Stolpestad Essay

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After he shot the dog, he did not want to go home to his wife, Sheila, and his two boys. He did not want to go home to the usual routine, so Stolpestad went to The Elk and drank. Maybe he drank away the thoughts of waking up the next morning just to drive the same route in the same old town as he always have done or just to drink after that he had experienced that day. At the bar, it seems that Stolpestad has forgotten about the day and he is just enjoying the good company with his friends at The Elk. In the text they are all laughing, so Stolpestad are using the alcohol and his friends to forget about the reality. “ha, ha, ha—how you gave the pooch a blindfold and cigarette, ha, ha, ha—another round for everyone, ha, ha, ha—three cheers for Gully”[L.96-97] So the setting is getting better than it has been the rest of the day, but then the telephone calls and it is his wife. There is a man who are looking for him and wants to talk with him. He drives home, but he is not sober and it seems that he has tried it before. “It’s not a dream—though it often feels like one—the streets rivering you home through the night and the dark” [L.101-102]. When you are drunk and you are walking or sitting in a driving car it is like it is a dream you do not always remember the trip and when you are walking you do not notice that you have arrived at your destination. It is like something has dragged you all the way and that line is similar to this feeling. And when it says “though it often feels like one” it seems like he have tried it before.

When Stolpestad comes home, there is a big truck park in front of the house. In front of it, there is a man and the boy from earlier. The man is tall and ropy, he is telling how much he appreciate Stolpestad’s work today, but he says it with irony in his voice. The man keeps using irony when he talks to him and the he says it. Stolpestad had not killed the dog, it just laid for hours after he shot it. Again the author has described the dog “imagine seeing how ants had gotten all into her.”[L.146-147].

When you are going in the same routine every day you forget to open your eyes and think rationally. Then you can make some fatal mistakes. So appreciate what you have and live one day at a time, do not let the days sink together. This is the morale of this story: Stolpestad.