I actually liked this story and found it interesting. It was strange how in the beginning the narrator talked about himself in the third person, but that allowed the readers to know his name. I liked the structure of this story and how it was separated into several sections. Lyman was different from other Chippewas in the fact that he was able to make money and found it to be easy. He earned everything he made, and he called it a “talent.” The red convertible that he and his brother bought was something that they could share with each other. They were close and did not even talk about buying the car, but they both had to be thinking along the same lines. Since they split the cost 50/50, it allowed them to have a big thing in common, that they had to share. The convertible was unusual for people to own in their tribe, but they treasured it and it gave them a sense of freedom. They drove all over the place, even to Alaska, just because they wanted to. They could do what they wanted, and the car represented that. When Henry got sent to Vietnam, everything changed. Lyman did not use the car very much, probably because he did not think that it was the same without his big brother. The war affected Henry in many ways and he was completely different when he came home. He was quiet, stiff, and distant, and did not pay any attention to the car. Lyman was disappointed that Henry did not care about the car anymore, especially since Lyman fixed it all up so it was in great condition. Lyman was looking forward to them having the car to share and to gain their sense of freedom and escape back when Henry returned, but it was not like that at all. Destroying the car was probably one of the best things Lyman could have done for Henry because it gave Henry something to keep him busy. He fixed the car all up, and Lyman was happy again when Henry wanted to go for a drive like old times. They got along well and Henry was acting like his old self, and Lyman was ecstatic since he missed his older brother. When Henry jumped in the water, Lyman had no idea what was going through his head. He was scared and the thought of him dying must have gone through Lyman’s head. The war affected Henry, and he was not back to his old self; jumping into the water with such a strong current was dangerous and he probably thought it was something he could just do if he felt like it, out of the blue, with no meaning or purpose. Lyman then did not want the convertible anymore, and he felt that Henry needed it more than him; Henry needed that car to help him to remember where he came from and to give him a sense of freedom again.
Aunt Moon’s Young Man
I am indifferent about this story; it was not extremely interesting and it seemed long, but it was not too boring either. I liked the narrator, Sis, and how she viewed life. She did not like that she lived in a male-dominated society, and she was smart and wanted to go to school even though it was not really socially acceptable for women to go to school and have real jobs during this time in her town. She related to Aunt Moon because Aunt Moon was unconventional. aunt Moon also took Sis under her wing, in a way, since she lost her daughter and she was all alone. Aunt Moon’s remedies that she made were her way of escaping society and being in her own world. Even though women talked badly about Aunt Moon, many of them bought her remedies and believed in what she did. Since she was different than all the other women, they did not want others to know that they were supporting what she did. The young man, Isaac, was also different than most of the men in the town, which helped to bring him and Aunt Moon together. The women admired Isaac because he was attractive and smart and out of the norm, and the men of the town were threatened by him because of it. He brought love back into Aunt Moon’s life. When he left Aunt Moon, all the women wanted to comfort her because they all secretly liked her and they felt horrible. They went from openly talking badly about her to saying only good things. Aunt Moon went from being lonely, to having Sis, to having Isaac then losing him, and then having the support of all the women and having Isaac come back. I think that she helped Sis make the decision to move to the city with her cousins and get a job and get experience in a different setting and then eventually go to school. This story showed her grow up and also went into Aunt Moon’s life deeply but subtly.
