Follow up Activity:

1. Identify Plot; Characters; Theme; Conflict, Crisis, Resolution; and Point of View (POV) in
The Other. Post your answers in your Weebly.
Due date: June 6th 2014

Analysis of the text The Other
(With my alternative version of its ending)

Plot: The plot of this story follows a recti lineal sequence. It starts with the normal
life routine of the protagonist, an executive from Rio de Janeiro who has a
monotonous life-style from home to work and work to home; he has a pretty plane
existence until the day of the streets man appearing. It is from this point on when
the protagonists life changes, his routine would get modified also and the stress
and fear are two new variables added to the story. Next on, those two variables
become the two basic aspects that lead to the conflict and the crisis of this story
which, at the end, will get solved after a rough and a stirred happening that will
alter the readers perception of the antagonist role.
Theme: The theme of this story is basically the apathy or indifference. Why?
Because of several reasons, starting from the very beginning, the title The Other
(from my point of view) makes reference to the neighbor; this story shows the
simple life-style that an executive follows, nothing relevant happens, he has just an
usual existence with regular doses of stress and so on, but nothing strange
happens until he meets the beggar. As a result one can notice the relationship
between the other and the protagonist as the existent social phenomenon in
which people dont realize their neighbor situation or dont really care about them
until it touches them by first hand. Its a situation common in Brazil and Id say in
general in Latin American countries where a lot of inequality exists but no one
seems to want to admit its there, people just live their lives without really
considering any other individual around them.
Without the intervention of the streets guy in the protagonists life, the second one
would had probably never have experienced any alteration on his daily routine and
physical and mental health.
Conflict: The conflict of the story takes place right after the first encountering
between the protagonist and the street inhabitant, is from this happening on when
the protagonists life starts to change, his health will result harmed, his physical
integrity, his job, his mental stability. With no doubts the conflict is set from the very
moment in which the protagonist starts to be frequented by the beggar.
Crisis: In this story, (and taking into account the alternative ending I gave it), there
are two moments of crisis or two peaks of the conflict. The first one happens after
the protagonist has started to take daily walks and realizes the guy from the street
is waiting for him kind of hidden on the corner, thats a moment which totally
changes the protagonists life since its because of it that he decides to be away
from his job for 2 months.
The second peak takes place after those two months, the night that the protagonist
goes jogging in the woods of his homes neighboring area. Its at that night and in
that place where the most critical happening arrives, the re-meeting with the
beggar, the argument and fight that at the end lead to the resolution of both mens
problems.
Resolution: It begins after the fight of the protagonist and the antagonist. After
having dis- armed the dangerous guy and finding out his weird reaction, the
protagonist talks with him on a bench and thats when he gets to hear this poor
guys life story, that is the moment when he realizes that more than a dangerous
man, this beggar is a young man claiming for help, wanting a second chance from
society since he has always been out casted for he is a streets inhabitant.
Point of View: The story is narrated in first person. Is the protagonist himself who
tells the story and who describes the way things happened and what did each
character think or feel by the time the happenings took place, therefore its also an
omniscient narrator.
Andrs Ojeda.