Nov 14, 2009

Impulse | Impulse

At a glance:

Author: Conrad Aiken
First Published: 1933
Type of Plot: Psychological
Time of Work: About 1920
Setting: Boston
Principal Characters: Michael Lowes, Dora Lowes, Smith, Bryant, Hurwitz, A store detective
Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction
Subjects: Prisoners, Psychology or psychologists, Divorce, Theft, Paranoia
Locales: Boston, MA

The Story

Although Conrad Aiken's title might suggest that “Impulse” concerns a whimsical, unpremeditated action, the story actually examines an ostensibly “impulsive” action and finds, instead, that the “impulse” is really the logical culmination of a series of actions in the life of Michael Lowes, the protagonist. If fact, the story is a fictionalized psychological study of a paranoid “loser,” whose attempts to escape from reality are self-destructive acts that lead to his arrest and conviction for theft and to an impending divorce from his wife.

Just...

[The entire page is 1575 words long]

Impulse | Impulse

At a glance:

The Story

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