Alex Feicht
Intro to Lit.
10/29/12
The last three stories that we have read, “Araby”, “Paul’s Case”, and “The Red Convertible” all have themes and symbols that can somehow be connected to each other. One of the main things I noticed in all of the stories is that they all have one main thing that the short story focuses around; one main thing or idea that the main character seems almost obsessed with or is fascinated by throughout the whole story, until the end where that idea or thing or even person is lost. In “Araby,” our unnamed main character is obsessed with his friend Mangan’s older sister. In “Paul’s Case,” Paul is obsessed with theatre and even runs away to New York to experience it. In “The Red Convertible,” Lyman and Henry were obsessed with keeping the red convertible in perfect condition. In the story “Araby,” Our main character who is unnamed and also the narrator of the story, is always talking about Magnan’s sister. He talks about how when she would come to get Magnan from playing outside, he would stand by the railing watching her. Every morning when it was time for him to go to school, he would lay on the floor in front of the window and watch her door until she came out, and then he would race out the door and walk to school behind her. The one time she actually talks to him, he tells her he will get something for her at the bazaar, but once he’s there he realizes that she doesn’t actually care about him, and “his eyes burned with anger and anguish.” In “Paul’s Case,” Paul’s whole life is revolved around theater. He works as an usher at Carnegie Hall and loves what he does. “He carried messages and brought programmes as though it were his greatest pleasure in life.” Paul loves being in the concert hall and watching all of the actors and singers and performances. Sometimes after the shows are over, he will wait for the actors outside and follow them to the Schenley, where they stayed, longing to someday be able to enter with them. Paul hates being at home and at school and all he wants to do is be in the theater, it is his “fairy tale”, and when he enters the theater he “breathes like a prisoner set free.” Paul’s obsession with theater took over and he ran away to New York to experience the big shows and the real deal. While in New York, Paul goes to Broadway Street, The Park, The Orchestra, and lives a week of luxury and elegance by himself. His obsession with theater eventually ruins his life, as he ends up committing suicide and “dropping back into the immense design of things.” In our last story, “The Red Convertible,” brothers, Lyman and Henry love their red convertible. At the beginning of the story, the young brothers put their money together to buy the red convertible and they drove it everywhere. They took a trip that lasted a whole summer by just getting in and taking off driving, not caring where they were going; they just drove and went places. They picked up a hitchhiker somewhere in Montana and drove her all the way to Alaska, where she lived. The little red car ran like a champ and they made it the whole summer “without putting up the car hood at all.” When they returned from their trip, the Army took Henry away to the war and “turned him into a Marine.” While Henry was away for three years, Lyman used all of his free time to work on the car for his brother until he had it in perfect condition again. When Henry returned he had changed for the worst and was not the same old Henry that Lyman had remembered. Henry never talked or smiled or laughed or anything, he just sat and watched the colored TV. Henry hadn’t even looked at his beloved convertible since he’d been home. Lyman knew that the only thing that could bring the real Henry out was that car, so one night, he took a hammer and beat the underside of it, tearing things off