Comparing Stories 'Sandwich Money And Walking Around Town'

When we were children stories like Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk seemed like amazing reads, but now as teenagers and adults we look back and find the stories pretty bland and even broken. But, why? These stories have characters and plot, but the reason is that they have no character development. This leaves us unsatisfied. But luckily there are stories that give us character development that gives us even greater plots. Two stories that leave us satisfied with eminence storytelling are “Sandwich Money” by ReadWorks, and “Walking Around Town” by Michael Stahl. They prove how the development of characters advances the plot as a whole by affecting the way the characters view themselves, creating more realistic and relatable

For example in the ReadWorks story when the main character decides to buys the hawk to free it, we understand that it’s because she relates to the hawk being caged up. When she questions her actions at home she thinks, “Inside the tank, the hawk took a couple of steps, one forward, and one back. It looked bored. It looked sad. It looked like it was in a glass box that was way too small, so it looked huge and uncomfortable. Okay. I’ll buy him ... I can’t say exactly what made me do that. Grilled cheese money burned a hole in pocket, and I bought a bird of prey at a funny variety store on a lonely block in Koreatown” (lines 94-105). Even though the main character does not understand why she did this it’s pretty obvious that she did this, because she too feels trapped and caged. Readers starts to understand that she is caged by her job. In order to pay for her spendings she flips grilled cheese sandwiches. She clearly states that all she does in life is go to work and come back, if she quits working she will not be able to afford her apartment and and other necessities. The readers begins to view her as caged and yearning for freedom. Likewise in Stahl’s story, “Walking Around Town” readers realize that the main characters Doug and Eve are part of an enormous ecosystem one they decide to change up their routine, and step outside of their own little world.

In Sandwich Money we relate with the main character when you goes off to explore the Koreatown streets with more curiosity than determination to fix her bike. She talks about her curiosity saying, “Forlorn places draw artistic eyes all the time;I locked my sad bike against a signpost thinking of that Edward Hopper painting of an empty,all‐night diner. My eyes aren’t artistic but I still wanted to see a little bit more of this place, so I pushed open the door of a store that looked, from its few tiny windows, like a kitchen supply and bulk fabric store hybrid” (lines 40-44). Once she enters the variety shop she is distracted in a heartbeat, checking out each area of the store and all the products. She even forgets to ask about getting her bike repaired. In the beginning of the story the main character appears to be a robot, commuting back and forth between work and home, which very unrelatable. But when she drops that attitude and starts to wander the store we see a more human side of her. In the same way Doug and Eve in Walking Around Town see more human once they leave their house. In the beginning they explain how they are inside people who would rarely go outside for anything unnecessary.”Both Doug and Eve … usually took full advantage of their days off by lounging around their apartment, reading and watching television. This was especially true throughout the winter,