A Sense Of Shelter Analysis

In my opinion, the least enjoyable of the three stories was A Sense of Shelter by John Updike. The overly dramatic imagery and dragging prose of Updike’s writing style is something I find to be very bothersome. Personally, I am not a fan of the plot, message, or really anything about the story; owing to the fact that, boring, awkward, and dramatic high-school stories are not that entertaining to me. Conversely, I do believe it has its place as a story that should be read and thought about. A Sense of Shelter is a realistic fiction short-story, which is set in a mid-1900s school, and tells the tale of an awkward teen called William Young. I do not believe the time period had much of an effect on how everything in the story played out; however,

the fact that it takes place in a school is somewhat important. Indeed, being within the school was critical to him receiving his chance to talk to Mary. Whereas, complicated interactions and social development within teenagers are timeless issues, which happen to be exacerbated within the school environment.

John Updike graduated high-school as a valedictorian, class president, and with a full-ride scholarship to Harvard. Perhaps, some qualities that John saw in himself, as an intellectual and successful student, translated into William through his writing, since William was also a very smart and successful student. Additionally, John was an aspired cartoonist before he began writing; this was shown through William, in a scene, in which he cut a sports cartoon into a stencil for his school paper. During the scene, William seemed to put unusually intense care and focus into the cartoon. It is reasonable to assume, since there are so many similarities between John and his character, that John may have been reliving his high-school days vicariously through William, when writing the story. William experienced one major issue in the story, and that was his chase for Mary. The main motivation that pushed him through the conflict was lust. This lust that he experienced was exacerbated when, while talking to her, he realized that the person she was with was not treating her right. William thought that she deserved her more, and that he could help her. His chance to secure his love was now right in front of him; therefore, he tried to get her, and then got rejected.

William is a rare type of teenager who actually enjoys school; of course, it also follows that he has no real social skills, and is an outcast to the rest of his school mates. He becomes determined to catch his dream girl, called Mary Landis, who is, of course, the exact opposite of him in terms of personality, social status, and innocence. In the end, his chase comes out as a failure as he awkwardly asks her to marry him and tries to kiss her. Mary rejected William, because she knew that he deserved better than her. She was not going anywhere in life, and did not think she belonged with a sweet, genuine, and smart guy with a future. In the first moments of being rejected, Will did not understand why she did this to him; however, once he walked back into the school he realized that a great weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. For it was now that he saw a great and successful future ahead of him, finally, with nothing in his way. No longer did he have any unfinished business tying him down, and he was ready to move on into life.

The story, which I found to be neither the most enjoyable or the least, was Brother Death by Sherwood Anderson. Brother Death is another realistic fiction story, which was set on farmland in Rich Valley, Virginia, in the early 1900s. Two children called Ted and Mary, 11 and 14 respectively, brother and sister, are the main characters of the story. Ted is a child with a heart lesion that means he could die at any moment; due to this, Mary grows very close to him and has to defend him from stress, which is put on him by his mother whilst trying to keep him from accidentally killing himself. Mary’s role in Ted’s life strips her of her innocence, and creates a child, who is at heart, very mature. Meanwhile, as Ted and Mary’s character development is taking place, their father John Grey and their 18 year old brother Don Grey develop somewhat of a power struggle. Between Mary from Brother Death and William from A Sense of Shelter, a similarity is shared between their journeys. This similarity lies not within either of their plights; instead, it lies within the outcome of the plights. Both Mary and William were freed from something, and gained valuable insights into life; however, the insights that they gained were not similar to each other. Mary realized, and took solace within the fact that Ted had endured a free and painless life and death, unlike that which will occur to Don. She gained an insight on the nature of death, and its different forms. William simply learned a valuable relationship lesson, which was a realization of promise in his future, and peace in his present. Perhaps, William’s temporary peace brought on by his new freedom is similar to the peace that Mary gained from Ted’s free, and happy, death.

The question of which protagonist had the greater plight is obvious, Mary, by far, had more to overcome than William. In fact, it almost seems insulting to compare the issues of a 14 year old girl, with an unstable family and a terminally ill brother, to those of a top class student, who has some relationship troubles. Nevertheless, problems are problems, and no matter the difference in the severity of the problems, the outcomes and methods of resolution can be, at their roots, very similar. In terms of success, I believe that both characters succeeded equally, because both of them learned from their plights, and gained some temporary peace and freedom. Mary’s persistence and stubbornness when it came to defending Ted from their parents is similar to William’s all out attempt to get his girl; in that, both characters were taking risks to get what they wanted. Further examples are: Mary talking in anger at her mother in defense of Ted, and William attempting to kiss, and marry, Mary. After the final events took place for both characters, they looked internally and thought, with reason and logic, which led them to peace.

Of the three stories, my favorite was The Grave, which was written by Katherine Anne Porter.

The Grave is another realistic fiction story, and is set in Texas, in 1903. The main character is a girl called Miranda, who was nine years old; additionally, she is backed up by her brother who was called Paul, and was twelve years old. Miranda’s main conflict was a mixture between conflicting social norms and some existential issues, which were realized when she witnessed her brother kill a pregnant rabbit, and then cut out its babies. Whenever Miranda faces a problem in the story she looks within herself and finds resolutions through thought and reasoning, which is similar to the methods used by William and Mary. All three characters had some sort of an epiphany; a moment where they simply stopped and clarity, with some new insights towards their lives, filled their minds. Furthermore, Miranda gained not only an insight on the meaning of life, but also, like Mary, gained an insight on the nature of death, as well. However, unlike the other two stories, I felt that the ending was too ambiguous to draw a real conclusion; regarding, how successful Miranda was with overcoming her issues. Even though she gained valuable insights into life and death, she did become “reasonlessly horrified” at the vision of the events that took place with her brother. It remains ambiguous as to how she really feels in the end. As far as the best solution model, set by the characters, I cannot give a definite answer; seeing that, they all used extremely similar methods for solving their problems. All three of them looked inwards and thought, while applying logic and reason. This method of solving problems is already the dominant method that I use in my own life; due to the fact that, in my experience, using emotions and looking outward for solutions tends to drag in more

problems.

A Sense of Shelter has a theme, which is either disillusionment, loss of innocence, or possibly growing up. For Brother Death, I believe the theme to be a loss of innocence towards the nature of death. Finally, for The Grave, I also chose the theme to be a loss of innocence. Personally, I find the idea of a loss of innocence to be quite relevant; likewise, I am certain that every person has some particular moment where a stark realization between the world that was our childhood and the world that we actually live in occurs. Furthermore, I believe that it is imperative, in the shadow of whatever event that stripped you of your innocence, that you do not allow the wonders and hope that once filled your childhood mind to be trapped in the darkness, and the past, with your innocence.