A Small, Good Thing

4 Pages 1060 Words

Fiction Essay


In the story A Small Good Thing the first event the reader is exposed to is Ann Weis making a trip to the baker to order a birthday cake for her son Scotty’s eighth birthday. During this trip, the reader is introduced to the baker. Ann’s reactions and personal thoughts about the baker are important to the reader later on in the story. Within the first two paragraphs the reader is exposed to the protagonist, antagonist, and the setting. The complicating incident is quick to come in the fourth paragraph when the birthday boy stepped off the curb at an intersection and was hit by a car (Kennedy and Gioia, 459). Scotty may have been able to stumble home after being knocked into the gutter by the car, but soon he collapses at home and is rushed to the hospital. The complicating incident is further developed when the reader learns that who ever hit Scotty with their car, drove off when the child was seen standing immediately after the accident. When Ann calls her husband and tells him about Scotty’s accident, the reader is being introduced to the rising action of the story. In the rising action of the story the reader knows that Ann cannot wake her son up, and his body has gone limp. The reader also knows that Howard, Scotty’s father and Ann’s husband, is on his way to the hospital. The technical climax holds the majority of the length in this story. Here the reader learns of all the medical tests that Scotty is going through, as well as his parent’s anguish of not knowing if their son will wake up. The technical climax also exposes the newest problem of strange phone calls being made to their home. An uneasy feeling of tension is felt by the reader when strange and rude phone calls begin to pour into their home by the baker. Howard is the first person in the story to deal with these phone calls. Now the reader questions what type of involvement the baker had, if any, pertaining to Scotty being h...