August Wilson

When I first saw that we were reading the play “Fences”, I thought I had read it before. I soon realized that I had read this in an English class I took last year. I really enjoyed reading this play because I feel like it shows the struggles that many black people had to face in those days. I felt really bed for Troy because he wanted to do something so bad that would change things for the black people. He worked as a garbage collector, but he wanted to do so much more. He wanted to drive the truck instead of just stand on it and get the trash. Troy once had a dream of becoming a great baseball player, but he was quickly turned down. He blames the color of his skin for this. He is so bitter that things did not work out for him when he wanted to play sports that he ruins any chance his son, Cory, may have at playing football and going to college. I felt really bad for Rose throughout the entire play. It seemed to me like Troy was always rude to her and she just put up with it like it was nothing. It turns out she did this because she loved Troy and could look past his flaws. Rose was also always stuck in the middle of any argument that went on around the house. Anything from Lyons, Troy’s son from a previous relationship, wanting money to Cory wanting to play football, Rose was stuck in the middle. I felt the worst for Rose when Troy admitted to her that he had cheated and was having a baby with another woman. How Rose could look past this and let troy continue to live with her and then let him bring the baby into the house is beyond me. She had to have been an extraordinarily strong woman to allow this. I felt like Troy felt guilty about his brother and using his money to buy a house. His brother was disabled and had no way of really knowing what was going on. I feel that Troy took advantage of him and I think that he felt the same way, otherwise he would not have reacted the way he did when Cory brought it up during their last fight. I was shocked to read that Cory did not come back for seven years. I was even more shocked to read that he was not going to his father’s funeral. I understand that there was no way he could have respected the man that ruined his and his mother’s lives, but he still should have been willing to go to the funeral. The last part of this play has always confused me. I never fully understood if Gabriel was imagining things or if all of this was actually happening. Either way, this probably would have been a magnificent moment to see!

Walker, Tan, Mason, and Kincaid

Alice Walker

The short story “Everyday Use” is about a mother and her two daughters. Her oldest daughter, Dee, seems to think that everyone in the world owes her something just because she is alive. She is rude and does not care for anyone but herself. The youngest daughter, Maggie, is really timid and does not like to be the center of attention. The story starts out with the mother waiting for her daughter, Dee, to come home. Dee has always been ashamed of the places she and her family have lived and she did everything she could to get away for a while. She never wanted to bring anyone home with her and it seemed to me like she never actually came home. Maggie joins her mother to wait for Dee and she finally arrives with a man. His name is Asalamalakim but he told everyone to call him Hakim-a-barber. Dee comes in and tells her mother, who had given her the name she did for a reason, that she wanted to be called Wangero. I found this to be very disrespectful, not only to the mother but also to her ancestors after whom she had been named. It seemed like all Wangero (Dee) wanted to come home for was to take many things that her mother had that interested her. She wanted some hand-made pieces that had been given to her mother. She took a churn top and dash then she went looking for more things. She went and found some old quilts her mother had made with her aunt. She wanted these quilts so bad but, unfortunately, they had already been promised to Maggie. Wangero (Dee) tried to talk her mother out of her decision saying that Maggie would use them instead of appreciate them and not use them. Maggie told her mother it was fine for Wangero (Dee) to have the quilts but her mother did not like that. I think maybe she was seeing that all Wangero (Dee) came home for was to take anything she could get her hands on that had any meaning for anyone else. The story ends with Dee leaving upset because, for once, she did not get what she wanted. Maggie, on the other hand, was very pleased with what had happened!

Amy Tan

I really enjoyed reading the story “Half and Half”. It was very interesting. I felt extremely bad for the girl who narrated this story. She had been through a lot in her life. I thought it was horrible how Ted’s mother did not really give her a chance before she judged her. She did not want them to be happy together and I was glad that ted and the girl went against her wishes and got married. I was a little disturbed when I read that Ted made all of the decisions for them, but then I read that she always told him too. I can understand how this could have been a little frustrating for Ted. I know that I hate it when I have to make decisions. I thought it was awful that he just snapped and went off on her for practically nothing. He knew she did not like to make decisions and he lived with it for so long. Why was it at that moment that he chose to get upset? I understand that he had gotten into some trouble for a bad decision, but that was not the girl’s fault. As the story progressed, it got sad. I do not fully understand why this one girl had to look after four boys. Why could her sisters not help her? Why could her mother not help her? I think that had she only had to look after one, things would have ended differently. It was heartbreaking what the mother did the day after her son drowned. I know that she wanted him back, but it was his time to go. I felt bad that she went back to the beach hoping to come home with good news and ended up leaved more upset than she was when she arrived. I think that the narrator and Ted’s marriage is a lot like the story of her brother. As much as someone would like to believe that there is something still there and they will come back with good news, everyone is just going to be more disappointed and upset in the end.

Bobbie Ann Mason

“Shiloh” ended differently than I thought it was going to. Leroy and Norma Jean seemed to be so happy. Leroy had been a truck driver for a while but he was finally home so he could spend his time with his wife. I think that Leroy loved Norma Jean so much and he would have done anything he could to make her happy. All she seemed to be interested in was getting buff. Norma Jean’s mother, Mabel, seemed to have a way of butting in without it seeming like she was actually butting in. She always offered her opinion and tried to tell the couple things they should do. I think when Norma Jean started back to school, she realized how different things were in the world. She probably was once happy with her husband and the life they had together, but it grew old for her. I also think that the fact that their child had died so young played a huge part in the fact that they could no longer be happy. I did not understand why they never had another child but maybe this was Norma Jean’s way of distancing herself from her husband. The couple finally went to Shiloh, where Norma Jean’s mother had gotten married. Neither one really wanted to be there, but they went anyways. I was shocked when Norma Jean said that she wanted to leave Leroy. He had tried so hard in the last few months to make her happy and give her what she wanted. I honestly think that Norma Jean was just tired of listening to Leroy’s ideas. She did want a house, but not a log cabin. Leroy was dead set on a log cabin and he did not realize until it was too late that she did not want this. I think that Norma Jean was happier when her husband was out on the road. She had time for herself and she was not used to having Leroy around all the time. When he got injured, this all changed. Leroy was there 24/7 and I honestly believe that this is ultimately what led to Norma Jean wanting to leave Leroy.

