Very Special Shoes Analysis

There two stories being compared are ‘Very Special shoes’ and ‘By the River’. Although both of these stories touch on the impact of love on a person, they aren’t very similar. One story focuses on the love between a mother and child, and the other touches on the heavy effects love can affect a person. This essay will seek to prove that while these two stories surround the subject of love, they couldn’t be any different in terms of plot, character and theme.
Both the stories that are being compared may have elements of love; they are approached in very different ways through their plotlines. In the story Very Special Shoes, the readers focus on the familial love between Mary and her ill mother, Mrs. Johnsons. Before her passing, Mary’s mother …show more content…
In Very Special Shoes Mary Johnsons is an eleven year old girl whose mother is ill. She is hardworking, and this displayed by how she did her chores to earn six dollars to afford a pair of red shoes she wanted. She is also oblivious to her mother’s illness and the stress her father has been placed under due to debt. Mary is unaffected by norms and the practicality of society and is shown by how she refused to dye her shoes black for her mother’s funeral. Mary is a dynamic character who shows change nearing the end of the story when she finally gives into her father’s request to dye her shoes black. At that point, she realizes that even though the color of her shoes changed, they still hold her mother’s love. Rather than being superficial about the shoes, she is able to recognize the deeper meaning within the gift. In contrast, the protagonist of By the River is a married woman called Crystal Styan who is portrayed as a modest and docile person. She is described to be someone who easily gets insecure because of her looks and quiet nature, and it was shown when she hid in embarrassment whenever her husband would be loud in the theatres. Crystal had a lot of faith in her husband, and tended to believe his promises. She was easily convinced to throw away her current life when Jim assured her that she didn’t need to graduate to live a good life (Hodgins, 48). …show more content…
In Very Special Shoes, the story reflects on how one can show love even after one disappears. Even while Mrs. Johnsons passed away, she manages to show her love for Mary through the shoes she bought for her before her death. Buying those shoes would be a final act of love to show Mary that she would always be there, despite dying. For Mary, her love for her mother is displayed when she decides to dye her shoes black to show respect for her mother. While they were no longer the same red shoes she wanted, they held her mother’s love. By the River focuses on how much faith one can place because of love. Shown through Crystal’s relationship with her husband, she was willing to sacrifice many things for him. Her love for him made her blind to disaster from the moment she was easily convinced to sacrifice her current life from him in the beginning. Jim had failed numerous times in his attempts to raise a farm, but her devotion to him never wavered. While she could’ve left the farm and moved on with her life after he leaves her, she continued to wait for him for the next few months. It is because of Crystal’s love for Jim, she continued believing in him to the very