“A Time and Again” by Breece D’J Pancake, is a short story from the Appalachian region. It is a seemingly innocent story, until the reader looks into the deeper meanings behind the lines in the story. The narrator is preparing to plow snow in his town. Along the way he picks up a hitchhiker who begins to speak to the narrator. Through his talking, the reader hears about a series of bodies that are found mutilated in different ways. In “Time and again” by Breece D’J Pancake, the readers are introduced to the main character, the narrator. From the beginning, the readers know that his wife is dead, and his son is missing. Through symbolism of hogs, Mr. Weeks, the “big retard,’ and the bodies of hitchhikers being found, readers are subtly introduced
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Weeks. The reader knows from his description that the narrator is not friends with him. The narrator says, “I am not in a hurry. ‘Scrunch down’ (Pancake 86).” This quote is meaningful because this is how the narrator forms his alibi. Since Mr. Weeks does not see the hitchhiker in the passenger seat, if a dead body shows up, no one will suspect it is him, because he can say he was alone. The hitchhiker goes on to say, “They found his duffel bag at the bottom of Lovers’ Leap. All his grip was in there, and his bones too (Pancake 87).” This is the hitchhiker revealing the narrator's first victim. The only thing that was left of the man was his bones after he he’d been murdered and fed to the hogs. The hitchhiker continues with, “There was a big retard got killed up here, too. He was the only one they ever found with all his meat on’ ( Pancake 87).” From this, the reader can assume that the “big retard” is the narrator's son who has gone missing. When he was trying to peer over into the hog pen, he climbed up onto the wooden slats, and when he saw his mother's dead body, he panicked and toppled over into the hogpen. The hogs then proceeded to begin eating him when his father came out and tried to remove his body from the pen, which is why when the body was found, it still had meat on it, while the other remain had been nothing but bones. After the conversation about the appearances of dead bodies, the narrator …show more content…
The narrator says, “‘ Look under the seat for my flashlight boy’ (Pancake 87).” This is important because this is when the narrator would typically hit the passenger over the head with the lug wrench that he mentioned earlier in the story. While the passenger is bent over he would take wrench and hit them in the back of the head either knocking them unconscious or killing them. This particular hitchhiker is spared because the narrator thinks, “ But I am way too tired now, and I don’t want to clean the seat (Pancake 87).” This shows that the only two reasons that the hiker was able to walk away with is life, are because the narrator was tired, and he did not feel like cleaning up the mess that would have been left in his truck had he killed the
Weeks. The reader knows from his description that the narrator is not friends with him. The narrator says, “I am not in a hurry. ‘Scrunch down’ (Pancake 86).” This quote is meaningful because this is how the narrator forms his alibi. Since Mr. Weeks does not see the hitchhiker in the passenger seat, if a dead body shows up, no one will suspect it is him, because he can say he was alone. The hitchhiker goes on to say, “They found his duffel bag at the bottom of Lovers’ Leap. All his grip was in there, and his bones too (Pancake 87).” This is the hitchhiker revealing the narrator's first victim. The only thing that was left of the man was his bones after he he’d been murdered and fed to the hogs. The hitchhiker continues with, “There was a big retard got killed up here, too. He was the only one they ever found with all his meat on’ ( Pancake 87).” From this, the reader can assume that the “big retard” is the narrator's son who has gone missing. When he was trying to peer over into the hog pen, he climbed up onto the wooden slats, and when he saw his mother's dead body, he panicked and toppled over into the hogpen. The hogs then proceeded to begin eating him when his father came out and tried to remove his body from the pen, which is why when the body was found, it still had meat on it, while the other remain had been nothing but bones. After the conversation about the appearances of dead bodies, the narrator …show more content…
The narrator says, “‘ Look under the seat for my flashlight boy’ (Pancake 87).” This is important because this is when the narrator would typically hit the passenger over the head with the lug wrench that he mentioned earlier in the story. While the passenger is bent over he would take wrench and hit them in the back of the head either knocking them unconscious or killing them. This particular hitchhiker is spared because the narrator thinks, “ But I am way too tired now, and I don’t want to clean the seat (Pancake 87).” This shows that the only two reasons that the hiker was able to walk away with is life, are because the narrator was tired, and he did not feel like cleaning up the mess that would have been left in his truck had he killed the