Jamaica Kincaid

To me, the story “Girl” is just list of things that a girl was expected to do. They were supposed to cook, clean, shop, be polite, and do everything the right way which was the way their mother showed them. Most importantly, a girl was never to be known as a slut. This probably has to be the worst thing a girl could be called. I viewed this list as something a mother would be telling her daughter. If this is how it really was written then there is something wrong. All of the directions and rules are perfectly fine but some things are not. I feel so bad for the girl who had to sit and listen to this. Her mother obviously thinks that all she will become in life is a slut. She mentions this at least three or four times. I know her mother is probably just trying to help, but I do not think the girl’s feelings were taken into consideration. Had I had to sit and listen to this list, I would have probably began to cry. I honestly think the only thing worse than a guy calling a girl a slut is for her own mother, or father, or any other family member, to call her a slut. This would have had to have killed her confidence and left her wondering why everyone thought this about her; especially if she had not done anything to make them speak of her in such a way.

O'Connor, Olson, and Giovanni Blog

Flannery O’Connor

I remember reading some of Flannery O’Connor’s work before, but I had never read this story. I found “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” to be very dark and depressing. I think the one thing that makes this story so bad is that the grandmother knew they were going to run into the Misfit and she wanted to change the plans for the trip. Her son, Bailey, was too stubborn to change his plans and the grandchildren were too rude to think of going anywhere else for vacation. The mother was not about to say anything to her husband about making different plans because she did not want to start a fight. John Wesley had a good idea when he told his grandmother to stay at home, but everyone knew she would never do this. She tried so hard to get everyone to go to Tennessee instead of Florida, but she never got her way. I felt a little bad for her when she realized that the place she was telling the family about was not in the state that they were in. She had to feel so guilty when the car rolled and they had no way to get anywhere. She also must have felt pretty guilty when she realized that they had run into the Misfit and were probably not going to make it. I thought it was very brave of the grandmother to try to talk the killer out of killing her family. She tried to let him know that he really was not a bad guy but I think that all of her talking hurt the family more than it helped. I was surprised by how long the Misfit let the grandmother live. I guess he wanted her to feel guilty for talking so much and let her know that she was, more than likely, the cause of everyone’s death. I definitely did not see this story going where it did and I was really surprised when everyone was killed.

Tillie Olson

To me, the story “I Stand Here Ironing” is really sad. Emily’s mother is speaking to someone about Emily and she goes on and on about how she never showed Emily the love that she deserved. Her mother was young when she had her and her father left. Emily’s mother had to get many different jobs to make ends meet and she did not get to spend very much time with her daughter for quite a few years. She even had to send Emily to stay with her father’s family and had a really hard time getting her back. When her mother had another baby, Emily was sent away to, what seemed to me, a private school. She could only see her mother when the school would allow it. I felt bad for Emily that she had to stay in such a horrible place. They would not even let her keep the letters her family sent her for some kind of comfort. Someone is talking to Emily’s mother throughout the story and this person seems to want to take Emily with them. Her mother talks about her other children and about how Emily’s sister seemed to have everything Emily wanted. Finally, Emily made something of herself. I felt bad for Emily that she was never truly shown the kind of love that most mothers have for their children. Since her mother was a single parent, I think that she thought that she had no time to show Emily that love. I also think that there is time to show a child love, you just have to either find the time or make it.

Nikki Giovanni

Nikki-Rosa has to be a poem about Nikki Giovanni’s life. She talks about all of the struggles she and her family faced as she grew up. She mentions not having a toilet or a bathtub. She also mentions her family having to sell everything just so she and her sister could “have happy birthdays and very good Christmases.” I like how she ends the poem by saying that nobody would understand but she was happy. I’m Not Lonely is talking about not being lonely after someone important has left you. I think that she is lonely but she does not want to admit it and let the other person be right. She just wants to talk about how happy she is now that this person is gone. I find Poem for Black Boys to be very sad. Giovanni is talking about a lot of the events that many black people had to go through in their life. But she is not talking about them in an informative way. She is telling these things to boys like they are new games that these boys should try to play. I think that this poem show how hard it was for the black people to get all of the other people to take what they were doing seriously. I find it appalling that all of their struggles and pain can just be seen as fun and games.

The Help Kathryn Stockett

I cannot say that I truly had just one favorite character. The three main women, Minny, Aibileen, and Miss Skeeter, were all favorites of mine. I liked Minny because she reminds me a lot of my grandmothers. She is storng and tries to be strong for everyone, but you can tell she is just trying to hide the fear she has deep inside. She wants to make sure everyone is alright and she takes care of herself last. She let Skeeter put the story in the book about the pie so she could protect the rest of the maids who had put their stories in the book. She also takes extremely good care of not only her own family, but also the people she works for. She will put up with a lot but you know when she has had enough. Both of my grandmothers are exactly like this. They are strong and very caring. They always put themselves after their families and they are both very protective. I liked Aibileen because she was like a mother figure to everyone. She cared about the people that she should probably not care a lot about to begin with. I loved how she would tell Mae Mobley everyday that she was kind, smart, and important. This was something she would have never heard from her own mother and I think that is just downright sad. I liked Skeeter because she was so brave. She stood up for what she thought was right and she would not let anyone change her mind. I liked how she took the risk of writing the book knowing she could be in a lot of trouble if it came out she was the author. She did not even care; she just did not want the people who had helped her to get into any trouble. All of these women were brave, kind, and strong and that is what ultimately made them my favorites.

