Short Stories

In the two short stories, "The Free Radio" and "Everything Rises Must

Converge," the main characters of each story have to make many important

decisions/choices. The choices that are made change how other characters see the main

character as well as how they react to them.

In the short story, "The Free Radio," by Salman Rushdie, Ram has many choices

to make throughout the story. Ram who could have had anything in the world he wanted

made many poor choices. Ram was the cutest guy in the town; he had everything going

for him. Then he met the widow and her five children, and he also started hanging with

the youth armbands, these people lead to the downfall of Ram. The radio represented a

way for Ram to escape reality and when Ram didn't get it he had to deal with all the

negative choices he made. This is what hurt Ram because he had made so many negative

choices in throughout the story. The theme of this story is to be happy in whatever you do

and if your not you can always move to a new town and start over like Ram did.

In the short story, "Everything That Rises Must Converge," by Flanery O'Connor,

Julian learns there are more people in this world other than himself. The way he learns

this is by taking his over weight mother every Wednesday night to the Y so she could

exercise. Julian's mother is scared to go by herself because her town has become

segregated. In the story there is an expensive hat that is wore by Julian's mother. The

mother was skeptical to wear it because she thought it was funny looking, but she wore it

anyway. While on the bus to the Y a colored lady came on with a similar hat as Julian's

mothers. When Julian saw this he began to make fun of his mother because she had the

same hat as a colored person. The hat represents how race doesn't matter in the choice

making process. It doesn't matter what race you are, everybody has the same choices

throughout life.