Kansas By Stephen Dobyns Analysis

“Kansas” and the Guilt of Non-Interference “Kansas”, written by the twentieth century writer Stephen Dobyns, is the story of a man looking back on his life and questioning the choices surrounding one of the most pivotal moments within it. The symbolism of “Kansas” serves as both an anchor for the story’s real elements and characters as well a guide, aiding the reader through the various messages and undertones. “Kansas” story depicts classic symbols to give messages to the reader regarding themes of transition from a naive child to weathered adult, fundamental views of good and evil, and most notably, the effects of prolonged guilt and regret. The guilt of the main character tells us of a man who spends his whole life weighing the events
We see, starting in paragraph five, the boy starts to describe his surroundings. He paints pictures of the landscape, the lovers, the farmer and the other symbols noted before. This story culminates with the boy being dropped off and never learning the resolution of this story. Later, in paragraph twenty-six we see the events revisited. This time however, the ending is radically changed. The boy takes a blatant stand against the farmer’s fury and the farmer submits, giving himself to the police with no harm done. Twelve paragraphs later we see the story again revisited. This time the story climaxes with the boy telling the police and the police killing the farmer. Finally, in paragraph forty we see a final scene played out as the farmer finds the lovers entangled in an afternoon’s tryst. The farmer attacks, but the boy in defense of the woman is shot twice and presumably dies. In all of these alternate realities we see three symbols reoccurring in similar fashions; the road, the boil and the revolver. These give us anchorage. They bring about the same senses and same emotions as discussed in the first paragraph and cause us to see those images so engrained in the mind of the man that they last him for his entire adult life. As we begin to understand what the meaning of this story is, we start to understand Dobyns’ message. He is showing
“Kansas” is a story written to illustrate how we as humans carry great guilt on into our later years. Not only of the deeds we have done that would be considered morally wrong, but also of the sins of cowardice and disassociation over righteous interference. Shame for the right things we did not do. In this young man’s case we could presume that his fate was far worse than any that he experienced in his dreams, for he never discovered the ending to his story. If he had learned of a tragic end, he would have been forced to cope and perhaps been able to bury the incident long ago. Better still would have been a happy ending where nothing further need be done. However, this man’s unhappy fate was not knowing. This curiosity, teamed with a healthy imagination, became a constant cyst, growing larger and deeper within his mind, feeding on him without