Cold Sassy Tree is a story written by Olive Ann Burns, taking place in a fictional town of the same name and narrated by the main character, Will Tweedy. It is a story of Will’s life experiences, including his Grandpa’s sudden marriage to a much younger woman, his first kiss, and being run over by a train. But before we can talk about that, we have to start from the beginning. Cold Sassy Tree begins with Will’s grandpa, Rucker Blakeslee, announcing to his family that he was going to propose to Love Simpson. This came as a great shock, not only because of the fact that she was a much younger woman, but also that Will’s grandma and Rucker’s wife, Matty Lou, had died only three weeks previously. Though Will’s mother and Aunt Loma (strongly hated by Will) try to reason with him, Rucker continues on as planned, and after the Fourth of July, he ran off to Jefferson to get married. …show more content…
Everyone in town gossiped about it, saying that he was just waiting for his wife to die so he could marry Love.
Only Will, who is like a son to Rucker, knows that he just needed a cheap housekeeper, and that he truly loved Matty Lou and he was heartbroken from her death. Eventually, as the gossip continues to grow more elaborate, Will goes on a walk in the country to escape from the drama of his family and the townsfolk. Even here though, he ran into trouble, in the form a of a train. Will was walking between the railroad tracks, completely oblivious, when a train came around the bend. Will only survived because he heard it at the last moment and dropped between the tracks and lay completely flat, letting the train pass over him. When the train had finally passed him, he was in shock, and some of the passengers got off and took him back home. This quickly swept Rucker’s elopement under the rug, and all people could talk about was what had happened to Will. Once things had settled down, however, it came back up, and Rucker and Love were shunned by their neighbors, their family, and their
church. Throughout the book, Will tries his best to support Miss Love and be a good friend to her, but at the cost of his own image in his family. He also fights a constant battle with the adults in his life, who are trying to decide his future for him, even though he wants to follow his dream of becoming
In today’s society, many struggle to freely demonstrate their identity in fear of potential backlash and disapproval from others. While examining the two poems within this assignment, "sturgeon" as well as "the same as trees," I distinguished the overarching theme of identity crisis, and the inability for individuals to effectively express themselves. The first poem being analyzed is “the same as trees” by Nicola I. Campbell. As a member of the Métis community, Campbell’s life has not been simple. Often, people of Métis origin have difficulty navigating their European and Indigenous roots.
On a drive on Highway 50, through Nevada to see a real ghost town, Agnes finds a little girl named Rebecca who has been separated by her family who was looking Leister 's gold. The capper of the whole thing is that Agnes saw the whole thing in a dream, but she gets to the Goldberg Hotel and Saloon, she realizes the whole thing was real, especially the inside of her room. She soon finds out that the entire hotel is haunted by all kinds of spirits from past guests; which only serves to make Agnes 's vacation that much more interesting. She wants to find out what happened to the family. She knows with every fiber of her being that it was not just a dream, and that a little girl really did go missing in the night before Agnes showed up. Will they be able to find the missing kid or will a killer (called “The Cutter”) ruin their
Enoch Rucker Blakeslee- He is Will’s grandfather on his mother’s side. He goes by, Rucker Blakeslee, instead of Enoch Rucker Blakeslee. He is a cocky, comical, and intimidating character that owns the General Store in Cold Sassy. Rucker is deeply southern, and has no use for drama or the dishonesty in
In Cold Blood is the true story of a multiple murder that rocked the small town of Holcomb, Kansas and neighboring communities in 1959. It begins by introducing the reader to an ideal, all-American family, the Clutters; Herb (the father), Bonnie (the mother), Nancy (the teenage daughter), and Kenyon (the teenage son). The Clutters were prominent members of their community who gained admiration and respect for their neighborly demeanors.
“Straining his eyes, he saw the lean figure of General Zaroff. Then... everything went dark. Maggie woke up in her bed. “Finally woke up from that nightmare. Man… I miss my brother. Who was that person that my brother wanted to kill?” she looks at the clock and its 9:15am “Crap I’m late for work!” Maggie got in her car and drove to the hospital for work.
Olive Ann Burns’ Cold Sassy Tree is a brilliantly written, simple story. The themes of family, prejudice and death affect all readers. Life is not always a “bed of roses”, but Burns uses humor to strip away the thorny problems and leaves only the beauty of the rose.
When oblivious to change, marriage becomes a word that only holds two people together. Negligence for the need to work together to resolve the influential issue will lead to irresolvable misunderstandings and irreversible consequences. The changes which have occurred in both of the stories interrupted the false sense of closeness among the couples, serving to spark off long-term problems they had not realized. In "Shiloh", Leroy, is forced to retire to home after injuring his leg in a highway incident. Just like his truck, Leroy, no longer able to make his living as a truck driver, "has flown home to roost".
"Ask and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7). Grandpa Blakeslee formulates his interpretation of the bible, not specifically, but generally his outlook or overview of the philosophical tenets of the bible. Grandpa Blakeslee's interpretation promotes the idea that pleading God for relief or otherwise rather than for perseverance to overcome the circumstances one undergoes is not only a misunderstanding (of the purpose of prayer and how a christian lifestyle should be) but additionally an error in the usage (of prayer).
