MAKING INFERENCES

Making Inferences about Character

Making Inferences about Character

Part One: Stockings By Tim O'Brien

Henry Dobbins is a highly interesting individual in Tim O'Brien's Stockings from his quasi-fictional collection of interrelated stories: The things they carried (Bloom, 2004). Henry Dobbins' character is highly interesting and somewhat riveting because he comes across as a ray of sunshine in the bleak, cold and merciless world in which the Vietnam war took place. Of all the inferences drawn regarding Henry Dobbins' characteristics, perhaps one of most interesting is that which pertains to Henry Dobbins' ability to keep his faith alive. Henry Dobbins' life is riddled with risk and jeopardy, yet Henry Dobbins continues to find a reason to keep his hope alive (O'Brien, 2009). It is not clear if Henry chooses to do so on account of the degree to which hope keeps him alive or the if he chooses to do so on account of the platoon's reliance on Henry Dobbins' luck. However, it is clear that while the pantyhose were Henry Dobbins' good luck charm, Henry Dobbins himself (on account of the panty hose) had become nothing less than the platoon's good luck charm.

Part Two: Paper Pills By Sherwood Anderson

Doctor Reefy is the central character of Sherwood Anderson's Paper Pills. Doctor Reefy comes forth as an odd and unusual character who is clearly lost in his own world and does not wish to be brought out of his little cocoon of thoughts, mysteries and isolations. This section of the paper will attempt to present an analysis of Doctor Reefy with regard to the inferences that are key regarding his personality (Anderson, 1927). The discussion will attempt to dissect (in a manner of speaking) the intricacies that constitute the anomaly that is Doctor Reefy.

Doctor Reefy clearly finds a sense of comfort in the isolation that ...