I think that Skeeter’s mother is a little more sympathetic near the end of the novel than she was in the beginning. All she could do in the beginning was criticize Skeeter and tell her what she needed to fix instead of what made her beautiful. I do not think I could have ever lived with that woman because it seems to me like nothing I did would ever be good enough. Towards the end of the story, when she started criticizing Hilly, I thought she was a little more sympathetic toward Skeeter. For once she was not commenting on something Skeeter was wearing or the way her hair was fixed, she was doing to someone else instead. She also did not seem to criticize her as much when she was with Stuart.

It bothered me a lot that Skeeter was willing to overlook Stuart’s faults so she could get married. I do not think she was truly in love with him; she just wanted to marry him to make her mother happy. All her mother could talk about was her meeting a guy and getting married. I could not believe the way Stuart treated her on their first date. I understand that he was not ready to date yet, but I think the way he acted was foolish. I know if a guy were to treat me like that on a date, I would never go out with him again. I also did not think it was fair that she had to overlook the way he treated her, but he could not overlook the book. She was open and honest with him, and the truth about the book would probably have never gotten out in town because Hilly did not want it to.

I think that Mae Mobley would not have grown up to be racist had Aibileen stayed. Aibileen was teaching her that black and white people were the same and I believe that Mae mobley understood that. She was young when she was taught that, but I have always been told that you should teach children when they are young. She loved Aibileen, and I think she would have known it would hurt Aibileen if she turned out like her mother. I liked how Mae Mobley also tried to teach her brother the thing Aibileen taught her. I also thought it was very brave of Mae Mobley to cover for Aibileen and blame it on her teacher. This showed how much love Mae Mobley had for Aibileen.

I thought that what Minny did to Hilly’s pie was hilarious. I t was nasty but I laughed when I read that. I think the thing that made it funniest for me was the fact that Minny practically warned Hilly the day before. I also thought it was funny that Hilly’s mother won the pie for Hilly at the Benefit. I know that I would have never gone as far a Minny did though. I would have never been brave enough to do anything like that. I was shocked that she even did that. She was already known around town for stealing. If this pie incident happened to get out, she would have never been able to get another job anywhere.

When I first saw this book and how long it was, I thought I would hate having to read this book. Reading is definitely not one of my favorite things to do unless I find a book I like. The Help has now officially been added to my list of books I enjoy reading. I was dreading reading this novel, but once I started reading; I did not want to stop. The ending was a little disappointing to me though. I am really hoping that Kathryn Stockett decides to write another book telling what happens to everyone after this book ended. I want to know if Minny got back at her husband and finally moved on, or if Skeeter did well in New York, or if Aibileen got another job or just retired!

A Raisin in the Sun

I truly enjoyed watching Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”. When I saw how long the movie was, I was happy we did not have to read this story. It would have taken me FOREVER to read that much. I like how this movie portrays a typical family from this time period. Everyone lives together whether it is in a huge mansion, or in a small apartment.

This story was about Walter Lee, his wife Ruth, his mother Lena, his sister Beneatha, his son Travis, and an insurance check. This family worked very hard for everything they had. They did not really complain about the way their lives were. Walter had a normal job for a colored person at the time as a chauffeur. His mother and wife did odd jobs for people like housework and laundry. Beneatha was a college student looking to become a doctor. They needed money more than anything, and when Lena’s husband died, they got the money they needed.

Walter had a wild dream about owning a liquor store some day with two of his friends. That was all he could ever talk about. I thought it was great that he was so passionate about dream and he never let it go. All he had to do was convince his mother to give him some money. That was going to be hard for him to do though, because his sister needed money for school and it was no secret the family needed a bigger place to live. Ruth had just found out she was expecting another child and there was no way six people could live comfortably in the small place they were living in. Ultimately it was Lena’s decision what to do with the money.

The check finally came and so did Walter’s begging. He wanted a liquor store so bad he could taste it. Lena did with the money what she thought was fair. She had bought a house that was large enough for the whole family. When she told the family her decision, Walter got mad and ran away. He was upset because he had not gotten his way. Lena found him and told him she had only spent $3500 of the $10000 on the house. $3000 of the remaining money was for Beneatha’s school and the rest was for Walter to spend as he saw fit. Personally I think she made the right decision in buying the house but she should not have left Walter to put the rest of the money in the bank.

Walter put all of the remaining $6500 into his liquor store dream and the man that was supposed to make everything happen for him bailed and took all of the money he and his friend Bobo had put into it. I felt so bad for him but I was also a little upset. How could he have been so selfish as to take all of the money for himself? He knew how important being a doctor was for Beneatha and without tuition money; her dream could not come true. He was extremely upset when he found out, but not as upset as his family. Beneatha still had to go to school. The only logical explanation anyone could find was to sell the house but Walter had other plans. He had to find some way for their dream of living in their new house to come true and let Beneatha still go to school.

The house Lena had bought was really nice. It was large and had a great backyard. The only problem was that it was located in a neighborhood where only white people lived at the time. They went to check out the house and were so excited about getting to move. As they were getting things ready to go, a man from the neighborhood came by to tell them that the people already living there did not want their family to move in and they were willing to buy the house back from them. Walter was going to take the deal and then he realized everything was not all about him and getting money fast. He knew how much the family wanted to live in the house and he told the man who was going to buy it back that it was not going to happen. The family was going to move into the house whether the neighbors liked it or not! I was so happy that Walter stood up for the family and not just himself. I really enjoyed watching this movie and I was so happy the family got to live in the house after all!

