Deconstruct: The Centipede by Rony V.

Diaz
As our common sense would dictate, we can say that this short story was made to show and retell the common story of a strong-willed and principle-full character finally taking revenge on a very tyrannical opposition. But it also seems that our protagonist, Eddie, can also be the antagonist and not his sister Delia. This is because the story made mention of how Eddie in the end kills his sister by actually scaring her to death. Eddie did know about his sisters medical condition, so it couldnt be accidental but on purpose. And after all that Delia did to him should in no way make her an eligible candidate for death by defenselessly getting shocked. Rethinking the story this way actually leads the reader to question the two characters roles. Is Eddie the protagonist, and is Delia the tyrant in this story? Well, the story did not say anything about their roles. But if the issue was real, this story might actually be telling a totally different story with a totally different plot. We might actually have read a short story about how a boy, healthy and full of potential to commit murder, really murders his constitutionally weak sister. But why present the story with the real bad guy as the protagonist? It is simply because the author wants to show that what a person ultimately does in the end defines if that said person is a good guy or a bad guy. In this case, we all know what Delia did to Eddie all those times. But to be angry at someone so much youd kill him? That is much worse -what Eddie did was so much worse, because no one really has the right to take a life. If it was told with Eddie as the antagonist, well, we would have just simply read a murder story.