On the Sidewalk Bleeding by Evan Hunter (pen name Ed McBain) is a short story that focuses on a boy of sixteen, Andy, who has been stabbed in the streets on his way to buy a pack of cigarettes. Andy lies in a dark alleyway, his blood flowing from his open wound and into the rain-drenched sidewalk as the narrative takes on his thoughts as he lies dying.
On the Sidewalk Bleeding | Summary
The story begins with the protagonist, Andy, a boy of sixteen, lying with his face against a rain-slick sidewalk. He had gone out to buy a pack of cigarettes, and finding the candy store closed he had started down the alley to find another shop. He wore a bright purple jacket, in the back of which was lettered ‘THE ROYALS’, the gang Andy belongs to. Andy had been jumped and stabbed by a member of the rival gang, The Guardians. The knife had entered just beneath his ribcage, leaving a violent gash in his flesh where it had been drawn across his body. It poured heavily, and the rain seemed to drill into Andy’s body, into his wound and his jacket with its lettering, causing him agonizing pain, rendering him unable to even call out for help. His ambusher had left him dying with “That’s for you Royal”, and Andy lay clutching himself, trying to stop the flow of his blood into the receding footsteps.
As he lay bleeding unable to cry out, he thought of his lover, a girl called Laura, whom he had left waiting at a dance. He wonders if she is waiting for him to come back – he wonders if she assumed that he left her. Andy thinks of her with love, remembering her face and imagining a life with Laura, a possibility of a life where they would marry and have children together. It is then that a drunk man steps into the alley. Andy lifts his cheek from the pavement and attempts to call out, but only a hiss emerges from his mouth, the bubbles of blood from his lips barring any coherent speech. The man, intoxicated and unable to understand that Andy has been bleeding, looks down at his body and asks him if Andy too had been too drunk and unable to stand anymore. He threatens to call the police first, to which Andy is unable to respond. Then the man offers Andy a drink, and seeing that he could not accept, he leaves.
Two young lovers rush laughing into the alleyway next, seeking shelter from the downpour. They do not notice the dying boy in the darkness. They talk and kiss until another grunt from Andy makes the boy, Freddie, come his way to investigate. Freddie seems concerned at the sight at first, but on seeing the lettering on Andy’s purple jacket, he hesitates and finally decides that calling for help would get him in trouble with the rival gang. Afraid for his own life, Freddie leaves with the girl, Angela who too wants to go home.
An old lady arrives in the alley next, scrounging usable from the garbage cans. She has a bad ear, and with the beating torrents of rain, she does not hear Andy’s grunts of pain.
Andy contemplates the life he has lived, which now seems short to him, the things he had found important, and with the realization that he was going to die, he realizes how trivial these things truly were.
Torn between his own identity and the second identity of belonging to The Royals, the identity he was stabbed for, he takes off his purple jacket with heavy arms, recounting to himself his own name and existence.
The narrative then flashes past this entire scene, and the reader is taken to when it is just past midnight. Laura, the lover he had left waiting at the dance, had come looking for Andy. Eliciting no response from the boy on the pavement, she ran crying until she had found a policeman. The cop, standing over Andy, now announces that he has died, but he picks up Andy’s jacket, not noticing that Andy’s name is lettered on the front, but the name of his gang on the back. He flips open his notebook to write Andy’s details, and even though Laura corrects him on Andy’s name, the man proceeds to write beginning with ‘A Royal’ – the very identity that Andy had tried to take off in his last weakened moments.
On the Sidewalk Bleeding | Analysis
The short story, written in the subjective and detached third person, deals with the main themes of existence and identity. It centers around the protagonist, stabbed and bleeding, who becomes disillusioned about his existence thus far and questions his reality. He imagines a life with Laura in which he gets to live and marry her, but this does not come true.
The setting plays a major role in the story. Andy lies in a dark alleyway, one that is excluded from the bustling streets outside. He is removed from this life, he only “could see the splash of neon far away at the other end of the long alley” but “there was no voice in his throat” to ask for help. The few people who could help him did not, either out of indifference or lack of knowledge. This resonates with the cold rain-drenched setting of the story. The rain that was “drilling his jacket and drilling his body and washing away the blood that poured from his open wound” could be interpreted as washing away Andy’s notion of the self that he believed himself to be.
The story holds forth the indifference of society and the place of man within it. Andy’s purple jacket, with the name of the gang on the back and Andy’s own name just over the heart is a symbol of power. It is only the name on the back that becomes Andy’s identity, even though he sheds the jacket – any individualism or personal identity is overshadowed: Andy reflects whether the Guardians would have stabbed him “had they known that he was Andy”, and comes to the realization that it was the purple jacket that they had stabbed, and not him.
On the Sidewalk Bleeding | Themes
“On the Sidewalk Bleeding” explores very deeply the themes of identity, regret, and indifference. Andy is attacked and bleeding on the sidewalk he does not even have the strength to remove himself from, and lies in his position with pride at first. He views himself as a member of the gang he swore loyalty to and is proud of himself even though he is hurt and in pain. He does not yet realize that he is going to die at this cost. He thinks of his lover and wonders what she may be doing at the moment, whether she misses him, whether she has been waiting for him or left without him.
As the people walk in and out of the alley, unknowing and unwilling to help, Andy grows to realize that there is no one to help him. It is in his thoughts about Laura that he realizes that he is dying slowly, life and blood both eking out of his body. With the knowledge of his death, he contemplates the life he has had and the things he has yet to do. He realizes how trivial the things that had seemed important to him once actually were. He questions the vision he had had of his own identity up till this point in his life. He realizes that it was the name ‘The Royals’ on his back that would result in his death. It was not even his own identity that he was dying for, but the faceless name of a gang that now seemed meaningless to him. In his contemplation he feels the regret of not having done enough, of not having gone to the places he wanted to go, and not having thought of the things that mattered to him.
The theme of indifference is highlighted as the other focus of the story. Characters walk in and out of the alleyway where the boy lies bleeding. However, none of them choose to help or assist him. The old woman is completely unaware of him: she is deaf to Andy’s pleas. The drunk man is too intoxicated to be aware of his surroundings, he sees Andy lying and assumes that he too is drunk: he does not see the blood; he fails to register the the dying boy.
On the Sidewalk Bleeding | Title of the Story
The title of the short story signifies its setting. The title also imparts a sense of helplessness: Andy’s helplessness as he contemplates his existence as he refuses and later submits to his death.
On the Sidewalk Bleeding | Character Sketch
The protagonist of the story is a sixteen year old Andy. He wears a purple jacket that has his identity stitched to its back. He lies stabbed in a dark alley, questioning this very existence and trying to find another meaning.
Laura is Andy’s girlfriend; for the most part of the story, she remains absent. She is said to be waiting at the dance for Andy to come back. We see her again at the end of the story when she comes to find him when Andy has already died.
Other characters in the story are the drunk man, the two lovers Freddie and Angela the old woman, and the police officer. In the eyes of all these characters, Andy represents the gang he belongs to.
