of this story is both positive and negative. The good side being that Jean has found someone who actually loves her, but it is negative because Jean and Hugh do not know how to live independently or provide for
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