Trick or Treat (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Padgett Powell
- First Published: 1993
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: The late twentieth century
- Setting: The American South
- Principal Characters: Janice Halsey Hollingsworth, Jimmy Teeth
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, South or Southerners, Twentieth century, Fantasy, Small-town life, Loneliness, Boys, Homemakers, Halloween
- Locales: South (U.S.)
The Story
“Trick or Treat” is a story of mutual seduction, told in the third-person through the minds of two characters. The action is what one would expect in an ordinary love story. It begins with the recognition of desire, proceeds through the uncertainties of courtship, and ends with the relationship about to be consummated. What makes the story unusual is that the two people involved are a respectable housewife and a twelve-year-old boy.
The story is set in a small town in the American South. It is fall, a few weeks before Halloween. Mrs. Hollingsworth is...
[The entire page is 1538 words long]
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