Response to “The School” by Donald Barthelme

“The School” is a short fiction presents the story with the angel of view of the narrator Mr. Edgar, who is a teacher of the school that witnesses and describes the things happen there. At the beginning of the story, the teacher is teaching his students plant the trees, but the trees are all died. Next, there are a series of death happen in the school describes by narrator: the snakes, herb gardens, gerbils, white mice, salamander, the tropical fish, and later even the Korea orphan and some parents. No matter there are certain reasons or the narrator cannot figure out the cause of some deaths, the matters described above makes audiences feel dark and a bit quirky about the plots.

But what I think makes this a good fiction is that the author try to guide audience have a thinking about life and death. In the story the narrator seems to avoid confronting the matter of death as an adult, but his students think deeper when they ask if its death that give meaning to life? In addition, although in the fiction there are many descriptions about death which make audiences feel depressed, still there are some positive emotional attitudes that shows in the story. For instance, the story starts when children are planting trees, and at the end, Mr. Edgar kisses Helen which is a symbol of love. Both this two parts suggests the hope and happiness of one’s life which the author wants to inspire his audience.