Amy's Cunningness

“Cunning surpasses strength.” (German proverb). As the proverb states, the bodily strength of a human is inadequate when faced with the cunningness of one’s brain. This effectively applies to Amy’s character, from “Gore” written by Sarah Ellis. Amy faces her thieving brother’s, strength against her sly schemes and overpowers him, proving that the strength is no match for one’s brain. Amy’s cunningness is demonstrated by her unmistakable imagination, sneakiness and exceptional brilliance; as Sarah Ellis writes in the short story “Gore”.

Amy is observed as cunning, by her hugely creative imagination. Being imaginative gives her the idea to be cunning because she uses her creativity to come up with clever schemes, wanting to mislead Lucas, her

In “Gore” it is proven that Amy is indeed sneaky. Amy cautiously plans out a scheme to get her book back from her teasing brother, but in order to come forward with that plan sneakiness must come into play. “ ‘Amy?’ Two steps it is. I grab the door, swing around it, jump into the bathroom, and turn the lock.” (Ellis 8) Previously to this quote in the story, Amy manages to get Lucas to believe that the abduction is real, allowing Amy the time she needs to sneak into the bathroom he’s locked himself into. Hiding behind the door just waiting for the right moment, knowing that Lucas will come out to check on her, Amy slips into the bathroom just as the moment the door opens. Her sneakiness is what allows her to complete the final step of her plan: retrieving her book from the locked bathroom. Addition to this, Amy also demonstrates a sneaky personality when she falsely claims to be in an abduction, predicting her brother would become very worried and exit the bathroom to check on her. This plan is very sneaky and sly of her to execute. “ ‘Rats. Lucas, there’s someone at the door.’ ” (Ellis 5). This fragment from the story displays the kickoff of her delusive plan, pretending there are aliens at the door invading their house. How devious she is, to think of such a scenario, lying to Lucas in order to achieve her anticipated outcome. She

In order for one to reach the deception, of others there must first be a well thought out plan, that is only achieved by brilliance. Amy is clearly a brilliant, young girl who gains many talents, especially internal and intellectual aspects. “As the years have passed, my two areas of superior firepower, an extensive vocabulary and a gift for voice impersonation, have sometimes proved inadequate. I have been forced to take up psychological warfare.” (Ellis 4) As the quote states, Amy has accumulated various talents over the years contributing to her brilliance. When her talents prove unworthy to her use, she obtains another one to use as a replacement. As two of her talents prove unfit, she cleverly chooses to take up psychological warfare. Furthermore, Amy masters psychological warfare, deceptively luring Lucas out of the bathroom, proving how exceptional her ability to psychologically deceive someone is. “ ‘Lucas, break the window. Get out. For pity’s sake, don’t come out here.’ Then silence.” (Ellis 7) In this quote, her brilliant trickery shines through while creating a fake situation and making herself sound very distressed and panicked. Her ability to successfully scam her brother only by playing with his mind is pure brilliance, leading to her desired outcome. As Amy psychologically tricks Lucas, she intelligently uses a tactic to assure that the