Annotation of After You my Dear Alphonse by Shirley...

Annotation of After You my Dear Alphonse by Shirley Jackson The story that I have chosen to annotate is After you my dear Alphonse written by Shirley Jackson. Shirley Jackson was born in the year of 1919 and later died in 1965. She is best known for her stories and novels of horror and the occult, rendered more terrifying because they are set against realistic, common place backgrounds. After graduating from Syracuse University, Jackson married literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman. Life among the savages (1953) and Raising Demons (1957) are witty and humorous fictionalized memoirs about their life with their four children. Her most famous works include the short story collection The Lottery (1949), in which After you†¦show more content†¦has three themes but the main theme projected in the story is the theme of racial prejudice. The other two themes are the theme of narrow mindedness and stereotypes. The writer contrasts the children?s acceptance of each other in friendship and obliviousness to skin color, to Johnny?s mother, Mrs. Wilson?s prejudice nature and conditioned reflexes of racial differences. Mrs. Wilson?s reaction to Boyd comes of as superior due to her marginalized social conditioning. The title of the story itself, ?After you my dear Alphonse? is extremely symbolic and extremely important in the aid analyzing the text thoroughly and being able to identify the key themes portrayed throughout the story. Through the clever use of repetition throughout the text, Shirley Jackson has enabled the reader to recognize the thoughts that she has depicted in the story. Also the fact that Johnny and his African American friend Boyd keep repeating the phrase ?After you my dear Alphonse? and ?no after you my dear Alphonse? through out the text is seen as very symbolic to the theme of racial prejudice as the phrase ?after you my dear Alphonse ? originated with a comic strip that first appeared in 1905. Alphonse and Gaston were characters in the once popular gag for politeness, which appeared in the newspaper The New Journal. ?After you my dear Alphonse is an expression which is generally used when two people go back and forth, suggesting that the other go first as a way