THURBER – theme
See Week 15 course calendar.
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In the short story about the "Ohio Flood" back in 1913 when it was rumored and the whole state freaked out. The theme that i took away from the short story is fear. you can read it through out the whole article. He starts off about how even though there wasn't a flood we were all safe, he states "Some of the most dignified, staid, cynical, and clear-thinking men in town abandoned their wives, stenographers, homes, and oflices and ran east." what i got from this is there is far more worse alarms then a "Broken Dam" And we as humans sometimes don't know how to react to emergencies and situations. just like in today present times with isis for example. They are doing horrible things over seas and "setting off alarms" and our government and everyone elses around the world is being tested with fear.
ReplyDeleteIn the story about the chaos caused in the "flood' of Ohio in 1913, there is a reoccurring theme of gullibility. The "flood" was not caused by a broken dam at all, yet a flood of people who were to believe what anyone said. When you read the story it explains how this whole riot could've been stated by a series of incidents. One person could have started running east as another person said "dam". There could have been a kid messing around with his friends and said "the dam broke" and as soon as one person heard it, thousands heard it. The theme is gullibility because no one stopped to make sure that what they were doing is what should've been done. They decided to just go with what everyone else is doing, because if everyone is doing it then it must be the right thing to do. This is similar to the situation our society is in today with many of our social issues.
ReplyDeleteRoger Tinsley
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
ENGL 1003
2 December 2015
Thurber Theme
Theme I got from this story about the "flood of Ohio in 1913," was serious sad story mixed with a little comedy. The dam did not break and it would have been unlikely that the town would have been flooded. A rumor got started by someone and when they mummer those four words no one wants to hear "The dam has broke" and everybody believed them. In the comedy theme view point at least they got some good exercise while being the gullible people in America. Maybe that's why Ohio State is so good in football because they trick people so easy. Now Buckeye fans don't cause a "up roar" or I might just say "The dam has broke."
Megan Pliauplis
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
Freshman Composition 1
2 December 2015
Thurber Theme
The them that I got from "The Day the Dam Broke" was spastic. The people of Ohio heard a rumor that the dam had broke, and without trying to see if the rumor was true, they all went East immediately. The people were so spastic that they did not think twice about evacuating. They heard a little gossip about the dam being broken and went crazy with the false information.
Dina Fajardo
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
ENGL 1003
01 December 2015
Thurber
In the story "The Day the Dam Broke" the theme that occurred was fear. from beginning to end, everyone was showing fear. A false rumor about the dam being broken, had scared more than a thousand people. If this dam would have been broken, it still would not have been able to flood the whole city. This fear shows that one lie, that started out of nowhere, can make a person change. People were forgetting about the people they love while they were fearing for their life. Fear can make people not react well to things. like it did with the people in this story.
Nate Holladay
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
English 1003
2 December 2, 2015
Theme: “The Dam Has Broken”
James Thurber’s “The Dam Has Broken” short story is a fictional retelling of a 1913 flood of the Scioto River near Columbus, Ohio. The dam on the Scioto River didn’t actually break, but somebody shouted something in the town and, just like the game of telephone, the message became modified into “The dam has broke! Go east! Go east!” No resident living near the dam actually knew if the dam had broken, but rather they were going of off what they heard being shouted throughout the town. The theme or moral of this story is to always check for yourself no matter the situation. This is parallel to why a student should do his or her own research or work own their own. Just because somebody else is writing it, or in this story’s case, shouting it, doesn’t mean it’s true and you should as well. It is imperative to do your own work and or research.
Dustin Parsons
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
Freshman comp
12/2/15
Thurber theme
The story "The day the Dam Broke" it starts off talking about the flooding and how severe it actually was. it talks about how scared everyone was. the truth is thought that the dam did not break, it was just a rumor that was spread around. The whole story is about people spreading the rumor and everybody yelling to "go east." it tells us some people ran 12 miles east while some just climbed trees two miles away. It says that the funny thing is nobody used cars, everybody was on foot, the reason probably being that you had to crank the cars. it then says that the next day everything returned to normal and nobody dared to talk about the "great run."
Andrew Griffin
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
Freshman Comp. 1003
12/2/15
The Day the Dam Broke
This Short story is to recall a story from the writer’s life time, in a humorous manor. The writer makes it very clear in the first paragraph that the Dam did not really break, it was simply a misunderstanding, for some reason, three or four people started running, and because humans were born with curiosity, the others started running as well. Now, it can be asked why these people started running, and how the idea that the dam had broken arose, it is simple. These first few people were probably late somewhere, when asked why they were running they probably didn’t hear the question, and because they were late, they were probably saying “Damn!” multiple times. The word damn and dam sound the same when spoken, and thus you have the idea that the damn dam broke.
Dumar Camacho
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
Freshman Composition
2 December 2015
Thurber
In 1913 something terrible happened in Ohio that Thurber would gladly want to forget about. “The day the dam broke”, or at least everyone thought it did and everyone had to flee from their houses to be able to go to a safe spot in town after this tragedy. Everyone was in shock and you could feel the fear going around. Thurber tells us how the people were all running and shoving all going for a safe spot and it was just a big chaos in Ohio that day. “The next day, the city went about its business as if nothing had happened, but there was no joking. It was two years or more before you dared treat the breaking of the dam lightly.” This was a day that no one in Ohio that day will forget because of how much fear and danger it brought to the city.