Seventeen Syllables December 3, 2009
There were several different things going on in this story. There were conflicts with the father and mother, Rosie and her mother, and Rosie and her desire for Jesus. Rosie and her mother were very different and did not connect very well. Rosie speaks English much better than her mother, and her mother speaks Japanese much better. Therefore, right from the start, we are aware that they might not have the best communication with each other, causing them to not be very close. The most important thing in her mother’s life seemed to be writing haikus. She wrote haikus for a newspaper and she always talks to her friends and others about it. When she talks about haikus, she loses track of time, and she could talk about them and write them forever. Rosie does not appreciate haikus as much as her mother, although she did find one in English that she liked, but she could not even talk to her mother about it because they could not communicate well. Rosie was a little weird around Jesus because she liked him but did not know how to act, and that probably related from not having a strong relationship with her mother. She ran to meet Jesus though, which showed that she was anxious and that she had feelings for him. She was happy and giddy and soaked it all in, but she had no one to talk about it with. Her father does not act like he cares about anything. but their tomatoes. Rosie and her father’s relationship is strained as well since he acts as though he has no real emotions. When her mother wins the prize for one of her haikus, her father gets upset when she brings the editor of the paper into their house. He marches in there and drives the editor away. He does not care at all about the fact that his wife loves and basically lives for haikus. He wants his tomatoes to be picked, and could careless that she received a great prize. This upsets Rosie’s mother and she starts to tell Rosie about why she married her father. This is ironic because Rosie is finally happy and found someone that she really likes. Her mother and father did not marry each other out of love; it was her alternative to suicide. The man that she really loved was a secret relationship and it did not work out. The son that she would have had with him if it was not stillborn would have been the only true connection between them that others might have seen that would have tied them together for life. But since he did not survive, she lost everything she loved. She warns Rosie to never get married, which sucks for Rosie because now she can only think of Jesus. Her mother was trying to make her promise to never get married, and Rosie answers yes and agrees, like she always does because it’s the easist way for their communication difficulties. This ties to the beginning of the story where Rosie explains that it is just simply easier to say yes than to argue with her mother. I cannot help but feel bad for Rosie because her parents are basically ruining her happiness.
A Jury of Her Peers November 30, 2009
This story was intriguing. It captured me right from the beginning, and was like a murder mystery where I could not wait until the end to find out what really happened. Mrs. Hale isbasically the main character, although the story is not strictly about her. She was rather indifferent about Mrs. Peters and did not think she was like a typical sheriff’s wife. Mrs. Peters wanted Martha to come along to the Wright house because she did not want to be alone. They were not friends, and Mrs. Hale really had no business going up there, but she did anyways. The two women minded their own business the whole time they were there and stayed out of the men’s way. Mr. Hale explained the day that he found Mr. Wright dead. It is weird that they have no phone at their house, and that implies that they like to mind their own business. They do not interact with others very much and Mrs. Wright is very different than she was before she was married, when she was known as Minnie Foster. Mr. Hale seemed rather nervous when he was describing the events that happened the day he found them, and the women were just standing in the corner listening. Mrs. Wright seemed suspicious to Mr. Hale, and I thought that she was definitely the one who did it. Even though they did not have a phone, she should have gone into town and told someone when he died – it did not make any sense! When the men went upstairs to examine the scene and try to gather more information, the women bonded, in a way. Mrs. Peters was told to keep her eye out for anything that might be useful for this case, and the women basically just wandered around the house and helped themselves to anything. Mrs. Hale felt bad for Mrs. Wright because she would not like it if people just came in her house and snooped around. She tidied up the kitchen, and half of the motivation for that was probably that she wished that she had come visit Mrs. Wright. One recurring theme in this story is things being half done or half finished. Mrs. Hale left things in her house half done before she came to the Wrights, so that foreshadowed this happeneing with Minnie Foster. Mrs. Wright wanted her apron and shawl, which were odd to want when she is being held in town, but it is what she felt comfortable in and she did not want that to change. It was strange how Mr. Wright died, but no one ever said anything about his wife being a suspect. In the midst of their rummaging around, they found a quilt that was half done, and an empty birdcage. It brought questions to their minds and they were basically trying to solve the case on their own. They do not openly say that they both know that Mrs. Wright killed her husband, but they both know and they know that the other knows too. They made a connection, and for that they were bonded in a special way. Mr. Wright killed the bird (this did not surprise Mrs. Hale because she knew that he was not the type of person who would like a singing loud bird around the house), and that was the only thing that Mrs. Wright had that made her feel like herself again. He took away the one thing that she loved and needed. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters did not tell the men about their findings or thoughts. They feel bad for Minnie Foster and felt as though they would have done the same thing if they were in her position. I like the title of this story because the two women are Mrs. Wright’s peers and are ultimately her jury because they did not turn her in.
