Ironically, even though Willie dedicates his life to doing penance for what he did to Carol, Willie considers killing the police officer who demands bribe money from Willie. The change he collects in Bobby’s baseball glove, a reminder that Bobby helped Carol while he did nothing, is donated to area churches. The story “Blind Willie” details the daily routine Willie follows to transform himself into a panhandling blind veteran so he can pay penance for what he did to Carol. So, she never understood why he would not return the glove. Willie apologized for what he did to Carol. She had seen him playing with it and asked him to give it back, but he refused.

She wanted to show Bobby how much it had meant to her that someone had stood up for her by standing up for all of the little people being hurt by the war.Ĭarol also told Pete that Willie had stolen Bobby’s baseball glove.

Carol explained she had been motivated to protest the war because Bobby had later ambushed the bigger boy who beat her. Carol showed Pete a picture of herself, Bobby, and Sully-John and described the way Bobby had carried her to get help after she was beaten up, even though she was bigger than Bobby. While in college, Pete met Carol who actively protested the Vietnam War. The story “Hearts in Atlantis,” is narrated by Pete, a freshman in college who learns to be his own person instead of following the crowd. Bobby had left his ball glove, a central symbol in the stories, at the park when he found Carol. Brautigan fixed Carol’s dislocated shoulder. Bobby found Carol after she was hurt and took her to Theodore “Ted” Brautigan, a man who had moved into the upstairs apartment in the house where Bobby lived with his mother. It is a story of Bobby’s coming of age as he learned the unfairness of life. The short story “Low Men in Yellow Coats,” details the attack on Carol.

Meanwhile, Bobby Garfield and John “Sully-John” Sullivan, Carol’s friends, struggled to understand Carol’s rationalization for involving herself in violent anti-war protest groups. He dedicated his life to making penance for what he had done.

In the summer of 1960, Bill “Willie” Shearman was among a group of boys who beat Carol Gerber, a younger girl, with a baseball bat. The stories demonstrate the way a single savage act can impact a variety of lives. Hearts in Atlantis, a collection of short stories by Stephen King, follows the lives of three childhood friends. The following version of the book was used to create this study guide: King, Stephen.

Hearts in atlantis king