The Terminal Tale of Today Will Be A Quiet Day :: Today Will Be a Quiet Day Essays

The Terminal Tale of Today Will Be A steady Day After reading Today Will Be A Quiet Day by Amy Hemple, I had an eerie feeling that something bad was issue on behind the scenes. I feel that the father has a terminal disease and he wants to happily live out the last few old age of his life. I think that there is conclusive evidence that Today Will Be A Quiet Day is not a happy fable, but in fact a sad one. First of all, death plays a huge role in this story. Death is brought up so many quantify in this story one can only conclude that there is some kind of foreshadowing going on. For example, the very first line of the story deals with disaster and death. In the first paragraph the boy talks about what would happen if an earth flap occurred while they were on the bridge. He says, I think if the quake hit now the bridge would collapse and the ramps would be left (1202). At the end of the first page the father remembers a boy who went to his sons school who committed suicide. Another part of death in this story is the mention of the family dog that was put to sleep five years ago for nippy a little girl. The daughter had always thought that the dog had gone to live in the mountains, but when she finds out that the dog was put to sleep, she gets all put off about her loss. Even the joke about the guillotine that the girl tells involves death. All of these examples are hints that there is a death in the near future. The fact that the produce is not mentioned throughout the whole story implies that she is no longer around to take care of the children. The father, then, makes little hints about his departure such as, Who will eer adopt you if you dont mind your manners (1204). Although, this may have been a joke it is far too hard to let go. This is a serious sign of a fatal illness. Yet another sign of fatality is the mention of the tombstone, and this is tied directly, and significantly, to the title of the story.