Elephant
Plot
Useful Quotes
Characters
Themes
Conflict
Rising Action
Climax
Falling Action
Resolution
His brother asked for a loan $500
Brother doesn't end up paying him back and protagonist has to pay his mother as well
Reader learns that he also loans money to his daughter, son ex-wife and that he feels worried about being to pay everyone
Brother asks for a loan of $1000
Daughters house gets broken into and he needs to lend her money
Son writes asking for last money and that he is moving (threatens to commit suicide)
Dream about his alcoholism, and dream about being on his fathers shoulders
Realizes his life is not as bad as it could be. Starts feeling a sense of gratitude that he still has a family
Reaches acceptance
Drives off in speeding car
Narrator
Mother
Brother
Son
Daughter
Pyscho-analytical story
Responsiblity
Family
"When it rains it pours"
Brother
Constant repetition of the word 'worried'
Reliant on her son
Manipulative
Lost his job
Proud/stubborn
Constantly emphasises that he can pay his brother back, even though he knows he can't
Gives lots of details about his bad experiences to incite pity in his brother (hence none of their conversations are paraphrased)
Used to be favourite son tho it seems roles have been reversed
Conflicts with his low self esteem (tho this may be another ploy to create sympathy in the reader)
"Naturally, the investment thing hadn't worked out"
Naturally suggests that the narrator was not surprised to hear the Billy's investment hadn't come through
'My own back was against the wall now'
'I had several other people on my payroll'
definition: a list of a company's employees and the amount of money they are to be paid.
Makes him seem almost emotionally detached, doing it more for the fact he has to then out of any familial love
'When I used to think like a man about these things'
'Besides I was drinking in those days'
Married to a useless bastard
Keeps mention how in summer she would get work if her father could only carry her until then
Emotionally manipulates her father (and uses her kids to do it)
'Until opportunity knocked'
She is waiting for something to present itself to her, waiting for something amazing, does not want to work hard
Only college educated member of his family
Bribes his dad into sending him more money by threatening to turn into a drug dealer or rob a bank or commit suicide
Doubt he even loves his Dad
Emotional blackmail
"I'm carrying a very heavy load these days"
Coincidence that her first day of work she gets robbed and her husband and children are nowhere to be seen
"I feel like I've been raped"
Daughter
'I pretended he was an elephant'