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Summary Of Themes In 'City Visit And Ranch Girl'

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Recommended: Life and death in literature

A few overarching themes that connect several of the stories in the Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction are determinism, fate, and mortality. While these themes appear in many of the stories, they are especially prevalent in the stories “On the Rainy River”, “City Visit”, and “Ranch Girl”. In the story “On the Rainy River”, a young man named Tim finds out that he has been drafted to serve in the Vietnam War, which he is opposed to. Although he describes himself as “politically naive” (Beha and Oates 630), Tim also talks about how he feels that the war is deeply wrong and it is useless for the United States to be involved in it (Beha and Oates 630). When Tim receives his draft notice, he spends the first part of his summer …show more content…

She seems to be resigned to and understand the rules and roles that have been put in place for her. She doesn’t sleep with the boy she has a crush on because she believes that he won’t want to marry her if she does. She doesn’t apply herself in school, so that she can avoid attention and get away with going to the school where crush goes, which accepts everyone (Beha and Oates 554). However, her plan backfires as the boy she planned her life around dies in a car accident. After this, she begins to see her lifestyle and the similar ones of those around her, such as her mother and best friend, in a different …show more content…

For example, in “City Visit”, Brendan feels as though if he continues to live in the same small town he’s always lived in, he will turn out to have the same sad and monotonous life as the rest of his family, especially his father. To avoid this, Brendan decides that he wants to try to escape the life that had been laid out for him as a closeted gay kid living in a rural community. He sees his future not only in his father, but also in his homosexual language arts teacher, Mr. Growley, who he sees as the epitome of what not to become (Beha and Oates

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