Going Too Far-Analysis of "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby"

In Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby, Donald Barthelme tries to show how roughshod man can be by telling an pathetic story of a man named Colby who, had gone overly removed. (Barthelme, 1973, pg. 19) In the story, Colbys so-called friends decided that they must hang Colby because of his going also far. Barthelme uses this story to illustrate how people can aroundtimes let their emotions get in the way of their good judgment.

Colbys friends had been warning him for some time that they did not like the way Colby had been behaving. But later on Colby did something, his friends decided that he should be hanged. They tried to rationalize their conclusion by saying that they, .... had a perfect moral refine to do so because he was our friend, belonged to us in unhomogeneous important senses, and he had after all gone similarly far. (Barthelme, 1973, pg. 194) His friends would not listen to Colbys argument that, Going too far was something everybody did sometimes. (Barthelme, 1973, pg. 193)

We neer do find out what Colby had done, but we do know that whatever it was, it made his friends very angry with him. Since Colby was never arrested for any crime, we can infer that what he did was not a serious crime.



This is why Colbys friends reaction to his actions seems very unusual. One would figure a normal response to Colbys actions would be to yell at or exclude Colby from the group--not to hang him.

As Colbys friends fussed over every belittled detail of the hanging as if it were an elaborate wedding, Colby again appealed to his friends saying, ... everybody went too far, sometimes, and werent we being a little Draconian. (Barthelme, 1973, pg. 195) Colbys friends acted...

If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com



If you want to get a full essay, wisit our page: write my paper