The story, Umbrella Man, is basically about a man who Just wants to start his life over again. After spending some time in Jail, he decides to change his name to his grandfather’s name, David Anderson. While using his grandfather’s name, he also decides to use the birthplace and death place of his grandfather, a small village in New Hampshire, as his own identity. From the beginning of the story and until the end of the story, David Anderson comes off as a sweet, forgiving, hardworking and generous man. His personality stays consistent throughout the entire story.
In the story, it says that he was in Jail longer than he thought he would be and David didn’t think that was fair at all, but he still did his time without any hesitations. From the start of the story, he was always giving and kind. Instead of keeping the small amount of money he had when he was released from Jail, he decided to give it to one of his inmates. He also offers his long lost love, Jane, a place at his small cabin in the woods. David is also quite the worker in the story. He would do anything to earn money and build a new life for himself.
He starts off with nothing at the beginning of the story and ends up with a love and much more towards the end. The author, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, does use regionalism by talking about a specific place which is New England. She uses that as the main setting of the entire story. In the story, you can certainly tell that the people are all hard workers Just like David. Their traditions exemplify the way it was back then. Most people earned their money by farming or selling any items they could find. That was pretty much the tradition back then for most people.
