"The Egg"

1. The conflict in "The Egg" is the challenge of acting young or old faced by the father through the latter half of the story. The father wants to entertain the customers by acting young, but is torn by a sense of responsibility caused by his age. Anderson uses the quote, "From Father's words I gathered that something of the jolly innkeeper effect was to be sought," to reinforce his father's passion to act young again (Anderson 5).

2. The author uses the chickens to symbolize the adults who cannot make anything of themselves and the eggs to represent their offspring who are the hope, but are trapped because of their birth into the problem created by their parent's dilemma. According to Anderson the chickens constantly fail after succeeding temporarily similar to the boy's parents (Anderson 2).

3. Anderson would say that, " philosophers are raised on a chicken farm," because the cycle of life is repeated daily, so they become wiser. "...the dreadful cycle is then complete" (Anderson 2).

4. When I was a little child, I always wanted to help cook or bake different foods because I watned to feel helpful. The conflict was always external because my parents restricted my cooking because of my little size and that I would get hurt by the stove or oven. I must have overcome the conflict because my love of cooking never died.