Garcia 1

Sophia Garcia

20 Mar 2022

ENGWR 301

Prof Marchak

Essay 1 Rough Draft

For our first essay, I chose to analyze the short story “Samuel” by Grace Paley. Written in

1974, this story follows four boys as the stand on top of a moving subway car. Some people

around them look in disappointment and disgust, while others daydream about past times when

they acted in the same ways as well. Some of the story goes by when a passenger in the train

musters up the courage to say something to these boys, even though she knows they will have a

negative reaction to her. Just as she thought, the boys take her statements with a grain of salt and

do not stop what they are doing. At the end of the story, an unnamed man on the train is so

angered by their disrespect that he decides to stand up and pull the train's emergency cord—this

is where the climax happens. In pulling the cord, all the passengers shift as the train comes to a

halt, including the boy atop the train. Out of the four boys, Samuel loses his balance and grip,

falls from the top of the train , and is crushed between two train cars. The story ends with two

trainmen pulling his body from the tracks, it is made clear that this is not the first time they have

done this. In the end, a policeman tells Samuel’s mother about the accident. His mother’s story

starts here as she lives through the grief. Her story, while short-lived, is descriptive enough for

readers to understand what she went through losing her child. She and her husband had more

children, but realized they will never be able to

replace Samuel, for there was no other child like him.

 Garcia 2

In this story I saw two themes, bravery and danger. Taking a look at bravery, we could

say that the boys on top of the car were brave, even though most people would call their actions

foolish. However, imagining the boys atop the train reminds us of the thin line between bravery

and foolishness. The line exists throughout all of life, and it is our job to balance on it; If we tip

the scales too far in one direction, we risk losing the game of life. Taking a step back from the

obvious, the boys are not the only ones to show us bravery. The woman on the train, the only one

who decided to say something to the boys, she is brave. In her head, she knows the boys will not

take her warning positively, nor will they have a happy reaction to it. On top of that, she is

embarrassed to speak to them, but her awareness of danger overcomes her in the moment as she

decides their actions are too risky to continue. While everyone else is thinking the same thing,

the woman is the only one who decides to say something. She speaks when no one else does, that

is brave.

Now that we’ve covered bravery, let’s dissect the danger theme. I know we said the boys

standing on the train were brave, but it was also dangerous. That’s not a guess either, someone’s

life was lost due to this act. While this action is dangerous within itself, it reminds the reader that

sometimes life can be dangerous, and in doing reckless things we can risk it all. It was made

clear that Samuel had done this thing many times before and, more than likely, he would’ve

survived it one more time, had the unnamed man not gotten in the way. The male passenger that

pulled the cord did it strictly out of anger, regardless of potential consequences. It is known that

anger can blind us and make us do dangerous things-- if the man were more capable of

controlling his emotions, he may not have pulled the cord causing Samuel to lose his grip or

balance, Samuel may not have fallen, and in the end he may have lived to see another day.
 Garcia 3

Now I will say, it is very easy to identify a symbol in a story when it is put right in your

face— crows mean death, roses mean love, and even white hats are worn by heroes.. However,

in this story, there is no obvious symbol. By digging deeper into my brain, I decided that the

boys were the symbol in this story. Playing off the theme of danger, life is represented by the

boys during the story. Negatively, life can be: unknown, dangerous, and scary. Positively, life

can also be exciting, joyful, and adventurous. Ultimately, with all aspects involved, you can

survive life itself. When acting fearlessly, adrenaline takes over, your brain forgets the fight of

flight, and you just live in the moment. The boys on the train remind us, as readers, to do both:

live life dangerously but balance it with caution. We can control ourselves and our bodies, but

we cannot control that of those around us. When we are not cautious of all the dangers that are

out there, including people, we can become careless enough to lose the game of life.

For character analysis, I decided dissect the unnamed man who pulled the cord. He is

described as a white man, older in age. and has no identifiable traits; These facts makes him a

flat and static character. He is the obvious antagonist in the story and he feels anger, disgust, and

disapproval towards all four boys on the train. Like a true antagonist, the man seems to be put in

the story to simply cause harm. Because his life was different from Samuel’s, he could not

empathize with the boys’ actions in the slightest. Unlike the other passengers, he cannot

remember a time where he acted the same ways the boys did—so much so that he finds himself

disgusted while watching the boys acting recklessly atop the train. His actions in the story were

driven by anger and he was the ultimate reason Samuel died. By Grace Paley stating that the man

looked at the boys for a couple of seconds before pulling the cord, she zooms into his true

motives behind his dangerous actions. As we know, Samuel was doing something dangerous, but

without the man’s interference, chances are he would’ve survived.

 Garcia 4

In closing, I chose to analyze “Samuel” by Grace Paley because I felt that, even though it

was the shortest, it was the most complex and it made me think. They short story was

descriptive, packed with detail, and was never boring for a second. The story’s theme and

symbols were not thrown in your face, requiring more complex and critical thinking. The plot

was action-packed, with an obvious climax, and a hopeful ending regarding Samuel’s mom. The

characters a simple, but ultimately require deep analysis to try to understand their actions. Fiction

is my favorite genre, and it was fun analyzing it, in depth, for the first time.