T.S. Arthur writes an emotional short story entitled An Angel in Disguise. The story focuses on three young kids who’s mother suddenly dies. They are left alone and have no one to care for them. Despite the fact that everybody in the mother’s village despises her, they gather together to figure out what to do with her kids. The youngest daughter, who is disabled, had nowhere to go. Arthur clearly contrasts the death of the mother and the children she left behind. He creates sympathy for the children but he also creates suspense because we don’t know if anyone will decide to take care of the kids.
I was immediately drawn to the story when I read the first line which begins, “idleness, vice, and intemperance had done their miserable work, and the dead mother lay cold and still amid her wretched children.” This line really grabbed me and made me want to see what happened to the mother. It grabbed me in because it contained many emotional words and it was inevitable that something huge had just occurred. I was sure this was a murder mystery. As I read on it became clear that the mother died of alcohol poisoning and left behind her young children. Arthur describes in detail the poor life that they led and how deprived the kids were.
The short story begins to focus on the future of the youngest child, Maggie, who had fallen from a window and left with a spinal chord injury. Joe Thompson, a neighbor decided to take her home. Although they did not have any children of their own, this was not a perfect solution because his wife was very mean. She was not welcoming to the girl. I felt myself sympathizing with Maggie and hoping that Mrs. Thompson would warm up to her. In our society, sympathy is a rarity. People tend to care about themselves rather than other people. I think it is important that dire situations evoke sympathy from others. This story is a lesson that when someone is in deep trouble that people should care and people look out for that person. It was refreshing to read about people who cared about one another even though it is fictional. It made me hopeful for the real world.
Arthur wants the readers to realize that change is not bad and that sometimes the things you dread become the best things for you. I liked this story because it was though provoking and realistic. It had an emotional element that really stuck with me long after I had finished reading it. Mrs. Thompson did not want Maggie at first but then realized that she was happier taking care of someone and being responsible for someone. I loved that Mrs. Thompson found happiness by caring for someone else.
This story is very similar to Regret by Kate Chopin. In both stories, the characters learned to care for other people and overcome loneliness and sadness. It was interesting to me that in both of these short stories children helped the characters become happy. I think this is because children are special.
Link to the short story: http://americanliterature.com/author/ts-arthur/short-story/an-angel-in-disguise
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