The writer then starts to write about how much of a courageous criminal Orrin Bower was.
“ Bower was a courageous a criminal as ever lived to be hanged.”
Here the writer is writing about Orrin Bower as if he is complimenting him. You also see this when he goes on to write about how Orrin Bower coolly killed his brother-in-law. He also writes about the conditions of the murder and how calm Orrin Bower was at the trial. The writer still gives no clues away to how the story is going to end. He finishes the paragraph with the phrase,
“ But what do you have, when a brave man is beaten, he submits.”
I think this fits in very well with all the other comments he wrote in this paragraph. The writer then carries on writing about Orrin Bowers journey back along the road to the jail. Only now do you find out who it was that had captured Orrin Bower.
“He looked backward, his captor was Burton Duff, the jailer, as white as death, and bearing on the brow, the livid mark of the iron bar. Bower had no further curiosity.”
So now the writer has made the reader believe that Orrin Bowers captor is Burton Duff, his jailer. They headed back towards the jail through town. Even that was deserted. Orrin Bower walked straight towards the jail, straight to the entrance, and walked straight through the door without any command. As he walked in, he was surrounded by about half a dozen officers. Now it is here at the very end of the story the writer adds the twist.
“ Then he turned, nobody else entered. On the table in the corridor lay the dead body of Burton Duff.”
Now this is obviously a very big shock for the reader. It is only now that the reader actually finds out that it was the spirit of Burton Duff that had actually brought Orrin Bower to justice.
The title of the story, ‘An Arrest’ fits in very well with the storyline. There is also, from my point of view, a moral to the story.
That is that, whatever you do wrong in life will always come back to haunt you.
The second story I am going to write about is ‘Country Living’.
This story is about two families, who are faced with a difficult choice, namely, whether to allow one of their children to be adopted in return for money and a lifetime of financial security. The first family was the Tuvaches, who had three girls and one boy. The second family was the Vallins, who had three boys and one girl. They all lived on a merged diet of soup, potatoes and fresh air. Now as you can see from this, the writer portrays the families as peasant farmers, who are very poor. He does this by the way he describes things such as the food that they eat.
One August afternoon a horse and trap drew up unexpectedly outside the two cottages. The young women in it started talking about how the children were so pretty and how she would love to have one. The writer chooses this language to make the young lady sound as if she just wants to pick a child and take them, like getting a toy from a shop.
A few days later the lady came back again, and gave them cakes and sweets. She then came back again, got to know the parents, and started making a daily appearance with her pockets bulging with sweets. Here the writer is trying to make it sound like the lady is trying to buy the children’s hearts with cakes and sweets. The children come from poor backgrounds, therefore the only time they get things like this is when the lady comes to the cottages. The lady’s name was Madame d’ Hubires. Then one day her and her husband got out of the trap, walked straight into one of the cottages and sat down. In a trembling voice Madame d’Hubires said
“ You dear people, I have come to see you because I would very much like to take your little boy away with me.”
Taken completely by surprise, the farmer and his wife did not answer.
Madame d ‘Hubires then carried on,
“ Me and my husband are alone, we would give him a home, we would be willing.”
The farmer and his wife realised what the two people were trying to do and immediately refused. The two guests carried on trying, but getting angry, the farmer and his wife forced the two people out of his house.
Now this will have been a big shock for the reader, not only did Madame d’ Hubires ask too take one of their children away, she acted like a spoilt little girl when the farmer and his wife refused.
Madame d’ Hubires and her husband walked straight out of the cottage and straight into the other family’s cottage. When they walked in, the Vallins were all sat around the table, with a plate of bread between them, spread with gone off butter. Monsieur d’ Hubires restated their proposal but this time it was said a lot nicer. The Vallins shook their head with unwillingness. As they learnt about the money involved they were very unsure. After a lot of discussion the Vallins agreed, and everything was settled the next day. Now in the paragraph above the writer has explained how the two different families reacted to Madame and Monsieur d’ Hubires proposal. As you can see the writer shown that the Tuvaches were totally disgusted at the offer of selling one of their children, but the Vallins looked at how much of a difference the extra money would make and ended up accepting.
Madame d’ Hubires picked up the screaming child and walked towards the door as others might bear off a coveted bargain from a shop.
As the d’ Hubires took the child away the Tuvaches stood on their doorstep, grim faced, probably regretting they had said no. That was the last that was seen of little Jean Vallin. Each month the Tuvaches collected their money and carried on with life. They fought with their neighbours all the time, because Madame Tuvache said horrible things about the Vallins because they sold their child and she didn’t.
“Anyone who sells their child must be unnatural.”
Then one day a carriage pulled up outside the two cottages, and a young man wearing a gold watch chain, stepped out. He walked straight into the Vallins cottage. The Vallins turned round as the young man said,
“Hello mother, hello farther.”
Madame Vallin was so shocked she dropped the soap in the sink. Now it is this part of the story where the twist comes in. You would expect Jean Vallin to be angry he was sold and you would expect Charlot Tuvache to be thankful he was kept. This was not the case. Jean Vallin swung his arms around his mother and kissed her, while his father stood there, shaking. That day they went round the showing off their son to the mayor, deputy mayor, village priest, and the village teacher.
That night Charlot told his parents it was their fault he was a failure. He told them that he blamed them because he didn’t get a chance in life. He said,
“O’ course I blame you, I blame you for being so soft in the head. Parents like you are the reason children get held back. It’d serve you right if I upped sticks and off.”
This twist will have come as a very big shock to the readers, as they were probably expecting Charlot to be happy his parents kept him. The writer makes him look very ungrateful. His mother started crying talking about how she had killed herself bringing up kids for nothing. So Charlot stood up and walked out the house shouting, “know what you are, stupid bogtrotting yonkels!” and with that he vanished into the night.
So as you can see the ending was the total opposite to what you would expect. So at the end of the story, the Vallins were reunited and the Tuvaches were split up.
The setting of the story fits in very well because it shows how poor the families were and why the money from selling the child was so important. I think the moral of this story is ‘ In some situations, there is never a right answer.’ I think in both of the short stories I have written about the ending has dramatically changed the story for the better. The writer has done this by carrying the same theme all the way through the story, but has still managed to create the unpredictable ending needed to make any short story successful.
