The Chain By Tobias Wolff Summary

Superior Essays
In the short story, “The Chain” by Tobias Wolff, the author shows the audience the true meaning of friendship. Gold and his cousin, Tom Rourke, show different kinds of acts of friendship. Rourke was there for Gold when he killed the dog who attacked Anna, Gold returned the favor for Rourke as he smashed the person’s car who hit Rourke’s car. The true meaning of friendship lies between Gold and Rourke by the sacrifices they make for each other. They both are there by each other’s side and they do not let each other down. Friendship should be about being there for each other and always standing by each other’s side when they need them the most. Rourke and Gold’s friendship is a perfect example towards others. The author proved what friendships mean in the short story by the actions that Rourke and Gold made. Their friendship is a perfect example of how a friendship should be. They stay loyal …show more content…
They both are there for each other and do not let each other go through tough situations alone. By Rourke killing a dog for Gold, he took a big sacrifice for his friend. The way Gold dented a guy’s car for Rourke, he paid him back. Friends are always there for each other and have each other’s back. They do not let each other go through anything alone. In the short story, “The Chain”, the author shows perfect examples of what friendship should be about. It should be about being there for each other and always standing by each other’s side when they need them the most. Rourke and Gold’s friendship is a perfect example towards others. The author showed the audience what it is like to be there for friends and have each other’s back. The sacrifices they made for one another is what friends should do The author proves friendship throughout the short story by the actions that both main characters take. True friendships last a lifetime. When friends are there for each other it builds their friendship up even

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Although, their were many hardships faced by the friends they both understand how much one another means to…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Female Friendship: Necessary for Emotion Survival There are many ways a friendships can help you. Friendships can help in almost any aspect, from physically helping someone with a project, to emotionally by being there when you are depressed or stressed. There are multiple reasons why a friendship is necessary for human life.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Unlikely allies, this is what we will be discussing in this essay. It is an unlikely friendship between humans, and every so often animals, it is where to people of two different classes come together. It is captivating to think that someone who is so lovable could be allies with something headstrong, but this why friendship is so precious. Friendship is something to chose each day of our lives. To show that friendship is magnificent, three unlikely alliances will be given.…

    • 106 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stand By Me Analysis

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In this movie, the director wants the audience to learn the meaning of friendships. This movie represents the friendship of the four boys who come from different family backgrounds. The boys spend a lot of time together along their journey and learn about…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    A quote that helps support this part of the plot is “Kevin Quinlan and I usually agreed on everything. We had been best friends since arriving in Arizona the same week for four years before. We both through the prickly pear cactus looked like ping-pong paddles with whiskers, and that saguaros looked like dinosaur mittens. W both loved strawberry-banana smoothies.” It is important to talk about love and friendship because love and friendship is the most important thing in life.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Cicero: Laulius de Amictia “On Friendship” In present time, a friendship is often known to be a valuable thing in life, a friend is a gift that is cherished for those who have good friendships. A friendship is shown in various ways and has different meanings a friend is a friend who is someone outside your family who you can trust and rely on. In history there have been alliances between countries, in which it could have extended to having an acquaintance or even as a friendship agreement between leaders. In previous decades though what did friendship mean and was it valued the way friendship is presently.…

    • 1779 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this essay, I will compare and contrast Cocking and Kennett’s view with Thomas’s highly moralized view about the nature and value of friendships. Friendship is an important aspect to human life, and many philosophers attempt to understand it to its fullest. To compare the differing views of Cocking and Kennett to Thomas’s Highly moralized view, I will examine why each party believes that friendship is valuable, as well as discuss how morality is related to friendship. I will also determine which belief seems to be the most plausible of the two, and why.…

    • 893 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Nicomachean Ethics: Why Friendship is Essential and Not Fickle In book VIII of Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle expounds upon the concept of friendship. In order to understand all that Aristotle means by friendship one must first know that there are three categories of friendship: friendship of utility, friendship of pleasure, and the perfect friendship. After analyzing the paradigms of each of these relationships he comes to the conclusion that friendship is crucial to life. He declares: “For without friends no one would choose to live” (VIII 1158a.5-6).…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this day and age, it is all too easy to view nature through the megapixels of a photo on an iPhone, or have over one hundred million images of any animal or plant appear in less than a second via Google Images. It is an astonishing accomplishment in technology, and its attributes to human welfare cannot be dismissed, but it does have its faults. Subsequently, these faults reflect concepts that philosophers have conferred for centuries. Many philosophers believe that technology, along with other entities and beliefs in Western culture, is pulling Americans away from having a strong connection with nature. One of the more contemporary philosophers, David Abram, expresses the importance of having a sense of unity with the natural world in his…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Friendship is one of the most important relationships someone will have in their lives. A person's friends can change the way they perceive the world, their goals and ambitions, and their motivation to get what they want. If someone is around successful people with goals in life, they will most likely aspire to do the same. Having good friends is an powerful part of someone's life. One of the most important parts of a good friendship is loyalty.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ever imagined life without a best friend? Or a friend in general for that matter? It would be hard right? In the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold goes through some difficult times in his life, that would have been considerably harder, without his new and old friendships. These friendships gave him safety, belonging and self acceptance.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The book Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi has many examples of friendship and it shows many themes, but one important one is friendship. The main character Crispin is a thirteen- year- old boy that is a serf. During Crispin’s life, he gains many friendships and has to run away from his village. The book showed many different themes including bravery,courage, perseverance and friendship. Friendship and love are a major theme because Crispin becomes friends with many people when he escaped the village, also while he was in the village he had the love for his mother and Father Quinel.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Friendship is a large part of many people’s life. It can bring you some of the best times of your life and lots of fun. Although it may seem all rainbows and butterflies, it can also bring many hardships. John Knowles focuses his novel on the friendship of two boys, Gene and Finny. Gene flashes back into his time in Devon to understand his friendship with Finny and reconcile with it.…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Of Lennie and George... In John Steinbeck's Novel Of Mice and Men Steinbeck develops an unbreakable and abnormal bond between two men, George Milton and Lennie Small. Throughout the book their friendship is seen as different compared to everyone else's friendships on the ranch. Steinbeck Uses the motif of friendship to help his readers to understand that human beings both crave and fear the feeling of friendship in their lives when they are put in situations with new and unknown people. Throughout the novel George and Lennie encounter situations where they are both trying to meet new people and find new friends on the ranch but never quite come up successful.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    S. , 1986). In our normal life, friendship plays an extraordinary important role. Because of it, we have a colourful and wonderful life. From the conversation between interviewer and Louise and Alexander, we can find that the tips for managing friendship is not only doing good socializing, but also need to support your friend, be their powerful backing. In Ye’s paper, ‘All about friendship’, he said, everyone has his own personality, so maybe you can be his friend, but not her.(Ye, 2012)…

    • 1887 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays