Student Essay on Heat Lightning, a Character Analysis

Heat Lightning, a Character Analysis

Essay

The girl in the play "Heat Lightning" shows the trait of naivety because she tries to drive home in terrible weather and, later she wants to stay at the bus station when the bus came. She is 23 years old and doesn't try to think things through; this tells me that she is naive. She tries to drive home in a storm and this is a very bad idea: "I was a t a party. I-I could have stayed all night with a friend but I thought I had enough gas to get home...I ran out of gas-I took my flashlight and locked the car and started walking down the road." (p.260) This shows that she is naive for many reasons; first, she tries to drive home in a storm and she didn't bring a cell phone or a communications device with her. She says that she started to walk down the road and this confirms her naivety. People are more likely to be seen if they are in or near their car, not walking down a highway, during a storm, in the early morning. She should have waited until the storm had stopped or until daylight broke and then gone to the bus station for help.

She says that she wants to stay at the bus station in this quotation: "The last bus is due any time now...guess that's it-Yep-Looks empty. Well-are we going? ...No-No-I won't. Leave me alone I'm going to stay here-with him." (p.266) She didn't think this decision through and this was a very bad decision. What was she going to do? Stay in a bus station with a man she didn't know until morning? She should have gotten on the bus because the station was only going to get more crowded as the hours went by and the murderer might have been among the people there. If she had gotten on the bus then she could have asked the bus driver to use his radio to call for help. But, obviously, she didn't think things through and this was a fatal mistake. Therefore, the girl in "Heat Lightning" shows that she is naive because she doesn't make good decisions and she doesn't think things through.