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“A Small, Good Thing” was an interesting short story to read. The story was written close to the end of Raymond Carver life so he wanted to make it special. The story contains some religious aspects even though Carver wasn’t really a religious man. The innocent boy was struck by a car on his way to school. The boy was representation of death to the innocence just like Christ. He arose from his comma three days later just like Christ arose from death. The story also involves a sense of rebirth which the author himself went through. Raymond Carver was a serious alcoholic and stopped years later and focused more on writing. The parents of Scotty where reborn because everything in their life seem to be going perfect and a huge issue could have possible ruined everything for the couple but it actually brought them together. The old grumpy baker also experiences a rebirth because the incident caused him to once again gain human emotions and learn how to socialize with people. The baker being grumpy is also ironic because his occupation makes people happy so something earlier in his life had to happen to cause him to become antisocial

Sula

Sula by Toni Morrison is the story of two best friends Sula and Nel. These two girls were complete opposites; Nel was a very quiet girl while Sula was very spontaneous and aggressive. This part of Morrison’s story began with the girls walking to the ice cream parlor and as they walked by a group of men they were called pig meat. You would think that this would be a rude and unflattering comment but at that time it was a great compliment. As the story progresses they walk by a group of white boys that are always harassing the black girls and Nel pulls out a knife and tells them to stop bothering her. She then cut the tip of her finger off, which showed that if she would do that to herself what she would do to them. Since that day they left them alone. They went to the river later on in the story and saw Chicken Little and Sula started picking on him while Nel defended him. They then climbed a tree and when it was time to get down from the tree Chicken Little said he didn’t want to ever come down. When he finally came down Sula was swinging him around and let go of him by mistake and he fell in the river and drowned. No one ever found out what happened to Chicken Little nor was it investigated which I find a bit odd.

Separating

The short story, by John Updike, "Separating" is a story that occurs in regular day life for many families. The Maple family is starting to see how their parents react to each other as they age. The parents, seem to be going throught the mid-life crisis phase. Richard the father is thought to be seeing another woman and is wanting a separation from his wife. Richard decides not to face his four kids in telling them of the separation. Instead he has his wife tell the kids, to make out as she is the bad guy. At the reaction from the kids, the reader assumes that, the kids have already been expecting the separation. Richard's remark to his son Richard Jr. "Life is to short to miserable." about his bad year at school. It gives the reader an understanding that Richard is unhappy with his life and marriage, so he wants to make a change in his life. In some ways the main problem of the Maple family in the story is that Richard is trying to be young again and does not want any ties or strings to be holding him back.

Ironic?

“A Small Good Thing” by Raymond Carver, explores the pain and anxiety that a family goes through who has a family member ill or in the hospital. This tragedy brings the mother and father closer together, but it is also an ironic case of the death of innocence. Scotty was a happy little boy who was supposed to be having fun at his birthday party, not laying unconscious at a hospital fighting for his life. At the end when he dies it made me wonder why the title of the story was “A Small Good Thing”? There was nothing about the story that seemed good, the young boy died, this seemed very strange and ironic. The story also started and ended on the bakery, in the beginning the mother was excited and ordering her son a birthday cake, unaware of the events that were about to take place. Then at the end the mother and father were at the bakery eating cinnamon rolls and seemed to be coming to grips with the past events and hardships that they had gone through. Through this rough time the parents come closer together as they are both losing the most important thing in their lives, which is their son. And at the end we see hope of them moving on and getting their lives back together.

Big Two-Hearted River

Big Two-Hearted River by Ernest Hemingway is told by the narrator Nick Adams who is going back to his old fishing terrain after the war. As he walk by realizes that the terrain is burnt the town of Seney was gone. As he looks at the river he realizes that at least the trout’s are still there and gave him that old feeling how things used to be before the war. He starts to think how his old desires for writing, reading and just the things he used to do are not there anymore and as he is thinking and smoking he sees a black grasshopper. This makes him wonder why that grasshopper is black and realize that is all because the forest was burnt out. As the sun goes down he keep moving towards the river and sets up a camp and put blankets and a tent up. As he decides to settle down and grab a bite he eats a can of pork and beans and spaghetti. As he is cooking he thinks about an old wealthy friend Hopkins who gave him a gun and they were supposed to go fishing the next summer but he never saw him again. Nick is an example of how veterans of war come back home and feel as they get used to their old lives and the issues that they confront.

