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My Mother and Sister

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Submitted By frubetta
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Land of the lost

The short story ‘’land of the lost’’ is written by Stewart O’Nan. An old woman can’t give up in finding a missing girl. She and the family might be the only one still looking for her. She disappeared two and a half year ago, but the old lady trains her dog to search for things and finally something is found a afternoon behind a Ryder truck center.

The story is about an older woman who lives by her own with her dog ‘Ollie’ who is a German shepherd. She was married but got divorced. With her ex husband she got two boys, who is adults and live at their own. She works as a cashier in Perry. She is investigating a homicide on a girl that happened for two and a half years ago. She trains her dog to search for things like a police dog. She started to plan when she was going to look after the girl, and first it started with four days a week but then she twisted her ankle and missed three weeks. To catch up she went out five days a week. She felt like she might be the only one who was still looking for the murder. ”Besides the family, she might be the only person looking for her” (P. 10 line 74-75) One afternoon she walked outside Fairport Harbor, behind a Ryder truck center, when Ollie stopped and lay down in a shallow trough filled with pine duff. it wasn’t anything she’d taught him. She could not get him, to get up, she had to coax him away with a treat and tie him to the tree, and even then he hunkered down. Cowering. She was really serious, and took notes of all she did ‘’November third, 2008, 1:27 P.M.’’ . When she’d gotten enough coverage she set down the camera and took up the pitchfork. She dug and dug, and the third time she dung, the pitchfork snagged on a swath of fabric. It was discoloured with mud and stank of mildew. She didn’t want to see what was in it, but she wanted to make sure and knelt beside the hole digging it free with her bare hands. Through it all her sons are very worried about her, ‘’ I’m worried about you’’ (page 10 line 92) they think that she is gone crazy because she is still looking for the missing girl. When she twisted her ankle she called her oldest son, who called the youngest, who got mad at his mother. They talked her in to relax several times, but she was bored at home so she couldn’t help it, she had to go and look for the missing girl and the murder. The old woman who is the main character seems a bit lonely. We do not hear about any other persons that the old woman, her sons, the dog and the FBI. ‘‘Then everyone would know she wasn’t crazy’’. ‘Everyone’ as she describes must be the people in the town or around her, but we don’t meet other persons described as her friend or family. Her friend and family are Ollie and her two sons. She sounds like a sweet old woman who is trying to help this family finding their girl and the murder. She believes that it is possible to find her. The story is told in 3. Person narrator, and the narrator is all know because she says ‘’I’’ and sometimes we hear her thoughts. ‘’I’m just trying to help’’ (page 9 line 7) ‘’thank god, she thought’’ (page 11 line 138). I Think that the title ‘’Land of the lost’’ are interpreted of where a family lost their little girl and got found in a area where nobody had looked for her.
In the end of the story the old woman is out for a walk with Ollie, in an area nobody has been in before. She acutely felt like she was rushing and cutting corners because of her ankle twist that made her stay in bed for three weeks. But suddenly in the area they had not been in before, Olli stopped and lay down, like he was just resting, so the old woman tried to pull him up, but he didn’t budge. So the old woman decided to dig there. She found some fabric in the ground. She thought about calling somebody but this time she wanted to make sure that it was her ‘’this time she would make sure’’ (page 11 line 141)
She had finished what she had started and she reach her goal, she had found the girl and she was looking forward to show everyone that she wasn’t crazy.
The message in this story is that everyone needs to fight for the thing they want and reach their goal.

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