Samuel’s Story
Introduction
This short story by Grace Paley revolves around one incident and where we have a train accidentally killing a boy. The rest of the section after the death of this boy leaves the reader with more questions than answers. In this text I present a critical analysis of this story by grace Palin.
A twist of irony
What mainly stands out from this story is the irony that the writer employs at every turn. We have a contradictory tone the writer engages in the way the boys are having a good time completely ignorant of the dangers that lurk right beneath them. Then we have this man who is presented as citizen enough in an attempt to save these boys whereas he ends up taking one boy’s life.To continue this terrifying morbidity we have a line where a conductor seeks to have a trainman who has some form of experience on disengaging a body trapped between the body and the brakes. This experience shows that such situations have always occurred and leaves the reader with a not so good mental picture.
Theme search
Paley has a way to interest one in this story whether one is interested in risk taking or out rightly disapproves it. The reader is presented with a mental picture of themselves growing up.The reader remembers those instances while growing up when they took big risks only that they did not consider these risks dangerous then. The reader also comes to a realization that the risks they took affected them or the people around them in one way or the other. This is especially so in Samuels story where his mother is affected significantly.The guy who handled the emergency cord must also in this case be having a great deal of guilt. But this guilt and regret is not only with this guy who pulled the chord. As Grabes (1997) points out, what remains fairly unclear in this story is the declaration that there will not be any other boy like Samuel whilst leaving this hanging by not delving into this issue again. What is also unknown is how Samuel’s mother handles his death in the long term. It must be taken into account that maybe the others in this story are having their share of guilt for their failure to act appropriately. In this regret, it may still interest them that there is little they could have changed to help this boys
Conclusion
The implication of this story to the reader does not lie in the intensity of its action but rather in the mere implications suggested by this particular event. Other authors who have portrayed this idea include Ralph Ellison in ‘Battle Royal’ and William Carols in ‘The Use of Force’.
References
Grabes, H. (1997). Literature and philosophy: Volume 13 of the yearbook of research in English and American literature. Gunter Narr Verlag
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