With You Until The End

With You Until The End

1. The story, "The Devoted Friend", is a lesson to be learned. It shows how one can manipulate as well as how one can be manipulated. It also shows just how far some people will go for a friend. In this case, Hans gave up taking care of his garden to help a "true" friend and died doing so. Author Oscar Wilde gives good detail of the characters and sets up conflicts within the plot to emphasize on the theme, a devoted friend is one that is with you, and will do anything for you, until the very end.

2. In the opening scene of the story a few minor characters are introduced, including the narrator, the Green Linnet, a little bird with tiny wings. The narrator tells this story to a water-rat, an old rat with bright, beady eyes and stiff grey whiskers. He felt it pertained to the rat because of how critical the rat was being of the pure white mother duck that had bright red legs. All she was trying to do was teach her children, who looked like little yellow canaries, how to fit into society and the rat was making rude comments.

3. As the Linnet told the story, he told about Hans, a little man with a funny, round, good humored face. Hans had a very kind heart and was an extremely devoted friend. This was proven throughout the story in him neglecting his garden to help his dearest friend, Hugh the Miller. The Miller was a big man who was fairly well off, he had a hundred sacks of flour, six cows, and a flock of sheep. He took great advantage of Hans because Hans believed they were best friends and the Miller often reminded him of that. The Miller used guilt to manipulate Hans into doing whatever he needed done, without ever returning the favor.

4. The tone throughout the story is ...

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...t have Hans doing things for him, he was taking from Hans’ garden his most beautiful flowers and best fruits.

10. The second most obvious conflict in the story was Thought versus Action. Hans was always thinking how much attention his garden needed and by helping the Miller he would be neglecting his garden, yet he always did exactly what the Miller asked of him without hesitation. The Miller also knew exactly how to manipulate Hans by using guilt, and he put that into action every time he needed something done for him.

11. "The Devoted Friend" was a perfect example of how much friendship means to some and how little it means to others. It showed how easy it was to manipulate others and be manipulated by others. But, the most important thing it showed was just how far a person would go to help a friend even though it means sacrificing many things.