A Strange Twist Of Fate Analysis

There are multiple ways the two central characters in the story, “A Strange Twist of Fate”, show similar processes of taking charge when circumstances require action. In the first half of the story, the heroic act was accomplished by Penny Brown. At his younger brother’s baseball game, an athlete warming up struck Kevin Stephen directly to his chest. The hit was very serious, as the text describes the occurrence that, “Kevin passed out. The bow had stopped his heart,” (“A Strange Twist of Fate”, lines 6,7). In the situation, a nurse named Penny Brown, was given the chance to spectate the game at the last second and saw Kevin hurt. This led her to take immediate action. The story states, “Brown, a nurse whose son was on the team, managed to …show more content…
Starting with the first passage, “A Strange Twist of Fate”, Kevin and Penny saved each others’ lives in different ways. First of all, the settings were different, where Kevin was rescued at a ballpark, and Penny at a restaurant in Depew, N.Y.. This also strengthens the dumb luck of the situation because what are the chances that the exact two people would be caught in completely different vicinities, playing the exact opposite role. Another difference was the injury, with Kevin hit in the chest leading to his heart stopping, to Penny choking on her food. A difference that adds onto that was the method used to save the life, as Penny used C.P.R. to get the heart pumping again, and Kevin use the Heimlich maneuver to get the food out of a hazardous position. The fact that they both knew the appropriate practices was a miracle in itself. Moving onto the second story, “The Lion and the Mouse”, there were also multiple differences in the actions taken. For example, the way the situation was set up, with the mouse stepping over the lion’s mane and getting captured in his paw, to the lion being captured by a snare by hunters. Also, although the mouse acted compassionately and immediate in assisting the lion, the lion more reluctantly ridiculed the idea and simply let the mouse go at a time he felt appropriate. Furthermore on the action, the mouse showed courage by gnawing at the rope and risking his life, whereas the lion didn’t show any courage and simply chose not to swallow the mouse. Overall, there are multiple similarities between the actions of the characters in both passages, but there are also multiple