The Ladder

The main character in this story is a girl who name is Annie. She is an employee at the Virtual Processes & Systems Corporation. She works in the corporation’s kitchen where she has to clean the whole kitchen, all the utensils and she has to make sure that everything is in order for when the catering staff comes. In the story, we do not get any information about how old she is or how she looks. The only thing the story reveals is her name and that she likes to smoke. All the rest is up to the reader to figure out. When reading the story, we get the feeling that she is young because in P.8, l. 22 “You have on the little animal print you got in the sales.” here we see that she is wearing a little animal print skirt and that just shows us that she is young woman, because which old woman would wear a skirt with little animal print. It does not seem like she has plans for her future because in the story, we can read that she has been doing the same thing for the past 2 years she has been working for the corporation, when she meets up for work she already have her whole day planed out, like it’s her routine.

In the short story “The Ladder” the point of view plays a really big role throughout the whole story. The writer Sheila Purdy uses the second-person point of view it helps to address the reader, it also helps the reader to get in the right mood. When you are reading the story, the narrator puts the reader in the main character’s mind like her inner voice, and that effect makes us reader see through Annie’s eyes. Her inner voice is like another person commentating with a lot of details, what Annie is doing, but the person can also make her anxious. We can see this at P.9, l. 31-33” In the two years you’ve been here, you’ve never done more than clear the big table, wipe out the executive fridge, empty the bins, line up the leather blotters, straighten the velvet swivel chairs. You’ve never done any serving.” The second person uses the pronouns “you,” “your,” and “yours.” She uses these three pronouns when she is addressing one, or more than one person. Sheila Purdy uses a lot of these pronouns throughout the whole story.

The title of the story, “The Ladder” can refer to Annie’s promotion. Her supervisor told Annie that she if she did her task well, she would consider promoting her. Every career has some sort of upgrade. The ladder is a way to show the opportunity Annie have, but it is not always easy to climb a ladder. If you fall off the ladder or you are climbing too slow, there will always be another person right behind you, they are ready to take your position. And the writer Sheila Purdy does an excellent job showing the reader that through a story by giving Annie a bunch of conflicts. For instance, when she came back to the boardroom and the aircon was off where she met the two engineers P.9, l. 55

The main theme of the short story would be rewarding, because Annie has

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