With a smirk, Walter Mitty leaned against the wall with crossed arms, and closed his eyes with an exasperated sigh as he awaited his fate – a resigned prey anticipating locked jaws. The gunmen positioned their fingers on the triggers of their rifles, focusing their gaze intently on their target. Walter Mitty, the Undefeated, was to be taken out once and for all, snuffed out ingloriously like water on a smoldering campfire.

“ONE-TWO-THREE FIRE!”, yelled the head marksman, and the marksmen pulls the in perverse harmony.

BLURP-GLOB-GLOB. Pieces of wood chips and soil blend together and the resulting mud starts oozing out of the muzzles of each marksmen’s rifles making a sickening vomit of failure. Confused, the gunmen looked at each other with baffled stares and each marksman pulled their triggers once more. GLOB-GLURBLE-PLOOP, as more muck spews and trickles onto the ground. A sly smile crept onto Walter Mitty’s face and he licked his lips. Indeed, Walter Mitty had earlier escaped and loaded the marksmen’s rifles with the mud in the rain earlier that afternoon. In disorderly fashion, the marksmen gave a few swift whacks of the stock of their rifles on their knees, readjusted their rifles under their arms, and pulled the triggers once more. GLOOP-GLURP-BLOP. Pandemonium bubbled over the marksmen like a witches’ brew.

“What do we do!” yelled one of the marksmen, “It’s jammed!” ….

“Walter! Are you listening? I said it’s jammed!”, grumbled Mrs. Mitty as she attempted to open the yellow umbrella with the fury of a chipmunk dealing with a stubborn nut.

“What’s jammed?” mumbled Walter Mitty, gazing at a sodden puddle in a ditch hole near the sidewalk. He slovenly dragged his feet lightly across the drenched pavement with sullen ambivalence. He focused his attention on the stinging bullets of raindrops punishing the top of his head, trickling down his forehead and onto his eyelashes.

“For goodness sake Walter, I said this darn umbrella is jammed” repeated Mrs. Mitty, “Can you fix this old thing?”.

She passed the yellow umbrella to him and hurried off towards the car in the distance, clutching steadfastly to her prized bags of the day’s triumphant shopping rampage. Walter Mitty takes out the pack of cigarettes from his pocket, only to discover that each cigarette was soggy, wilted in the rainwater like his own posture.

“I’ll be there in a few minutes” he muttered barely audible to his wife.

She loaded the trunk up with the shopping bags, forcing them in like stubborn corpses. Walter Mitty hurried with quick, obedient steps, making splashes on his back leg pants. Each step towards the convenience store situated at the near end at the corner of the street seemed pulled by an invisible string emanating from his wife.

A dog from behind came suddenly sprinting towards Walter Mitty with a red leash flowing behind it, barking aggressively. Walter Mitty holds out the crippled yellow umbrella, prepared to ward off this ferocious dog, but the dog runs by him, chasing a cat instead that was perched on top of a small tree near the pavement. “Jack! You get back right here now!”, yelled a woman’s voice from behind. Walter Mitty turns around to see an attractive woman, carrying an exquisite, delicate umbrella that looked rather rakishly at odds with the murkiness of the day as she hurriedly ran after her dog in distraught. Walter Mitty, hastily, wheeled around into the convenience store, pushing the doors inward as a bell above the doors jingled like an antiquated telephone.

… The rain only persisted to baptize and purify all of the stench of sin that exists as long as the Great Beast was alive in the wilderness of the Grandness Forest. Walter Mitty, the most daring adventurer of all time, was alone in the darkest recess of the Grandness Forest, where no one dared enter. The spindly tree branches knotted the paths, like a twine strangling a tree, burying the trails.

Walter Mitty leapt over each fallen branch and mud hole, treading carefully as if any step were a foot on a lethal spear that could end his journey. A roar echoed in the distance, followed by a high pitched scream, piercing through the thickset forest.

It was obvious from the anticipation of the air that The Great Beast was near, something Walter Mitty has been expecting to confront all his life. Walter Mitty surged through the pathways, swinging from branch to branch like an experienced acrobat, ceasing every odd minute to judge the distance of the Great Beast’s roar. From nowhere, a shadow sprung from its own shadow and a ferocious roar followed from behind it, sending a vibrating shiver through the Grandness Forest. The whimpers of a lady were muffled but audible from behind the Beast. The raindrops tumbled harder with angry determination.  Shrugging off the extra burden of weight carried on his shoulders by the heavy collecting rain, Walter Mitty shifted his back discreetly yet with nonchalant disregard and charged directly towards the infamous savage beast of the forest.

The Great Beast snarled and darted down the path but Walter Mitty spotted a skeleton of a previous daring adventurer who was unfortunately gobbled up by the Great Beast. Noticing a yellow spear still clinging in the befallen adventurer’s hands, Walter sprinted towards the yellow spear and promptly grasped ahold of it. He launched the yellow spear into the heart of the Beast with a seemliness flick of the wrist, fatally stabbing the Great Beast of the Grandness Forest. Walter Mitty dashes towards the lady, holding a dainty umbrella, as rocks start tumbling down the hill. He clutched the lady’s waist and leaped off the edge of the hill, falling towards the rocky grounds. The umbrella opened up like a parachute, and they both landed with the grace of gliding swans.

“Oh my!” exclaimed the blushing beauty before him, visibly in awe of his heroics.

Walter Mitty could best conceal his obvious pride by removing a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket. He took out a single cigarette and placed it in between his teeth.

“Wait until they hear about it back home”, he said, lighting the cigarette and staring into the vast emptiness of the exorcized forest.

