On the Sidewalk Bleeding

Evan Hunter

1. What is the significance of the lettering on the front and back of Andy’s jacket?Big ‘Royals’ on the back, small ‘Andy’ on the front. This means that the fact that he is a Royal is more significant.

2. When Andy thought of Laura, what effect did it initially have?‘He forgot his pain a little’

3. Which word on the second page of the story tells us that Andy didn’t like the smell of alcohol? ‘sickening’ – ‘He lifted his face slightly and looked up at the man, and in the rain swept alley he smelled the sickening odour of alcohol’

4. On page three, what are Andy’s thoughts about the possibility that he may be dying? He didn’t believe it – he was in denial: ‘I can’t be dying. No, that’s stupid’

5. What is the significance of the noise that Andy makes at the beginning of page 4?He makes a grunting sound – ‘a low, animal grunt of pain’ – this is to show that he’s dying on the street like an animal, not like a ‘warrior’.

6. What does Angela say to Freddy to indicate that she doesn’t want to help Andy? (page 5)‘let’s get out of here’ or We can’t leave him here…can we?’

7. Quote the turning point in the story – when Andy realizes he wants to be an individual.I’m Andy, he screamed wordlessly, I’m Andy.

8. What did the Guardians say to Andy as they stabbed him, and what is the significance of this?‘That’s for you, Royal’ – this is important because it emphasises that they only stabbed him because he was in a rival gang – they didn’t see him as an individual.

9. Quote the metaphor that describes Andy’s pain (page 6).‘Pain ripped fire across Andy’s body’

10.Why is the cop’s comment at the end an appropriate ending to the story?The cop’s comment was ‘A Royal, huh?’. This is significant because it shows that even after his death, he will not be thought of as Andy the individual – he will only be thought of as a gang member.

Point Quotation

Theme lost innocenceHe could remember how

happyhe had been when the

Royals had taken him. The Royals and the Guardians, two of the

biggest. He was a Royal. There had been meaning to the title.

One of the themes in OTSB is lost innocence – Andy is at first happy to be in the gang as he innocently thinks it will be glorious – however this changes when he faces the reality of being in a gang.

Topic sentences are…

the main point of each paragraph

the part of your paragraph that relates back to your essay question

the first sentences of each paragraph