(70 pts)

(01.03 hc)

("condensed milk")

in 3–5 complete sentences, thoroughly explain how the protagonist in your module one short story handles the conflict he or she faces? what actions or choices does the protagonist make because of the conflict? what is the outcome of the conflict? provide at least two specific details from the text to support your analysis of how the protagonist deals with the conflict.

"Condensed Milk" is a short story by Varlam Shalamov that is part of a larger collection of short stories by him: "Kolyma Tales". The short story narrates the events that take place during one of the darkest times in Russian history, Stalin´s rule, and which affect the narrator of the story, who we assume, is Shalamov himself. As history says, Shalamov was a victim of Stalin´s "goulags", or forced-labor camps, and it seems that he is the one telling his own story in one such place. The reason for the title of the story is because the narrator becomes severely attached to canned food, but particularly condensed milk.

The conflict in "Condensed Milk" is that we see a man who has been overcome by the terrible conditions of the forced-labor camps, he is just one more of the many "robots" who no longer feel, or want anything out of life; only death. At some point, the narrator meets with an old acquaintance of him called "Shestakov", the only one of a group of men who was able to gain a good position with the new regime and be benefitted by it. All the others were now prisoners.

Shestakov proposes the narrator to escape with him from the camp, but the narrator realizes Shestakov´s intentions, which are not good. So initially he accepts the offer of escape, tells Shestakov that in order to escape he needs food, and he gets two cans of condensed milk, which is his preferred type of food. However, right at the end, guessing the true intentions the other man has, he refuses to escape.

In the end, the narrator proves himself right when he guessed that Shestakov wanted to set up a trap for all of them in his desire to survive and prove himself worthy to the regime. He betrays the men who believed in him and they all end just as the narrator had predicted they would. The narrator, on the other hand, survives and goes on to meet with Shestakov at another site some time later. However, Shestakov acts as if he had never seen the narrator before in his life.

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explanation:

oooh~ i love the salem witch trials.

sadly though, i cannot you if you don't post the paragraph. i'm confused on what to write!

if you would kindly post the paragraph though, i'm more than happy to you.

(:     < 3