Youthful Tragedies

Youthful Tragedies The anthology, Sudden Flash Youth, edited by Christine Perkins-Hazuka, Tom Hazuka, and Mark Budman, has a lot of possibilities for a theme to cover all of the sixty-five different short stories. Tragedies in youth is one of the themes that stuck out. In “Currents” by Hannah Bottomy Voskuil, a young boy loses his brother and two girls become afraid of the water due to this horrific tragedy. Also, in this short story, it proves that tragedies in youth do not just affect the surrounding youth, but the adults as well. Another example would be “The Last Stop” by Jenny Halper. Even though tragedies in youth do not stand out as much in this short story as the others, this is a prime example that proves it best due to it taking place during a tragedy. When people think of tragedy, they automatically think of death or someone getting physically injured. This collection of short stories proves otherwise. Throughout the anthology, Sudden Flash Youth, the prominent theme is tragedies in youth with “Currents”, “Beyond Yesler”, “The Last Stop”, and “After” showing that the youth deals with tragedies in everyday life and sometimes they go unnoticed. “Currents”, proves that the prominent theme is tragedies in youth because even though the girls had no relation to the little boy before his accident, it still effected them. In this short story, the little boy is so terrorized that all he could say was “My brother” (Voskuil 29). This particular quote is youthful and tragic. It is youthful by the way the little boy told the lifeguard his brother was in trouble, but it is also tragic because the reader knows the little boy is implying that there is something wrong with his brother when he said, “my brother.” This short story was a simple one with a lot of emotion behind it. “Currents” proves that tragedies in youth do not just affect the youth, but the adults around as well. In the beginning of the story, the reader is introduced to this man named Gary. All