Our Town

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 11th grade September 2001

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Our Town The rising action in the story of "Our Town" is when George Gibb's wife dies at the age of 26 while having her second child. The climax of this story is when George Gibb's wife accepts the faith of death. Many people died before the death of Emily Webb. Those people were Wally Webb, Mrs. Gibbs, Simon Stimson, and Mrs. Soames. The author, Thorton Wilder only uses the use of flashbacks once. The flashback was with Emily Webb. The flashback went back to the morning day of February 11, 1899. Her mother calls her for breakfast; the milkman, paperboy, and constable chat about the weather; she receives birthday presents from her mother and father, her brother and George. But Emily sees that each minute of this typical day among the living is so precious and wonderful that she can't bear it, and so she returns to her new home among the dead.

So she say's goodbye to the things she will miss, like the world of Grover's corner, her mother, father, flowers, clocks, coffee, dresses, baths, and sleep. The conflict in the story of "Our Town' is between man and himself.

I think that the characters in "Our Town" are true to life because of the conflicts that they face in the story. The characters in this story are types because they share common traits and involve in conflicts together. The author and the stage manager characterize the characters by their speech and actions. The outstanding principals the characters have are between Emily Webb and George Gibbs, because they are married and go through problems together.

The place of action in the story of "Our Town" takes place in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, over a twelfth year span. The place does make difference because the plot mostly takes place in Grover's Corners. The background of the story is half fiction, and half no-fiction, because there is a place named New Hampshire, and it happens to be a state in the United States. The story also mostly evolves in the same background as when the story started in the begging of "Our Town".

The theme of Mr. Wilder's book is very basic as the theme of today. The theme is about making the reader realize the importance of simple little things we overlook. I think that people who read this book find the everlasting truth of the theme. I think that if a person reads this book they will feel differently about life before they read this book.

The author doesn't really contrast the difference between the poor and the rich, or the good and the bad. In this short story there is now excitement or adventure, and I think that because the purpose of Mr. Wilder's book is not to entertain the reader otherwise showing the reader the importance of finding the value of even the smallest events in our lives. There is no dialect, but there is description of life, and how wonderful it is. So this book is a wonderful written piece of literature.