The Cellmate
“The Cellmate” by Crystal Arbogast
“The Cellmate” is a text by Crystal Arbogast, and the story is set in a small town called Whitesburg Kentucky in the USA. The story takes place in the summer of 1925, and includes a protagonist and two important supporting characters. The title obliviously indicates that the story will have something to do with a cellmate; therefore we can say that the title is some sort of foreshadowing. Crystal Arbogast has used the third person limited as point of view, and furthermore her style of writing is quite detailed. Some of the themes in this short story are prejudice, death penalty or the fact that there has to be a co-existence between the good and the bad in the world.
The plot is about Andy, a man who lives in Whitesburg who is known for his homemade liquor. On this exact Indian summer day in 1925 there is only one thing that seems to disturb the inner peace of our protagonist, and that is the fact that a young man called Lloyd is in prison for having killed a woman and for this reason is sentenced to death the following day. As Lloyd does not fit Andy’s idea of a killer, he continues to wonder whether he really killed this poor woman and if so, perchance someone else had anything to do with the murder. In the story some townspeople ponder that Lloyd’s mother, Annie, was the one who persuaded him to kill that woman. Later in the afternoon Andy is bound to pass the night in the same cell as the killer Lloyd, due to the sheriff’s amusement. In the following morning Lloyd was executed. Later when Andy was released, he decided to take care of Lloyd’s dearest possession; his horse, which was Lloyd’s last wish.
The story begins with the author describing the beautiful nature and landscape of Whitesburg, which she also describes as “truly God’s country”. Moreover she uses the literary device circular composition, which means that the opening and the finish is somehow linked together; in this story it is the beginning’s sunrise
“The Cellmate” is a text by Crystal Arbogast, and the story is set in a small town called Whitesburg Kentucky in the USA. The story takes place in the summer of 1925, and includes a protagonist and two important supporting characters. The title obliviously indicates that the story will have something to do with a cellmate; therefore we can say that the title is some sort of foreshadowing. Crystal Arbogast has used the third person limited as point of view, and furthermore her style of writing is quite detailed. Some of the themes in this short story are prejudice, death penalty or the fact that there has to be a co-existence between the good and the bad in the world.
The plot is about Andy, a man who lives in Whitesburg who is known for his homemade liquor. On this exact Indian summer day in 1925 there is only one thing that seems to disturb the inner peace of our protagonist, and that is the fact that a young man called Lloyd is in prison for having killed a woman and for this reason is sentenced to death the following day. As Lloyd does not fit Andy’s idea of a killer, he continues to wonder whether he really killed this poor woman and if so, perchance someone else had anything to do with the murder. In the story some townspeople ponder that Lloyd’s mother, Annie, was the one who persuaded him to kill that woman. Later in the afternoon Andy is bound to pass the night in the same cell as the killer Lloyd, due to the sheriff’s amusement. In the following morning Lloyd was executed. Later when Andy was released, he decided to take care of Lloyd’s dearest possession; his horse, which was Lloyd’s last wish.
The story begins with the author describing the beautiful nature and landscape of Whitesburg, which she also describes as “truly God’s country”. Moreover she uses the literary device circular composition, which means that the opening and the finish is somehow linked together; in this story it is the beginning’s sunrise