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Summary Of After The Plague By Thomas Coraghessan Boyle

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If you ask any person to list the top things they would want in a dream life they would most likely account money and luxurious things, but are they necessary to achieve happiness? In Thomas Coraghessan Boyle’s short story, “After the Plague”, although the main character Francis Xavier Halloran (aka Jed) felt that he needed wealth and fame to be happy due to a broken childhood, after analyzing the literary element characterization reveals that Jed would rather live a simple life with someone he can connect with after he opens up to Felicia. Jed is quickly thrust into an apocalyptic situation while he is off on a sabbatical leave in a cabin in the middle of the woods. Boyle introduces some of Jed’s core struggles when he begins to talk about how he wants to make money writing a novel about “my deprived and miserable Irish-Catholic upbringing” where it is portrayed as if he only wanted to write about it to make money off it. When he mentions his inspiration for the novel, he didn’t mention how he felt a connection to that person he just wanted to enjoy the same money and fame that the other teacher had received after writing their novel. Most people write about their childhood to either relive …show more content…

Sarai has just been stranded in the woods after her husband disappears in the woods, when she is about to receive the worst news someone could possibly hear: all her family and loved ones are dead. Instead of being heartfelt and compassionate when telling Sarai, Jed begins be telling her in a “dismissive” manor and follows with “’If you don’t believe me,’ I said, and I was gloating, I was, sick as it may seem, ‘try the radio.’”. This portrays to the read not only Jed’s lack of care towards the situation, but also his lack of empathy and untimely causes Sarai to hate him in the first place. How could you stay with someone that is not fazed at all by the end of all of

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