Comparative Analysis

Heather Timmons

Professor Juel

ENGL 1302

November 29, 2011

Comparative Analysis

Dennis Johnson’s “Car Crash While Hitchhiking” focuses on a man with a drug addiction who has been hitchhiking for some period of time and tells of his experiences with the different drivers he encounters. The last car he ends up in wrecks on the highway while he sleeps in the backseat. The vehicle consists of the narrator, a man driving, his wife, and their kids. They are all taken to the hospital and the ones who survive receive treatment. It is difficult to know whether the narrator’s details of this event are merely a drug hallucination from the drugs he had taken with the previous drivers or if he is some sort of God-like person with the power to see foresee events before they happen. Hopeless souls who have nothing to lose can unfortunately see a glimmer hope for their life from the tragic events that occur to those so undeserving with everything to lose.

Michael Dorris’ “Me and the Girls” follows the events of an impassioned and lonely stranger who abducts and cares for two exploited elephants. Having not the slightest bit of knowledge to their living conditions prior to this day, he feels as if the two elephants are being mistreated and impulsively, takes the responsibility of their freedom into his own hands. Until he finds the place where they belong, the strange man and the two elephants continue to travel. “Me and My Girls” proves that taking chances and giving others the benefit of the doubt can ultimately be what leads one to the happiness they so seek and the meaning and purpose of life.

Dorris suggests that the world has lost its virtues and true meaning of trust. Society has become so selfish and cynical that any act not bringing them pleasure, must have an ulterior motive. This story proves that all anyone wants is to be trusted and respected (whether they are dumb or smart, human or animal) and once this is achieved, nothing else matters.