Victory over Japan (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ellen Gilchrist
- First Published: 1984
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: 1945
- Setting: Seymour, Indiana
- Principal Characters: Rhoda Manning, Her mother, Billy Monday
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Girls, Children, United States or Americans, Parents and children, Gender roles, 1940’s, World War II, Midwest, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Oppression, Fathers, Divorce, Rabies, Pornography
- Locales: Seymour, IN
The Story
When the story opens, Rhoda is enthralled with imagining particulars about Billy Monday's “tragedy”: He is to have “fourteen shots in the stomach as the result of a squirrel bite.” With ghoulish awe, Rhoda describes the ritual of the school principal and Billy's mother coming to get him every day when it is time for his shot. Using the pronoun “we,” she speaks for the whole class in her descriptions. She and her best friend Letitia joke with each other about how they themselves would react to such a situation. By contrast, Billy Monday sits on a bench by...
[The entire page is 1864 words long]
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