The Ordinary Man In John Steinbeck's 'The Bet'

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In The Bet there are two men, one is a banker and the other is just an ordinary man. These two men were arguing about whether the death sentence or life in prison would be worse for a criminal. The ordinary man said that he could last fifteen years in solitary confinement and the banker agreed to pay the man a total of one million dollars if he could. While in confinement the man learned to use his time to better himself. He learned so much stuff that he realized all the money in the world wouldn’t make a difference in what he wanted to do. Meanwhile the banker had come to the realization that paying the man all that money would but the banker in debt the rest of his life. This made him realize that the only way he could avoid this would be to kill the man, but when he arrived to kill the man he found a note saying that the man planned to run before claiming his prize. And so the man ran hours before claiming his prize. …show more content…

In his dream he is going on a walk when he suddenly comes across a grave mound. He sees two men holding a headstone above an empty grave. As he approaches the two men put the headstone into the ground. Then another man appears out of the woods and starts to inscribe words across the headstone. However he pauses just before he is finished. When he starts to write again his hand trembles. Then the man sees that it is his name that is being written across the headstone. After this the painter stomps on the mound of the grave. Suddenly the man awakens from his peaceful dream that has turned into a

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