Identities-Sample+Paragraph

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Paragraph Assignment: In a well constructed paragraph discuss how the title and the use of contrast and irony contribute to the theme of the story "Identities".
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From the tranquil countryside of a childhood memory to the warm liquid security of a suburban oasis, to the stark, cold, dirty grey reality of a forgotten urban neighborhood; these are the settings that provide the foundation for the expression of “contrast” in the story “Identities” by W.D. Valgardson. The protagonist is drawn from his suburban home by the promise “… of a Saturday liquid with sunshine” and is lured into the memory of childhood car rides through the country by the smell of burning leaves. This journey is in sharp contrast with the journey he is about to take out of the safe, familiarity of his neighborhood into the foreign landscape of lost souls. In his memory he recalls the innocence and trust of roadside merchants who use “…hand painted signs instructing purchasers to deposit twenty-five or fifty cents” contrasted by the store he encounters on his journey with “…hand painted signs and vertical metal bars.” During his journey the reader is able to visualize the gradual degeneration of the protagonists surroundings by the authors sequential description of the houses and fences he passes. At first “The houses have all faced the sun”, and the yards are all protected by “stiff picket fences”. His landscape quickly changes to houses that “… are squat, as though they have been taller and have slowly, sunk into the ground”, and ten-foot wire fences with gates that are double locked, and finally to a place where fences “… are little more than fragments.” Valgardson’s contrasting description of clothing also underscores the theme of identity and moral judgments made based on perceived social status. The man leaves the house in jeans, however he is also wearing a matching jacket made in Paris. He encounters men with slick hair wearing leather-studded jackets, a man with black pants, a tartan vest, and a brown hat and a long legged girl wearing a white turtle-necked sweater; these people are judged by the protagonist as potentially dangerous because of the neighborhood and the clothes they wear. The use of contrasting images of light and dark are clearly evident throughout the story. The opening sentence describes the “liquid light” of sunshine contrasted with the darkness “settling like soot” when the man realizes he has traveled too far for too long. The three people n front of the store stand, “on the edge of the light” and one of them wears sunglasses “… in spite of the advancing darkness. Another example of this light/dark image is how the light from the store illuminates the parking lot like a stage where the final scene will take place. The line “Beyond the light, everything is obscured by darkness” is a metaphor for the man traveling beyond the light of his own comfortable neighborhood into the darkness of the unknown. It is contrast that ultimately causes the death of the protagonist. He is an affluent man driving an expensive car in a “bad” neighborhood when an inexperienced, nervous police officer ironically mistakes him for a criminal. In the ultimate irony the man is trying to prove his identity by reaching for his identification when he is shot by the officer who thinks he is reaching for a weapon. It is the contrasts found in “Identities” that provides the imagery necessary to illustrate the theme of judgment and perception based on social status found in the story.