1. Exposition Quote: “My son is breaking my heart. It is already broken” (MacLeaverty, 166)

Explanation: The statement is a paradoxical realization that disappointment can get even worse. This quote introduces the internal conflict that the father has with his need to continue loving his son even though he is profoundly disappointed with him. It illustrates that the relationship between the father and son is distant and damaged. It also emphasizes the pain the father feels for his son because he is unable to reach him through normal means of communication. It also suggests that even though he is brokenhearted by what the son has become and the way he has wasted his life, there is still room for more disappointment.

2. Rising Action: “Son, you are living on borrowed time.” (MacLeaverty, 167)

Explanation: The father is saying that the son’s reckless lifestyle is doomed and it foreshadows a likely tragedy. The son lives dangerously and so each day he stays alive he is under risk of being killed, Belfast is a very dangerous place and the son is obviously involved in a violent  resistance in one form or another. The father is wise enough to know, probably as a long term Belfast resident, that when you live by the sword you are likely to die by it. We feel as readers that something tragic is likely to happen.

3.            Rising Action: “The door swings open and he pushes a hand-gun beneath the pillow.” (MacLeaverty, 169)

Explanation: This quote builds up to the climax because it is the moment that the reader realizes that the boy is involved with some sort of violent resistance and wants to hide it from his father. The father obviously disapproves of the son’t involvement in violent resistance and the significance of the son hiding the gun is that this may be a key source of their estrangement. The father must disapprove of violence out of concern for his safety but the violence may be the only source of inspiration for the son. Thus this quote both explains what the son is involved with and partly foreshadows a violent escalation

4.            Rising action: “My son with friends. Talking. What he does not do with me” (MacLeaverty, 169)

Explanation: It builds suspense because it underscores the son’s involvement and single-minded devotion to his violent cause and that the father is unable to influence him in the same way his friends can. It also highlights their estrangement. The son and father have strained communication and the father laments that they are unable to connect with each other with words. He feels it is unfair that he can talk so freely with his friends and not him. They may talk but not in the way they used to and not in the easy manner that he does so with his friends.

5.            Climax quote: “There is a Bang. A dish-cloth drops from my hand and I run to the kitchen door” (MacLeaverty 169).

Explanation: This is the moment where all the buildup of conflict officially comes to a climax and we realize the violent action that has been foreshadowed has finally occurred.  There was a gun under the son’s pillow, so the reader knows that we the bang  is likely a gunshot, that violence has occurred and that either the violence was done by the son or that he has been attacked. We can assume that someone is dead and has been killed. The fact that he drops his dish cloth and runs to the kitchen door may mean that the father is used to sounds like this (living in Belfast) but knows the implications of the gunshot. He seems aware that his son is probably involved.

6.            Falling action quote: “My son is lying on the floor, his head on the bottom stair, his feet on the threshold” (MacLeaverty 169).

Explanation: This is right after the climatic shot and explains the consequence of the shot. The conflict comes to an end and the tone and mood shifts from suspense to one of sadness and loss, now that we know who was shot and the implications. The son’s body position suggests that he was assassinated as he walked towards the entrance of the house. The story winds down because here the son is now officially dead.

7.     Falling action quotes: “I take my son’s limp head in my hands and see a hole in his nose that should not be there” (MacLeaverty, 169) Safety he’s coming to the conclusion that now something has to be done.

Explanation: This is another quote that winds down the story because it shows the father who initially held onto the faint hope that perhaps it was just a minor injury but now fully realizes the extent of the gunshot. The head is limp and lifeless and the position of the gunshot suggests it is fatally entered his brain. He can no longer deny the reality that the gunshot was definitely fatal and is mourning the loss of his son.  

8.            Denouement Quote: ”My son, let me put my arms around you (MacLeaverty, 169)

Explanation: The quote finishes off the story because we see that the father only was able to hold the son once he was dead. The irony is that his closest attachment can only come after he is dead and unable to resist his affection. When the son was alive the son would have never let the father hold him. This is a conclusion because the father has reached an epiphany, realizing that connection with another human being, even when it is your son, often comes too late and so his request is a sad attempt to give a sense of dignity and love to his son, ironic given the undignified way he was murdered.

(The picture indicates the controversy on the subject of hanging or Capital punishment)

Capital punishments has been a subject of controversy for many years and has been disputed between many. Capital punishment has been implemented in Canadian history and was removed from the Canadian Criminal Code in 1976, 41 years ago. Canadian’s capital punishment was implemented fully until 1961, where murders were classified into capital and non capital offenses. a year later, the last execution that took place in Canada. In 1966, capital punishment is limited to the killing of police officers or prison guards and 10 years later, it was completed removed and replaced with 25 years in jail with no parole. In 2001, the Supreme court of Canada ruled that the Canadian government will be constitutionally required to protect Canadian criminals from the death penalty in extradition cases.

In the story “Two Fishermen” by Morley Callaghan, a man named Thomas Delaney is sentenced to death by hanging for murdering Matthew Rhinehart who molested his wife. If this was to happen in Canada, it would be most likely to happen between 1900 to 1960’s as crimes for murder were carried out with the death penalty during this time period. The story also indicates that automobiles were utilized therefore the events in the story would fit in the period mentioned above. In my opinion, I do not believe that Thomas Delaney should have been hanged. Although I do condemn Delaney’s actions, I also condemn Capital punishment as I believe it is not morally correct to justify justice by killing another person. Although Thomas Delaney did murder another man in order to defend his wife, a murder cannot be justified with murder because a legal murder and a illegal murder ultimately results in the same outcome, death. Capital punishment also puts people in a position to carry out an execution, such as shown with Smitty in the story, and ultimately having to take a life of a human being.