Life and Death Shapes Values

Donald Barthelme symbolizes the events of death, in an elementary school environment, to depict the values of responsibility that the children lose and gain. The deaths ranging from an insignificant snake or a rat, up to more significant people like their peers, slowly shapes how these children react to the idea of being responsible as a class. When the recurring incidents of death happens to more significant people in their lives, it also starts shaping their individual responsibilities of helping others in order to prevent further catastrophic incidents. Then the epiphanic deaths of their own classmates dying made them question whether being responsible was the right thing to believe in. As their mentor, the narrator then prevents the lost of these important values of being responsible as a part of growing up. He demonstrates that though death is inevitable, they have to focus on the brighter side of life. In “The School” by Donald Barthelme, the recurrences of the deaths that the children either speculated or were held accountable for, represent their developing sense of responsibility in terms of life and death; that being responsible and taking care of things is an important fundamental aspect of living, as does living optimistically with the ability to oversee the fear of death.
The deaths throughout the story could be interpreted as the symbolization of the childrens' growing sense of responsibility. The beginning deaths of the snakes up to the tropical fish, though less significant to these children, introduces the importance of responsibility; to better their ability to take care of living things. Sneaking just a little more water for the orange trees, for instance, or even accidentally suffocating the animals by carrying them in plastic bags, all contribute to their learning experience. The expectations that the narrator