...Essay: Stolpestad The short story is about, how a kind-hearted action ends up giving a bad conscience. The setting is in a little somewhat peaceful town. There doesn’t happen much is this little town. In line 11 “…, back to all the turns you were born, your whole life spent along the same sad street”, we see how he feels a similarity between his childhood home and his current environment. The environment, that the short story takes place in is described as a typical neighborhood. It seems like everything has its place and always stays the same. There is on variety, just the same old routine, line 3-5 “-the like a clock ticking all these bored little pent-up streets and mills and tenements away… - this is your life Stolpestad” In the short story the main character is a police officer, who is working on a Saturday. We do not know what his name, or how old he is. We are actually not giving that many specific facts about him. So most of it, we have to read between the lines to get an insight into what kind of person he is. Line 89, we learn that he is married and have two boys waiting for him at home. In the passage (line 88-100) we can read about, what he does after work. How he have a hundred reasons to drive straight home, but some how always ends up at the local bar where he is a regular. We can conclude that he is a regular, in this line (8-9) – the next thing you know being eleven o’clock and the phone behind the bar for you – It’s Sheila-” the wife. His wife know his...
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...Stolpestad In his short story, “Stolpestad” from 2008, William Lychack writes about the life of a police man, and how easy you can get stuck in life. Through a second person narrator technique, he highlights uncomfortable situations, loss of identity and the feeling of being stuck in life, showing that one most do what one likes, otherwise, you’ll lose in life In the short story, “Stolpestad”, is it clear that Stolpestad is stuck in his life. “The coffee shops, the liqoue stores, laundromats, police, fire, gas stations to pass – this is your life, Stolpestad”. Furthermore, Stolpestad seems to be genuine depressed as he says to himself “this is your life, Stolpestad” which shows that Stolpestad’s not where he wants to be in life as he has to end the sentence white “Stolpestad” as if he was not listening to himself. “As if you have seen or imagined or been through all of this before, or will be through it all again” The fact that Stolpestad feels like he has experienced things that he haven’t even tried yet, shows how much he has given up on life. Stolpestad’s sad view on life probably is a mix of his life going in circles, and the fact that he is constantly experiencing unpleasant things that just repeats and repeats itself throughout his life: “Your whole life spent along the same sad streets (..) as you pull around the house, as if you’ve seen or imagined or been through all of this before, or will be through it all again, over and over”. Moreover, instead of going home to...
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...Analysis and interpretation of “Stolpestad” By Jeppe Bender Lassen In "Stolpestad" from 2008 the author, William Lychack, deals with life in the postmodern society through his main character Stolpestad. A middle-aged police officer not able to settle in the chaotic and confusing postmodern world. What starts out as a routine task of putting down a wounded dog ends up becoming a journey for spiritual awakening, as Stolpestad comes to some life-changing realizations. The story is set in a dull and gloomy town in which Stolpestad grew up and has inhabited ever since. The narrator provides several signs that the town is a place almost completely desolated from excitement. This is for example evident in lines 3-4: “…like a clock ticking all these bored little pent-up streets and mills and tenements away.” Life of the town is decaying. Nothing seems to be done to prevent this from happening. As goes for the case of Stolpestad’s life. Stolpestad leads a quiet and trivial life as a police officer – a job in which the main constituents of a daily schedule are insignificant routine tasks. To fill out the remaining parts of his life he hangs out at bars finding comfort for the lack of substance in his life at the bottom of endless pints of beer. One might almost describe Stolpestad’s trivial life as a never-ending déjà vu, where the days are just passing by indifferently. When Stolpestad is called out to the boy with the injured dog however, he suddenly gets an opportunity of moving...
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...Stolpestad By William Lychack Sometimes people can get overwhelmed with a feeling of stagnation. The feeling that whatever we do is for nothing and that everything we do is in vain. The short story "Stolpestad" from 2008 is written by William Lychack, and it is dealing with the feeling of stagnation and feeling useless and impotent. In the story we meet the protagonist Stolpestad who is a police officer, husband and father of two. After his shift has ended on a Saturday night, the mother of a nine year old boy calls him to go out on one last job for the night. He arrives at the address and he is asked to put down a wounded dog. Later that night, Stolpestad is approached at his doorstep by the little boy and his father. They came to tell him that the dog had survived Stolpestad’s attempt to kill it, and that they instead had to call someone else to do off the wounded dog. At first, this story might seem a bit odd and the way it is told makes it hard for the reader to understand. However, the themes and the message of the story are very relatable to all of us and the stagnation that we can all feel at times. In the very beginning of the story, the reader becomes familiar with the environment and the setting of the story. Lychack describes, in the first line of the text, how the mood in the story is; “Another one of those long slow lazy afternoons of summer (…)” (l. 1) this is not only a description of how the day is moving very slowly, but it also describes how Stolpestad...