Battle Royal
I actually found this story really interesting. It had some awful and horrific parts, but the themes and the feelings of the main character were impressive. The main character is a negro from slave decent but he is so optimistic and has a high level of self respect. He does not let the history of his family get in the way of his own feelings and what he wants for his future, to a certain extent. However, his grandfather was always in his head because of what he said right before he died. It changed his views on certain things. He felt guilty when things went well for him, but he was praised for it, so he was kind of torn. He did not want to be looked at as a traitor. He was happy that his speech got so much praise and that he was going to give his speech in front of the town’s most respected white men. It is ironic that the battle royal comes before he is to give his speech. The fact that ten black men fight each other blindfolded for the enjoyment of others is sickening. The main character was not really thinking too much about it; he could only think of his speech. He wanted his speech to be great. The scene with the naked girl dancing was odd. I do not really see how or why that is important in this story, besides to further explain how those men are sick. She was beautiful, so of course all the men loved it, but the main character was more empathetic and wanted to cover her and love her. The men were like pigs and they were acting like drunken fools. Right after she left, there was no time to spare before the fight. These men, who were ultimately respected by most of the town and looked up to were selfish and had fun based on the enjoyment of treating others inhumanly. The fight was graphic and unpleasant to even read about. It was very descriptive, which made it easy to picture, even though it was a horrible picture. The main character still held his dignity during the fight, even when he got the shit kicked out of him up until the very end. The electrocuting rug did not make it any better – the men found it funny that these black men were getting electrocuted.
He felt honored and good about himself when he finally gave his speech, since he went through all of this horrible stuff in order to do it. The white men took advantage of him and he was not aware that he had to go through all of that before giving his speech. The men were not very respectful while he was giving his speech, but he did not let that get to him. I think that he was actually a little upset when he let “social equality” slip; it caught their attention. However, despite the way they treated him, he got a scholarship and he was ecstatic. He felt safe from his grandfather for a short time, until he had a dream about him. The dream never escaped him, but college overrided everthing now, because he was his own person and he was putting himself first and not letting anything else come in his way. He grew during this story, and his insight to life is something to be looked up to.
A Rose For Emily November 16, 2009
A Rose For Emily was a different type of story than other ones we have read. I liked that it was split up into five different sections. The first section gives a description of Emily, her house, and the town. The story opens with “when Miss Emily Grierson died,” and then the rest of the story is basically a flashback. Her house used to be beautiful and a sight to see in the town, but it had decayed and became almost run down and was not taken care of. Once Emily’s father died, her life kind of went down hill. She is not very personable and hardly leaves her house. Her neighbors and the people of her town were all fascinated with Emily in a strange way; they were not really friends with her but they pretty much kept tabs on her. They were aware that she never left the house, and they also complained when there was an awful smell around her house. No one wanted to talk to her about the stench to her face, so some people sneaked around her house to find the source of it. People felt bad for her because they knew she was lonely and did not think she did anything with her life. They thought that the death of her father had “humanized” her, and they liked that. She was apparently so superior to most people that being alone caused her to come back down to earth. When her father died, she did not accept it for three days. She grew sick and her appearance changed, which was all probably effects of losing a loved one. When Emily met a man, the town gossip about her grew once again. She began to carry her head high again, but everyone still felt bad for her. Her purchase of poison foreshadows the disappearance and death of Homer. People thought she was going to kill herself, but in fact, Homer just disappeared and Emily did not leave her house for six whole months. She did not take care of herself very well and was most likely going a little insane. She grew ill and died, and everyone in the town went to her funeral. When her two cousins come to her house after her funeral and unlock a room that has not been open in a while, it is implied that she killed Homer and layed with him until her death. His rotted corpse lay in the bed, and a strand of Emily’s hair was found. Emily must have gone a little insane after her father’s death, and did not want to be lonely, but she ended up alone anyways. This story was odd, but watching the movie in class was interesting and it made more sense. It was not one of my favorite stories, but I did like it.
