Gianna Spidale Mrs. Dautrich English Period 5 27 September 2024. Literary Essay: “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” In the realistic fiction story, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding,” by Evan Hunter, the author explores how a teenage boy tries to stay alive while lying on a sidewalk in the rain. Andy is a 16 year old boy in a gang called the Royals, who was at a party with his girlfriend. He left to go buy cigarettes, and when he was out, he was stabbed by another gang called the Guardians. Andy lay on the sidewalk dying, waiting for help. His girlfriend finally found him and got the police, but Andy was already dead by the time they tried to help him. In this short story, Hunter uses dialogue and foreshadowing, to convey the theme that everyone is different in …show more content…
A few moments after Andy got stabbed, a drunk man came upon him, and misunderstood what was happening, so he said to Andy, “‘Should be ashamed of yourself. Drunk and lay in an alley, all wet. Shame on you’” (Hunter, 2). This demonstrates someone who is judging someone else based on the situation they are in. This shows that the drunk man is making the situation worse by having a false opinion on Andy, and not helping him. This dialogue helps the reader understand that the drunk man played a big role in the story because he was the first person that could have helped Andy, but because of the drunk man mistaking what really happened, Andy was not saved right at that moment. Although the drunk man was not any help to Andy, this connects to the theme that it is not okay to judge people without knowing what they are going through. Though Hunter uses dialogue to relate to the theme, he also uses foreshadowing to show what happens to Andy. As time goes by and Andy is still laying in the rain in pain, a couple finds Andy and wants to help him, until they see his jacket. The girl in the couple, Angela, asks Freddie, her boyfriend, “‘What should we do, Freddie?’”