2. “Walker Brothers Cowboy” has many interesting parts to it, however the title itself is one that really sticks out. The title comes from a song that one of the main characters makes up about himself. He is a salesman for Walker Brothers and uses songs and rhymes that he makes up to keep him entertained on his routes. This story is told from the prospective of this salesman’s daughter, she talks about a day on her father’s route and the song that he sings while on the route. After his job, they go to visit someone from her fathers past and she knows that she has to keep this a secret upon returning home. The plot is interesting because it is not something that you would expect from the title of the story. This short story shows how the world wide depression affected one family and sent them from owning their own business to living in poverty and resorting to other means of providing for themselves such as working for Walker Brothers. The song shows how this man copes with the new life he lives.
4. The first two line of the walker brothers cowboy song starts lit this, “Old Ned Fields, he now is dead, so I am ridin’ the route instead…” This is important because it refers to what the story has been titled after; it also shows that he was only able to get this job because the salesman before him had died. “One yard after another, then, the old cars, the pumps, dogs, views of the gray barns and falling-down sheds and unturning windmills.” This excerpt resembles poetry in a way, it has flow and rhythm but also really describes the boring and dull job that this man endures everyday. At the end of the story, the speaker states, “My father does not say anything to me about not mentioning things at home, but I know, just from the thoughtfulness, the pause when he passes the licorice, that there are things no to be mentioned. The whiskey, maybe the dancing.” This shows that there are some things in the family that are not shared, and that the family is being hurt by the depression. These three excerpts from the story show the melancholy tone of the story and life during this time.