Steinbeck, Welty, and Wright

John Steinbeck

As I read Steinbeck’s introduction and bio, I was amazed. I thought it was really cool that most of the stories he wrote were set in the place he was born. I also thought it was great that he could sympathize with migrant workers. I found it sad, though, that he had to do so many different jobs but I guess those jobs just gave him more experience and more to write about. I thought Steinbeck’s story “Flight” was really good and I definitely enjoyed reading it. I think this story was a great way to show how there are some decisions that people have to make that can change them from a child to an adult. Pepe was lazy and never really seemed to do anything, but it seemed as if his mother loved him the most of all of her children. Pepe just wanted to fool around and play all day. His mother gave him a simple task and told him exactly what to do. Of course Pepe is like almost every other child in the world and decides to do what he wants. He got into a fight with another man at a family friend’s house and the way I took it, Pepe killed the other man with his father’s knife. He had come home to tell his mother and get her help so he could run from the people who had seen him kill this man. His mother helped him and sent him off to the mountains. Pepe was doing well for a while it seemed. He had managed to hide from people and then everything took a turn for the worst. Pepe’s horse was shot and could no longer take him anywhere so Pepe had to leave th horse on the trail and go alone with his gun. He got shot in the hand and it ended up getting infected. He was so weak and could not go very far before he had to rest. He was finally found and killed. I felt a little ad for Pepe. He was just a boy running and errand for his mother and one bad decision led to a mistake that forced him to become a man really fast. He was only trying to defend himself from the other man who was provoking him. He could not just stand there and take it. In the end, Pepe was suffering from many different things. He was wounded, tired, and dehydrated. I think it was awful how the story ended, but Pepe was suffering and I think death was his only way to escape the suffering.

Eudora Welty

I found the story “Powerhouse” to be a little confusing. I was not sure if Powerhouse was singing or telling a story. I am guessing he was telling a story as he and his and were playing music. I found his story to be quite interesting though. I liked how Eudora Welty described every possible thing she could. I could imagine all of the sounds and the setting of this story. I could imagine the way that powerhouse looked and acted while he was performing. She was very descriptive and that is the only way I can read and comprehend stories. Powerhouse was playing for these people and taking their requests. They were playing a waltz and he started telling a story. He was talking about his wife who had killed herself. He had received the news in a telegram from a man named Uranus Knockwood. He went on and on with this story telling how his wife had jumped put the window at a hotel. She thought Powerhouse was coming to her and he never showed up so she killed herself. Uranus Knockwood found her and took her away. The band and all of the people watching them had taken an intermission and went to a local bar where he began telling the story to people there. He met with a real town hero who had saved quite a few people. He also had a waitress listening to his story. The way I took it she felt bad for him. Powerhouse must not like to think about this story because once they returned from the bar they started playing something completely different and the story never came back up. I felt bad that Powerhouse lost his wife while he was touring and playing for people but he did not seem very upset about it. I guess this shows that different people have different ways of dealing with things.

Richard Wright

I enjoyed reading “Native Son” very much. It was an intriguing story and I was surprised how it ended. Bigger was only going to get a job so he could help his family. This was what many people had to do back then. They would quit school and get jobs or help out around their house. Bigger was so worried about what the white people who lived near the Dalton’s would think of him. He was also afraid of what the family would think of him. He wanted the job so bad and he was so nervous. He thought of himself as a fool because he had not come completely prepared with the paper already out and ready to hand to Mr. Dalton. He was happy when he got the job and then he thought he had lost it because of the Dalton’s daughter. He was relieved to know that he got to keep his job. He had to take the daughter to “the university” the first night he was on the job. She led him to a completely different place and I do not think Bigger was very comfortable about taking her to a different place. They got her boyfriend and went out for a good time. Bigger was not at all thrilled about taking them to a black restaurant and he definitely did not want to go in with them. He did anyways and his girlfriend just laughed in his face. The two talked to Bigger about helping him and his people because that was what they wanted to do. After they left the restaurant, they drove around for a while and Mary and Jan got drunk. Bigger dropped off Jan and took Mary home. Mary was too drunk to get herself up to her room so Bigger had to help her. When they got to her room, she was practically asleep, so Bigger was going to take advantage of her. Of course, Mary did kiss him first, but she was drunk and did not know what she was doing. Bigger was buzzed and knew exactly what he was doing. He did not want to get caught by Mary’s mother, so he suffocated her. He did not do it on purpose, but he should have known that she could not breathe under the pillow. By the time he realized what he had done, it was too late. Mary was dead and the only thing Bigger could do now was run for his life.

Hemingway, Faulkner, and Hughes

Ernest Hemingway

I enjoyed reading “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber” by Ernest Hemingway but I was confused. The story began in the middle of an event and I had no clue what the characters were talking about. When they all started talking about the lion, I was lost. As I read on, I gathered that Macomber had been hunting lions, he found one, and he ran from it. I also gathered that Macomber and his wife were on a safari with a man who loved to hunt animals. Macomber seemed excited to get to go hunt for a different animal the next day. He just wanted his wife to know that he could kill an animal. I guess he wanted to seem strong and not like a coward. He had another chance to kill a lion the next day. He blew that. He shot at it and got it down, but when he had to get close and shoot it to make sure it was dead, he panicked and ran. His wife showed him on the way back to camp that she wanted a brave man who would stand in the face of terror and not run away with his tail between his legs. She showed him even more so that night that the hunter was the type of guy she wanted. The next day Macomber was so upset and I think this had something to do with him doing so well hunting that day. He killed two of the three buffalo and was on his way to kill the last one when his wife shot him. The way I took the end of the story, Macomber’s wife and Mr. Wilson had planned to kill Macomber the night before. I think she saw this as her only way to get away from him with his money. I kind of felt bad for Macomber because he was shot from behind. He had no way of knowing what was coming and he could not protect himself from the deadly shot.

William Faulkner

I found “That Evening Sun” to be a very confusing and quite frightening story. I was confused because I did not understand why Nancy though Jesus was going to kill her. I know she had slept with some other man while I am guessing she was with Jesus, but he left which shows me that he tried to move on. I will have to admit that while I was reading this story I was a little scared. The narrator was talking about Nancy making weird noises and they seemed to do everything in the dark. I thought it was a little weird when Nancy wanted the children to go back to her house with her. I know she was scared, but she had other people who offered to let her stay with them and she refused. I found the ditch to be a little sketchy. I know I would have hated to have had to cross through a ditch in the dark. I kind of feel a little bad for Nancy though. She had let the thought of Jesus being so mad at her take over her whole life. All she could think about day and night was him coming back to kill her. I think she was losing her mind. I was confused by how the story ended. One minute they were talking about Nancy and the next minute the two youngest children were fighting with each other. They seemed to fight a lot throughout the story now that I think about it. Caddy seemed a little nosey to me. She always asked questions. I think the mom was a little jealous that the father was walking Nancy to her house at night. He just wanted to make sure she was alright because she was one of their workers. If they lost her they would have to find someone else to do the work that she did. I think the mom took into consideration what all Nancy had done in her life, and she really did not want her close to her family.

