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Avery Figliomeni

Mr. Young

ENG 3U

July 14, 2013

The Strangers that Came to Town

Sometimes if you are not accepted by others, you may not feel like you have a lot of freedom. In the short story, “The Strangers that Came to Town”, Ambrose Flack is showing that true freedom is about being accepted. In the story the Duvitch family immigrated to escape starvation, separation and possible assassination. The Duvitches wanted to be free. Ambrose Flacks shows how people in the neighborhood and community didn’t accept the Duvitch family, however towards the end they started to realize that they were good people.

In the beginning of Ambrose Flacks story, “The Strangers that came to Town” the Duvitches were not accepted by their neighbors. Ambrose Flack is showing that the Duvitches neighbors aren’t very accepting. People who live on Syringa St. with the Duvitches aren’t very accepting because the Duvitches are not well off, they look different and they are considered born savages. Firstly, people in the Duvitches neighborhood don’t accept them because they were a poor family. “But the Duvitches were marked people. They were the one struggling family in a prosperous community—and poverty, amid prosperity, is often embarrassing and irritating to the prosperous” (3). This proves that people were embarrassed by the Duvitches because they are not wealthy like most people on Syringa St. Secondly; the Duvitches were not accepted by their neighbors because they looked, and dressed differently. The text states, “They were considered unattractive physically. They were so meek!” (3). Lastly, the Duvitches weren’t accepted by their neighbors because everyone thought they were weird people for picking out of the garbage dump, “They were regarded as born scavengers too, for they spent hours foraging in the town dump, where they often picked up their footgear, some of their pants and shirts and furnishings for the house as well.” (4). Being free is being accepted by the people in your neighborhood.

Also in the beginning of Ambrose Flacks story, “The Strangers that came to Town” the Duvitches were not accepted by the people in their community. Ambrose Flack shows that people in the community weren’t very accepting people towards the Duvitches because they were treated poorly at school, and by business people. At school the Duvitch kids were teased because of what they ate for lunch, “some of their classmates scoffed at the leaf, lard and black bread sandwiches they ate for lunch” (4). The children at school didn’t have to make fun of what the Duvitches ate for lunch. Also, people who the Duvitches dealt with in the story often treated them very poorly.

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For example, the text states “Even the tradesmen to whom the Duvitches gave good money were either curt with them or downright rude” (5). Another person in the community who didn’t accept the Duvitches was Mrs. Frithjof Kinsella. Mrs. Frithjof Kinsella shows that she doesn’t accept the Duvitches because she treats them differently than other people in the community. The text states that, “Mrs. Frithjof Kinsella, the proprietor of the general store and a big jolly Viking who could be heard two blocks away, extended credit to almost everybody in town and had a way of insulting her customers so heartily that they all loved her for it. The Duvitches, however, Mrs. Kinsella very carefully did not insult (a form of insult in itself) and neither did she extend them credit.”(5) People in the community did not accept the Duvitches because they were immigrants and different. You cannot feel completely free unless you are accepted by the people in your community.

Towards the end of the story, “The Strangers that came to Town” the Duvitches became more accepted by the people around them. The neighbors and people in the community started to treat the Duvitches better. The Duvitches became more involved in the community because people started to accept them for who they were and give them a chance. “Nathan Duvitch, who was seventeen, could throw and hit a baseball as far as anybody his age in town, he was asked to join one of the local ball clubs” (16). The Duvitches started to feel like they had freedom when everyone started turning to them for any kind of help. In the story it says that, “The community presently had reason to be grateful for Mrs. Duvitch’s presence. It turned out that she had a great gift for nursing, and no fear of death, no fear of disease, contagious or otherwise. In times of severe illness Dr. Switzer often suggested that she be sent for” (16). Having complete freedom happens when people accept you for who you are.

At the beginning of the story, Ambrose Flack shows how the Duvitches weren’t accepted by people, however closer to the end of the story people started to realize that the Duvitches were good people. True freedom is about being accepted by the people in your neighborhood, community and when people give you a chance. In the short story, “The Strangers that Came to Town”, Ambrose Flack is showing that true freedom is about being accepted and in order to feel like you have complete freedom you must feel accepted by people around you.

Works Cited
Flack, Ambrose. The Strangers That Came to Town: 2007.