Shopping for Death story
Clarence and Elmer are retired insurance agents, and hope to use their years of experience to save people that they believe will die soon. Clarence has his sights of Mrs. Shrike, a boorish alcoholic who he believes has a death wish. They try to advise her to change her life and fix her house, but this just causes her to lash out. As the pair leave, they see Mrs. Shrike's husband return home, and she is killed soon afterward. Directed by: Robert Stevens. Story by: Ray Bradbury.
12 total · 4 major · 7 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| anger | major | Mrs. Shrike repeatedly lashed out at people in anger. |
| compassion | major | The retired insurance agents Clarance and Elmer took it upon themselves to use their experience to help reckless people from endangering themselves. |
| coping with a problematic person | major | Mrs. Shrike had a short fuse and was giving everyone in the neighborhood a hard time. |
| kindness | major | The retired insurance agents Clarance and Elmer took it upon themselves to use their experience to help reckless people from endangering themselves. |
| coping with a nag | minor | Mrs. Shrika was nagging the neighborhood people over a variety of issues. |
| coping with a tough customer | minor | Mrs. Shrika was a particularly disagreeable customer at the butcher and the grocer alike. |
| coping with being in a heat wave | minor | The neighborhood people were sweating out a hot summer day. It was mentioned how the hot weather was making people more angry than they would otherwise be. |
| husband and wife | minor | The story concludes with Mrs. Shrike's husband rushing home to murder her. |
| murder | minor | There was talk about how people could get murdered. Someone might have been pushed out of a window a the onset. The butcher looked at Mrs. Shrike with murder when he grabbed the knife. |
| spouse murder | minor | The story concludes with Mrs. Shrike's husband rushing home to murder her. |