Analysis Of Killings By Andre Dubus

brother, did the actually killing, but his mother in father aided in the coverup of the crime.

Uncle Matt, the main character in the story as previously mentioned, is described as somewhat of a loner. He rarely spent time with any of the children, and never displayed any sort of an emotional connection to them— that is, until that tragic event occurred (Saunders 77). The moment his emotions were agitated, he begins to take on several key roles that Dr. Bonn describes in his article. In the beginning, Uncle Matt asserts himself as a law enforcement official as he goes throughout the town searching for, and exterminating, the animals who were responsible for the death of Emily. However, this wasn’t enough. Uncle Matt wanted to completely eradicate the possibility of this ever happening again, so he set out on a campaign to destroy all of the infected animals, including those he suspects of having come in contact with the illness (Saunders 74). A method very similar to what law enforcement refers to as Criminal Profiling.

The way the plot of Killings by Andre Dubus is arranged changes how the reader sees the characters in the story. This plot starts out in the present, then goes into the past, then back to the present. There are two main characters, and three secondary characters in this story. The way the reader views all of these characters is affected by the plot arrangement. The two primary characters who are most important to the plot, and also most affected by the plot arrangement, are Matt Fowler and Richard Strout. Because the first thing the reader reads in the exposition of the story is “On the August morning when Matt Fowler buried his youngest son, Frank, who had lived for twenty-one years, eight months, and four days…” pg 93, and not Richard Strout’s backstory and reasoning for his actions, they are immediately persuaded by the author to feel sympathy towards Matt. The author needs the reader to feel this sympathy so that when Matt kills Strout at the climax of the plot, Matt is not viewed as the antagonist of the story, but rather as the protagonist. The author needs the reader to view Strout as the antagonist so that the reader does not dislike Matt, and so that the story is one of justified revenge and not just another murder. If the reader had been presented with the plot in chronological order, with Strout’s backstory and reasoning for killing Frank first, then the reader might almost feel bad for Strout. If seen like this, one might conclude that, while he did not take

There is no doubt in the readers minds that Strout is guilty of murdering Frank Fowler, but that does not change the overwhelming anguish and guilt that is felt by Matt after he shoots Strout. As Matt had led Strout through his house and into the bedroom, he could not help but notice the neatness of the house or the picture of Mary Ann and the boys on the wall down the hallway. Matt began to make a brief connection to the person who was standing before him; a connection that he had to dispose of quickly. After the murder, Matt is lying in bed thinking about Strout’s

The National Geographic film, A Portrait of a Killer, examines the types of stress that living beings can endure, and how it can thus affect the rest of their bodies. Severe chronic stress can lead even lead to the destruction of brain cells. Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a neurobiologist of Stanford University who has been researching stress for over thirty years. In order to study stress and its implications upon nonhumans, he went to Africa to study baboons. This species has only three hours of stress caused by eating, and the rest of their daily routine is consumed by about nine hours of free time. Much like Western society, baboons socially stress out one another, as they have social hierarchies to regulate how them interact with one another.

I absolutely felt more sympathetic towards Matt. I don’t have children, so I can’t say that I know what it’s like to lose a child; however, I have seen other people loss their children and I would never wish that on anyone. Matt loved his son and wife. He wanted what was best for his family, which was getting rid of Richard Strout. Emily was selfish. She wanted Homer Barron for herself and couldn’t handle it when he

Mattie is a fourteen year old girl, who has the responsibilities of an adult, which was expected of people that age in this time period. “[Mattie] kept his books for him”(keeping the books means keeping track of the money) said Mattie when she was explaining why she knew how much money her father had (Portis 15). This quote is interesting because it exhibits the amount of responsibility that was put upon her even at a young age. Also, Mattie seems to have the best math skills in her family despite having a mother and father much older than her. Mattie told Yarnell, (who is an African American that works for Mattie's family) “Yarnell said ‘you can't stay in the city by yourself’ [Mattie] said ‘It will be alright’” (Portis 26). Mattie is going to stay in the city by herself without her mom knowing when she will return, or what her sleeping arrangements are. It is strange because she is a young girl in a city alone with nobody to protect her, and her mother has no idea what is going on. Mattie told the sheriff “[I’am] looking for the man who shot and killed my father” (Poti 59). Mattie is not asking the sheriff to find the man and bring him to

After leaving Strout's car at an apartment building in Boston, they lead Strout to a pre-dug hole in a wooded area where Fowler kills him. “The gun kicked in Matt’s hand, and the explosion of the shot surrounded him…Richard Strout, squirming on his belly pushed himself towards the woods. Then Matt went to him and shot him once in the back of the head (106).”

Mattie does not beat around the bush when it comes to justice. She has a fixed view on how law should be carried out against Tom Chaney and stops at nothing to achieve this. Put simply, Mattie wants him dead, and she wants him to know that he is dying as a result of him killing her father. This view and interpretation of justice closely resembles the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” philosophy of the Code of Hammurabi where the life of Tom Chaney must be payed for

The story also contains a full circle of emotion. It begins with the funeral, an obvious source of sadness. From there, the sadness seems to vacate the story until the very last paragraph. It ends with Matt crying into his wife’s breast. I think Dubus did this to make the disassociated feelings that surrounded the murders even more apparent.

Plot is defined as, "the authors arrangement of incidents in a story it is the organizing principle that controls the controls the order of events (Meyer,64)." The element of plot is heavily relied on in the short story, "The Killings" by Andre Dubus. The plot which is completely made inside the imagination of an author (Meyer,64), gives the audience important insight to people, places, and events in the story (Meyer,64) . "The Killings" provides a somewhat conventional plot pattern, where the character is confronted with a problem and is then led into a climax, which late leads to the resolution of the story (Meyer,65). The conventional plot is easy to follow and serves as a basis for movies and other

Both men tend to work late nights; Trottier was a bartender, so Fowler meeting with him after hours was an easy alibi. The hardest part was getting Strout to a secluded place, which they were able to do by conning him at first, saying they had bought him a plane ticket and wanted him out of their lives so that everyone could move on. After leaving Strout's car at an apartment building in Boston, they lead Strout to a pre-dug hole in a wooded area where Fowler kills him. “The gun kicked in Matt’s hand, and the explosion of the shot surrounded him…Richard Strout, squirming on his belly pushed himself towards the woods. Then Matt went to him and shot him once in the back of the head (106).”

Matt is a middle class man who becomes obsessed with the need to get revenge on his son’s death. His son Frank is killed by a man named Richard. He is the husband and dads father of the women his son is in love with. This is what leads Matt into killing someone he wants pay back for his son death. Matt kills because he loves.

Murder on a Sunday Morning is about an African American boy who was wrongly convicted of murder. He was only fifteen years old when his life changed forever. While first watching the documentary, it seems to the audience that Brenton Butler, the convicted boy, is guilty. Mr. Stephens, husband of the victim, Ann Stephens, claims that Butler came over, tried to take Anna Stephens’ purse, and then before she could comply, he raised his gun and shot her in the face. Sadly, Mr. Stephens was the only eye-witness, which is a major red flag, as he is connected to the victim. After being forced by the detective, Butler confesses. Once defense attorney, Patrick McGuinness is involved, he has Butler tell the court of his innocence and thus beings the criminal proceedings for Brenton Butler.

In this poem, ‘The Man He Killed’, the poet Thomas Hardy explores a complex theme, which is war, using the simplest language. Throughout this essay I will be discussing the thoughts and opinions Hardy has on war.