The Sound Of Summer Running Chapter Summary

Have you ever felt so happy and motivated by something, to the point that you feel you can do anything? The characters from the short story “The Sound of Summer Running” by Ray Bradbury experience this euphorium by wearing a pair of tennis shoes. The main character, Douglas, is presumably a teenager who admires a pair of tennis shoes every day. His father sees no point in buying them, and Douglas does not have enough money to buy them himself. But Douglas is so fixated on getting these shoes that he makes a deal with the shoe-shop owner, Mr. Sanderson, that if he works for him he can get the shoes a dollar off. Douglas proceeds to convince him by having Mr. Sanderson try the shoes on and explains the magic behind new shoes. To both Douglas

Sanderson. In order to actually get the pair of shoes, Douglas decides that he will do chores for Mr. Sanderson and pay him a dollar short of the price in exchange for the shoes. He explained to Mr. Sanderson that he would be able to do anything, including chores for him, in the shoes. He even convinced him to try on the shoes to experience the motivation that courses through him. Douglas says, “Bang! I deliver your packages, pick up packages...Feel those shoes, Mr. Sanderson, feel how fast they’d take me? Feel how they kind of grab hold and can’t let you alone and don’t like you just standing there? Feel how quick I’d be doing the things you’d rather not bother with?...But it’s not me really, it’s the shoes. They’re going mad down alleys, cutting corners, and back! There they go!” (Bradbury 45).Though Douglas is trying to convince Mr. Sanderson in letting him get the shoes for a discount, he is also showing him the magic of the shoes. He explained that he could do anything for him in the shoes. Douglas’s choice of words shows his eagerness for them. Such as the italicized “feel” and “standing”. The italics portray the emphasis on the words and the point Douglas is trying to make. He uses words like “cutting corners” and “Bang!” for even more emphasis and to hook Mr. Sanderson and the reader into what he is saying. The significance of the shoes can clearly be seen through Douglas’s eagerness to do anything