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The point of view is that of first-person narrator, John Smith, who, as an adult, is reassessing an episode in his life when he was nineteen. He dedicates the story to his late (fictional) stepfather. The events unfold shortly after the death of Smith’s mother in 1939, when he and his stepfather return to Manhattan from Paris, where the family had spent the Great Depression years. As housemates, the “exceptionally unpleasant†Smith and his “live-and-let-live†widower stepfather are incompatible developing an Alphonse and Gaston relationship. Seeking escape, Smith applies for, and is accepted, as an instructor at a Montreal, Quebec correspondence art academy, “Les Amis des Vieux Maîtres†operated by Monsieur I. Yoshoto.[5] Smith’s résumé overstates his artistic credentials and further, he falsely claims to be a descendent of Honoré Daumier and a confidant of Pablo Picasso.[6] He adopts the inflated moniker “Jean de Daumier-Smithâ€. Smith increasingly internalizes his own contrived persona.
The story comprises several vignettes which take place aboard a luxury liner. The events occur roughly between 10:00 and 10:30 am on October 28, 1952. Teddy is Theodore "Teddy" McArdle, a 10-year-old mystic-savant returning home to America with his entertainer-socialite parents and his younger sister. As part of their tour of Great Britain, Teddy has been interviewed as an academic curiosity by professors of religious and philosophical studies - the "Leidekker examining group" - from various European universities in order to test his claims of advanced spiritual enlightenment.
A family's grief deteriorates into rage when their daughter is killed by an infected animal.
This powerful tale of cruelty and sorrow has at least two levels. The first is a sad story about a dog and a very young child, who administers both protection and cruelty, until the dog's tragic death at the hands of the child's father. It is also an allegory and social criticism of post-Civil War Reconstruction, in which the dog represents recently freed slaves who continue to be mistreated under the pretense of being free; the child is the new generation of white Southerners who have good intentions to attempt protecting African-Americans, but haven't matured enough to offer a safe and nurturing environment; and the father embodies Jim Crow Laws, which enforced segregation and suppression of African Americans, stripping their rights, even though they are supposedly freemen, protected by Federal civil rights.
A story about a merchant and how an unexpected event changes his life for the worse, but in a way, for the better.
Trisha always wonders why is her father never at home unlike the fathers of all her friends.
Follow Thorgaut Kabbisson on his journey to becoming king of the North and a young Viking boy's growth into manhood to become the hero of legends and campfire tales.
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