Two Stories: Authors Packer and Becker

Paper Summary:

The paper explains that Victor, from Geoffrey Becker's "El Diablo de la Cienega," who is a young star basketball player, and Elizabeth, from Ann Packer's "Horse," who is an introverted, bookish young woman excelling in reading, are both individualists who, in different ways, excel in solitary pursuits. The author of the paper points out that the authors of both stories balance the inner and outer life of the protagonists in different ways, depending on the protagonist's gender and maturity; but ultimately, both of these solitary people must come to grips with both their larger world and their developing senses of self. The paper states that Victor and Elizabeth both are driven to close, yet highly conflicted relationships with their surviving mothers because of their status as children in single-parent families.

From the Paper:

"Elizabeth's perceived gifts in reading, furthermore, are not admired as unequivocally as are Victor's have upon her psyche. Victor sees himself confidently as a gifted athlete, while Elizabeth sees her body as inadequate to the demands of the game she has chosen to prove herself at. Thus the game functions differently in the narrator's perceptions, the structure of the tale's evolution in a linear or a more discursive fashion, and also in terms of whether the character sees the structure of the game as frustrating, as in the case of Elizabeth, or holding the potential for salvation or damnation, as does Victor. The competitive crux of the game-narrative in "Horse" also takes place off-stage, because it is less central to the character's positive development, as opposed to the more physical Victor and the more physical life of the young male protagonist, in "El Diablo de la Cienega" where the game is the story, in essence."

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