Essay on Slap of Wisdom: A Short Story

Written by Steven Millhauser, The Slap is a highly detailed short story that showcases the theme of how fear can debilitate a town. The story is centered on a man who goes around slapping people once and then walks away without a trace. Each victim gives a detailed testimony to the reader throughout the story until the slapping comes to an end. The town is very distraught over these incidents because it is a violation of their security and safety. The slap is not so much a physical attack as it is a mental attack. The town as a whole is affected by the fear of being slapped and gives into that fear by no longer wearing trench coats, making sure their houses are secure more than before and by parents walking their kids to school and picking them up.

Most parents impose very high expectations on their children. While some expect their sons to become professionals in respected fields, others encourage their daughters to find good husbands. The parents impose these expectations without consulting their children. In most situations, the expectations of the parent deviate from the dreams of the child. This is what becomes evident when one reads Sandra Cisneros’ Only Daughter and Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue. In these short stories, the expectations that the parents of the narrators elicit mixed reactions. The expectations of the narrators’ parents hold them back from attaining personal goals while causing them to desperately desire approval and eventually accepting and embracing their parents..

Marci’s soul felt as if it had been slammed a one, two. She gazed at the first girl she had ever felt close to, tears clouding her eyes.

You remember the feelings in situations like this - like being pummeled by hot and cold waves of emotion in chaotic patterns. The look on her face as she laughed. The sound of her voice. The finite feeling of my existence being put under a micro-scope and decidedly being rejected by the human race. Anger. Forgiveness. Spite. Peace. Fear. Solitude. Tranquility. Panic.

That then led to making me feel better but still I was missing my friends so much. There has been a time in every body's life when something has happened and tried to adjust.

instead all I wanted to do was go home. I had no family there, I was stressed to the max,

With a little less than a week left of school my mom took us to school to drop off our books. While there I stopped in a class and said goodbye to all my friends. I didn’t say anything to them until that day, I said goodbye we hugged and I left. On the drive over to the new place it ended up raining making it an even worse day. The new place was nowhere close to how nice our old place was, the new was a beaten up old trailer in an old trailer park in Amelia. My uncle and aunt already had 5 kids

I was miserable because when I got home I heard fighting and my mom told me and my sisters to go outside so we did and then was a chair on the ground.

Tears burst forth from her swollen eyes like water from a dam. They spilled down her cheeks like rain in a storm. Her tear soaked face trembled as she spoke to me.

However,my memory of her lived on in the rain,never fading,never ceasing.Without warning,I felt pain began to take hold of me,but I tried to feel nothing, yet the pain was inevitable.The pain stinged deeply and suddenly a sob escaped my

I held back the tears that threatened to flow as I gave the sheets back to Mary to be filed forever in my portfolio. Immediately after, I had to head back downstairs and take a Aural Skills sight-reading final. As if I would be able to focus on anything with this bombshell dropped on me. I didn't allow myself to cry until I had finally gotten back to my dorm.

Shocked was the first word that came into my thoughts. I drew a total blank, my mind rushing with thoughts, “What do I do now, what I think,” said my crazy mind. I knew I had to be prepared because these next few weeks were going to be rougher

The words spoken were suddenly engraved into my brain. I stored them in my memory like an old record.

my heart sank and the tears rolled down my face as if I was trying to fill a river. I knew I

I cried. Oh how I cried. How much I hated the fact that I will have to go to the place that I never wanted to go to and had sworn I wouldn’t. But I still got up dusted off and walked. But this stupid human tendency to want something which is never good for you, it wasn’t done with me. Oh no not yet it said and dragged me back.