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Summary Of The Rich Brother By Tobias Wolff

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The Brother Rich in Compassion and Care
The short story “The Rich Brother” is written by Tobias Wolff. Wolff is mostly known for his short story writing along with a couple small novels. “The Rich Brother” is taken from one of Wolff’s collections named “Back in the World” (323). “The Rich Brother” discusses a relationship between two brothers, Pete and Donald. Pete has a family, a job, and a sufficient amount of money. On a complete opposite spectrum, Donald, has no family, recently fired from his job, and he is broke (324). While Pete seems fairly rich, in terms of money, he lacks compassion for anyone other than himself . Again, in contrast, Donald continuously sacrifices his own well-being to help others (324-325). Although Pete is wealthy, Donald is rich in his abundance of consideration for others. …show more content…

In the beginning of “The Rich Brother” Pete offers to come get Donald, but Donald refuses to accept his offer in concern for Pete’s comfort. Pete would have to come to the “depressing” farm and withstand the long drive, so Donald is reluctant to agree (325). Later, Donald accidentally spills a drink in Pete’s luxurious car, so Donald, without complaint, uses his own shirt to clean it up. Donald even apologizes for the incident (326). As the story progresses Donald questions Pete about how Pete “used to try to kill” Donald (328). Donald speaks of this incident for a while, but he easily forgets the conversation at Pete’s request (329). Although Pete was insensitive and cruel to Donald, he still continued to have sympathy and tolerate his

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