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Stolpestad

In: English and Literature

Submitted By chathrinafrank
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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 is feeling. The day this story takes place, is just another long slow day in Stolpestad’s stagnated life. Nothing spectacular has happened, and it most likely never will. The reader gets the feeling that every day is the same in Stolpestad’s life, and that he seems to have come to terms with it.
This becomes clear when Lychack writes: “(…) - sun never burning through the clouds, clouds never

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