He enters the separation stage when he first encounters the other man in the elevator and witnesses him breaking down in sorrow. He progresses into the struggle and initiation stage when he is deliberating what he should do while this person is in obvious disarray and ultimately chooses nothing. He finally enters the return and integration stage when he regrets not doing anything to comfort the man and ultimately seeks forgiveness through the epiphany in realizing that the right thing to have done was to help others in the time of need. The narrator progresses through the stages of the monomyth archetype from beginning to end and this essay will explain in detail of how A Step not Taken fits in these stages. The separation stage is characteristic of the protagonist entering a stage of adventure even though they may not be cognisant of this is about to occur.
The entire dynamic of the play shifts when Annette, tired of Alan’s shamelessness in talking on his cell phone constantly, vomits all over the Novaks’ coffee table and Veronica’s precious books. And from then on, the audience is able to see the characters’ true nature. Society expects normal adults to clearly act civilized and mature at all times. Reza reflects the perception of mature adults in the beginning of the play when she shows Veronica asking, “So how should we go about solving this?” and Annette completely concurs that her son, Henry, has committed a horrible act. Reza shows the audience how people naturally try to conceal their honest feelings in the presence of strangers.
The reading shows that D’Angelo decided to ignore the man and not provide assistance in his time of need, he chose to leave and continue on his way once his elevator stopped at his floor. This is where the separation stage takes effect. D’ Angelo could have helped the man and comforted him yet he didn’t, fear of the crying mans reaction prevented D’Angelo from assisting him in his time of need. Most times in archetypal stories during this stage of separation there would be a guide or some type of being to assist the hero. D’Angelo mentions within the story that if there was someone else in the elevator with him he might have been more willing to assist the crying man.
The hero is called to the adventure when he encounters a young well-dressed man individual in the elevator. At that point the hero is unaware of how the following event will change his life. “Nothing about him seemed unusual, nothing at all”. But when the young man “suddenly drops and burst into tears” the hero refuses his call, steps out of the elevator and leaves the young man behind. By refusing to help the man, the hero now faces “a combination of guilt and uncertainty”.
Wes just continues to eat his cake in silence like a question wasn’t directed at him and like there isn’t a pressing matter in his life right now that needed to be sorted. However, in the basement are where all the major conversations happen and where all the pivotal moments occur in the novel. An example of a pivotal conversation in the novel would be when “…But two men did not come through the door. It was my father alone. ‘I’ll move him to jail first thing in the morning’ (pg.
You are not going to lock yourself in a room like this ok?” Willy laughed, promised Biff that everything would be alright. Biff walked into the room, lied on the bed as he told Willy he failed his math test, and how he couldn’t get enough credits to graduate because of that. Willy on the other hand seems unfocused, for everything Biff said, he either nodded his head or said something short, hold his hands together on his laps, as if he is about to be interrogated. Biff found it unusual, in his memory every time he told Willy something about his scores; Willy would say a hell lot of things, about how he was always popular. As Biff was thinking, a sudden laughter interrupted him, it was a woman, and it was from the bathroom.
The couple is revealed to be at a rather old age, “At the time of his birth…now they were quite old.” Their son’s illness has put a huge financial burden on the little family – the father used to be a successful businessman, but is now “wholly dependent on his brother Isaac”. The mother’s dressing is a symbol of their financial difficulties – she wore “cheap black dresses”. Poverty is another aspect of their background that encourages readers to pity the family. The entire story is based on symbols. The writer uses metaphors to create a sense of hopelessness in escaping from the hardship the family was in.
He kept things to himself, and was secretive about what was going on in his mind. While in the airport, “another gust of nausea gathered about Muhammad Atta, like a host of tiny myrmidons. He waited for them to move on, but they did not do so, and, instead, coagulated in his craw. Muhammad Atta went to the men's room and released a fathom of bilious green. He was still wiping his foul mouth as he walked out on to the tarmac and climbed the trembling metal steps.” He knew what he was doing was wrong, and because of that his stomach turned and he was feeling ill.
The protagonist starts in the first stage of separation, then transitions to struggle or initiation, and finally to the return and reintegration stage. In the separation stage, which is the first stage, the narrator is faced with an adventure when he steps onto the elevator at work. It’s only when the man next to him burst into tears, that he would be presented with an opportunity that would ultimately transform him forever. “I stood in the hallway, a bundle of mixed emotions, wondering what to do. A combination of guilt and uncertainty washed over me.” (D’Angelo).
(Okay, I have not gotten back my mark for this essay yet, so it might be considered very bad. I am only putting this in here so that I can sign up. Use with discretion!) The character Francis Weed in the short story “The Country Husband” by John Cheever might be a very difficult character for the reader to sympathize with, since he did so many cruel and selfish things to the people around him. However, at the very least, his actions can be easily explained by the suppressive 1950’s environment that he had lived in for so long, his “brush with death” on the airplane which made him driven to enjoy life, as well as his family’s own self-absorbed nature that left him feeling isolated.