Any form of writing, be it a story or a poem or a narrative, all have the central meaning or reason of why it is written. The written work will always have a moral or lesson that the reader can learn from.
When any author writes his book or story, his purpose is to deliver the main reason behind why that particular story is written. And when any reader can get the moral of the text, then he had successfully understood the author's intended purpose of writing that piece. So, in conclusion, the author's purpose can be said to be the main reason the story is written.
to contrast the concern the boys should have felt with the satisfaction they really felt.. It can be seen the boys ere very happy when the cubs boat blew up and when the cub appeared in church and was treated as a hero.
I'd say D because I think I remember that being a big part of citing works. A could be correct too. I'd look up maybe basic MLA rules and see which ones comes up first. It kinda depends on what your teach emphasizes. Though I'm pretty confident it isn't B or C