Theme Of On The Sidewalk Bleeding

1085 Words3 Pages

On the Sidewalk Bleeding is a short story by Evan Hunter about a young man named Andy who is part of a gang. The story takes place during the last minutes Andy 's life, which is a member of a gang called 'The Royals ', as shown by a symbolic jacket he 's wearing. He got in a fierce rumble when he left his girlfriend to buy cigarettes and got stabbed by a member of a rival gang, The Guardians. He is slow to realize the severity of his wound, at first proud to have taken a hit for his group. Soon, however, Andy realizes that he is dying. Due to loss of blood, he is too weak to speak. While he bled on the sidewalk, he came across four people that did not to help him. The four people who saw Andy but do not help him have a large significance because it displays how Andy is seen in society, the ignorance people have towards the truth, and how fear drives people to make immoral choices.

Everybody always has two names: one from their parents and one from their friends. The name that is given by …show more content…

In the beginning of the narrative, he had been stabbed because of how he was seen through the general public and in the end he had also been categorized because of his contribution in ‘The Royals’. When Andy’s girlfriend Laura called the police when she found him dead of the sidewalk, the policeman said: “ ‘A Royal, huh?’ he said… She looked at the cop and very quietly, she said, ‘His name is Andy.’… ‘A Royal,’ he said. Then he began writing.” The police force works with many people and do not remember each and every person, but they can have a déjà-vu moment when they hear their name. For Andy, the police officer did not feel the need to find out the true identity of the dead boy lying on the sidewalk. It is as if society believes that Andy is not a boy anymore and he has turned into the supernatural creature called ‘The

Open Document