Text Analysis (3)

Just Two Young Boys Playing

Authors Note:  I wrote this to demonstrate text analysis.

It is the nineteen forties during World War Two.   In “After You, my Dear Alphonse”  by Shirley Jackson,  Johnny comes home with a friend that is African American named Boyd.  Mrs. Wilson assumes that Boyd is poor and needs clothes.  That is the same in “A Clean, Well- lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway.  The younger waiter assumes the old man is there to drink and drink.  In both the stories people speculate things about other people that they have no clue of.  Mrs. Wilson assesses the situation and assumes that he is poor, because the color of his skin.   In the cafe the old man is grumpy and the young waiter just wants to go home and he sends the old man home.  He assumed that he was there just make the waiters have to stay there.

First of all, Mrs. Wilson assumes that Boyd is in need of food and clothes.  She also assumes that Boyd’s dad is big and has to work as a lower class worker at his job.  Mrs. Wilson also assumed that Johnny made Boyd carry the wood that the two boys played with.  The two waiters in “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” have to give the old man beer.  One of the waiters assesses the situation and assumed he was there to drink away.  He says “Why can't he drink at a bar?  They are open all night.”  When the man asked for more beer the young waiter stopped him.

Second of all, “After You my Dear Alphonse” seemed to be in the southern United States, because Mrs. Wilson saw a lot of racism to the African Americans.  She doesn't want Johnny to be like that. When she saw Boyd carrying the wood, Mrs. Wilson thought that Johnny made Boyd carry the wood.  When she assumes that he is poor she is was trying to give him stuff that he said he has.  In “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” it seems in England or were they have cafes and bars.  The older waiter says that the café is light and the bars are dark.  That is why the old man wants to drink at the café.

Third of all, the cafe in “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” symbolizes light and happiness.  The old man isn’t happy and almost committed suicide, because he feels lonely.  The young man says he should just drink at home so that the waiters could go home earlier than two o’clock.  When the old man asks for more the young man stops him and the old man gets up and hobbled slowly away.  The young waiter watched him walk way.  The older waiter yelled at the younger waiter asking why had to make the old man leave.  He explained what the café had symbolized.

Last of all, the messages in these stories are that don’t assume something that you have no clue how the other person’s life really is.  The waiter assumed that the old man was there just to drink away.  Mrs. Wilson assumed that Boyd was poor.  The waiter assumed, because the man just kept drinking and Mrs. Wilson assumed because the color of Boyd's skin.  She was giving him clothes and saying that he liked food that she has no clue if he likes.  She says that his dad must be big and strong just because he was African American without even seeing his dad before.  That explains why the message is not to assume things about people you don't know about.