Langston Hughes

I enjoyed reading Langston Hughes’ poetry. He found a way to make his poetry not only personal to him, but also to whomever may read it. I think my favorite out of all of these poems would have to be “Young Gal’s Blues”. I think he is talking about how some people see getting old as worse than dying. There are some people who cannot stand the fact that they will someday grow old and gray. This poem is also talking about love which is something a person wants all throughout their life. Even when there is no more love to be given, everyone wants more. I also liked “Theme For English B”. I felt that Hughes had made this poem into something more personal for himself. He talked about his life in a way that it related to the professor. I liked how he said that he may be learning from the professor, but the professor is also learning for him and they are a part of each other. As much as people do not want to admit it, everyone leaves a lasting impression on the people they meet. Everyone also learns new things from different people as they teach new things to those people. I enjoyed reading “On the Road” as well. This story is very good. I felt bad for Sargeant because all he wanted was a place to sleep. I am pretty sure a jail cell was not what he had in mind though. I thought that everything he was thinking had actually happened. That he was actually strong enough to bring down the church and then have Christ walking with him. I thought he was just imagining the last part. I thought it was sad that he thought he was stronger than he actually was. I am pretty sure he did not like the cops beating him not once but twice. That had to be just a little embarrassing to him. Another thing that shocked me was the fact that the Reverend just blatantly said NO!

Cather, Glaspell, and Hurston

Willa Cather

I felt a little sorry for the narrator’s Aunt Georgiana in “A Wagner Matinée”. She was coming back to a town she had left long ago to settle the estate of a male relative of hers. This woman was tired because of all the work she had done since she moved from Boston. She met a man and they ran off and got married. She did not want to hear her family’s comments, so they moved to Nebraska. I feel bad for them because they barely had anything. They had to build their own house and work really hard to make things work. The one thing that took the aunt's mind off of her hard work was opera music. Her nephew took her to the opera and she enjoyed it so much. For a little while she did not have to think about working and taking care of everything. She could just relax and listen to the music. I also felt bad when the show was over because it was back to reality for Aunt Georgiana. I found “Paul’s Case” to be a very sad story. It seemed to me like the only happiness this boy could find was when he was in a theater. He did not like school, he did not like being at home, he only enjoyed being at the theater. When he was at the theater, he could let his mind run wild and have no regrets. His imagination ran into his real life and he began confusing the two. It seemed to me like he was sent away as a young boy and the story picked up later in his life. The theater was yet again his place of utter happiness. He had stolen and lied as much as he could in his life and I feel that the guilt finally caught up to him. I thought it was sad that he felt the only way he could solve his problems was to jump in front of a train and be killed.

Susan Glaspell

I remember reading “Trifles” in my English 113 class. I did not really understand the story, even after the teacher tried to explain it to us. This time when I read it, I understood it. The ladies were worried about all of the things the men saw a being unimportant. While the men went around looking for any evidence they could find, the women solved the whole case. They knew who did it, why they did it, and how. Mrs. Hale knew Mrs. Wright. She had known her for a while. She knew how much Mrs. Wright loved to sing and once she married Mr. Wright, the singing stopped. She got the canary so she could hear the singing once again, but Mr. Wright ended that too. He took away everything she loved and she did not know how to deal with it. I think the reason she had sewed some bad stitches was because she was nervous. She had killed her husband and her adrenaline levels were probably up. She could not get her nervous energy out of her body before she started stitching. The ladies found the bird Mr. Wright had obviously killed by breaking its neck. I am guessing that Mrs. Wright only saw it fit that she kill him the way he killed her, in a sense. He took away everything that had ever made her the least bit happy and she felt she should do the same to him. She was probably just waiting for someone to come find her and him and take her away. Mrs. Wright would probably have been a little happier in jail because she could sing there. The men may have found it to be funny that the women were worrying about “trifles” but in the end the joke was on the men. The women solved the murder and it seemed to me like they tried their hardest to hide the evidence so they were the only ones who could solve it with all of the evidence.

Zora Neale Hurston

It seems to me like “How It Feels to be Colored Me” is about Hurston’s life. The girl in the story moved around like she did and experienced the same things she had experienced. I thought it was really neat how she tied her life story into this story without making it sound like she was just talking about herself. I enjoyed reading this story because it was very interesting. After reading Hurston’s background story, I feel a little bad for her. She was shipped off to live with other family members until her dad could no longer afford it. She turned around her life for the better. She worked hard, but her hard work did not pay off in the end. She was accused of something she had not done and that led to her reputation going down the drain. I felt bad when I read she died broke after she had been so popular in her prime. I thought “The Gilded Six-Bits” was a pretty good story. Missie May and Joe were so in love. He thought the world of her and would do anything for her and she felt the same about him, or so I thought. I was surprised that Missie May had cheated on Joe. I thought that she loved him and I thought it was wrong for her to sleep with Otis Slemmons. I know she wanted the gold that he had, but there had to have been a better way to get it. I was also surprised that Joe stayed with Missie May after all this had occurred. I guess once he realized the gold was not real, he felt bad that his wife had been fooled by the other man. The fact that Joe stayed around showed that he was a true gentleman. I was happy that Joe got a son in the end. I thought it might have been Slemmons, but I guess not. I was happy when the story ended with Joe going back to his old ways and treating his wife with the silver coins and candy kisses.

