1. On the Sidewalk Bleeding
Evan Hunter

2. Four Kinds of Literary Conflict …
Man vs. Nature: Struggle with a force of nature.
Man vs. Society: Struggle with the laws or beliefs of a group.
Man vs. Self: Struggle deciding what to think or do. There is often a moral dilemma, or a question of conscience.
Man vs. Man: Struggle with another character.

3. Conflict in The Setting …
Our view of New York.
Side note: This is NOT New York.
Andy’s view of New York. “They would move to a clean project in the Bronx.”

4. Conflict in ‘On the Sidewalk Bleeding.’
Man vs. Man: Andy was stabbed by another person and left to die in an alleyway. “He had been stabbed ten minutes ago. The knife had entered just below his rib cage and had been drawn across his body violently, tearing a wide gap in his flesh.”
Also … Gang conflict (Royals vs. Guardians): “That was a fierce rumble. They got me good that time”
Consequences for Andy: Freddie and Angela don’t help him because they don’t want to “get mixed up in this” when they see Andy’s jacket.
Man vs. Nature: Nature and the environment are against Andy. There are constant references to the rain and the dark. “the rain was beating a steady relentless tattoo on the cans” and “the cold ran washing his hot body.”
Consequences for Andy: Perhaps if it had been day, and more people were around, Andy could have survived. But instead he is dying in a dark, isolated alleyway that has already been the setting for gang conflict.

5. Conflict Continued …
Man vs. Himself: This is the most important type of conflict. At first, Andy is in denial “I can’t be dying,” but he is kidding himself. He realizes that he’s dying when he can’t communicate with Angela and Freddie. Andy wonders if he has made the right decisions in his young life by being part of the royals. “And he wondered suddenly if the Guardians who had ambushed him and knifed him had ever once realized he was Andy.” There is a conflict over whether to keep his gang identity with the Royals or whether or not to be himself, Andy. In the Royals, he has a title and a jacket, but he is just another faceless gang member.
Consequences for Andy: Andy asks himself a series of rhetorical questions “Had they known that he was Andy or had they simply known that he was Royal wearing a purple silk jacket? Had they stabbed him, Andy, or had they only stabbed the jacket and the title and what good was the title if you were dying?”
He comes to the conclusion “I’m Andy, he screamed wordlessly, I’m Andy.”

6. Literary Devices …
Rhetorical questions: used to show Andy’s inner conflict with himself, and his search for identity.
Oxymoron (when contradictory terms are combined together): ‘screamed wordlessly’ to show the gap between what Andy wants and what he has/his inner identity and how others see him. “I’m Andy, he screamed wordlessly. I’m Andy.”

7. A Few More Literary Devices …
Symbolism: A symbol is a physical object that stands in for an IDEA. They provide meaning beyond what is actually described.
Personification: Giving non human things human qualities.
Simile: A comparison using “like” or “as”.

8. Literary Devices: Examples …
Symbolism:
The jacket: stands for the conflicts between gangs (man vs. man), the conflict between Andy and himself in terms of his identity, and the prejudice of Andy by others.
The knife: Could be a symbol for the gang conflict in the story.
The rain: Is a symbol of the man vs. nature conflict.
Personification:
The rain ‘was beating,’ the rain ‘chilled him,’ and the rain ‘drilling his jacket.’ ‘A world that was rushing past at the end of the alley.’
Simile:
The old lady and her umbrella. She ‘carried it like a queen’

9. Questions on Conflict …
What effect does Andy’s jacket have on the people who find him in the alleyway? What role does the jacket play in the short story, and what name could we give to the jacket?

10. Extension and Homework: POV …
We only get the story from Andy’s point of view. Assignment: Write a ¾ to one page conclusion to this short story that begins after this statement:
“She did not stop running until she found a cop.”
Write this continuation from either Laura’s point of view or the police officer’s POV.
Remember that Laura and the police officer do not know what Andy’s personal experience has been. Imagine what they would see, hear, think, and feel.