Lonely Place story
Stella is married to a cowardly peach farmer named Emory and takes in a passing hobo named Jesse. She hires him to help her husband harvest the peach crop. Unfortunately, Jesse's strange behavior and fascination with a knife that he carries begins to frighten her. Emory, however, refuses to believe her. Stella tries to run away, but is caught by Jesse. He threatens to stab her, but she fights him off. She escapes in her husband's truck and heads home. There she awakens Emory and tells him about Jesse. Emory, however, confesses that he heard her screams, but was too afraid to do anything. Stella angrily stabs her husband and kills him. She then calls the police and blames the murder on the fleeing Jesse. Directed by: Harvey Hart. Story by: Francis Gwaltney.
18 total · 1 choice · 11 major · 6 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| cowardice | choice | The point of the story was, arguably, to contrast the yellow-bellied Emory with his courageous wife Stella. Emory exposed himself as a coward by pretending to sleep in his armchair as his wife was being assaulted by a deranged farm hand. Jesse also proved a coward as soon as he lost his knife. |
| be wary of strangers | major | Stella and Emory briefly deliberated over whether to take in the drifter Jesse to help with the peach harvest. Though Jesse quickly showed signs of being a creep, Emory's greed was overridden by his better judgement to Stella's dismay. |
| courage | major | A point of the story was, arguably, to contrast the yellow-bellied Emory with his courageous wife Stella, who scared away a knife wielding killer. |
| fear | major | Stella was terrorized by the deranged farm hand, Jesse, to the point where she packed a suitcase and tried to flee the remote farm house in which she lived with her husband. |
| greed for riches | major | Emory was stingy to the point that he would rather risk his wife's life than lose the cheap peach plucking labor of Jesse. |
| human characters in contrast | major | The point of the story was, arguably, to contrast the yellow-bellied Emory with his courageous wife Stella, who scared away a knife wielding killer. |
| human occupational activity | major | Emery was keen on harvesting his peaches at the lowest cost attainable. [farmer] |
| husband and wife | major | Emory's hiring of a mentally unbalanced farm hand put a strain on his otherwise happy relationship with his wife, Stella. |
| loneliness | major | Stella was unsatisfied with her childless marriage with the unaffectionate Emory who cared more for his peaches than his wife, which he proved in the end by turning a blind eye when she was assaulted. |
| sadism | major | The deranged drifter Jesse took a strange pleasure in making Stella fear for her life. |