Margins (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Donald Barthelme
- First Published: 1964
- Type of Plot: Antistory
- Time of Work: The 1960's
- Setting: New York City
- Principal Characters: Carl Maria von Weber, Edward
- Genres: Short fiction, Antistory
- Subjects: African Americans, 1960’s, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Homelessness or homeless people, Blacks, New York City, Begging or beggars
- Locales: New York, NY
The Story
Carl, an African American man, is standing in front of a men's store on Fourteenth Street near Broadway in New York City. He has brown sandwich boards over his shoulders, and on the boards is a handwritten message. It says that the wearer has spent five years in an Alabama jail for stealing a dollar and a half; that he did not steal the money; that while he was in jail his brother was killed; that his mother ran away when he was little; that in jail he learned to preach; that he bears witness to eschatological love; and that because no one will give him a job because...
[The entire page is 1454 words long]
