Do You Like It Here Roberts

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In a story, there are often aspects of the story that are not clear upon first reading, but add clarity and infinitely more depth to the passage. This is especially evident in “Do You Like It Here?” Roberts is a new student at this school who finds himself “wanted in Van Ness’s [Headmaster of the School] office,” which he follows with a speech regarding the differences between this phrase and other similar ones, “If a master [Van Ness] wanted to see you on some minor matter, it didn’t always mean that you had to go to his office; but if it was serious, they always said ‘you’re wanted in somebody’s office.’ That meant Somebody would be in his office, waiting for you, specially for you.” showing an entirely different and more complex meaning …show more content…

First, I highlighted the points I did not comprehend the previously. I went through them one by one, thinking and writing down ideas for each line. For example, the phrase where the tone suddenly shifts from pleasant to angry, “‘Roberts! Did you ever see this before? Answer me!’” I started by going through and rereading the passages around it until it occurred to me that Van Ness was not a patient man; he was used to getting what he wanted. He had been offered other positions, “‘I have not been without my opportunities to take a post at this and that college or university,’” and he is in charge here, leading me to believe that people do what he says and what he wants when he says it. Doubtless, many people disobey him or beat around the bush with him. However, I was still baffled by why he was asking all the previous questions. I think he asked because he wanted Roberts to admit an incriminating fact about himself or his past. Perhaps something about how he left a school because of trouble or that he did not like this school, anything that would give evidence that Roberts could be blamed with this. Van Ness, though, got bored with the questioning and decided it was not moving fast enough. Because of this, he switched tactics, much like a good cop-bad cop approach, and became the angry individual seen at the end of the story. I also followed those techniques when looking at the beginning of the story. Before Roberts leaves for Van Ness’s office, he is told to go there by another student, Hughes, who doesn’t seem to like him at all, “‘Why don’t you go and find out what for, Dopey?’” I didn’t think anything of this at the beginning of the story and it did not occur to me to go back to this moment until the last line, “‘the bastard, the dirty bastard.’” It seems to me, that Hughes may had a part in the accusal of Roberts. His taunting words seem

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