The Utterly Perfect Murder Analysis

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Did a Murder actually take place in “The Utterly Perfect Murder”?
By. Ava Lemon

People can be murdered in many ways. Though most people are murdered literally, some can be murdered figuratively just like in “The Utterly Perfect Murder”. Although Doug did not literally murder Ralph, a figurative murder did take place.

In the 1960s, on his 48th Birthday Doug Spalding (protagonist) woke up with a strange decision to take revenge on his former friend Ralph Underhill (antagonist). Doug decided to follow through with this revenge plot, he packed his bag, said goodbye to his wife, and started his journey. When Doug boards the train he starts having flashbacks to his childhood, these flashbacks show how mean Ralph was to Doug. Ralph would beat him up until his arms were completely covered in bruises. When Doug came to school in a new suit, Ralph pushed him down and rolled him in the mud until his suit was ruined. The memory that Doug dwelled on the most though, was that he would go and throw rocks at Ralph’s window so he would come out and play. However, Ralph never came to Doug’s window to do the same. The memories that Doug has of his childhood helps the author portray Doug’s motive to kill Ralph. …show more content…

When Doug gets to his childhood town called Greentown, he decides he wants to wait until nighttime to murder Ralph. When Doug gets to Ralph’s front step to murder him, he discovers that Ralph is now a sad, low-life, nobody, little old man. Because of this shocking twist in the story, the author presents another conflict to us. Should Doug kill Ralph or should he just leave him alone, since Doug is now better than him? Even though Doug brought the gun, he decided not to use it. Instead, he whispered “bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang”, 6 shots. However, Ralph did not literally drop down dead but to Doug, Ralph was

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