One's A Heifer Analysis

Words: 899
Pages: 4

The short story “One’s a Heifer” by Sinclair Ross and the poem “What’s He Building?” by Tom Waits share a mutual theme that we can detect in both pieces of literature. The theme is assumptions based on the unknown. More specifically, it is that humans make assumptions about people they don’t know or people who act differently because they seek answers to the unknown. When we as humans have our minds set on why another person acts a certain way, we jump to conclusions and create false assumptions as an attempt to find an answer. In “One’s a Heifer”, we read about a young boy’s search across Western Canada, desperately trying to find his lost calves that have escaped from his uncle’s farm. Throughout the whole story, the young boy is convinced …show more content…
When reading the lines “He has no children of his own you see… He has no dog and he has no friends” we learn that this man is very independent and solitary. Seeing that this man does not get out much, has no children of his own, and is not very social, the author assumes that he is doing something suspicious inside his house. “Now what’s the sound from under the door? He’s pounding nails into a hardwood floor.” From this line we get the impression that this man is possibly just renovating his house, but the author is not convinced. “I’ll bet he spent a little time in jail… I heard he was on the roof last night signaling with a flashlight. And what’s that tune he’s always whistling… What’s he building in there?” Since this man acts different than most people, the author makes many assumptions about his life and his personality only because he wants answers to the unknown. He assumes that he has spent time in jail only because he never leaves his house and has no children, when in reality he might just be a very independent person who does not like to socialize and be around other people. As for what he is building, he may just be doing some simple renovations around his house, but the author is so caught up in trying to find answers that he over thinks all of the man’s