Samuel Death is an inevitable event. Most times we have no control over how or when it will happen and in the short story, “Samuel,” by Grace Paley, a young boy loses his life while he and his friends partake in a very dangerous game. An unfortunate situation, it was and it leaves you to ask yourself the question “Who’s to blame?” After thoroughly reading the story, it becomes quite clear that though the boys were taking a huge risk and acting childish, they were just kids being kids and the people surrounding them could have done more to help them. The onlookers couldn’t have known what would happen, but they also didn’t do much to prevent such a tragedy. The four young boys in the story “Samuel” are acting careless and risky as they think …show more content…
Among the people watching was a group of ladies who were very angry as they watched the boys. Most of them looked stern in the face, hoping that the boys would sense their extreme disapproval. One of the ladies stated she wanted to get up and say, “be careful you dumb kids, get off that platform or I'll call a cop.” But then decided against it because they boys were Black and she was afraid they would laugh at her and embarrass her. Another lady figured the kid’s mothers knew where they were so she didn’t feel the need to intrude. With no interference from anyone the boys continued on playing around and the train began to slow down and as it was slowing down the lady who was afraid of embarrassment, saw the boys jerk forward and backward and grab the swinging guard chains. The lady then decided it was finally time to save the boys for good so she stood up determined as ever and went over to the boys and said, "You boys will be hurt. You'll be killed. I'm going to call the conductor if you don't just go into the next car and sit down and be quiet." Listening to the lady two of the boys said “Yes’m” and acted as if they were about to go. The other two boys just looked at her and blinked their eyes. Moments later just, as she suspected the boys began laughing at her and she was just as embarrassed as she thought she would be. Fed up by this time, one
An American author and journalist Jeannette Walls once said, “When people kill themselves, they think they’re ending the pain, but all they’re doing is passing it on to those they leave behind”. This is certainly true of the characters in Susin Nielsen’s realistic fiction novel The Reluctant Journal Of Henry K. Larsen. In this novel, a young boy named Henry is trying to rebuild his life, after his older brother, Jesse, pulled the trigger in a murder/suicide, taking the life of one of his classmates with him. The actions and choices of the characters are reflected significantly in three notable themes: regret, tragedy, and fear. All of these themes entwine into each other and help us to understand the answers to a key question- what motivates
Since the boys were children, the audience can see the differences with their families, the way they are treated by the people around them and indeed their lives.
During tragic times, the question is always: who deserves the blame? In Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet, their families, sworn enemies, meet and fall hopelessly in love against all odds. They must die to end the ancient feuding of their families. At the end of this tragic story, the question of who to blame for the lovers deaths is asked. While Lady and Lord Capulet and Friar Lawrence are partially responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, fate is mostly to blame.
None of the boys said they have, but the protagonist thought to himself that their friend was dead and lying in the river. He was terrified of this, and he did not have the courage to tell them about the dead body. Young people do not show fear when they think that they can handle a situation. This can be caused by the fact that when they are together they think that they can do a lot with no harm coming their way. This is made worse when they take alcohol and other substances that distort their thinking and reasoning and increase their confidence. The narrator perceives that they were dangerous characters meaning that they were to be feared and they were not afraid of anything. The thought of him having killed a person and the possibility of facing the law scares him. The little epiphany he has in the story is when he feels something soft and he is not sure what it is. This makes him more scared and his fear is heightened when he realizes that it is another dead body. At that time, he realizes the consequences if his actions. This story shows how a person can grow and become mature overnight after realizing the consequences of his actions. The next morning gives the three young men another chance to
This essay will focus on the theme of death in this story. There are lot
Romeo and Juliet, the Shakespearean playwright of two star crossed lovers, ends in two tragic deaths of both Romeo and Juliet. Who can be hold responsible for their deaths, when so many things went wrong along the way? Many could be held responsible for the deaths of the two lovers, but Romeo himself deserves to carry the heavier load of responsible for not only his death, but the death of his lover, Juliet as well. The young boy’s acts of irresponsibility, impulse, belligerence, immaturity, and streak of bad decisions only brought definite consequences to both himself and Juliet.
