Aiden Inhof Dautrich English Period 1 27 September 2024 Literary Essay: “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” In the realistic fiction short story “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” by Evan Hunter, the author shows the reader a crisis situation with a boy named Andy. First, a boy named Andy bleeds on the sidewalk after being stabbed by a gang called The Guardians. He meets with different people throughout his last seconds of life but none of them even help him with his wound because of reasons such as he is in a gang or people are ignorant. In the end, Andy bleeds completely after being seen by numerous people and then Laura, his girlfriend sees his body. In this short story, Hunter uses dialogue and symbolism to represent the theme that a label should never …show more content…
He watched people passing. The world didn’t know he was alive. He wanted to say, “Hey, look at me! I’m alive. Don’t you know I’m alive?” He felt weak and tired. He felt alone and wet. He knew he was going to die. It made him sad, but not afraid. He felt sad that his life was over at 16 He had never done anything, seen anything, been anywhere.“ Now the rumbles and purple jackets were not important. They seemed like such small things in a world he was missing. I don’t want to die, he thought, I haven’t lived yet.”(Hunter 3). This part of the dialogue shows the reader how Andy is feeling, and what his thoughts are towards the world, and people around him. He feels as if nothing matters to him anymore. The bruises, and the cuts on his body, don’t even mean anything anymore, because he is about to die. The theme of this is that the choices people make in life, define their future. Which can either end up great, or completely bad. People’s choices are what make things happen in life. In “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” by Evan Hunter, people have their choices. Some which can lead to the good, or the bad. And in this case Andy was in a gang called The Rivals. Freddie, with his girlfriend Angela, didn’t know