Summary Of What Does An Unusual Thing By Patrick Maloney

The chart above displays the known ancestors of John Bigony Rex. The Bigony, Rex, Knauss and Tibben lines reaches the furthest back in time to European births in the 1600 's. The circles represent roots of the American dream, when men and women alike risked all to journey across an ocean to a distant land called America. It was a time of kings, war and persecution. Our brave forefathers were farmers, blacksmiths, fishermen and laborers. Regardless of their humble start, they became the building blocks for what will become a shining beacon of hope that transformed our world.

The second part of the story is about a Catholic voter who rides into town to cast his vote in the local election. The final part of this story is told through a perspective of a stranger who witnessed the incident from a distance. The underlying theme throughout this story is male brutality and during the first part of the story, Baynton depicts the men in this story to be the villains. Her husband lacks respect and doesn’t support her. At the beginning of the story it is said that the wife has a fear of cows. Her husband knew this and insisted on making his cow charge after her to frighten his wife. This is an example of her husband not showing and respect for his wife. “The woman’s husband was angry, and called her - the noun was cur. It was he who forced her to run and meet the advancing cow, brandishing a stick, and uttering threatening words.” (Baynton, 116). Another example of males playing the villain is the passing swagman. This is clearly represented when he brutally rapes and murders her. “The figure of the swagman runs over the psychological and moral harm done by the woman’s husband and achieves physical violence”. (Merkt, 3)

It’s been so long…. It doesn’t matter” (Bradbury 43). In contrast, Mary is completely consumed by her husband. Her life revolves around his; Mary sits patiently waiting for him to come home each day so she can cook dinner for him. She is absolutely devastated when Patrick tells her he is leaving her, as seen by this quote: “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all….

The police interrogated Mrs. Mary Maloney, Patrick Maloney’s six months pregnant wife. “Patrick had arrived from work, while I was sewing. He was so tired to go out for supper, so I went across the street to the grocery store to buy a few things for supper. I was there for no more than 10 minutes. When I came back home, I found my dear husband dead on the living room floor,” Maloney said when asked what happened the day Patrick Maloney died.

After the horrible news Patrick gave Mary, in shock, all of her anger and confusion led to her sudden

When he returns, Mary notices that he is uncharacteristically “distant.” After having more to drink thhan usual, Patrick reveals to Mary what is making him act so strange. He eventualy says that he’ll be leaving her and the child for another woman. Mary then goes and gets a lamb leg from the deep-freezer in the cellar to cook for their dinner. Then Mary quickly hits him in the head which results in his death.

The communist systems of China and the Soviet Union shared many similarities and some distinct differences. One difference was the Russian revolution supported the working class people while the communist revolution in China won support from the peasants. Both communists systems featured a strong central state with authoritarian rule. Joseph Stalin introduced collectivization which allowed large farms to be under state control. China imitated this policy by adopting a similar policy.

There’s plenty of meat and stuff in the freezer, and you can have it right here and not even have to move out of the chair’’’ (2). Mary only ever want to please Patrick. She made sure everything was perfect for him and to never do anything wrong. She could not think of anything she had done to deserve such news. She immediately rejected the news and decided to pretend as if it never happened. Patrick was behaving so cruel to her while she was being nothing but nice to him. She even continued to make him dinner and he yelled at her saying not to because he is going out. This angered Mary resulting her to hit him with the leg of lamb and kill him. This shows that Mary is a sympathetic character because she was always compliant to Patrick. He had no right to disrespect her as he did.

Author also surprises readers, when he introduces conflict between a couple that used to love each other deeply. Diverting the story from love to betrayal, author develops an irony. In the story, reader sees two examples of betrayal. Ms. Maloney, while talking with her tired husband, finds out her husband no longer want to keep their marriage. Without giving any kind of reason, Patrick betrays her wife with a decision of breaking marriage. Mary shocks, when her husband, boldly, says, “ This is going to be bit shock of you”(P. Maloney) Author creates a total opposite picture of Patrick by describing him as a husband who used to give her wife surprises; he is now giving her shock in the middle of her pregnancy. Mary, who was previously shown as “anxiety less”(Dahl), with “a slow smiling air”(Dahl) and “curiously tranquil”(Dahl), had began to get upset and now inculcate her eye with a “bewildered look.” After betrayed by her husband, she, without any argue, she goes to the basement to look for frozen food. She decides to have leg of a lamb as a last dinner with her husband, but she smashes the frozen leg in to Patrick’s head with killing him. Mary betrays her husband by killing him and takes revenge of her betrayal. Later, Author confirms her as a murdered with the statement of “I’ve killed him”(Mary) from her own lips. Dahl, in the story,

Mrs. Maloney gets away with the murder in the end. This caused by a revolting ending in which he police detectives eat the leg of lamb that was used to kill Patrick. The writer creates an unbelievable ending by making the story, up to the murder, set in a very normal family house. It is not somewhere you would associate with a morbid killing. The writer builds up an impression that the marriage may not be as good as it could be, and both were under strain not to release the tension onto each other.

Over the years they fall out of love and Janie begins to despise Joe for humiliating and degrading her. After Joe dies because of a sick liver Janie doesn’t remarry, till she meets Tea Cake. Tea Cake is a couple years younger than her, which is why she questions his motives at first. They end up marrying and moving to the Everglades where they both take the job as agricultural workers. During a hurricane Tea Cake gets bitten by a mad dog, yet doesn’t go see a doctor after the hurricane. After the rabies spread throughout his body Tea Cake tries shooting Janie which is why she shoots him to defend herself. She is acquitted by the court for killing Tea Cake and returns to Eatonville where she tells her friend Pheoby her life story. The main character, Janie, in Their Eyes Were Watching God serves as an effective looking glass through which the reader experiences the lives of both the average and remarkable black woman, the role of men in their achievements, and their effects on society during the early

This is where the reader knows more then the characters, having seen the murder from Mary’s point of view and now watching the police officers discuss the crime. Also ironic, is that the police officers are doing Mary a huge favour by eating the evidence, making her practically undiscoverable. What is also special about the story, is that in the very beginning, Mary Maloney is described as a weak woman, only devoted to her husband and submissively in love with him. The reader is completely shocked when she murders her husband.

Mary has three distinct personalities throughout the story. In the beginning of the short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” she seems like a devoted wife to her husband, Patrick. For instance, “The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight-hers and the one by the empty chair opposite. On the

Mary is very manipulative in that she is able to create the character of the poor, pregnant wife, whose husband has just been murdered. She is able to convince the police to take pity on her, to mix her a drink and then to even eat the evidence, the leg of lamb that she has left in the oven. "Why don’t you eat up that lamb that is in the oven" (Dahl, p. 17). Mary realizes that if the police find the evidence she will go to jail. Her quick thinking and manipulative character results in the police officers eathign the evidence and therefore she cannot be charged of this crime. These actions show the complex character that Mary Maloney truly is.

While Mrs. Mallard remembers Mr. Mallard as a kind and tender man who loved her, she also viewed him as the oppression that marriage put upon women and men. While Mr. Mallard was kind and loving to his wife, he was also controlling and overbearing. Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister and Richards, Mr. Mallard’s friend is there to break the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. Richards has learned of Mr. Mallard’s death at the newspaper office, not wanting to believe the information that was received, Richards waited for the new to be delivered for a second time before enlisting the help of Josephine. They are both there to support Mrs. Mallard and their support shows that they care for Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.