Literary+Devices-Identities

Short Stories - Literary Devises "Identities"

**Point of View**: Omniscient

**Protagonist**: What type of character is the Protagonist?: Flat

**Antagonis**t: Police

At first, we start off in a suburb, with houses identical to one another, manicured lawns and litter-free sidewalks, much like the one I live close too. As the story progresses, we move to the sketchy part of the city. Lower income families and young adults who have, or continue to make, the wrong decisions. Also, based on what the narrator described the people to be wearing, I believe we are in the 1950s,
 * Describe the setting **

**Type of Conflict**: Man vs Society

He has forgotten to tell his wife that he has left the house, and when he gets up out of his luxury car, he is faced with the judgement of the innercity citizens and police officers alike.
 * Describe the main conflict: **

When our protagonist exits his Mercedes, a police officer assumes his car to be stolen, and points a pistol to his face.
 * Describe the Climax of the Story: **

I don't believe he does. He is still a working man with a family who lives in the suburbs who would never get involved with the bad choices often form the bad reputation of a neighbourhood. From the evidence the author has given, I believe he is just as calm near the end as he is in the beginning.
 * How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? **

The theme seems to be that, judgement is made constantly, and that our identity is the only reflection of who we are. From the moment the police officer saw him, he the officer felt a prejudice towards the protagonist, and the protagonist knew that prejudice and assumption aside, and though we may lie about our identity, our identity never lies about us.
 * Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. **

When the protagonist walks out of his vehicle, everyone seems to be judging him harshly. Only he knew his identity: a safe, calm, suburban male with a loving family.
 * How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? **

When the police officer asks for his wallet to find some sort of identification for the protagonist, it seems to reinforce that most people are so untrustworthy as too take more seriously a small piece of plastic than a real person. The protagonist knew that the police officer would be relieved of most, if not all prejudice or suspicion if he saw what kind of man he was.
 * How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? **


 * Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes): **

**Simile**:
 * "...he worries that he might strike the grubby children who dart back and forth like startled fish."**
 * "Darkness has quietly been settling like soot."**

"Eagles, tigers, wolves and serpents ride their backs"
 * Metaphor: **


 * Personification: **
 * "The houses squat, as though they have been taller and have, slowly, sunk into the ground."**

"....he is driving a grey Mercedes Benz..."
 * Symbol: **

**Foreshadowing** (give both elements): "Now, as he passes grey stone gates, the yards are all proscribed by stiff picket fences and, quickly, a certain untidiness creeps in: a fragment of glass, a chocolate bar wrapper, a plastic horse, cracked sidewalks with ridges of stiff grass." "He is so intent upon the three men and the girl that he does not notice the police car drift against the curb, nor the officer who is advancing with a pistol in his hand."

"Instinctively relaxing, certain of his safety [after spotting the police officer] in the last voluntary movement of his life, he reaches his hand not in the air as he was ordered to, but toward his wallet for identity"
 * Irony**:

**Imagery**: "Becoming lost is made all the easier because the houses appear identical, repeat themselves with hardly a variation. There grows within him, however, a boredom with the sameness – no ragged edges, no overgrown vacant lots."

"He passes a ten-foot wire fence enclosing a playground bare of equipment and pounded flat. The gate is double locked, the fence cut and rolled into a cone. Three boys throw stones at pigeons. Paper clogs the fence like drifted snow. The school is covered with heavy screens. Its yellow brick is pock-marked, chipped."


 * Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. **
 * Identities relates to our class theme, humanity, because it illustrates a rather prominent part of it. In all honesty, I would feel more comfortable seeing a clean shaven man in a suit walking in a "ghetto" then if I were to see someone wearing blue jeans a 24-hour-beard. Us, as humans, is that our fault? Society trains us to think what is safe and unsafe, and though maybe the latter man would make me slightly unnerved, I would never let my own, personal insecurities and judgement end another man's life; I would keep them to myself. When the police officer shot the man, not only was he being judgemental, but he was being arrogant and unjust by not even giving the protagonist a change to prove him wrong. He ended an innocent man's life because he felt uneasy, because wasn't 100% comfortable. That, is what is wrong with our society.**

Complete 3/5 Effort 4/5 Content 4/5 Paragraph 0/5

total 11/20

revised total 20/20