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...walk around with this constant feeling that you have stopped moving forward and are just postponing your death. In the short story ‘Stolpestad’, Lychack tells a story about a police officer called Stolpestad, whose life, has more or less become a daily routine. Every day he goes to work as a police officer in the big city (he passes by “The coffee shops, the liquor stores, laundromats, police, fire, gas stations”, he feels forgotten among all of the people in the city. Even though his tasks might be different from each day, he generally feels like doing the same thing. When he finishes his shift, he postpones going home to his wife and two boys, to spend a few hours at the local bar. One day, he is called in to put an injured dog out of its miseries. The dog belongs to a little boy, and is called ‘Gully’. When Stolpestad goes to the backyard to finish up gully, she doesn’t react. She just lies there, as if she knew that there would be no point of doing anything. After work, when he is at the bar, the phone behind the bar rings. It’s his wife saying that a man and his son are waiting for him. Stolpestad goes home to discover that it’s the same boy whose dog, he shot earlier that day. Apparently the dog didn’t die. No doubt that the boy’s father is upset with his son having to find his dog even more hurt and suffering than before. But Stolpestad doesn’t react to this. He just stands there in the darkness,...
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...Stolpestad By William Lychack Do you ever feel like you are going nowhere? Like your life is stuck in stagnation. Getting out of bed in the morning, going to work and returning home to bed just to rise and repeat the exact same routine the next day and the day after that. The routine becomes so familiar that it feels like the days goes by in a blur. It does not feel like you even exist in your body anymore. That feeling is the theme of the short story, “Stolpestad”, by William Lychack. The short story is named after the main character, Stolpestad, who is a police officer. He is called out to an injured dog and has to put the dog down for a boy and his mother. Late at night, the father to the boy shows up at Stolpestad´s house and tells him that the dog did not die. “The coffee shops, the liquor stores, laundromats, police, fire, gas stations to pass – this is your life, Stolpestad.” This is all there is. A small town and a boring life. That is Stolpestad´s life. The story takes place on a Saturday afternoon and evening in summer. It is clouded but never breaking into rain, a symbol of Stolpestad´s life. The clouds is a metaphor for how dull and blur his life seems, never changing into rain or letting the sun shine throw. As long as the weather stays the same, his life stays the same. On paper, Stolpestad´s lives the perfectly and comfortably life with the perfect family. “Wife and pair of boys waiting dinner for you…” The traditional family, living the suburban life. Comfortable...
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...Stolpestad This is both the name of the short story and the name of the main character in the story. Stolpestad works for the police. We follow him on the job one day, a day that closely resembles any other mediocre day of his life. Something happens though. He’s asked to put a seriously injured dog down, by a mother and her son. The way he kills the dog and his non-emotional reaction to the situation, raises questions about stagnation, indifference and emotional absence in the lives of humans around us. His life is degrading. A thing you notice almost immediately is the narrative view. It’s written in second person, present tense, and this gives the effect as if it was Stolpestad himself telling the story. When referring to himself as ‘you’, it has an effect equal to the story being told in third person. When using ‘one’, the impression of that this is how a situation is, and would be to anyone who was in his place. Also, there are traits that imply that the short story is written in spoken language and this contributes to the impression that Stoplestad is telling the story himself. Mentioning the different stores and shops Stolpestad has to pass, the narrator inflicts the story with a great deal of triviality. This can also be applied to Stoplestads life, because the narrator is character-bound and we follow Stolpestad through the narrator. Also, the setting is described as a dull and unimaginative place, nothing is in development and everything is unnecessary and needless...
