The Last Days of World War II Yates does not say where the battle described in the story took place, but it is possible that it took place in Germany, given that it occurred in March of 1945 and involved American troops advancing against the Germans. The conflict that Yates describes has some similarity to…
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The Canal by Richard Yates – Literary Devices
Point of View Point of view is the angle from which the action of the story is seen. In this case, the story is told in third-person, limited omniscient point of view. The story is told in the third person, and readers are given the inner thoughts of one character, but not the inner thoughts…
The Canal by Richard Yates – Themes
Memory Yates dramatizes in this story how individuals remember shared experiences (perhaps especially of war) in separate ways and how those different ways of remembering determine or express the person’s sense of self. Tom Brace selects from all his military experience in order to shape his story. Soldiers have many experiences in military service, but…
The Canal by Richard Yates – Characters
Nancy Brace Tom Brace is amazed to hear that Miller’s outfit had the leisure to sleep, since his canal crossing put him right into artillery fire. Nancy Brace, Tom’s wife, asks if his killing the artillery soldiers earned him a Silver Star. Brace dismisses Nancy’s question with a wink, patronizing her supposedly superficial focus on…
The Canal by Richard Yates – Summary
“The Canal” starts at a cocktail party in 1952. Two couples, the Millers and the Braces, are in the middle of a long conversation that has already been going on for about an hour when the story begins. Lew Miller and Tom Brace work for the same advertising firm. As the story opens, Lew Miller…
Titanic Survivors Found in Bermuda Triangle – Analysis
Robert Olen Butler’s 1996 short story collection Tabloid Dreams has a gimmick: each of the stories that it contains is based on a title that resembles the types of titles one finds in tabloid newspapers, the kind that shoppers thumb through while waiting in line at the supermarket. “Help Me Find My Spaceman Lover,”“Boy Born…
Titanic Survivors Found in Bermuda Triangle – Setting
The Sinking of the Titanic Titanic was advertised heavily throughout 1911 and 1912 as illustrating the future of ocean travel, a ship too huge and too well-designed to ever sink. It sank on its first voyage. The theory behind the ship’s presumed stability was its double-lined hull, which was divided into sixteen watertight compartments. Four…
Titanic Survivors Found in Bermuda Triangle – Literary Devices
Symbolism Throughout “ Titanic Survivors Found in Bermuda Triangle,” water is used to symbolize Margaret’s fear of being touched. This is made most obvious in the segment of the story describing her trip to Venice. The trip itself is a quick diversion: she leaves London, goes to Venice, and is quickly back in London. It…
Titanic Survivors Found in Bermuda Triangle – Themes
Edwardian Age The term “Edwardian Age” refers to years during which Edward VII reigned. Though Edward was king from 1900 to 1910, the era named after him is often extended to the start of World War I in 1914. The Edwardian period marked the very different mood that prevailed in England and in America in…
Titanic Survivors Found in Bermuda Triangle – Characters
The Drunk Man Just as the Englishman and Margaret are coming to realize that they view the world in the same way, a drunk man approaches them. He has a drink cooled with ice that was chipped off of the iceberg that has sealed their fate. In describing the drunken man, Margaret is forced to…