Robert Frost

I think, by far, “The Road Not Taken” has to be my favorite poem of all time. I see this poem as a wonderful story of the way decisions can impact a person’s life. The narrator had a choice that had to be made when he had come to these two roads in the woods. He looked down one but ultimately chose the other because it looked as if it had not been travelled. I think this choice shows the narrator is a risk taker. They could have taken the path that other people had already gone down, but they wanted to be different and go their own way. The choice the narrator made changed their life forever. This poem can be applied to anyone’s life and the decisions they have to make. Who know what would have happened had the narrator chosen to go the other way? This is like many decisions people have to make each day. No matter what a person decides to do, their choice will impact their life in some way just like the narrator’s choice impacted his life.

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is another great poem. It is about a person who is riding their horse and just stops to look at the woods. They take in all of the beauty surrounding them. I think the horse shaking his bells is like a reminder to the rider of what they were doing before they stopped. To me, this poem signifies that no matter how busy we can get sometimes, we all just need to stop every once in a while and look around at all of the beauty that surrounds us. I think it also shows that we can get a little distracted from time to time and we need little reminders to keep us on track.

“Acquainted with the Night” is a great poem as well. The narrator talks about walking to the city limits and back and in rain. They also talk about passing a guard and not wanting to explain their situation. The narrator says that there is nobody looking for him and people will not walk toward him. All of this leads me to believe this poem is talking about a homeless person who roams the streets at night.

Stephen Crane & Edith Wharton

Stephen Crane Poetry

As I read Stephen Crane’s biography, I found that he was an undecided person. He never really knew what he wanted to do in college so he just dropped out. I think this decision did him some good. After he had spent some time away from school and settled down to write, he became a very famous author. Over the course of four years, he had three books and well known short story published. He was very busy while he was alive but he did not get to live a full life of fame and fortune. He died in 1900 at the young age of 28. I find Stephen Crane’s poetry to be almost as hard to understand as Emily Dickinson’s. All of his poetry is talking about the human in some way. “In the Desert” is talking about a man who is literally eating his heart. I am pretty sure this can never be done in real life, but I guess in poetry it can. He is asked if the heart is good and the man replies that it is bitter. If he is eating his own heart and says it tastes bitter, then I am guessing he is saying that he himself is bitter. This does not bother the man because he goes on to say that he likes it because it is his heart. I guess, even though the heart is bitter, the man likes it because it is a part of who he is. One of the few poems I actually, halfway, understood was “A Man Feared That He Might Find an Assassin.” In this poem I am guessing there are two different men. One says he is afraid he will meet an assassin and the other says that he will meet a victim. I am also guessing that the man who is afraid of the assassin was the victim and the man who met the victim was the assassin. The only part I did not fully understand was the last line. This could possibly mean one of two things. The assassin was smarter and killed the victim, or the victim was smarter and ran away. Another poem that I halfway understood was “Do Not Weep, Maiden, for War is Kind.” In this poem the narrator is trying to tell all of that they should not be sad because they had lost someone in war. The narrator then goes on to try and explain their point, but, in my opinion, they just made things worse. They talked about all of the gloom things that happen in wars and there is no way that those images could cheer a person up.

“The Open Boat”

I enjoyed reading this story. It was filled with great details and I could actually imagine what was happening to these people. I think that this story is a great example of how you should never give up no matter how trying something can be. These four men had a chance to completely give up and just drown in the ocean and possibly get eaten by a shark. They did not want their lives to end that way so they each fought and worked in any way they could to keep themselves alive. The two men rowing did their part by, well, rowing. They kept the little dinghy going in the direction they felt it needed to go. They did not let it get too close to the shore and turn over and they tried their hardest to keep it from getting pounded by the strong waves. The captain did his part by telling the rowers which way they should be going. He got them close enough to a shore that they could actually see it. He also helped them get to the shore when they all fell out of the boat and he did this while he was injured. The cook did not do very much. However, he did help keep a lookout and near the end of their voyage, he actually took over the rowing so the rowers could sleep. I thought it was funny that the men kept repeating themselves when nobody came from the life-saving station. I also thought it was funny that they got so worked up about nobody coming to save them. I know they did not know that there was nobody around to help them, but they should have figured it out when no one came. I was happy that most of the men had survived when they had to flee the little boat and swim ashore. However, I was a little disappointed that the oiler did not make it alive. He had worked so hard rowing the boat and he had actually gotten the men to the point they were when they had to make it ashore on their own. I did not think it was fair that he had to work so hard and then he ends up dying. Other than the end, I enjoyed this story and would definitely read it again!

“The Other Two”

This story depicts a great representation of many families in American society today. There are so many families falling to divorce nowadays and there is no way that any person can truly get away from their ex-partner, especially if there are children involved. It has to be awkward when the ex and the new partners meet. There is no way of knowing when it will happen but it is bound to happen, even more so if they all live in the same city. It had to be hard enough for Waythorn when he heard that his wife’s ex-husband was going to be coming to their home. The two were newlyweds and he adored her and her daughter. I do not think he ever contemplated the fact that Haskett, the girls’ father, would ever be visiting her at his home. Since he had so much love for his new family, I do not think it ever bothered him too much. If it was not bad enough that Waythorn had to deal with Haskett, he also had to deal with yet another ex-husband of his wife. Mr. Varick was Mrs. Waythorn’s second husband. Waythorn had to know that he would eventually run into Varick because they lived in the same place. To make things more awkward, Waythorn and Varick had to work together while Waythorn’s partner was sick. I am pretty sure Waythorn never saw this happening. By the end of the story, it seemed like the three gentlemen were getting along just fine. Mrs. Waythorn, however, acted awkward around her two ex-husbands, which is understandable. I am guessing she had to get over her awkwardness though because Haskett was going to continue visiting their daughter at the Waythorn residence and Varick and Waythorn were still working together so he would definitely be around. I liked how at the end of the story she invited all of the men to join her for tea. This showed that she could cope with being around all of the men at the same time. It also showed that she was ready to get over the awkwardness she experienced around them. The final gesture made by Waythorn showed that he was okay with all of them being together.

