Analysis Of The Short Story Trapline

From the book Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, Will Tweedy is the novel’s narrator and protagonist. Throughout narrating the novel, Will Tweedy experiences many feelings towards actions of other people or people. However, one character trait that most describes Will is good-hearted. Throughout the novel, Will sees many things happening that are new to him, things that he has never experienced before. For example, after 3 weeks of his grandmother, Granny Blakeslee dying his grandfather, Grandpa Blakeslee announces to Will Tweedy, Mary Wills (Will’s mother) and Aunt Loma (Will’s Aunt) that he has decided to marry Miss Love Simpson. Miss Love is a milliner that works at Grandpa Blakeslee’s store. When both Will’s mother and aunt heard about what Grandpa Blakeslee said, both had disapproved their father’s action. However, Will thought it was a good idea and supported his new marriage. After Granny Blakeslee had died, Will saw that his Grandfather couldn’t do things by

Secondly, Greg shows very little concern towards Will and the actions that can affect his life unless it concerns himself. The text states “ ‘One of your teachers called’ He says. ‘Mrs. Smythe?’ ‘yeah’ he looked up. ‘Says she’d like you to stay there.’...‘did you tell them anything?’...‘I didn’t. I swear I didn’t’...‘I never touched you’ ”(Robinson, 32-33). This quote demonstrates how little concern Greg shows towards Will. Greg had only bothered to check up on his son because it had a matter concerning himself. The text stated “Did you tell them anything” then says “I never touched you”. This shows that Greg was more concerned about if Will told the Smythes about the poor condition at home and then he told Will that he had never touched him. As a result of

For example, when confronting an old foster home “Friend”, by the name of Carmine, Will unleashed an onslaught of punches, which lead to Will Knocking out Carmine then being arrested for assault by the local cops. When Will saw his old friend, memories of the abuse that his foster family gave him sprang onto Will’s head and triggered his mind to give some payback for everything that he experienced as an abused kid in the foster home. Not only that but his mood drastically changed from the moments prior to seeing Carmine. Before seeing Carmine, Will was planning to have a good time with his friends at a baseball game, But that changed as he saw Carmine at the game as well. Once he saw Carmine, Will was determined to beat Carmine up, as carmine did to him when he was a kid. Clearly in the movie, Will is a mathematical genius, as he was able to solve the problem that Professor Lambeau wrote on the chalkboard outside his room. However when Lambeau confronted Will, after he found out who solved the problem, Will ran away from the professor instead of being congratulated for his success in solving the problem. A valid reason why Will did not accept the praise from the professor was because he had a negative self-image of himself. To understand what a negative self-image is, it is important to know what the term self-image means. Karl Perera, from the website, More-selfesteem.com defines the term self-image as, “ how you see yourself. This may be how you see yourself physically or your opinion of who and what you are which is normally called self concept. It is important as it

Overall, Will has had a troubling life, never feeling like he actually belonged. He was afraid to be smart and at the same time afraid to not be. The physical and mental abuse he suffered at the hands of those who are supposed to protect him, definitely scared him

Will uses anger, denial, and sarcasm as defense mechanisms to push people away from him. He told people that he did not have a problem and that they were the ones with the problem. He used

Will sometimes told his mom about things like this. “ Wil said to his mom, everyone I have met he has been very strange and awkward” (Paulsen 94). This quote shows how the setting for Wil is a problem. When Will moved to a new town he was bullied, it was very hard to make friends, and it caused his parents to have many problems with each other. Wil’s parents got into many fights because the house is old.

Will was arguably Meg’s closest ally; nevertheless they had trust issues from the beginning of their friendship. This quote summarizes the scene in which Meg speculated why Will left his job to follow her: “Keep her alive. The coach lurched. My hands shook as I dropped the paper to the floor. I hugged myself as Will came down from his seat and knelt before me. ‘You’re working for him.’ My voice barely escaped my constricting throat. ‘I trusted you and you’re working for him’” (Bailey 229). Meg’s adversary, Lord Rathford, had sent Will to follow Meg and assure sure she was safe. This event was momentous, as Meg had assumed Will had left his post due to his own feelings, not because he was coerced to do so. Meg was uncertain whether she could forgive Will for his actions. This portion of the book, an event leading up to the novel’s climax, was significant due to the author’s spotlight on the theme of

Susan Cooper shows that at the beginning of the book, Will didn’t believe anything was special about him. He couldn’t understand why he had powers. He states,” I haven’t any gift, really I haven’t. I mean there’s nothing special about me.” But at the end he realizes that he’s the only one that can do the job.

He only spoke to his woodshop teacher and his grandparents. His beach was his safe place. For example, “Life goes on,” she says, “like a dare” clarifies Will’s fear of disappointing and acknowledging that he might be the killer. Will has had experience of losing people close to him so he would rather be alone than to get hurt or hurt

To begin, Popularity changed Will and one way he changed is he pushes other friends aside. For example, Will left the two Allans picking four leaf clovers and wishing to be popular and Will would try to be friends with the popular kids. Secondly, the only friends he had he made fun of because he thought they were uncool. like when he called them, ¨equally unpopular acquaintances¨. This shows how popularity changed him because he was grateful for what friends he had and now he pushed them aside not caring who he hurt in his wake.

Will also had to redeem himself for his actions that he had done in the past. At first, Will believed Edward stories to be a hundred percent true. Until he was near his marriage date, he started to question his father life and ended up belittling his stories every single time he talks about it after marriage. It got bad to the point where Will believed that there was no truth in any of his story. Will also ended suspecting Edward cheating on his mother since he was frequently gone for a period of time when he was little.

The moment that is most crucial to Will’s change was after he read the Book of Gramarye. The Book of Gramarye contained several verses and images and as Will read further and further, the book would take him on an actual experience of what the verses meant. With the experiences from the book, Will gained knowledge on things such as spells, survival against evil, the magic in trees, names of stars and planets, and the storyline behind the Old Ones. Using his new understanding of things, he starts to change by incorporating

As stated on page 87, Will says “ How could you do this? We grew up together. We was like brothers! How could you do

Though the film fails to delve into the specifics of his childhood, it does become evident that Will bounced between foster homes and was often a victim to physical and emotional abuse. These childhood factors play a huge role in behavior as an adult. A recent study concluded that, “Toxic childhood stress alters neural responses to stress, boosting the emotional and physical arousal to threat, and making it more difficult for that reaction to be shut off” (LaBier). An inability to rationalize and control emotions and responses after abuse would indeed be seen as true in this film. This can be seen in the numerous fistfights Will found himself in. Despite the fact that Will could typically weasel his way out of convictions, he was convicted of assaulting a police officer. His conviction would turn out to be life altering. When Professor Gerald Lambeau saw potential in Will, he was offered a life that could include more than beers with friends and janitorial work. The arrangement Lambeau worked out

Will and John's struggle to leave their comfort zone and attend the academy is similar, but how they cope with the plebe system is different! Will must immediately leave his comfort zone when asked by his dad to attend the institute. It took Will a lot of courage and bravery to carry out his dad's last dying wish. During Will's plebe year he faces a lot of challenges! Just like everybody else, Will struggles to fit into the plebe system. In only his second week at the Institute, he says "When I called my mother after the second week I wept as soon as I heard her voice. She sounded kind and gentle and I had forgotten what it was like to talk to someone who loved me. I told her that it was dreadful, that I had made a terrible mistake, that I