Jennifer Bradbury's Short Story Shift

1367 Words3 Pages

“The bicycle is a simple solution to some of the world’s most complicated problems.” Chris and Win, former high school graduates, decide to go on a cross-country bike ride to the west coast. During their ride, Win suddenly goes missing. Chris continues to ride to the west coast believing Win is just playing another one of his silly games, and takes the bus back to West Virginia after he reaches his destination. When Chris arrives home, Win is still gone and now there’s a FBI agent. So Chris heads back to Montana where he thinks Win might be and doesn’t tell anyone. Chris finds Win where he figured he’d be all along, but leaves Win where he’s happy and heads back home to college. In the story Shift written by Jennifer Bradbury, Mr. Coggans …show more content…

Coggans has such an influence on Win, that I don’t think he would be who he was in the story without him. “Win’s dad yelled a little louder at whomever he had locked in his office with him.”(pg. 27) Mr. Coggans has so much power that he could yell at whomever he wanted to, and in this instance, he was yelling at a senator. I think this trait in Win’s dad reflected onto Win himself. Win thinks he can get away with anything and can basically do whatever wants. Mr. Coggans is also very sneaky. I know this because after he found out that Win was missing, he immediately sent a FBI agent over to the college Chris attended and made the agent watch Chris and try and get him to say anything about Win to help them continue further into their investigation.(pg. 3) Win also inherited this certain trait from his father. This is of our knowledge because when Win was missing, Chris received a postcard from someone with the name of Tricksey.(pg. 100) This postcard was actually sent by Win using the letters of a bumper sticker to write “Tricksey” and writing the card in his left hand cursive to not expose his actual identity. One last trait that Mr. Coggans passed down to his son is lying. We know Mr. Coggans lies because when the two families went out to eat together before Chris and Win left on their trip Mr. Coggans was asked if he was proud of Win and he nodded and replied, “They grow up so fast, don’t they?”(pg. 47) Win’s father wasn’t exactly speaking the truth when he said this …show more content…

Collins, maintain a solid relationship, and Chris really respects his dad and looks up to him as a person. “Let me worry about Coggans. I trust you to do what’s right here.” (pg. 150) This is the kind of relationship Mr. Collins and Chris have. His dad trusts him 100 percent and knows his son is responsible and independent enough to do the right thing. Mr. Collins passed this trait down to his son. “I wondered what it would mean to tell my father about the postcards. What advice he might have for me. But I couldn’t make him responsible.” (pg. 148) This is what Chris was thinking about when he had the conversation about Mr. Coggans buying Chris’s dad’s company. He wanted to tell him but he knew if he told him they both could suffer consequences and he didn’t want that weight on his dad’s shoulders and that truly shows what kind of person Chris is. ““i don’t think I’m coming home for the weekend, Dad.” “And I have a feeling I don’t want to know where you’re going.”” Mr. Collins knows that Chris is worried about their family finances and his job so he encourages Chris to go find Win without directly telling it to him. They both share the same character traits by caring about one another and always making sure they’re on the same page. ““But your job---” “Will be fine one way or another.”” Once again, Chris is worrying about his family and he’s trying to think about what is best for his family while still trying to think of what is best for himself and

Open Document