Hills Like White Elephants November 13, 2009
I have read some of Ernest Hemingway’s stories before and I am indifferent about his work. I did not especially like this story, but I also did not hate it either. It was kind of bland and boring, but it was interesting how it was never stated by facts what the whole story was about. The readers have to guess based on the conversation that the American man and Jig are having. Their conversation seems very tense and slightly awkard, as if they are both uncomfortable. It is implied that Jig is pregnant and they are talking about an abortion. When they first sit down and order drinks, they simply talk about the scenary and the drinks. Jig is looking at the mountains, and she is probably escaping by looking out into the vast area of hills. She compares them to “white elephants” because they stood out in the dry and bland colors of the country. She could have been relating the white hills to freedom and her pregnancy; she was basically trapped by her husband. The man brings up the topic of abortion by saying, “It’s really a simple operation” and she does not reply, and it is as if they have had this conversation before. He obviously does not want to have a child, and she is torn between the child and her husband. She does not know what she wants. She knows there is a possibility of them living their lives normally and being happy if they go through with it, but she also wonders what it will be like to have a child. The man wants her to do it, even though he tells her that she does not have to if she does not want to go through with it. This pregnancy has caused tension in their relationship and they both really just want to be happy again.
It is sad when Jig says “I don’t care about me.” She says it a couple times, and she should care about herself and what she wants. This shows that in this time, men had more power over woman. She knows that she would not be able to go through everything alone, and she wants to make him happy and to do what he wants. The man keeps saying that it is perfectly simple, and she knows that it is easy for him to say since he is not the one who actually has to do it. She wants to be free and have plenty of space, like the fields and the mountains, but she is stuck in the idea of making the man happy. She is tired of talking about this topic and he does not want to drop it because he wants to convince her as much as possible and make it a sure thing. She is basically putting on a front saying that she feels fine, but all she wants is to be happy and to not worry about it anymore or to fight with the man, so she agrees to do what the man wants even though she is unsure of what she wants herself.
The Use of Force November 9, 2009
This story was one of the fastest moving stories I have ever read. It kept me interested because there was no time when nothing important was happening. William Carlos Williams used no quotaion marks in this story, which made it slightly confusing but it also allowed it to flow. That helps to show how fast moving the story is, without having breaks for quotation marks. It was also a very short story, which I liked, and it went by really fast. There was no need to make the story longer because it got right to the point so quickly.
The daughter is strange, in the fact that she is hiding her illness. You would think that she would want to make all of her symptoms known so that she can get better. However, it also makes sense that she is scared of what she could have so she does not want to face it. The mother is basically helpless and does not really do anything when the doctor is there. It gets violent towards the end because the girl refuses to let the doctor look at her throat. She knew she was much sicker than her parents thought and that her throat would be proof that she had a serious illness. When it is mentioned that diphtheria has been going around, the doctor uses a scare factor to try to get the girl to let him look at her throat. It still does not work, though, and that starts the violence. The doctor felt bad that he was using such violent and harsh actions towards the daughter, but he wanted to do his job and get to the bottom of her illness. The girl was putting up a huge fight because she did not want to find out that she had such a serious illness. She did not want to come to the realization that she could possibly die from this, but she made it worse by hiding it from her parents for so long. She took all of her anger out on the doctor, when really she was probably just scared.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall November 3, 2009
“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” was a strange but amusing at the same time. The setting of this story is in Granny Weatherall’s room, however, much of the story takes place in her head. She is old and sick and on her death bed, but she does not want any help from the doctor or anyone else. She is in denial that she is dying in the beginning of the story, as she says, “There’s nothing wrong with me.” Granny Weatherall is stuborn and independent; she pays her bills on her own and does not like her daughter speaking for her. Her daughter, Cornelia, says that her mother has never been like this, showing that she is not doing very well. When Granny Weatherall was dosing off and starting to dream, she started to think about “tomorrow.” This is ironic and also a clue to her death; I thought right away that she was going to die before tomorrow came. She wanted to clean her love letters out so her children would not find them, show her children’s father how well she had done with her kids, do things around the house, and several other things that she was putting off for “tomorrow.” Her mind brought her to the topic of death, and she did not think it was worth dwelling over. She was close to dying once before and prepared herself for death, but ended up pulling through.
