English 110: Augmentum

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They Payoff by Susan Perabo tells a story of two girls who use blackmail to selfishly get what they want. Anne succumbs to the pressure of Louise to follow through with their deviant acts despite her moral conscious battling between good and wrong. Their acts of wanting to get revenge against the authoritative figure at their school show their rebellious nature despite their inability to fully understand the situation. We can see that Anne wants to do the right thing by getting a gift for Ms. McDaniel, but their actions have already taken a far most substantial toll than any monetary gift can replace. Their lack of understanding of love shows their immature understanding of the greater picture, and when Ms McDaniels confronts Anne about their plot it shakes her world. “The machinations of the human heart were inexplicable, not only to me, but to my parents as well, and thus, apparently, to anyone.” [290] Anne describes love as something almost dark in nature as she attempts to grasp why people would cheat on their marriages. Love and life however, are full of ups and downs and sometimes things need to evolve to become something better- even if it is pursued in devious way. Manipulation of others for personal gain can lead to a very destructive path, and blackmail may be one of the cruelest forms of torture, because it enables someone to dangle some of your worst fears over your head. Although Anne and Louise are naïve to the nature of love, but a lack of communication between Dr. Dunn and his wife are a clear indication to the dark side of love.

Communication is crucial to every aspect of society as it is key that we speak how we feel, because we cannot rely on others to infer what we are thinking. Two of the stories in A Pocket Anthology revolve around the loss of a child and the torture it plays out on the couples afterward. In both A Temporary Matter and Creative Writing couples look for ways to cope with their feelings instead of communicating their feelings and emotions with their lovers.