I'm A Fool

2 Pages 491 Words

I’m A Fool

In Sherwood Andersons, “I’m a Fool”, four major incidents seem to take place that brings the story to its conclusion. First the narrator decides to quit his horse racing job because of a promise he made to his mother. The narrator seems to feel almost guilty and obligated to quit because he took a job as a swipe and this could possibly jeopardize his sister Mildred from getting a job as a school teacher which she had been working for so long to get. So he gets a job tending to horses, which he is satisfied with and affords him the opportunity to get some time off each week and to make enough money to even send home. This leads to the second major incidence in the story. The first time the narrator sees Lucy Wesson. Many times throughout the story the narrator speaks of his dislike of the educated people and the behavior of the middle to upper class people who were sitting up in the grandstands looking down on all the lower worker class people. I believe his ignorance is really jealously or envy of those who have it better than he does. He proves this by going to the horse race and mingles with those same people with whom he says to dislike. He even goes so far as to buy a ticket and sit in the good seats in the grandstands. This is where he sees Lucy Wesson. This leads to the third major incidence of the story, giving false information to Lucy Wesson. He wants to impress her so much and but is so embarrassed with himself and of how poor his family is, he comes up with an elaborate lie to try and win her over. He goes so far as to say that the horse Ben Ahem is owned by his father and places a bet. This he can’t do himself, for fear of being recognized by one his former fellow workers. He asked Wilbur Wesson, Lucy’s’ brother, to place the bet for him. The story continues with the narrator going with Lucy, Wilbur and Miss Woodbury to Cedar Point were he eats dinner with Lucy and they spend some time al...