Throughout multiple short stories, various characters take extreme risks in order to improve their quality of living. The short stories “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket” by Finney, and “Two Friends” by Maupassant, “Story of Damon and Pythias” by anonymous, best display how the main characters take gambles in order to obtain their desired life. One should take risks in order to improve their quality of life. A quality life was not determined by a little piece of yellow paper. In the short story “Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket” by Jack Finney, the main character Tom risked his life in order to get a small yellow sheet of paper back. Tom had quivered on the side of his apartment complex because he thought that by attempting to get the piece of paper back it would miraculously change his life. In
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Throughout the short story “Two Friends” by Guy de Maupassant, the main characters Monsieur Morissot and Monsieur Sauvage continually make efforts to improve their quality of life. Both are living in Paris, which is under siege and where the food is scarce. The two friends shared a mutual love for fishing, “Simple exchange of words was all that was needed for them to understand each other and confirm their mutual appreciation” (Maupassant 170). The simple realization that such an easy task could bring back such joy sparked an idea in the head of the friends. This idea being that the friends would go fishing in order to bring back the feeling of quality of life that had been present before the war. “And as they did so they were overcome by a delightful sense of joy, the kind of joy you only experience when you resume something you really love after being deprived of it for a long time” (Maupassant 174). Unfortunately this joy was short lived when the risk of crossing the French line had came into clear focus. The two friends had found themselves surrounded by Prussians who thought the worst of their
Throughout the short story “Two Friends” by Guy de Maupassant, the main characters Monsieur Morissot and Monsieur Sauvage continually make efforts to improve their quality of life. Both are living in Paris, which is under siege and where the food is scarce. The two friends shared a mutual love for fishing, “Simple exchange of words was all that was needed for them to understand each other and confirm their mutual appreciation” (Maupassant 170). The simple realization that such an easy task could bring back such joy sparked an idea in the head of the friends. This idea being that the friends would go fishing in order to bring back the feeling of quality of life that had been present before the war. “And as they did so they were overcome by a delightful sense of joy, the kind of joy you only experience when you resume something you really love after being deprived of it for a long time” (Maupassant 174). Unfortunately this joy was short lived when the risk of crossing the French line had came into clear focus. The two friends had found themselves surrounded by Prussians who thought the worst of their