The Ace of Diamonds Gang
Analyse how symbols have been used to develop your understanding of people OR ideas in at least TWO short written texts that you have studied.
In the short story “The Ace of Diamonds Gang” by Owen Marshall symbols have been used to represent significant ideas in the text. The symbols that have been used are the Ace of Diamonds and the Library Card. The Ace of Diamonds symbolises boyhood and fantasy whereas the Library Card symbolises adolescence and reality.
The Ace of Diamonds symbolises the idea of boyhood and fantasy. The Ace of Diamonds is used on the face masks of each member of the gang when they go into their fictional world of being in a gang and wreaking havoc on unsuspecting targets. After their mayhem is unleashed they then leave a cut out of a Christmas card with an Ace of Diamonds stamped on it since that’s what they had read in books. This “Menacing elusiveness” is the reason why he compared the gang to heroes of history such as “The Black Hand”, “The Fish Christians” and “The League of Spartacus”. The narrator’s reason for being in the gang is to get away from being “a 13 year old in a provincial town”. His way of doing this is by invading Jorgesson’s scrap yard. He imagines as if they are in the middle of a military assault with “scouts taking posts” in the middle of “a field hospital in a desperate war of machines”. The Ace of Diamonds card that they left at each crime scene led to their demise after a simple lack of concentration. This is how the Ace of Diamonds symbolises the idea of childhood and fiction.
The Library Card symbolises adolescence and reality. The Library is accidentally left at the crime scene of Jorgesson’s scrap yard when it was mistaken for the Ace of Diamonds card and was blindly pinned on his door in the exhilaration of what they had done .The fearlessness and immortality which they believed to possess while being in the gang was ended by the ordinary library card. The Library Card shows the “mundane deficiencies” that members of the gang posses. These include “Ashley’s wind”, “Bernie’s glasses” and “Hec Green having to be in by nine o’clock”. This normality of the gang showed that they weren’t as untouchable as they once thought. Instead of being rebellious “heroes of history” they are just ordinary library card carrying citizens. This is how the Library Card symbolises the idea of adolescence and reality.
The symbols that have been used are the Ace of Diamonds and the Library Card. The Ace of Diamonds symbolises boyhood and fantasy while in contrast the Library Card symbolises adolescence and reality. At the start of the short story the Ace of Diamonds gang believes that they are untouchable until they get caught simply just by leaving a library card behind. This spelled the end of the Ace of Diamonds gang and helped develop my understanding of the text.
In the short story “The Ace of Diamonds Gang” by Owen Marshall symbols have been used to represent significant ideas in the text. The symbols that have been used are the Ace of Diamonds and the Library Card. The Ace of Diamonds symbolises boyhood and fantasy whereas the Library Card symbolises adolescence and reality.
The Ace of Diamonds symbolises the idea of boyhood and fantasy. The Ace of Diamonds is used on the face masks of each member of the gang when they go into their fictional world of being in a gang and wreaking havoc on unsuspecting targets. After their mayhem is unleashed they then leave a cut out of a Christmas card with an Ace of Diamonds stamped on it since that’s what they had read in books. This “Menacing elusiveness” is the reason why he compared the gang to heroes of history such as “The Black Hand”, “The Fish Christians” and “The League of Spartacus”. The narrator’s reason for being in the gang is to get away from being “a 13 year old in a provincial town”. His way of doing this is by invading Jorgesson’s scrap yard. He imagines as if they are in the middle of a military assault with “scouts taking posts” in the middle of “a field hospital in a desperate war of machines”. The Ace of Diamonds card that they left at each crime scene led to their demise after a simple lack of concentration. This is how the Ace of Diamonds symbolises the idea of childhood and fiction.
The Library Card symbolises adolescence and reality. The Library is accidentally left at the crime scene of Jorgesson’s scrap yard when it was mistaken for the Ace of Diamonds card and was blindly pinned on his door in the exhilaration of what they had done .The fearlessness and immortality which they believed to possess while being in the gang was ended by the ordinary library card. The Library Card shows the “mundane deficiencies” that members of the gang posses. These include “Ashley’s wind”, “Bernie’s glasses” and “Hec Green having to be in by nine o’clock”. This normality of the gang showed that they weren’t as untouchable as they once thought. Instead of being rebellious “heroes of history” they are just ordinary library card carrying citizens. This is how the Library Card symbolises the idea of adolescence and reality.
The symbols that have been used are the Ace of Diamonds and the Library Card. The Ace of Diamonds symbolises boyhood and fantasy while in contrast the Library Card symbolises adolescence and reality. At the start of the short story the Ace of Diamonds gang believes that they are untouchable until they get caught simply just by leaving a library card behind. This spelled the end of the Ace of Diamonds gang and helped develop my understanding of the text.
