The introduction to this story sets a very intricate picture and helps to show the background of these characters. When Mr. Shiftlet comes to the house, I got quite confused. The story says that the old woman had never seen Mr. Shiftlet before. So I guess he just came there without warning? Maybe, he had a plan when he did go there. By the end of the story, you can see that he must have had an agenda.
There is some major forshadowing in this story. When Mr. Shiftlet is saying that the old woman does not know anything about him and that he could be a total liar, it is obvious that this is very relavent to the story. The car also seemed symbolic to me. It showed the life and character of the old woman and her daughter. Before it was fixed-up, it was representing the old woman. She is run down because of her time spent taking care of her daughter. It represents that her life fell apart. The man that is fixing the car can be viewed as fixing the lives of these people. When the car is fixed, it can represent the daughter, happily oblivious, but in the end when the man drives away with the car and without the daughter, it represents that the life of both characters had been taken away. I thought that the thunder was a good end to the story. It could possibly foreshadow the characters lives. They are destined to be filled with storms that they must weather.
Something that I just don't understand is why the old woman would want to marry her daughter off to a man that she really doesn't know anything about. Maybe she is just as selfish and cunning as he is. It could have been her plan all along to get rid of her daughter. The old woman could have been sick of taking care of her and saw this man as a way out. I really don't know if this is even relatively true, but it is a thought. The old woman could have truly wanted a good life for her daughter because thus far it hadn't been great. She really could have been just as nieve as her daughter.
I didn't really get why the part about the boy hitchhiker was in this. I guess that it just goes to show the lack of understanding between people. I guess this is kind of what this story is about. Everyone in this story overestimated the other characters. The old woman with the man, the man with the boy, and the daughter with them all. Some always like to see the good in people and if there isn't any to be seen, they decide to make some up.
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3 comments:
You know, I was wondering if he planned to go to that particular woman's home or not too. It never said if he just randomly picked her house or not. I never really looked into that much detail into the whole car thing, but now that you mention it, it does represent the old woman. I took it as the car was kind of both their lives. In the beginning they don't have much and the car is broken down, and in the end it is fixed up, and the daughter ends up getting married. I guess that doesn't last too long. I agree with the what you're talking about as far as their marriage goes. I would never want my mom to pick out my husband for me, especially if I didn't even know him. I thought this was kind of rude on her part. As far as the story goes, i didn't really enjoy it that much.
I did not realize that there was symbolism between the car and the characters. I had been wondering why the author kept mentioning the car, I guess now I know why. I think the old woman was getting pretty desperate. She has been raising Lucynell for thirty years, and she cannot say a word until Mr. Shiftlet comes along. I honestly think that she would have tried to get the first "decent" bachelor that came along to marry her daughter. I don't think she was really trying to get rid of her. I think she was just tired of caring for her and she needed someone else to provide for both of them. It doesn't say how old she is, but she's probably at least in her sixties. That would be very difficult and tiring to care for someone with special needs like that. There's also the possibility that she will die soon and needs someone to take care of her daughter.
I thought that maybe the boy was kind of like Mr. Shiftlet in his past. Maybe Mr. Shiftlet ran away, or was running away from something, and the boy was kind of like his chance to make it right by taking him home? I don't really know, that's just a guess.
I thought that Mr. Shiftlet had an agenda when he went to the house of the two women also. It seemed like he knew some information about the two of them, but they had never seem him before. I just didn't understand why Mr. Shiftlet chose this family. Has he done this before to other families? I think that he is a very shady and manipulative man. It made me wonder when Mr. Shiftlet told the mother he could be a complete liar and she would not know. It comes back to bite her in the end because he really is. I did not realize that there was so much symbolism between the car and the characters either.
I didn't understand why the mother just decided to marry her daughter off either. She kept saying that her daughter was special, and it would take a special kind of man to get her to approve. It seemed like it only took this man a few days to get her to approve. She made it out to seem like it was such a big task, but really it wasn't.
The hitchhiker added to the story just made Mr. Shiftlet seem more rude to me. I mean, he just left his new wife who is deaf and mute sleeping on the counter of a random diner, and he picks up a hitchhiker. That shows just what his intentions were with the daughter. He was just out to destroy what was left of the family. I just didn't really like him as a character!
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