Death of the Right Fielder by Stuart Dybek

It's fascinating that Dybek's able to spin a whole story around a dead character. It's amazing how every detail stems from the unlikely death of this "outsider." Dybek definitely allows his imagination to run with the possible causes of the right fielder's death. Although his imagination is indulged in the story, every tangent he ventures is visceral and laced with powerful imagery that drives the narrative forward. For example, "he'd had an allergic reaction to a bee sting, been struck by a single bolt of lightning from a freak, instantaneous electric storm, ingested too strong a dose of insecticide from the grass blades he chewed on..." Regardless of the likelihood of these scenarios, the imagery and relationship to the tone and content make them plausible and appropriate. From Dybek's controlled indulgence, I can glean that our imagination should be followed within the boundaries of the narrative at hand. If our imagination doesn't serve the story, we will have to make each detail subservient to the characters and narrative world we're in, after the fact.

A powerful by product of the narrative and characters in Dybek's story is the reality of social ostracism. The right fielder seemed to represent those people who exist on the fringes of society, present but unnoticed. The speaker regrets this truth, "perhaps we didn't want to eradicate it completely--a part of us was resting there. Perhaps we wanted the new right fielder, whoever he'd be, to notice and wonder about who played there before him, realizing he was now the only link between past and future that mattered" (Shapard 38).

Blackberries by Leslie Norris

Norris tells so much about these three characters through simple, yet beautiful imagery. The mother's conventional nature is revealed at the barbershop when she says, "we thought it was time for him to look like a little boy. His hair grows so quickly" (Shapard 40). He reveals her frugality when she purchases the hat, commenting ""Oh, I hope so," his mother said. "It's expensive enough"" (Shapard 41). This is an important detail that Norris uses to build tension later in the story when the boy is collecting blueberries with his father. The mother's rigidity climaxes at the end of the story when she chastises the husband and son for filling the hat with blueberries. It's amazing the way Norris teases out this tension between the husband and wife.

The dynamics in the relationship between the mother and her son verses the father and his son is so different. The boy leaning against his father's knee at dinner shows his ease and affection for him, while the mother's interactions with her son seem calculated and mechanical throughout the day. For instance, keeping his cap in the bag, putting it in his drawer, is extremely telling of her sterility. The father's impulsivity and romantic gesture solidifies their incompatibility, which is the real tension in the story.