Literary Analysis District Assessment

Literary Analysis District Assessment Courage is doing what is right, even when the odds of succeeding are poor. In the short short story, “After Twenty Years” is about how two best friends parted at a restaurant and they promised to come back exactly 20 years later no matter what the circumstances are. One of the two friends Bob is patiently waiting in the door for his friend Jimmy while a police walks by to chat with him to see what he's waiting for. When Bob strikes his match, the police, who is actually Jimmy, realizes Bob is a wanted criminal and then arrests him with the help of a friend. In the poem “What Do We Do with a Variation?” by James Berry is about making the choice whether to make the right decision or just watch and let
it be. Throughout the poem, Berry is pondering on if he should act and do the right thing or let the problem be. Both authors use event and tone to suggest that is is always worth making the right decision, even though there might be an outcome you weren’t hoping for.

At the end of the short story, O. Henry uses the event when Jimmy turns in his best friend in to show making the right choice takes courage. For example, on page two O. Henry writes “‘You’re not Jimmy Wells,’ he snapped… ‘It sometimes changes a good man into a bad one’ said the tall man” (O. Henry pg 2). In other words, the tall man is saying that Wells seemed like a good person who you could trust but, he turned out to be a police officer and decided to turn his own friend in. Even though Wells didn’t want his friend to be in this situation, he still did the right thing by turning him in. From this, we can infer that Wells feels really bad for doing this to his own friend because he sent someone else out to go arrest him. Although he might have lost a friend, deep down he feels good for making the right decision instead of feeling guilty because he didn’t do whats right. This really strikes the theme because it shows how Wells had a ton of courage to arrest his own friend. When the author switches gears at this point of the story, the reader can finally see how making the right decision takes a lot of courage to do the right thing. Now the readers see how it was the right thing for Wells to step up and arrest his friend even though he didn’t want to. To wrap up all this information, you can see that this is a vivid point in the story when Wells made the right decision to arrest his friend.

At the end of the poem, Berry uses the event when he is wondering whether to make the right decision or not to show the theme of how it takes courage to do what's right. As an illustration, in the text on lines three through six it says, “Do we shut our eyes to it or poke it with a stick? Do we clobber it to death?” (Berry). At this point, the reader can see how Berry was pondering whether to do the right thing or to just let it be. I interpret this to mean that there was something going on that maybe shouldn’t have been happening. And, he wasn’t sure whether to sit back and watch it or step in and do the right thing. This illustrates the theme because this really shows how it takes a lot of courage to step in and do the right thing. This event effects the poem and makes the reader feel how much courage it sometimes takes to do the right thing even though you may lose someone or something. To conclude this evidence, the reader can see how it can sometimes be harder to make the right decision then just watching something wrong happen and let it slide.

At the end of the short story, O. Henry uses strong word choices and phrases to shape the objective theme. The description on page two is a perfect example of the objective tone. O. Henry uses words and short phrases such as “trembled” and “You’ve been under arrest for ten minutes”(O. Henry 2). to shape the objective tone into his writing. The author illustrates the tone from these words and phrases by adding these descriptive parts. This creates the feeling of reaching the goal of arresting Bob and doing the right thing. For example, when O. Henry used trembled to shape the tone of how Bob felt, my mood definitely changed how I felt about Wells had done because you could tell that Bob just realized that his own friend had turned him in. And when the tall man says, “You've been under arrest for ten minutes” (O. Henry 2). really shapes the objective tone into the story and makes the reader feel suspense. The mood of the story was mostly light for the majority of the story, but then becomes shocking when the police says that he’s been under arrest. When the author shifts the tone, the readers can finally see how much courage it took Wells to do the right thing. To tie up all this evidence, you can see how the objective tone really brings through the theme.

In the beginning of the poem, Berry uses selective phrases to shape the questioning tone into the piece.
The phrases “What do we do with a difference?” (Berry). and “Do we work for it to go away?” (Berry). are both perfect examples of the questions tone in his writing. In these short phrases, you can tell that Berry doesn’t know what to do and is questioning himself different possibilities of how to solve the problem. For example, when he asks himself what to do with a difference, you can tell that he isn’t sure if he should have courage and make a move or just let things be. And as Berry asks himself If he should work for it to go away, he is considering stepping up and trying to do the right thing. In other words, he’s trying to look for courage and do what is right. This all connects back to the main theme that doing what is right does take a lot of courage, even though some outcomes might be poor. The mood is shown through the majority of the story but once you hit the strong phrases in the poem, you can feel how tough it sometimes is to do what's right. The readers can now see how it's always best to make the right decision. Finally to conclude this evidence, you can tell by the tone that Berry told his poem, it can be very hard to make the right decision, but it's always the best
option.

In conclusion, both authors used event and tone to shape the theme of their stories about having courage and making the right decision. The events and tone of O. Henry's piece such as, Jimmy arresting his friend, words and phrases, trembled, you’ve been arrested, and Berry's story when he used, wondering to make the right action or not, what do we do with a difference, and do we work for it to go away, all are excellent examples of having courage and taking a stand for what's right. In life, situations similar to these may come across. If something like this were to happen, always keep in mind to make the right decisions. At the end of a possible bad outcome, you will always benefit from doing what's right.