Intro Paragraph

In “Ducks on a Pond,” by Mark Sibley-Jones, Baxter, the narrator, shows the readers through his own eyes what is occurring and how he feels about each instance in the story. There is some dialogue in this story, but many aspects are captured and analyzed specifically by Baxter, which reveals his emotions and many of his own personal experiences. A particular passage in this story demonstrated this technique especially well. In this passage, Baxter is remembering a time in his past that ended up dictating much of his present life. He exhibits feelings of stubbornness, determination, and blind ambition because of his father’s crushed dreams and because of polio. Baxter tried to become what he always thought his father wanted, and this passage highlights the pain and difficulty he went through to try to achieve this. Through the use of contradiction and the way that Sibley-Jones constructs the sentences and allows the readers to get inside the narrator's head, the underlying theme of sacrificing pride, regret, and blame in order to find forgiveness and happiness is revealed, which is a vital and often overlooked concept of life.