Granny Weatherall went back in time in her mind. This story is dreamlike because a lot of it takes place in her head. It is written so it goes in and out of being in the real world and in her head. Memories of her children fill her mind, and she went in and out of reality communicating with Cornelia. One of the meanings of jilted is betrayed, and her mind wanders to George, who left her at the alter. However, she still thinks about George, as well as John, who she did marry, while she was dying. Granny Weatherall thinks things as if she is saying them, but she does not actually say them outloud. As the story goes on, she goes in and out of reality more noticeably and more often. For example, Father Connolly was speaking to her and she did not hear anything he said, so Cornelia was going to tell her but Granny Weatherall could not focus she went back inside her head. Granny Weatherall was desperately holding onto life; there was so much she wanted to do and people she wanted to see “tomorrow” and in the future, and she was not ready to die. The ending was “cruel” becase her last thoughts before she died was about how she was left at the alter. It was a sad story, and I could not help but feel bad for Granny Weatherall and her family.
An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge October 29, 2009
This story is different from any other story that we have read thus far. It is more modern and more realistic than some of the other stories. “An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge” is written like an extremely short novel with three chapters. It separates the story into distinct parts and makes it interesting and easy to read and follow. The first section describes how a man is soon to be hung. Soldiers are guarding the bridge from which he is to die from, and the man is walking with a noose around his neck. This first section describes the setting in detail and describes the man’s appearance. At the end of this section, he thinks about how he could possibly escape, which in a way is foreshadowing. The second section completely switches gears and goes back in time. The man is given a name, Peyton Farquhar, and it gives the reader a background as to why he is sentenced to death. A soldier rode by Peyton’s house and made conversation with him, and told him about an order of how whoever interferes with “the railroad, its bridges, tunnels, or trains, will be summarily hanged.” Peyton questions this, which allows the reader to assume that he interfered and disobeyed the order. The man was a Federal scout, which Peyton was not aware of. The third section is the main section of the story, and the reader is led to believe that Peyton was able to escape. It goes in detail about how he was able to free his hands, undo the noose, escape gunshots by the soldiers, and run back to his family. While I was reading this, I was in shock and could not believe that he was actually able to escape. He was so happy to have escaped that I actually wanted it to be true. However, Ambrose Bierce throws a curveball at the end. All of this was just thoughts going through Peyton’s head of what he wished could happen. It was his last thought before his death, and the only way he was able to escape was in his head. The last paragraph, which is one sentence, states that he has died and was swinging below the Owl Creek bridge.
The climax of this story could be at two possible different places: when Peyton first frees himself from the noose and is ultimately free, or when he reaches home. However, finding out that he is really dead and all that was written before is in his head is also a kind of jaw-dropping part. Although Peyton deserves to be hanged because he disobeyed the order knowing the consequences, I could not help but feel bad for him at the end. In his thoughts before he died, he and his wife were so happy to be reunited that part of me wanted that to be real. The fact that he was actually dead surprised me, even though it really should not have because it is not very often that someone survives from a hanging and several soldiers shooting at them. Bierce made this story interesting and I really enjoyed the way he wrote it.
Liz Munson 