In the story, one woman in the subway car saw that "three of the boys were Negroes and the fourth was something else she couldn't tell for sure. She was afraid that they would be fresh and laugh at her and embarrass her" (191). It seems that the women are scared of even confronting the barrier that separates her from the children. The racial wall is so intimidating to the women that all they could do is sit and watch the young boys in fear of their safety.
Then the writer states that these black young boys’ life style will lead them to a relatively early death. However, he does not seem to care more about this thing. Those black young people have the right to exist in a free style without knowing or paying attention to what is wrong and what is right. They have no standards about their life in the present time. They live in a relatively confused life and have to shoulder the responsibility for their bad behaviors in the end and in that case, their final result can be death. The life of these black young boys is both full of the excitement and danger. But, they also must be faced with the challenges as well as threats in their near future. They are extremely likely to be faced with death as a result of the way they choose to take.
The sister prepares the evening meal, making her contribution to the family; and calls on the boy to come and eat. The saw in the boy?s hands was still running and when he took his attention away from his work, and that split second of carelessness cost him an extremity. His instincts raised his arm upward to keep all the blood from spilling out immediately. When he realized what was happening, the boy finally realized he was to young to be doing a man?s work. The boy ?saw all spoiled,? and now knew his whole childhood had vanished and it was impossible to get it back. The boy frantically called out to his sister to make the doctor keep his hand on. The boy?s body must have instantly gone into shock and not felt the absence of the hand. When the doctor arrived he gave him some ether to make him go to sleep. The little boy began to lose his pulse and soon he was a stranger to the world. The people surrounding the boy never expected the loss of his hand to tragically end the little boy?s life. Frost?s almost appalling casual description of death shocks the reader enough to make them think. ?Since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs,? describes the environment of the survivors. They are forced to move on with their life and keep working because they cannot afford to stop and mourn.
This quote shows that there was still a part of civilization that the boys were holding on-to.
Likewise, this journal discusses the mystery of death as depicted in the play Hamlet. In the repercussion of his dad 's death, Hamlet gets obsessed with the notion of demise. All through the play, he considers demise from awesome various perspectives. He supposes both the profound result of death, represented in the phantom and the substantial stays of the dead, like the decaying corpses in the cemetery. And since death in the play is the cause as well as the consequence of vengeance, then it is intimately tied to the subject of vengeance and justice.
From stories of heroism one always learns that facing a problem is what brings prosperity. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of a Red Death” shows the consequences of ignoring one’s challenges. Although the lessons show that facing fear is the honorable thing to do, people still avoid their problems. Many find that it is difficult to face the hard truth of reality and therefore they avoid it at all cost. Ignoring these issues without facing them leads to horrible endings. The characterization of Prince Prospero demonstrates that death is inevitable when running away from life’s challenges.
It is while growing up that children and teens are most vulnerable. Because they lack life experience, foresight, and the ability to think clearly, young people often make decisions that are unwise and even downright harmful to them or others. This lack of maturity and its consequences is demonstrated in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, where teens’ poor decisions lead to the deaths of many. The play’s tragic end is not the result of deliberate malicious actions, but rather the consequence of the emotional, untamed impulsivity of the play’s younger characters. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the reader experiences how the impulsive nature of the youth results in them making poor decisions that can end in tragedy.
Throughout the story “Samuel,” Grace Paley uses language to generate a healthy dialogue about the fragility of life by comparing the thoughts and reactions of all the characters in the story leading up to and following Samuel’s tragic death. The text leads the reader through four young boys’ adventures on a train. The story chronicles the thoughts of the passengers on the train in New York City, and their actions leading up to and following the unfortunate death of the main character, Samuel.
The characters of the novel are fit to the theme of man’s intuitive evilness, as the boys are under the age of 14. When they continue to enjoy torturing others, they reveal their enjoyment of being savages. They do not desire any order or law of directing force in their state of savagery.