The Responsible Parties for Samuel's Death - Research Paper Example

English Composition ENC 1102 Mond, Wed, Fri 7:00-7:50 am number: 606747 Essay 4: “Samuel” “The Responsible Parties for Samuel’s Death” In this essay we will discuss who and what is responsible for Samuel’s death. In order to do this, I will analyze the following elements: the woman who was afraid of the embarrassment and predicted Samuel’s death, the man who pulled the emergency brake, Samuel’s friends, and Samuel. ‘Samuel’ by Grace Paley is a tragic story of four boys who were on their way to Fourteenth Street to watch the missile exhibit, when tragedy strikes and one of the boys called Samuel dies in the mishap.

The weather was pleasant and the boys were filled with a lot enthusiasm as they jumped and jiggled on the platform. The elders, who passed them by, disapproved of their actions but did nothing about it. According to the first element that was responsible for Sam’s death, the lady felt too embarrassed to warn the boys of the impending danger. The lady wanted to caution them to be careful but for fear of embarrassment that they might laugh at her she said nothing. Her embarrassment is one of the chief elements that were responsible for Samuel’s death because if she had acted immediately she could have averted a tragedy.

All she did was to say -“You boys will be hurt. You will be 1 killed…” (Paley 356). According to Paley (355) the woman was more concerned about herself and her embarrassment, than the boys. “She wasn't afraid they'd hit her, but she was afraid of embarrassment.” Regarding the second element that was responsible for Samuel’s death, the man had pulled the emergency brake with the idea of safety in his mind. However, according to the explanation given in the story, the actions of the man could either be morally right or wrong.

Never at any point did he realize what the outcome of his actions would be. “However, it must also be taken into consideration the guilt weighing upon the man who pulled the emergency cord” (Rogers 1). The man, who tried to put an end to the boy’s dangerous game by pulling the emergency brake, ended up taking a boy’s life instead. He acted in the most irresponsible manner because instead of improving the situation, he made it even worse. Describing his action Paley states -“He stood up straight and looked at the boys for a couple of seconds.

Then he walked in a citizenly way to the end of the car, where he pulled the emergency cord” (Paley 355) The third element that was responsible was Sam’s friends, who like Sam, were all very carefree and careless. None of them were responsible enough to gauge the amount of risk they were exposing themselves to. Describing their careless actions Paley states - “Out on the platform, whenever the train accelerated, the boys would raise their hands and point them up to the sky to act like rockets going off, then they rat-tat-tatted the shatterproof glass pane like machine guns…” (Paley 355).

Describing their carelessness Kaminsky says – “If the kids would have accepted their correction with respect, things might not have ended so brutally” (Kaminsky 4). “The four little boys in the story of “Samuel” were taking part in a dangerous pastime, hopping 2 back and forth between two subway cars” ( Kaminsky 3) Kaminsky is right in saying this because if even one of them acted responsibly, Samuel’s death would not have occurred at all, but the key point of their behavior was irresponsibility which contributed towards the tragedy.

The final but most important element is Samuel himself. Describing his irresponsibility Kaminsky states that -“If Samuel is old enough to be out on his own hopping train cars, with his parents aware, then he is old enough to know the risk factors. So if anyone was to blame it will be Samuel”. Paley too holds the same opinion as to who was to blame for Samuel’s death and this is evident from the following lines - Samuel died from the consequences of his actions “…he pitched only forward and fell head first to be crushed and killed between the cars” (Paley 355).

After analyzing the different responsible parties for the death of Samuel, like the lady who was too embarrassed to warn the boys, the careless man who pulled the emergency brake and Samuel and his friends, we can conclude that nobody is responsible nor accountable for Samuel’s death because it was an accident. Grace Paley’s tragic story sheds light on how we should be more responsible, especially in dangerous situations and we should be responsible and accountable for our own actions instead of blaming others.

3 “Works Cited” Kaminsky, Illya, and Katherine Towler. "An Interview With Poet and Fiction Writer Grace Paley." Poets & Writers Magazine (2008): 3-7. Miami Dade College Library Database. Web. . Paley, Grace. The Collected Stories. London: Virago Press Ltd, 1999. Print. Paley, Grace. "Samuel." Literature for Composition. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, William Cain, and William Burto. 9th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 355-57. Print. Rogers, Mary. "The Short Story: “Samuel”, “Battle Royal” and “The Use of Force”.

" Home page. Anthology of Ideas. Vers. 3.0. WordPress, 24 June 2006. Web. . Paley, Grace “Samuel” Southeastern Louisiana University www2.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/scraig/paley.html (Retrieved in 2010) 4 Samuel www2.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/scraig/paley.html