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The Little Knife - Online Term Paper

The Little Knife

In the short story "The Little Knife", written by Michael Chabon, is written in a third person point of view. The narrator of the story is Nathan Shapiro, who is young and naive, so the story is told from a more limited point of view. The story takes place on a Wednesday morning in Nags Head, North Carolina, where the Shapiro family is staying in a cottage-motel called the Sandpiper. The physical area is described as looking like "Stonehenge, in the middle of a giant wasteland." Nathan feels as if all the visitors that are staying at the Sandpiper were in their own place separated from the outside world. The narrator described that this particular day was going to be "a perfect, ...

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is unhappy with the fact that his parents argue all the time. From the text it seems that Nathan enjoys baseball and reading James Bond adventure books. Nathan is a round character. He has a little bit of dark side when the reader realizes that Nathan is the one who actually stole the little knife. Other major characters in the this story are Ricky, Mrs. Shapiro, Dr. Shapiro, and Colonel Larue.
Ricky is the youngest son of the Shapiro family. Ricky is this stories stereotypical little boy who likes to run around and get into harmless trouble. In the beginning of the story, Ricky makes friends with other children that are on vacation who like to shoot water from little water pistols at unsuspecting victims, this makes Nathan envious of him because Nathan is not making friends. Nathan and Ricky's mother, Mrs. Shapiro, tries to have a fun and have a worry-free vacation despite any problems that are going on in the family. Chabon describes Mrs. Shapiro as having a "Disney ...

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keep-away with the children.
The short story is very ironic in a way, "The Little Knife" takes place during a family vacation at the beach. The reader of this can find it ironic because most people associate family vacations and the beach with a carefree and fun feeling, but in the case of the Shapiro family it seems that this vacation is a foreshadowing of the downfall of their family. This story demonstrates situational irony, because of the fact that the story seems to be about a nice family vacation but turns out to be the complete opposite. Some of the major symbols that are discussed in "The Little Knife" is when Chabon mentioned the particular summer that the story is ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 4/19/2011 03:44:46 PM
Submitted By: scohen115206
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1304
Pages: 5

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