One Hour

 Summary

“One Hour” is a story about a detective investigating a case regarding a man named Newhouse who was hit and killed by men driving a stolen vehicle. The case starts with Chrostwaite, owner of the stolen car, and discussion between him and his attorney Vance Richmond. Vance goes on to explain that one afternoon Chrostwaite went into his office and left the engine running, and when he returned to the car, it was gone. This incident led to a much more serious crime. The witnesses of Newhouse’s death reported seeing two men in the car, but they could not identify them. To gain more information, they brought in a detective to investigate further. He went to the victim’s printing company, finding Ben Soules (Newhouse’s foreman). He says that Newhouse had a heart condition and would sometimes need to skip work as a result. As a result of the boss’s death, Soules says they are behind and receives a call from Chrostwaite’s clerk during him and the detective’s meeting. As they start talking, three other men pop out of the shadows and later this becomes a fight. The fight is stopped by notice of the public and Coffee, a police officer mentioned early in the story. In the end, Van Pelt and Soules are the ones that committed the crime.



What do you notice especially as it concerns Character?


Character influences how the story is told. The story is told in the first person, so the detective refers to himself as “I.” This gives the reader a distinct understanding of his words, mindset, and internal dialogue. The detective often has very personal remarks to counterattack characters or in general, comments on people’s features, like Chrostwaite and his size with an example being a “balloon of a man. His repeated focus on weight indicates a pattern of thinking rather than a one-off thought. This inwardly focused character trait aligns with his work mindset in that he does not wish for outside opinion as he feels he can make better introspections on his own. He is insistent on collecting details first-hand rather than trusting the words of the authority around him. This independent nature can lead to a lack of judgment in certain cases, and this is shown in the discussion between him and Soules that later leads to the appearance of the four other guys, and he is left unprepared and without much of a reach for outside support.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Setting - The Chrysanthemums

You can tell that the story was written a long time ago. It takes place near Salinas Valley in California. The story is about a woman named Elisa and her husband Henry. Elisa is working in a crop area where she is trimming down chrysanthemums with a pair of scissors. Her work is interrupted by a meeting with her husband. They take a moment to talk about going into town later in the day after their work is done. Once they finish discussing their future plans, they part ways and Elisa notices a traveler come through. He said he is from Seattle. He takes this trip every year in his wagon all the way to San Diego. This gives you another indication of where the story takes place. It takes place in the 1900s.There's fog. It's December. The air is cold alongside a light wind. Elisa is working in the garden. She's wearing an apron. The traveler is in a wagon. People don’t generally use wagons to travel in this day and age. From what I'm getting, Elisa thinks more independently...
Read more

Viewpoint

Both “Obst Vw” and “The Bank Robbery” are similar in that they both display a dysfunctional dynamic between a male and female around the same age. In the case of “Obst Vw,” the relationship consists of the main protagonist, 16-year-old Demian and his 17-year-old girlfriend Rachel. In “The Bank Robbery,” both the male bank robber and the female bank teller are both around age twenty-five. Both stories vary in length as “Obst” is much longer than “The Bank Robbery.” The length of the story matters in this case, because we learn more information on Demian and Rachel’s relationship than the dynamic of the bank robber and the bank teller. Generally, longer stories contain more details, which allows for the reader to come to a better conclusion in making sense of the character’s interactions and thoughts that influenced their actions, which in turn influence the plot. It is unlikely that “Obst Vw” is called the title that it is, it only peeks into a small part of our main character’s life, a...
Read more

Plot - "A Simple Matter of Hunger"

  “A Simple Matter of Hunger” is a short story about a woman named Eleanor and the relationship she has with her foster baby Jancey. The inherent conflicts that Eleanor faces include wanting to help Jancey but not being able to due to only existing within the restricted role of a foster parent. She can’t feed her, and so, all she can really do is take her to the doctor and help in other aspects. Eleanor wishes to take on this caretaker role for Jancey but no matter what she does, it doesn’t take away from the fact the baby has AIDS. This initial conflict of caretaking of a chronically sick child draws an invisible line between her and the rest of the mothers. This is first shown when her and another mother are in the bathroom together. This other mother embracing Eleanor is what was probably a genuine act of reassurance but became recognition of how little Eleanor can do for Jancey. Fostering a chronically sick child generally requires more care than a healthy child. To offset othe...
Read more