Analysis of Stone Soup and The Gangster as Tragic Hero
It is said that Americans are raised on certain values and all live and strive toward the American dream. Somewhere along the way, though, lines were strewn and those values and morals became extinct by nature. Now with misinterpreted ideals and ideas of logical fallacies as our only reference to the normal way of living, life is made to be more complicated and full of anxiety. In the short stories of “Stone Soup” by Barbara Kingsolver and “The Gangster as Tragic Hero” by Robert Warshow these non-realistic values are tackled and confronted to reveal the true ideals of the modern day world and the effects on its people. In the story “Stone Soup” Barbara Kingsolver explains how the common modern day family isn’t that ideal “Family of dolls” that many people strive for. The passage was written from Barbara’s first person view and told the story of her divorce, her conditioned journey through it, and the lessons that emerged. Growing up, she believed that the perfect family consisted of a father, mother, sister, and little brother all living together in harmony. After her divorce, Barbara’s views had a slight change. “Once upon a time I held these beliefs about divorce: that everyone who does it could have chosen not to do it. That’s it’s a lazy way out of marital problems. That is selfishly puts personal happiness ahead of family integrity. Now I tremble for my ignorance.” (Barbara Kingsolver)
From her divorce, brought enlightenment and Kingsolver could now see the logical flaws in the idea of “a perfect family”. The flaws were that our society is ever changing and changes bring on different views of what a perfect family should be to everyone. “Colonial families were tidily disciplined, but their members labored incessantly and died young, Then the Victorian family adopted a new division of labor, in which women’s role was domestic and children were allowed time for study and