The Peacock
O'Connor was a hard-core bird lover. Her favorite bird? Yes, the peacock. She owned dozens of them and considered herself their servant.In her November 25, 1955 letter to her friend Betty Hester, O...
The Tractor
The tractor in this story is a murder weapon. The neglect and silence of Mrs. McIntyre, Mr. Shortley, and Sulk allow the huge piece of machinery to roll over Mr. Guizac's leg and snap his spine. Th...
The Newsreel and the Photo
When Mrs. Shortley first sees Mr. Guizac she thinks of a newsreel:[…] recall[s] a newsreel she had seen once of a small room piled high with bodies of naked dead people all in a heap […...
Jesus Christ
Symbols of Christ are sprinkled throughout the text. In the Christian religion, fish are often symbols of Jesus. We see fish in the ironic derisive nickname that Mrs. Shortley gives the Guizacs ...