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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page reaction paper to Dancing After Hours by Andre Dubus, which is a short story collection that addresses a variety of themes, protagonists and situations; however, the stories all deal with aspects of identity and the interpersonal social relations that are suppose to bring intimacy, security and understanding to people's lives. However, rather than offering these qualities, the relationships Dubus portrays most often bring change, pain, regret and uncertainty. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khadub.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
bring intimacy, security and understanding to peoples lives. However, rather than offering these qualities, the relationships Dubus portrays most often bring change, pain, regret and uncertainty. A principal theme
in this volume is the problem of identity. The author emphasizes the fact that each person lives in their own world and that true communication, even in intimate familial relationships,
is an illusion. For example, no one Kenneth Girards family, a thirteen-year-old loner, realizes how completely the adolescent lives within his fantasies of heroism. Dubus does an excellent job of
taking the reader into this world, which makes it perfectly plausible, even mandatory, that Kenneth would try to defend his sister from someone he perceives as an intruder and cause
the death of her boyfriend. As this suggests, the stories are expertly crafted and compelling, drawing the reader into the personal world of the characters and, in so doing,
making their problems and inner turmoil clear to the reader, where it is far from clear to the people in the characters lives. Dubus is subtle in developing the thematic
content of this volume. He does not state his perspective overtly, but rather allows the characters lives to speak for themselves, as he weaves in his realistic and somewhat depressing
viewpoint. His point appears to be that life is, in general, a painful, isolated experience, as the connections that people feel they have are tenuous at best and somewhat
illusionary. The love that a woman thinks she shares with her husband is illusionary, as he leaves her for another woman; people die; children grow up, over and over throughout
the book, Dubus stresses that change is the only life factor that is absolutely certain. Some of his characters accept this reality. They continue to take chances, and cultivate new
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