The Cause of Samuel Death in Grace Paley's "Samuel"

Extract

[...] Samuel's sudden death should not be attributed to the interference of passengers in the boys' games, or the “watchful” passenger's intervention of pulling the emergency cord. The young boy's death was due to irresponsible behavior. The boys would have refrained from recklessness if the brave male passenger interrupted the boys' dangerous game. The men would have considered the boys games as risky activities, if they had viewed the boys' game from fatherly perspectives, and not from their childhood memories. Samuel's tragic loss was caused [...]

[...] Another underlying cause for Samuel's death was the refusal of the majority of the male passengers to interrupt the boys' game. The boys must have presumed that reckless act was a manly attribute because the brave men made no effort to stop Samuel and his peers from displaying their bravery on insecure platforms. Therefore, the brave passengers' reluctance to disapprove the boys' game justified the boys reckless act as a masculine attribution of dauntlessness. The brave male passengers initially thought the boys acted stupidly by jiggling on the unstable platforms while the train was in motion. [...]

[...] All the boys who clung to the guard chain were saved, but Samuel was not one of them. Furthermore, Samuel's death was caused by the boys' failure to adhere to warnings. The female passengers “brought their brows together and hoped the boys could see their extreme disapproval” (Paley 315). Their frowns had no impact on the boys in any way because they continued to jiggle on the platform. One of the passengers, a motherly figure, made an effort to disrupt the boys' game. [...]