Changing Feelings Towards Peter and Andrea in Once in a House on Fire

Innocence first proclaims itself when Sarah discovers that she is not returning home. Sarah’s behaviour and lack of understanding towards pressing information is a portrayal of how she has been raised to be quite naïve. These preceding traits are revealed when Sarah explains to her brother, “I’ll come back for you later. I promise.” (9). Here, Sarah proves her innocent nature as a result of being raised by her parents in an exceedingly structured way. Guilt emanates into Sarah’s moral conscience when her father confesses that “we are not going back. They won’t let us back.” (23). Furthermore, Sarah’s sheltered upbringing is proved to be true when she smiles at a boy during the roundup and he looks back at her like she’s crazy. She then thinks to herself, “Maybe [I] had got it all wrong. / … Maybe things were not going to

being said about him, with all of the lies, and the unequalness of everything that has been

“Beat me!” he heard her cry. “Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!”

who always been deprived of father-figure, she feels the need to acquire attention from boys in

mistake; and it leads to his downfall and drags his loved ones down with him. For

Not only that but her questioning of gender role was a concern for her. After her parents were separated, her father’s expectations of her were no longer there and did not speak to one another. After a while, blaming one-self after a separation of the parents is always expected from young children and so Roberta’s feeling that the separation of her mother and father was due to her misbehavior at home allowed her to be not happy. The separation of her parents did not only cause Roberta to feel not happy but also her thinking was shaped in ways that blamed all men to be the exact same way and that on one could be the same. This can be related to what each child feels and thinks if that were to happen to their own family, and unfortunately in our current society there are people that still the same way as Roberta’s father and

The wind was slapping against his face like like needles stinging his eyes. Jackie’s rough, tan glove caught the pass that his teammate threw to him. SMACK!

For example, the father of the family, Bailey, who show that he does not care too much about anything and that he doesn’t treat his mother kindly. In fact, he ignores her most of the time and shows her little to no respect. In addition, he does not discipline his kids and continuously lets them talk back and disrespect him, as well as other people. We are also introduced to Red Sammy, who seems like he was the only male figure closest to a “good man”, but when his wife looks at him and tells the grandmother that she can’t trust anyone, it makes you think twice about his character. Also, we have the son, John Wesley, who is rude, obnoxious, and loud. The misfit, who seemed to be a good man, turned out to be the worst of them all, murdering the whole family, that including an innocent baby. The grandmother makes reference to the title multiple times throughout the story, by telling Red

the two sides of himself, causing him to do terrible things and not even be aware of it. The theme

He manipulative's people out of their money by promising to save their souls when in fact he does not have that control. He also has tendencies of gluttony because of his heavy drinking. His physical appearance can be described as a face covered in pustules framed by bushy eyebrows and narrow, deep set eyes. The outwear appearance of his being is frightening to many and his breath even more grotesque then his face. He is dishonest, manipulative, and simply unethical. His motivations are nothing but filled with greed and lies.

“That was the first time I wrestled him,” Miller said. “I beat the snot out of him, really bad. He was shocked. Afterward he was freaking out. He was like, ‘That’s the worst I’ve ever been beat.’”

him not trying to see the negative side to him. But even when he yelled to the gods he “does not

to have such deep emotions; while he in reality is feeling unfathomable pain and anguish and he cannot due anything

and in his greed and pretentiousness as well. Yet, he pretends to be good-natured and amiable. He

How he acts towards his crew, for example, appears to be out of a jealously – they are whole and he is not. For this reason, he feels that he must make up for it by being stronger and more powerful than they are. He tries to control the men, for if he can control them then he is greater than they are, though they are complete and he is not.