As a result, this instills an orthodox feeling when Sean opens up about his past experiences. With this in mind, Will feels uneasy about what is to come. Sean uses pathos to make Will feel guilty about his actions, and how ignorant his claims are about the world. “And you wouldn't know what it’s like to be her angel and to have that love for her to be there forever. Through anything. Through cancer. You wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in a hospital room for two months holding her hand because the doctors could see in your eyes that the term visiting hours don't apply to you” (Damon). As he describes the way love feels, the horrors of war, and what true loss really means, it becomes unimaginable and heartbreaking to hear what it is like. Will had never felt this way
In many ways, he made his kids’ lives harder than it already was. He was always drunk and spending their money on himself. Rex was also always running from authority. This was one of the reasons they moved around so much. One summer Rose Mary decided to go back to school to get her teaching certification again and leaves Jeannette in charge of the money. After only a week Jeannette has given Rex $30 after being guilted into it. Rex swindles a man in a game of pool and wins back the $30; he does this by using Jeannette as a distraction. After this experience Jeannette feels betrayed and used by her father. When Jeannette explains to her father that the “creep attacked [her] when [she] was upstairs” her dad shrugs it off by saying “I knew you could handle yourself.” (213) After Lori and Rose Mary got home from being away for the summer, Lori and Jeannette decide to start saving money so they can leave their parents and move to New York. One-day Jeannette comes home to find out that their piggy bank had been broken into and all the money was taken. Later they realize that Rex had taken the money and when they confront him about it, he denies it. Out of the four kids, Jeannette was closest to her father, but by the time she moved to New York she didn’t want anything to do with him or her mother. Many events that happened with her father were very hard, but made her stronger and more of an independent woman. Her father
In many ways Cold Sassy Georgia relates to the small town of Silex, Missouri. Silex is a small town in Lincoln County, Missouri with a meager population of 187 people. The town likes to stick to tradition and gossip spreads fast throughout the small amount of people there. This is very much like Cold Sassy, Georgia. Of course there are many small differences between the two town like types of vehicles and types of clothing, but there are many similarities between the people of Silex and the people of Cold Sassy. Cold Sassy and Silex have many resemblances, and also many differences.
Tobias Wolff is framing his story Hunters in the Snow, in the countryside near Spokane, Washington, where three friends with three different personalities, decided to take a trip to the woods for hunting in a cold, snowy weather. The whole story follows the hunting trip of these three friends. The reader can easily observe that the cold, hostile environment is an outward expression of how the men behave towards one another. Kenny, with a heart made of ice is rather hostile to Tub, while Frank is cold and indifferent to Tub and his pleas for help.The environment is matching the characters themselves, being cold and uncaring as the author described the two from truck when they laughed at the look of Tub: “You ought to see yourself,” the driver said. “He looks just like a beach ball with a hat on, doesn’t he? Doesn’t he, Frank?”(48). Near the beginning of the story the cold and the waiting surely creates an impact in the mood of the character. Tub is restless from the wait and the cold adds on to it. He complains about being cold and Kenny and Frank, his friends tell him to stop complaining, which seems to be very unfriendly. Wolff builds up the story on the platform of cold weather and the impact of the cold on each character slowly builds up.
In the short story, The Shivering Tree, by John McLeod, past experiences are shown to have a profound effect on the development of an individual. Nanabush learns from his past mistakes which results in the growth of his maturity. In the story, Nanabush past experiences give him the ability to learn from his previous mistakes by turning his enemies into supporting allies, which assists him in resolving his conflict with the Juggler at the end. First, Nanabush act of making peace with Owl demonstrates his maturity, which puts in the right direction for success. Secondly, the growth of his maturity is displayed with Nanabush's final confrontation with the Juggler and permanently abandons him.
Will began going to a single parents support group as part of his plan to meet women. At the support group he met Suzie who eventually introduced him to Marcus, Fiona’s twelve year old son, on her and Will’s first date. Marcus gained trust in Will when he lied to a park ranger about how Marcus had killed a duck by throwing a rock hard loaf of bread at it. When Will, Suzie, and Marcus return they found Fiona, Marcus’s mom, passed out on the couch overdosed on pills in a suicide attempt. In order to help his mom get better Marcus tries to set up Will and his mom, but they were not compatible. Marcus also gets involved in a relationship with Ellie but he breaks it off in order to keep Ellie as a friend. Will had also goteen involved in a relation with Rachel, a single mom. In order to bring joy into his mother 's life Marcus sings at the school talent show. Will found out about his at a single parent support group meeting after begging Fiona to never attempt suicide again. Since Marcus was going to make a fool out of himself by singing this song, Will goes up on stage with him to sing. By doing this Will the subject of the joke and not Marcus. The following winter Will hosts a Christmas dinner with Rachel’s family and Marcus’s family. When the future of marriage for Will and Rachel comes up Marcus is against the idea because he believes that everybody needs a support system and that, “No man is an island.”
And at that, Will and Evanlyn got up and started doing their chores. Will didn’t find them so tiresome, now that they had been on the ship for so many days and had worked for hours on end. In fact, Will was fine with the chores as he was already used to doing them at home in the log cabin he lived in with his mentor, Halt. The memories were coming back to him: of a fire, melting the cold away in an instant.