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...Stolpestad Many people today are caught up in their everyday life and routines. They get up in the morning, go to their jobs and come back in the evening to eat with their families. This is a typically day routine, which many of us can not escape from. Because it can be very difficult to break these habits, and make new and more challenging and self-realization, many people are stuck with the life they have. In the short-story “Stolpestad” by William Lychack, you hear about a certain police officer’s daily life. You get the feeling that he is a very normal middle-aged man, who lives with his wife and two children. His daily routine is always the same, and he just drives around town all day long without any specific happenings. It sounds very boring indeed, but it also seems like he has settled down with it and accepted that that's the way the cookie crumbles. The first thing you notice, as a reader is the very special way the story is told. The story is told in third person, seen from the outside in present tense. The way he is referring to himself as “you” seems very powerful, because it gives the reader the impression of how life is in his exact position. “Maybe you’ll take that glass of water after all, you say…”. Sentences like this are very common in the story. It feels like the narrator is creating a de ja vu in your head. He can forecast what will happen next, and knows how “you” will react next. He is almost saying, “I told you so” to himself...
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...A: Stolpestad by William Lychack The story short is about a local police officer named Stolpestad which is probably his surname. He has been called out to a house, where he meets a woman and a boy. Their dog is sick, and the woman asks him to shoot the dog, that he does. After work he goes to a bar, and gets a call from his wife about some people at his home wants to talk with him. When he comes home, the boy and his father is there to thanks him, but it doesn’t sound like they mean it, and they tell about how the dog still was a live when they dug a hole later at night. The father is angry and the police officer fells guilty. The story takes place in a small town with coffee shops, liquor stores, Laundromats, police, fire, and gas stations. There’s not much to do as police officer, especially not on a Saturday. The police officer has lived there in his whole life, and he thinks the town is sad and boring, because it’s the same streets he’d seen all his life. The town is probably in America, because of the police officer get to shoot a dog instead of vet and I think it is far away from the big cities, maybe out in the country. The story takes place in modern time, because the police officer get a call over the radio, and it was not possible back in the old days. The plot takes place during the summer, but even that is described in a sad way. Normally summer would be described in a good way, but summer in this town isn’t even good. It is described “sun never burning through the...
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...Stolpestad by William Lychack (2008) Have you ever felt that your life is just being repeated? Nothing new happens, nothing that you aren’t used to. Your life continues as you know it, and it bores you. This is what this story Stolpestad (marker) by William Lychack, from 2008, is about. The story is about a man named Stolpestad, who is a police officer. On yet another lazy Saturday he receives a call and has to deal with a young boy’s suffering dog. He is not pleased with the task and it tortures him to see the dog suffering - knowing what has to be done. He has to shoot the dog twice in order to stop its suffering. Stolpestad then continues his lazy Saturday evening - spending some time in a bar, calling his wife to say he will be home late. Everything is like a blur. He returns to his home, just to find out that the boy and his father is waiting for him. They want to thank him for his bravery and tell him that the dog didn’t die. Stolpestad lives in a little town and he has been living there from his very early years. For him his life is just the same as it has always been. It’s like he is stuck and he doesn’t go any further - it’s the same routine day after day and all this is the main theme. From the very beginning there is a good example on the setting in the story and how he feels about it on page 1, line 2-3: “(...) - sun never burning through the clouds, clouds never breaking into rain (...)”. Here the whether symbolize...
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...and an elephant at large, and through a modest gallery of characters we are consumed by a view on humanity in revolt.” Ex. 2, indledning med udgangspunkt i en almen erfaring: “Most people have an everyday routine. In most cases this is comfortable and gives you a feeling of structure and makes it easier to cope with life. However, there is a fine line between a well-planned and secure everyday life and a life of boredom and predictability that mechanically takes its course and distances you from life. This is exactly what the story “Stolpestad” by William Lychack from 2008 is about. It is about how the narrator’s day-to-day routine is so predictable that his life has become a condition of numbness.” Ex. 3, indledning med udgangspunkt i et citat fra teksten ““[…] This is your life, Stolpestad.” (p. 2, l. 5). That is it, deal with it. A clearly negative second person narrator takes the reader through the life of the policeman Stolpestad; a non-motivated and truly stagnated husband and father from a small town in America. Stolpestad’s life is just passing by, and he is letting it. William Lychack takes us through the inner monologue of Stolpestad’s mind in the short story of the same name, written in 2008, describing Stolpestad’s battle of facing up to the truth of his life, sadly failing, losing his battle to Goliath symbolized in having to put down a dog for a young boy”. Ex. 4,...
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