Protagonist Stories Essay, Research Paper

?An initiation story may be said to show its young protagonist experiencing a

significant change of knowledge about the world or himself and this change must

point or lead him toward an adult world?. In this essay I will be

characterizing and evaluating each of the major protagonist in the following

short stories. The first is Sammy of the famous short story ?A&P?. The

second protagonist is Mama from the sad ?Everyday Use?. Finally Jackie the

crazy kid from ?First Confession? is my last protagonist. Sammy is a

19-year-old teenager who is from a small town near the ocean. He works at a

grocery store as a cashier and three young ladies walk in wearing bathing suits

and nothing else but their pride. He could not remember his name to save his

life, let alone check ones groceries correctly. His emotions are on high and he

is checking out the ladies left and right just like a teenager would and he

stares not caring how it makes the women feel. He passes judgment on how the

look and act during the whole time they are shopping; yet he has never met them.

Keep in mind all of this is going on in his head for no one else can hear. Then

he spots the store manager out of the corner of his eye and he turns sour

because he knows he will do his best to kick the ladies out and ruin his fun.

The store manager makes a big ordeal out of the situation and embarrasses them

in front of the whole store. That very instant he knows the manager was wrong

and does the righteous thing and quits. Sammy tells off his boss and walks out

hopping maybe the women are still waiting on him. ?Mama? is about forty or

fifty and a mother of two Dee and Maggie. Mama is ?in real life I am a large,

big-boned women with rough, man-working hands?. She loves Dee when she was a

child the most and was considered her favorite. She loves Maggie too but Dee was

the smart one so with some help from the church they raised some money to send

her to college. Maggie stayed with mama and learned her way of life. Dee came

home with a boy friend and tells mama that her name is no longer Dee. Mama takes

this as an insult and gets up set thinks she is trying to forget her heritage.

Dee, as if that isn?t enough she starts to ask for antiques not because of the

memories but because they were in style. Mama at this point was very angry but

she handles the situation very well by not getting violent. She grabs Maggie

kisses her and realizes how special she is. Jackie?s grandfather died and his

grandmother has to live with them now. She is a big old country women drinks

like a fish and walks in bare feet, he hates her. He has a sister that torments

him all day long; I don?t blame him for getting violent with a butter knife.

He thinks the whole world is out to get him. Ryan an old lady they pass on the

street prepares him for his first confession. The only thing she ever talks

about is hell, people burning furniture with their hands and putting one finger

over a flame for five minutes. He goes to his confession not with his mom but

with his evil sister. When he gets into the confessional both he does not know

where to look so he starts to climb until someone answers. The father answer and

is upset because he climbing around. Jackie adjusts and falls into the aisle and

gets embarrassed. He ends up confessing all and finds out that this guy is the

most interesting person he has meet and the experience wasn?t as painful as

everyone made it out to be. In conclusion, each one of the protagonists had some

from of transformation in their life. For Sammy it was the manager embarrassing

the women, mama it was Dee?s desirer to forget her past and Jackie?s was his

first confession. "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls

the present controls the past." – George Orwell