Howells, Harte, Bierce, and Harris

William Dean Howells

I found the story “Editha” to be quite sad. Editha knew exactly what she wanted from her man and she went out of her way to get it. She knew how much he despised the war but she guilted him into joining the military anyways. She thought that it would be very romantic of him to be her hero after she had already given herself to him. Maybe in the back of his mind, George had a feeling he would end up dying if he went to war. I guess the fact that he joined anyways and risked his life showed how much he loved Editha. The fact that he was named Captain showed that he was a respected man in the community. I found it to be very rude of Editha to write the letter to George about them not being together anymore just because he would not do what she wanted. If Editha truly loved George, I do not think she would have cared if he joined the military or not. She would have wanted him to stay with her and not risk his life. I also found it rude of George’s mother to make Editha feel even worse than she already did. She probably knew had she not talked so much about him going to war that he would have still been with her. She already had to deal with that and she was kind enough to go visit George’s mother. I understand that his mother was not fond of wars, but she did not have to make Editha regret feeling the way she did about people being heroes if they went to war. I thought it was good that Editha began to feel better by the end of the story. She realized that George’s mother was probably not all there in the head and just saying the first thing that popped into her head at the time.

Bret Harte

I was a little confused by “Tennessee’s Partner” at first. I could not figure out if the narrator was talking about Tennessee or another person. I soon realized that the story was talking about Tennessee’s life and all of the things he did. I thought it was weird that he made his partner’s wife leave town. It said in the story that he was a gambling man. His gambling is what eventually got him into trouble. He messed with the wrong person and was arrested and ordered to be hanged.. I thought it was very noble of his partner to try to save Tennessee. He offered all of the money he had and that showed just how much Tennessee’s friendship meant to him. His offering did not help though. When Tennessee was hanged, there were a lot of people present and a lot of them followed his partner to the site of the funeral. I thought it was sad that his partner did not want any help at the funeral. I guess he was used to doing everything by himself all along because Tennessee would always go out and get drunk leaving his partner to pick up all the pieces. In the end I think Tennessee’s partner was so depressed that he became a little crazy. He imagined seeing Tennessee and getting ready to go pick him up after a night of overindulgence. The way I took it the partner died in the end because he met Tennessee again.

Ambrose Bierce

As I read “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” I thought the man was actually getting away and I was happy for him. Boy was I wrong. I did not really understand why the young man was being hanged. I guess it was because he had decided to mess around at the bridge after he had been told not to. All this man could think of while he was waiting was his family. I felt so bad for him, but I guess I should not have. He had been told the consequences of his actions long before he did them. I found it odd that they were hanging him they way they did. It sounded confusing. One of the guards had to move at the same time as another or something like that. I would have hated to have that job. I would have gotten confused and moved at the wrong time or something! The third part of this story is when I had hope for the man. He had been dropped but the rope had broken. He had freed himself of all of the ropes and was getting away. I guess this was all just a dream though because all of a sudden he just died. The story said that his neck had broken and he was just hanging there. I think if I ever had to witness a hanging, I would freak out. I guess this story just goes to show you that there are consequences for every action you make. Had the man just stayed at home that night and never messed with the bridge, or even just around it, he would have never been hanged.

Joel Chandler Harris

I thought the story “How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox” was amusing. Mr. Fox caught Mr. Rabbit doing something that he knew very well he should not have been doing. He tried to find the best way to punish him. Mr. Rabbit did not care what was done to him as long as he was not thrown in the briar patch. Mr. Fox thought that the only punishment that was suitable was to throw him in the briars. Mr. Rabbit had been raised in the briars so they did not bother him at all and he hopped off just fine. Mr. Fox had to be embarrassed that he was tricked by a rabbit. He just assumed that since the rabbit kept saying not the briars that would be the best punishment. In the end Mr. Fox should have done everything he named off instead of the briars. I thought that “Free Joe and the Rest of the World” was an extremely sad story. Joe got what pretty much every slave wanted at the time when his master set him free. He could do almost anything he wanted to do and not get harshly punished for doing it. The only bad thing about Joe being free is that he had to eventually be separated from his wife. Her new master did not allow them to see each other but they did it anyways. Once it was uncovered that they secretly met, Lucinda’s master took her far away so she could never see Joe again. He went from having a pretty happy life with his wife to having nothing but a dog. His dog ended up being killed and then he was left with nothing. I felt so bad for Joe because he had to die under a tree, in ragged clothing, with nothing. He had lost all of his friends and family. At least when Joe died, he was smiling. Maybe he knew that he would be able to finally see his wife again because she had more than likely died at her new master’s place. She could have also been killed by her previous master for not following his orders.

Dickinson, Freeman, and Jewett

Dickinson

I am not really a huge fan of poetry. I find it hard to read sometimes and even harder to decipher. I found most of Emily Dickinson’s poetry very hard to understand. I read in her biography that she spent most of the final years of her life in seclusion. I think it is sad that she was all alone at the end of her life. It seems like the central theme in most of her poems we had to read was death and Heaven. She also liked to mention nature a lot in her poetry. The poem that is labeled 280 speaks about a funeral. Dickinson talks about how the people come to view the body and then there is a service. Then she talks about how the body is buried. The way she narrated this poem, it seems like she is speaking from the point of view of the spirit of the body. Like the spirit does not move on until the body is buried, then it goes to it’s final destination. The poem labeled 465 talks about the central theme of death that I found in most of Dickinson’s poetry. She talks about hearing a fly buzz just as she is taking her final breaths. She speaks of peace and sadness and seeing the “King”. She talks about the will that a person must sign to tell where all of their belongings will go once they are gone. She associated the buzz of the fly with the final moments a person spends on Earth. The final thing she says in the poem is that she could no longer see meaning that ultimately she had died. Another poem that I thought was talking about death was the one labeled 764. In this poem, Dickinson is talking about the sun setting which could be taken to mean a life is ending. She talks about the shock that comes with the news of death as well.

