Miller, Kai
Gomez, Marissa
Period 1
10-12-06
The Osage Orange Tree:
SHORT STORY ANALYSIS
By: William Stafford
SUMMARY:
The
crisis of The Osage Orange Tree, by William Stafford, is that
the main character/narrator is a new student to a high school and does
not know anyone. The conflict of the story is that the narrator
wants to get to know a girl named Evangeline better. In an attempt to
do so, the narrator meets acquaintances with Evangeline and starts to
sell her the paper even though her house was way out of the way from
his paper route. As you read on in the book, the narrator discovers
that Evangeline is from a poor family and that her brother was the janitor
at the school. “A big dark boy he was - a man, middle-aged I thought
at the time”, was how the narrator described Evangeline’s brother.
As the year ended at the high school, the narrator had to start teaching
a new paperboy his route because he would be moving soon because his
father was a big salesman of farm equipment in that part of the state.
On the very last day of school, when the seniors were receiving their
diplomas, the narrator noticed that Evangeline was not at the ceremony.
Finding this odd, the narrator speaks with Evangeline’s older brother
after the ceremony to see where she was. Evangeline’s brother revealed
to the narrator that she could not come because she had spent the money
that she was supposed to have saved for her graduation dress. Finding
this odd, the narrator rushes to find the new paperboy to get a paper
to give to Evangeline at the tree where she always waited, but strangely
enough, she was not there. So, for the first time ever, the narrator
walks up the path by the tree to Evangeline’s house only to be told
to go away by her mother. Part disappointed, part ashamed, the narrator
walks back to the tree where he used to meet with Evangeline everyday.
There he threw the newspaper he was holding under the bridge and then
looked where it had landed, and what he found underneath the bridge
was a years worth of newspapers.
This
story is told from a 1st person point of view set in the
past.
The
conflicts of The Osage Orange Tree
are internal and external. The internal conflict is that the narrator
wants to get to know Evangeline better. The external conflict
is that the narrator walked to the Osage Orange tree everyday in every
kind of weather to give Evangeline her newspaper.
Conflict: Person vs. self
Person vs. person
Person vs. nature
Person vs. society
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:
The
main character of this story develops from being a new student at a
high school to a normal kid who fits in and has a few friends. He meets
a girl named Evangeline and finds a way to see her every day and possibly
grow closer to her, but ends up not being able to see her again.
THEMES: