Anne Tyler’s popular short story ‘‘With All Flags Flying’’ gracefully explores a number of themes in the tale of eighty-two-year-old Mr. Carpenter. One major idea, underscored by symbolism found in the story, is the concept of freedom and the need to be as independent as possible. Carpenter wants to be as free and independent at…
Tag: With All Flags Flying
With All Flags Flying – Setting
Changes in American Society In The Early 1970s, Americanswerestilldealingwith and reeling from the massive social changes of the revolutionary 1960s. The rise of the counterculture in the 1960s, for example, led to many aspects of this movement, such as questioning authority and tradition, being incorporated into mainstream American society in the 1970s. The administration of…
With All Flags Flying – Literary Devices
Setting The setting is the time, place, and culture in which the narrative’s action takes place. In ‘‘With All Flags Flying,’’ the setting is contemporary time (the early 1970s) in Baltimore and Baltimore County. Many of Tyler’s works take place in Baltimore, where the author has made her home for many years. She draws on…
With All Flags Flying – Themes
Aging One of the primary themes in ‘‘With All Flags Flying’’ is aging and issues related to the elderly. Carpenter is an eighty-two-year-old widower who has lived alone in a two-room house since his wife’s death. For many years he has had a plan for how he wants to spend the end of his life….
With All Flags Flying – Characters
Mr. Carpenter Mr. Carpenter is an eighty-two-year-old widower who is focused on controlling how he spends his last days. Because he is feeling weaker and believes that he can no longer live alone in his modest two-room home in Baltimore County, he decides to move in with his daughter Clara while waiting for a spot…
With All Flags Flying – Summary
As ‘‘With All Flags Flying’’ opens, an eighty-two-year-old man named Mr. Carpenter lives alone in a two-room house located on the last bit of farm property he owns near a superhighway in Baltimore County. He has felt weaker recently and household chores have been neglected. He has come to the conclusion that he can no…