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Sunrise On The Veld

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Have you ever believed you controlled the world? In the story, “Sunrise on the Veld” written by Doris Lessing, this boy believes he does. The story start off with the boy saying, “half-past four” (611) so that he can go hunting for breakfast. Believing that no harm can come to him in the veld, he runs wildly into it until he hears a cry from a wild animal. There are protagonist and antagonist, symbolisms, and irony in the story. The young boy will soon realize that everything will come to an end. The protagonist of this story is the fifteen-year-old boy who believes he is in control of the whole world. “…if I choose. I contain the world” (614). At the beginning of the story, he is seen saying aloud, “Half-past four! Half-past four” (611), so that his brain can wake …show more content…

The boy then admits that he had “fun of knowing that it was a weakness he could defeat without effort” (611). As Bruce Olsen clarifies, “the victory over the alarm clock is indeed a triumph of will, but it is a common sort of triumph and not worth the value he places upon it” (Olsen 187). The boy then stretches his whole body and says, “Even my brain--even that! I can control every part of myself” (611). People like Bowden will say, “he was feeling invincible and full of life” (Bowden). As the boy beings to run “madly, like a wild thing” (613), he starts “shouting and yelling wild, unrecognizable noises” (613). In the African’s veld, their lives many dangerous creatures that can hurt or kill someone while also running in difficult terrain that may harm the body; however, the boy “not believing that such a thing could happen to him” (613) runs anyways. The word antagonist means any force in a story or play that conflicts with the protagonist; thus, makes life and death the antagonist because they shatter the boy’s world. “The reality that every soul will taste

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