A Shocking Accident is a short story written by Grahman Greene. It tells of one young men, called Jerome whose father died in a accident. Jerome was just a nine when it happened. He was at school when the headmaster, Mr Wordsworth invited him to her office. Jerome had no fear of trouble. Mr Wordsworth told that Jerome’s aunt has called her that Jerome’s father had been an accident. It was a bad accident. His father had died in Naples when he was walking at street and a pig fell on him from the balconie. After that Jerome rehearsed how to tell the story of his father’s dead. He was afraid that everone would laugh at him. He got engaged with a girl named Sally, but he hadn’t told to her how his father had died. How would he tell for Sally that story without her starting to laugh? However one day Sally heard how Jerome’s father died, but she didn’t laugh at all.
The main charecter is Jerome. His father was so important to Jerome and he worshipped him. Mr Wordsworth is a headmaster at Jerome’s school. He told bad news to Jerome. According to dialogue it was easy for Mr Wordsworth to tell bad news to Jerome. He almost started laughing. Jerome answered to him ”What happened to the pig?” So he didn’t take his fathers death so tragicly. At least he didn’t show any signs of sadness during dialogue. Jerome’s aunt had no sense of humour. His aunt told an accident to headmaster and Jerome’s fiancee. Sally, Jerome’s fiancee was twentyfive years old and her father was a doctor.
Jerome created two different ways how to tell his fathers death at school without everyone laughing. ”My father was killed by a pig”, was a shorter method. Other method was a little bit longer, he would explain that accident more.
Sally’s final commet is important, because Jerome had worried all the time if Sally will laugh. But she didn’t laugh. She only wondered ”What happened to the poor pig?”. That was the same question that Jerome asked from the headmaster when he heard about the accident. But what really happened to the pig? Jerome said that ”They almost certainly had it for dinner”. I also think that they ate it.
I think that this story was really wierd. When I read it, I thought ”What, he was killed by a pig?! Did I read right?” But it was a good story when I realized it.