“Turkle” By.David Carpenter
10/7/2013
Kay Gendron-Guest
Turkle
By. David Carpenter
Guilt is not a simple feeling but is a past event attached with a lesson in a person’s life. In the short story “Turkle” by David Carpenter, Elmer the farmer felt tremendous guilt after he told his wife, Elsie that he would be taking the children to school no matter the weather. This foolish action not only put his three children in danger but himself as well, resulting in the four almost all losing their lives.
The character I personally admire would be Elsie Foster. Elsie was smart enough to know her family shouldn’t have gone out into the blizzard, although she couldn’t stop them she did try. Shortly after the blizzard when Elsie had discovered her family freezing practically to death, she did not even utter the words ‘I told you so” or any other uncouth or sarcastic remarks, but instead showed nothing but compassion and love towards her frozen family. I admire Elsie as although she was proven right she did not gloat about her notion but instead took full responsibility and care towards her family, nursing them all back to health and good temperature.
The character I dislike the strongest would be Elmer Foster. I believe he is uppity and lacks common sense. Although Elmer is the “man of the house” I disbelieve he wears the “pants” in the relationship between him and Elsie. I strongly believe Elmer likes to always present himself as right but mostly always is wrong. The event of the Fosters could have simply been avoided if Elmer wasn’t so pigheaded towards his wife. In the end Elmer comes to the conclusion that bad choices produce bad outcomes, and this was a bad outcome.
As I read the short story “Turkle” I felt as if I had a strong connection understanding that decisions that are believed to be small can have a strong, large impactful conclusion. Although a decision may seem simple at the time, it is