Physical And Emotional Alienation In All Short Stories

Name: Course: Professor: Date: Alienation in All Short Stories Even though people have always dreamed of a utopian world where they can live happily with modern technology, this has not been the case. After facing the cruelty of many wars, humans have witnessed the opposite side of technology, making them feel alienated, destroying their hopes and destroying humanity in general. This paper seeks to interrogate how physical and emotional alienation has been developed as themes in three short stories. The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury, Bleeding on the Sidewalk by Evan Hunter, and The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty. The main characters in the three stories feel alienated as they struggle to live in a society dominated by modern technology. In The Sniper, two snipers fighting for different factions of the civil war pin each other in their cover. Dublin hatches a plot on how to trick the Republican into thinking he has been shot and get The Republican sniper out of his cover and kills him with a shot from his revolver. Dublin gets out of his cover and decides to check out the corpse of the other sniper, he had a feeling that maybe he could know his rival. Unfortunately, he finds out that he had just killed his brother (O'Flaherty 12). In Bleeding on the Sidewalk, the story revolves around a man called Andy who lies in the alley, bleeding to death after being stabbed in the back by members of the rival gang. Andy is a member of the Royal and is stabbed by a guardian as he strolls out in the street in search for a cigarette. He lays on the street, hoping that someone comes to his rescue. However, all those who pass near fail to help save his life for one reason or the other. Laura, his girlfriend finally finds him, calls the cops, but it is too late for Andy succumbs to his wounds (Hunter et al, 50). In The pedestrian, Mr. Mead seems alone as he goes for his daily night walks and encounters the brutal law enforcers. His attempts to explain himself are ignor...