In the short story by Etgar Keret, Bad Intentions, the narrator is a mechanic who is hired to kill the only man who saved his life. This man is Patrick Grace, he saved him from an orphanage when he was a little kid and ever since he has been a good man in the narrator’s eyes. Patrick Grace is a so called Angel because he has done nothing wrong in his life at any time. (64) This is extremely hard to believe because everyone in their life, whether it was when they were young or old has done something bad in their life. Mr. Grace is a little too good to be true because no one person can fix a whole orphanage and save countless lives that easy as he did. The narrator is a contracted killer as I said earlier, this does happen in the real world in my opinion. We, as the readers, can see that the narrator did not want to kill …show more content…
This is pretty damn crazy because of the fact that if anyone would just leave a bag down with a gun in it, they would be kind of at risk to be caught. Later on, the narrator states, “three days later, in Dallas, I shot some senator. It was a tricky one. From two hundred yards away, half a view, side wind. He was dead before he hit the floor.” This plays a significant part in this story because the narrator acts like what happened the day before never happened. He goes on with his life even though he just stopped himself from killing someone that he knew, but what if that senator was just as good as Mr. Grace, except he never helped the narrator. Everyone has done their sins in life, but everyone also helps people in one way or another. You only remember the ones who helped you though. What are the odds of you actually killing someone that helped you or even saved you in life? Those are slim to none and if that does happen, sometimes you have to do your job anyway, you can’t just stop what you do for a
At this point, the speaker's newfound empathy toward the killer prompts his diatribe about American support of capital punishment. He begins with a hypothetical portrayal of an audience chaotically discussing the meaning of the word "kill," each person exclaiming "how they spell it" and "what it means to them." Subsequently, he recounts a story about insensitive reporters at a hanging, followed by a claim that "we throw killers in one grave / and victims in another. We form sides / and have two separate feasts." While the speaker may seem to be utilizing the description of the audience and the story of the reporters in order to denounce the mindset of his peers, he is in fact condemning his own former mentality. By denying five times that he is a witness, the speaker avoids the guilt that results from involvement in the death of another man. Through his repeated use of the phrase "I am not a witness," he essentially enables and catalyzes the execution of the killer, dismissing his humanity and conforming to the opinion that he deserves to be killed; however, once the speaker recognizes his fault and his conformity to this mindset, the tone of the poem suddenly shifts. The speaker's empathy for the killer reaches its maximum when he fully understands the pain of the condemned and finally sees the killer as his equal, which prompts his own admission of guilt and prior indifference: "I am a
The narrator murders an old man who he is meant to be taking care of. He claims to have nothing against the man and says that he loves him. Regardless of this, he finds the mans filmy, vulture-like eye to be disturbing and thinks this is a valid enough reason to kill him. Montresor feels insulted by his colleague, Fortunado and believes that it is now his duty to end his life. Both claim to not have anything against his victim other than one small detail, being either and eye or an insult, and feel that they are justified in wanting them dead.They both meticulously plan out what they are going to do to their victim long before they carry out their actions. Neither the old man or Fortunado had any idea that their murderer had any reason to want them dead and had no way of anticipating what was doing to happen to them. The narrator smothers the old man with his mattress, chops up his body, and stuffs him in the floorboards. Montresor leads a very d...
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury utilises the character Guy Montag to explore the archetype of an anti-hero and to do express his concern for America’s future. Guy Montag perfectly fits the description of an antihero. Anti-heroes are known for conforming to society at first, and then finding something that causes them to question how society is run. In the beginning of the novel, Guy Montag seems happy with himself and his job of burning books for a living. When he meets a mysterious neighbor named Clarisse, his views on society drastically change. Clarisse asks Guy a simple question, “Are you happy?” (Bradbury 10). At first Guy thinks he is obviously happy. Why wouldn’t he? But then he begins thinking and once returning home
person the killer is describing everything as it happens “I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was
Christopher Johnson McCandless, a.k.a Alexander Supertramp, “Master of his Own Destiny.” He was an intelligent young man who presented himself as alone but really he was never lonely. However, he believed that life was better lived alone, with nature, so he ventured off throughout western United States before setting off into Alaska’s wild unprepared where he died. Some may say he was naive to go off on such a mission without the proper food and equipment but he was living life the way he wanted to and during his travels he came across three people: Jan Burres, Ronald Franz, and Wayne Westerberg. McCandless befriended these people, it is believed that he made such a strong impression on them that their connection left them with strange feelings after finding out about McCandless’ death.
