...Killings Analysis Style and Technique “Killings,” one of Dubus’s best-known and most respected stories, was the basis for the film In the Bedroom (2001). Although the story revolves around passion and violence, Dubus tells the tale in a flat, calm way. The first two acts of violence are dropped into the story unexpectedly and without emotion. The story opens with Frank’s funeral, then moves on to the conversation between Willis and Matt about how Matt wishes he could kill the man who murdered his son, but the reader does not know who killed Frank, how, or why. Next, in a long descriptive paragraph, Richard is introduced. He is first connected to Frank by the flat opening line of the next paragraph: “One night he beat Frank.” Only then does the reader learn about Mary Ann, and Matt’s and Ruth’s differing feelings about her. In a lovely, lyrical scene, Mary Ann joins the Fowlers for a barbeque after a day at the beach. Matt’s love for his son is mixed with a wistful attraction to Mary Ann. She is beautiful, but Matt sees in her eyes a sadness and pain that he and his family have been spared, and he wishes he could help and comfort her. The next paragraph starts with, “Richard Strout shot Frank in front of the children.” Such jarring shifts of mood are used to emphasize how quickly life can turn from sunny to violent and how swiftly the good things in life can be taken away. The story’s point of view is that of the limited omniscient narrator. The reader sees the events through...
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...atonement is symbolic of a savior, or Jesus Christ, taking the eternal blemish of mortal sins upon himself so the baptized, and practiced, Christians are void of being dealt an otherwise infinite damnation of their souls. Christ's sacrifice for the atonement would satisfy the need for an eternal justice system to be activated. In likeness of the short stories, "Killings" by Andre Dubus and "By and By" by Amy Bloom, the need for a final sacrifice to justify murders, or previous sins, is determined by the decisions of Matt Fowler in "Killings” and the Narrator in "By and By" as they decide to individually offer a sacrifice of themselves, as opposed to turning to a system of justice outside of themselves (the government), and are forcing themselves to feel the weight that a savior, such as Jesus Christ, might have felt as they commence to take...
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...In Flannery O' Connor's short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," a character who calls himself The Misfit murders random, innocent people. When he crosses paths with the protagonist of the story, an overbearing grandmother, he attempts to justify his murders, claiming that there is "no pleasure but meanness" before he murders her as well (O'Connor 1295). At this point, a reader must question why The Misfit finds pleasure in killing and punishing people. The true answer to this question, while contradictory to his previous statements, is that he does not truly find pleasure in killing people; rather, he feels that his murders provide a form of justice and equality in a world that lacks these attributes. The actions of Matt Fowler, the vengeful...
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