Four Summers

–A Review Essay, Research Paper

I found the story Four Summers to be a very odd and different piece. I thought it was a

very true and realistic story, but the way it was told threw me off a little.

The believable part of the story is how it relates to family life. Many children grow

up thinking about how different their lives will be when they are adults, but it just doesn’t

work that way. No matter how hard you may try, you will end up similar to your parents,

be it language, activities, or the lifestyle in general. Throughout her childhood, Sissie

seemed to despise the bar and did not want anything to do with it. She also had a tough

time deciding whether or not she liked her father. When she grew up, she married a man

that was quite similar to her own father. Jesse was a big guy, he enjoyed the bar scene,

and he drank beer. Those are characteristics of Sissie’s father. The family cycle lives on

yet another generation and will probably keep going until someone makes an active effort

to cease that type of behavior.

The stranger Sissie met as a fourteen year-old is the only thing I didn’t understand.

Why was that such a significant thing for her when she came back to the bar with Jesse?

The only conclusion I can make is that the stranger would have been the one to break the

cycle with Sissie. That doesn’t seem likely though, as he was in the bar in the first place,

and he was in it when she returned several years later.

I didn’t really like reading this story because of the manner in which it was written.

It was different, but not easy to decipher at draw conclusions from.

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