>> I just read "Just Before the War with the Eskimos". Does anyone out there >> understand the last line. "A few years before, it had taken her three days >> to dispose of the Easter chick she had found dead on the sawdust in the >> bottom of her wastebasket." This is my first time reading it and I will >> read it again before my class with Will but as of now I'm not >> understanding it too well. Have any insights? You know, I might be a total imbecile, but I *completely* missed the fact that Franklin's friend (I don't have the book with me at the moment) is gay, the first couple of times I read it. Maybe I just had to get older and become more worldly or something. Anyway. I always thought the Easter chick was representative of her inappropriate or disproportional sympathy, or even guilt feelings. She feels the same sympathy/guilt/pity or whatever for Selena now, knowing that her brother has heart problems and that he was prevented from doing what the other young men his age were at the time, and that he has to hang out with gay men (disclaimer: not that that's a bad thing!!!! Please don't get me wrong; I'm only speaking in the context of the time period in which the story was written). Maybe Franklin is gay himself. Whatever. But it's enough to elicit her sympathy/guilt/etc. And *that's* enough to override her previous opinion of Selena being the biggest drip in her class. You may quote me wildly on that. ;) Am I way, way off about this?? Anyone? T.A. Muller tamuller91@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com//Colosseum/Sideline/7014 http://www.geocities.com//SouthBeach/Coast/2017 ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com