Michael Cunningham’s “White Angel” is a short story narrated by nine-year-old Bobby, and it follows the experiences Bobby shares with his older brother Carlton in the months before Carlton’s traumatic death. The story is set in the Sixties, a time of innocence and awakening. The country had emerged from the war-torn Forties and the cookie-cutter Fifties with hope. There was a cultural optimism that the Dylan song was more than just a song – …showed first 75 words of 916 total…

…showed last 75 words of 916 total…perhaps, of the consequences he knew they brought. It has been argued that the changes of the Sixties were the beginning of the loss of the country’s innocence. Cunningham effectively uses the aspects of these changes – sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll – to define and control Bobby and Carlton’s relationship. Carlton’s death was heralded by these changes, but more importantly for his brother, the course of his life was charted by them.