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The Man In The Well By Ira Sher

850 Words4 Pages

The Man in the Well is a story written by Ira Sher in 1995. It tells of a group of young children who stumble upon a well while playing and discover that there is a man hollering in the bottom of it. Although the children knew he needed help, they chose not to help him. Many ideas are speculated as to why they did not help the man. Some believe that them being children in general was the reason they did not help the man. Others claim that the children were being cruel because they knew they had power over the man and that is why they did not help him. Although some will disagree, most believe that the children chose not to help them because they could have felt more confident or felt pressured by the group, children in general have vivid …show more content…

They can also feel pressured by group members. Both of these factors can lead to making the wrong decision in certain situations. For example, “I think it’s important we decided not to help him. Everyone, like myself, was probably on the verge of fetching a rope, or asking where we could find a ladder, but then we looked around at each other and it was decided. I don't remember if we told ourselves a reason why we couldn’t help him, but we had decided then.” (Sher 2). Children are often put into uncomfortable situations while in groups that makes them shut down their idea, which may be the right one, if their peers disagree. They can also be at risk of being bullied or made fun of if they make the right decision, just because they had a different …show more content…

In the passage, the children realized that since the man was trapped in the well and they were not, they could do whatever they wanted and most likely not have consequences because the man was trapped. An example is in paragraph sixteen, which states “She looked around at us, and then she called down “ Yes, they’re all gone now. Isn’t there any water down there?” I don’t think anyone smiled at how easy it was to deceive him — this was too important. “Isn’t there?” she said again.” (Sher 16). This quote is a good example of being a bigger person. She realizes she can easily deceive him by lying and telling him they left to get help, even though they were all there. It is also a great example of the statement above where children can feel over confident while in a

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