Seventeen-year old Patrick Farquhar in Flight #116 is Down by Caroline B. Cooney takes on a challenge to prove himself in a real emergency. Patrick Farquhar is described as determined, confident, and a hero.
Ethan Frome published by Eddie Wharton was set in Starkfield, Massachusetts in 1904. The story happenss against cold hard weather at the New England state. The main character was established as outreach farmer who tends to his very cold, aggressive and disturbed wife named Zeena. He had little hope with his wife until Zeena's cousin, Matte arrives to help him. During the period, he slowly fall in love with Matte causing his marriage to collapsing the relationship between him and Zeena. Ethan From was one all-time classic American books showing characters development through hard facts or conditions that reflects and teaches us the relation in today's social standards.
The disturbing description of the serial killer is recited without any waver whatsoever away from the intent only to divulge information. The narrator makes no personal comment and expresses no opinion about Howard. After the narrator has given the information to the listener, the narrator leads the train of thought right back to the work environment. The idea of a horrible mass murderer is interrupted by his typing ability. This continued contrast now goes past unstable and borders on psychotic.
Firstly, at the end of this story, the narrator’s illusions are the most powerful pieces of evidence for his madness. It is his two illusions that betrays him and imposed him to confess the crime. His first illusion is the beating of the old man’s heart which actually did not exist. Initialy, exactly as he portrayed "My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears, it continued and became more distinct", the ringing he heard haunted him ceaselessly. Then he "found that the noise was not within his ear", and thought the fancy in his ear was the beating of old man’s heart. Because of the increasing noise, he thought the officers must hear it, too. However, in fact, everything he heard is absurd and illusive. And it proves that the narrator is really insane. Next, his second illusion is the officers’ "hypocritical smiles" which pushed him to completely be out of control. Losting of his mind, he called the officer "Villains". Apparently, he was confused and falsely thought "they were making a mockery of his horror" which irritated him intensively. Consequently, he told all the truth and "admitted the deed" in order to get rid of the growing noise. Therefore, the above two pieces of evidence both reveal the truth that the narrator is absolutely insane in contrary to what the narrator tried to tell us.
In her short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor tackles the issue of grace, showing that no matter the person, everyone can achieve and deserves grace. The grandmother and the Misfit, though they appear to be quite different people, are both the same at the core: sinners in need of Christ. The Misfit and the grandmother are both capable of change and accepting God, but only the grandmother reaches this revelation before her death.
Secondly, perverseness pushes the narrator to not only kill his wife but effectively conceal the murder. The
We soon learn that the narrator heartlessly kill the old man. The narrator had already planned the murder of the old man. Before the murd...
Never once as the Grandmother was begging for her life, did she stop and beg for the life of her family. Her tactic to save herself went from “You wouldn’t shoot a lady would you?” (O’Connor), to “You’ve got good blood! I know you come from nice people” (O’Connor), then lastly to “If you would pray, Jesus would help you” (O’Connor). Yet to every beg the Grandmother made, the Misfit was completely honest with her, admitting that he would hate to have to kill a lady, but he would do it, admitting that he did come from good people but that he is not good, and admitting that he does not want Jesus’ help, that he is perfectly fine alone. Because the Misfit was so honest and open about who he was and his flaws, the Grandmother realized that she is not a “Good Man”. That she has been lying to herself and the people around her. The Misfit allowed the Grandmother to come to terms with who she really is a person. The Misfit giving her this eye opening realization before taking her life gave her the redemption she needed so
The fixation on the old man's vulture-like eye forces the narrator to concoct a plan to eliminate the old man. The narrator confesses the sole reason for killing the old man is his eye: "Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees - very gradually - I made up my mind to rid myself of the eye for ever" (34). The narrator begins his tale of betrayal by trying to convince the reader he is not insane, but the reader quickly surmises the narrator indeed is out of control. The fact that the old man's eye is the only motivation to murder proves the narrator is so mentally unstable that he must search for justification to kill. In his mind, he rationalizes murder with his own unreasonable fear of the eye.
...d the rational explanation is that the narrator wanted to kill the old man for his own indulgence. The liberation the narrator describes after the murder of the old man shows that violence was truly the key motive for his crime.