Analysis Of The Briefcase By Rebecca Makal

Register to read the introduction… After finally escaping his cuffs the chef watched as soldiers arrested a man on the street making him strip and drop his briefcase. After the solders left with the man the chef takes the man’s things and decided to adopt a new identity by using the information in the briefcase to learn more about him. After searching through the briefcase the chef finds a business card and an id. From this he found out that the man was a physics professor. The chef then moved cities away and was now using the professor’s name and also grew his beard out to look more like the professor. He then used the professor’s address book to write a letter to all the professor’s friends and students informing them that the professor was alright but he needed some money. After a year money came less often, and even old friends who used to write monthly now sent only rare, apologetic notes and a few small bills. In the end of the story the chef goes to the post office as usual to check the mail but there was no mail only the professor’s wife who then began questioning him. The chef couldn’t bring himself to answer the questions he only wrapped his …show more content…
This is shown in the story when the protagonist’s desperation leads him to steal the imprisoned professor’s briefcase and ultimately adopt the professor’s identity as his own. The chef was so desperate for freedom that he killed off his own identity to fully become the professor, so much so that every time he referred to his life as a chef he says in “in another life time.” In the end of the story when the protagonist meets the professor’s wife he wanted her to believe he was the professor no matter the cost saying “The woman does not see how she is murdering her husband, right here in the post office lobby.” He desperately wanted the wife to believe he was the professor because he felt that if the professor’s own wife didn’t believe he was the professor she would be murdering her own husband by denying the identity he had taken on and there would no longer be a place in the world for