On The Sidewalk Bleeding Analysis

“That’s for you, Royal!” and then the sound of footsteps hurrying into the rain, and then he had fallen to the sidewalk, clutching his stomach, trying to stop the flow of blood.” (Hunter 1). In Evan Hunter’s short story On the Sidewalk Bleeding, the main protagonist is a 16-year-old boy named Andy who is in a gang called the “Royals”. However, with every gang in a story, an opposing band is present. In the story, the rival gang is known as the “Guardians”. Some of the members of the Guardians stab Andy when he was passing through an alleyway to get to a convenience store. Throughout the story, the setting was developed with suitable elements which helped the atmosphere and the mood for readers to experience what was happening in the narrative. With the use of point of view, conflict, and imagery, the short story developed into a setting that is appropriate for the atmosphere of the narrative.

Every story has a point of view, whether it’s first person or one of the two third-person perspectives. The third-person limited point of view chosen in this short story sets the dark and lonely atmosphere in the narrative. This lets the audience experience his actions from an outside perspective where you can visualize everything that Andy is doing, along with being able to convey how he feels. “He had known excruciating pain when the knife had torn across his body, and then sudden comparative relief when the blade was pulled away.” (Hunter 1). This quotation helps the audience