Upon my first reading of “Victory Lap” by George Saunders I could not figure out what the story was attempting to convey. With the narration being third person omniscient and following the characters thoughts it can seem somewhat disjointed as the thoughts jump around. Despite this, there were some expectations I did have through reading the story. After reading on structuralism, these expectations lent themselves to a certain type of story: the damsel in distress genre or rescuing the princess. If the story had ended slightly different such as someone dying, it could have shifted into a crime or thriller. Alison is the princess in this, and Kyle is the knight who saves her. The first bit of narration was particularly difficult to get through and understand. The French words might not make much sense to someone who doesn’t understand the language, but knowing what they say, while important when translated, is not needed to figure out there use to me. The word damsel derives from French…show more content… This part is not hard to tie into the genre. He has a proper weapon, a speech like a classic villain, and he thinks he is superior. Even when he fails he still believes he is superior and wants Kyle to kill him. “The king does not take his own life.”(24) He is the evil king of this story, with Kyle being the knight and Alison being the princess.
The story does fit in with the genre, but there is more to it that makes it more than just a damsel in distress story and what I believe makes it a more realistic version which I believe is the whole point of the story. Alison, while her views of the world are naive and somewhat caring about the people in her town, she is a little shallow as well. In her mind she is constantly belittling people. The “local boys” as she calls them are not good enough to be her special one and Kyle is not cool enough for her to be associated