Analysis Of Saint Monkey And Real Life

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Carley Potter English 203-102 Professor Rexroat 30 September 2015 Frenemies Townsend and Pollock surround their work with life altering decisions made by their characters resulting in either the success or failure of their own development or those around them. “Behavior-outcome relations (contingency rules) represent the individual’s assessment of the likelihood that a particular behavior will be followed by a particular outcome (Knowles, McLean 154). Throughout Saint Monkey and “Real Life,” character interactions are vital in shaping their further development as the stories progress. Audrey, Caroline, and Bobby are constantly affected by their loved ones and in some cases themselves. Saint Monkey is told from the perspective of two best …show more content…

Many stereotypes are associated with Appalachian background, which Townsend and Pollock use to their advantage in order for their characters’ interactions to have this heavy impact on their on-going development. Every child wants to make their parents proud either by becoming successful, pursuing their parent’s dream that he or she never got to fulfill, or committing an act, right or wrong, that their parent demands they do. In Saint Monkey, Audrey and Caroline are heavily influenced by their fathers’ decisions and the consequences that followed, which is also in relation with Bobby and his father in “Real Life.” An interview editor for The Rumpus, Ben Pfeiffer, concludes from an interview with Townsend a key reason to the suffering of their friendship, “Audrey Martin and Caroline “Pookie” Wallace, misfit childhood friends, start to drift apart along different life paths” (Pfeiffer TheRumpus.net). Townsend writes, “…we all got to follow our daddies’ dreams” (Townsend 192). Audrey writes this to Caroline; moving away and pursuing her daddy’s dream, while Caroline is forced to stay in Mt. Sterling in order to take of her sister as a result of her daddy killing her mother; consequence. In “Real Life,” Pollock creates a similar scenario with Bobby in relation to his father. Bobby is influenced to commit an act of violence by his father’s command: “You back down, I’ll blister your ass” (Pollock 95). Bobby’s only two options are: beat the kid up or get beaten up. No child wants to be abused so the logical thing to choose is to retaliate: consequence. All three characters’ developments’ are created as a result of their actions: Audrey growing out of

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