Sunset

Johnnie changes drastically in both behavior and emotions from the beginning to the end of “The Outing”. These shifts in his character seem to revolve around his emerging feelings for his close friend David. At the beginning of the journey Johnnie is extremely excited to see his close friend David. It is clear the two boys have a close relationship and are very comfortable around one another. However, the intimate moment in which David asks, “Who do you love?...Who’s your boy?” to which Johnnie responds, “you, I love you” (43) seems to indicate something more than just platonic love between the two boys. After this scene there are small, seemingly insignificant instances in which Johnnie’s feelings seem to blossom. Though they are not indicative of anything in particular on their own, the accumulation of such sentiments begin to collect as the story continues. They become more frequent and more prominent, the most emotional of the moments being when Johnnie looks over at David during

The characters of Leala and Sonya in Rebecca Curtis’ short story “The Toast” are extremely complex and realistic individuals who the reader can both sympathize with and find difficult to favor. Leala is introduced to the reader in her conversation with Sonya about her wedding in which she seems like a typical older sister. She clearly differs from Sonya in many ways (or rather, Sonya differs from everyone else) but in general she just seems like all she wants is for her sister to attend her wedding. However, soon Sonya begins talking about Leala’s relationship with Matty. She references so many instances in which Leala seemed to dictate Matty’s life in a seemingly controlling and inconsiderate way. This skewed my perception of her to be negative and I began to envision her as the uptight conceited older sibling that seems to be described according to www.firstborns.com. This first section also highlights the difference between the sisters’ wealth. Right off the bat, it is established