Freeman

The story “A New England Nun” was probably my favorite story we had to read this week.. I felt horrible for Louisa because she had waited so long for the man she was supposed to marry to return. It seemed to me that she was shy and afraid to speak when Joe Dagget came to her house. They had never really met before and they were supposed to be getting married soon. They had to get to know each other and I am guessing that was what the visits were for. Louisa tried very hard to keep her house neat and clean so it would be presentable when Mr. Dagget got there. When the two first met in the story, I just thought they were friends or neighbors but I was not shocked when it was revealed that they were to get married. I felt bad for Louisa again when Mr. Dagget made a mess as he was leaving Louisa’s house. Louisa had a dog that kept her company while she was waiting for Joe to return. The dog showed some violence toward a neighbor of Louisa and now nobody would come near it. Louisa knew it was a gentle dog and when Joe returned, he saw the same thing in the dog that Louisa had seen. The worst part of this story had to be when Louisa heard Joe talking to Lily outside her house. She heard Lily trying to get Joe to marry her instead of Louisa and he said he could not do it because he had already made a commitment to Louisa. Everyday up to the night of that conversation Louisa had been sewing her wedding dress and I thought it was so sad that, even after she heard Joe say he would still marry her, she did not find it necessary to sew the dress. It was also sad that the story ended the way it did with the two of them calling off their marriage. I guess this story shows that if you do not love a person before you are engaged, the love will probably never come. I honestly think that neither Louisa nor Joe truly loved the other and it was better that they called off the marriage and did not have to live their lives in a loveless relationship.

Jewett

I enjoyed reading “A White Heron” just about as much as “The New England Nun”. It was kind of sad that she had no real human friends, only friends that were animals. I took it that the girl was very shy and afraid when she met the stranger as she was walking through the woods. Of course I think if I had met a strange person while I was walking through the woods in the dark I would be afraid too. It was very kind of the grandmother to allow this strange man to stay at her house although she had never met him before and knew nothing about him. This showed the kind of hospitality that offered to people back in the days when things were not so violent and people could actually be trusted. I myself am not a hunter and I do not see the benefit of killing animals just so they can be stuffed. I understand completely why Sylvia decided not to tell the stranger where he could find the white heron. Sylvia was very attentive and realized the perfect way to find the nest of the heron. I was shocked that she actually took the initiative to climb the tree and wait for the bird to leave it’s nest so she could see where it was. I did not understand why she did not try to find the nest after the stranger had left. After she went to all that trouble getting up early and climbing up and down the tree to locate the nest, I figured she would end up going to find it. I think the way this story ends is great. Sylvia proved to be trustworthy and a good secret keeper, even if all of her secrets came from animals.

Huckelberry Finn Blog

In the beginning, Huck feels guilty about helping Jim escape because he was Miss Watson’s slave. Even though Huck never truly enjoyed being around Miss Watson, he did not want to do her any wrong. She was the one who was teaching him and helping him to become an educated young man. She had never truly done anything to upset Huck and he felt like helping Jim get free would be like betraying her. He knew he should have taken Jim back or found a way for him to get back but then he began thinking. Had Jim been taken back to Miss Watson, he would have just been traded down the river and taken further away from his family. Huck could not bear the thought of Jim being taken away from his family so in the end I believe he did the right thing by just keeping Jim with him.

The river plays quite a few roles in this novel. The first role of the river would have to be the role of escape route. Both Huck and Jim crossed the river to get to the island they were staying on and get away from where they had been. Huck needed to get away from his alcoholic and abusive father. Jim needed to just get away. Another role the river played would have to be the role of a route to freedom. Jim needed to get to a free state so he could go around and not be seen as a slave anymore and Huck needed to move away from the area because sooner or later someone was going to find him. Huck and Jim also found a great amount of adventure on the river. They met robbers and other fugitives that could have possibly gotten Huck and Jim into quite a bit of trouble had they stayed with them longer than they did. Another adventure Huck and Jim got into was when Jim was caught and thought to be a runaway. Huck did everything he could to keep Jim safe because Jim had done the same for him. The last role of the river was a freedom route once again. Jim had been set free in Miss Watson’s will, so now he could travel the river freely and go find his family.

I think it is correct that this novel can been seen as Huck’s search for a father figure. I definitely think that Pap is one of the characters that is not an acceptable father figure. He only cares about drinking and getting money without working. Pap thinks that everything should be handed to him and Huck should wait on him hand and foot. The two men Huck and Jim met running from the law that claimed to be a Duke and a King would also not be considered good father figures. They both only make it in life by cheating people and stealing. They have probably lied about who they are all of their lives after they were found to be frauds. They would more than likely sell Huck out in a heartbeat and not think anything about it because they wanted some money. Mr. Thatcher would probably be a very good father figure for Huck. There is not very much heard about him throughout the story but what little is told proved him to be dependable. He kept Huck’s money for him and helped him make more. Mr. Thatcher also had a dependable job showing he could provide for Huck, but he is not the best father figure I found. The Sheperdson’s father would make a good father figure. That family took Huck in, no questions asked, and treated him like he was one of their own children. But this is not the best father figure yet. I think the all time best father figure for Huck throughout this whole novel was Jim. The two seemed to get along very well and Jim was extremely protective of Huck. Jim and Huck both took care of each other as they went down the river and it seemed like Jim truly loved Huck like he was his own son. It did not matter to them that they were different races, they were the closest thing to family either of them had the whole trip down the river and they were close like family the whole time.

Introduction

My name is Kalie. I am currently taking classes to get an Associate of Arts degree. I am hoping to get in to the Appalachian Elementary Education program on the Caldwell Campus in the spring. I am not really into reading. The last thing I read that I enjoyed was the Twilight series. Although I do not enjoy reading, I am looking forward to the reading assignments for this class.