Separating

Separating by John Updike is a short story based on the marriage of Richard and Joan Maple. The Maples were married for several years and had just entered the mid-life stage and had four children. The source of the divorce comes from Richard’s strong desire to get away and rediscover his youth. It is apparent that Richard is courting another woman, and thinks about telling his children of his actions, while he describes them as ‘four knifelike walls’. Richard and Joan announce that they will be separating, and the eldest daughter, Judith, states that it is ‘silly’ to separate, saying they should either be together or get divorced. This story is a reflection of today’s society and the past ones. Updike is characterized for writing about his own personal experiences and to talk about sex, art and religion. This story is a real good source to see the consequences of what divorces can cause and what really goes on behind the scene and the real motivations that cause them. The children do not have the fault for it but they sure are the main ones affected.

Daddy

Sylvia Plath is pretty crazy about her stuff in her poems talking about killing her father. In the poem “Daddy” Plath talks about killing her father but she missed the chanced to do that. He died when she was younger it tells you this in lines 6-7 stated that she wanted to kill him ,but he died before her time. Then the poem goes on describing how her father was to her using allusion relating back to the holocaust. She says that she is like a Jew and that she starts to like a Jew she say this after she named off a few concentration camps .I believe Plath was trying to get out why she wanted to kill herself or maybe trying to get people to save her. Later on in the poem that if she killed one she killed two, which means she might be talking about her husband. He didn’t make happy so what happen apparently is she did kill herself in real life by gassing herself and the baby in the apartment. She might have been foreshadowing that she wanted to kill both her father and her husband for the way they treated her. In my opinion though I think she was crazy but no one was there to help out of her problem.

The Evening Sun

The Evening Sun by William Faulkner is a real interesting story which teaches us and shows us how things used to be earlier in the days when there were no equal opportunities depending on your race and social class. At the same time it makes us realize how hard things used to be and how the man used to care so much about their pride and honor to the point that they were willing to kill for it. In the story the protagonist Nancy was a servant that used to go every Monday to the river to wash clothes. The family that she worked for was very good with her they even let her stayed on the house once she started to have problems with her husband. One day she came to her house and her husband Jesus sees that she was pregnant and he knew it was not from him which made him furious. She was pregnant from a white man which she used to have sexual relations for money which makes us see the point of prostitution in the story. After Jesus found out she was scared for her life as for the white man’s life too to the point that she would not go home by herself. She was so scared that Jesus would off appear from nowhere that the man of the family which she used to work for had to walk her home and that brought conflict with the lady of the house which got jealous for her husband having those attentions with Nancy.

Evening Sun

The Evening sun depicts how it used to be back in the day where there supposedly equal rights. The true was that the white males still oppressed the African Americans. Is this truly right to judge someone by the color of skin or because of the language they speak. Nancy a young black female who is married to a young Black male Jesus is scared to be killed by her husband. Nancy is pregnant from a white male priest. Jesus found out about what happen and Nancy is scared from it so she tries to stay at the Stovall house. Can you really blame her for being this way, she had to so she can live and the family can survive. The priest though hadn’t paid her the last few time and when she came to ask him for the money that he had owed her. Instead of giving her any money her deiced to beat her down and kick while she is down. How can someone really do something like that especially someone of that position? If someone like could do something like that can we really trust people. I guess that is how it really was back in the day all that craziness.

Blame it On the Al Al Alcohol!!

I really enjoyed reading Babylon Revisited because it was really easy to understand and was about something that happens everyday in the world. Everyday children are taken away from their parents because of the abuse of alcohol or drugs. In Babylon Revisited, a father is visiting his daughter in Paris but he has bigger plans, and he wants to try to get full custody of her. Charlie's daughter is staying with his sister-in-law, but his wife died and his sister-in-law blames her death on him. Charlie had a drinking problem and finally got things right a began to limit himself to one drink a day and not a sip more. Charlie's request to gain full custody of his daughter is a struggle and not a very pretty thing. Many times this is the case in the world even today and it's really sad because noone ever knows if the parent has changed their ways for good or for just s short time. Charlie has gone through so much and still lives with the blam of his wife's death, all because he locked her out in the snow storm and she got sick. The cause of death was heart problems, but her sister feels that Charlie broke her heart as well. When it all comes down to it, in the end Charlie ends up having to wait longer to get custody. This must be devestating, but it seemed like he really wanted her in his life and that is a huge plus in itself and I believe it will keep him sober and doing all the right things to get her back.

Barn Burning

“Barn Burning” by Ernest Hemingway is a story about a man’s wrong doing. Abner Snopes is a man who believes that when someone does something wrong or unlawful to him he must burn something of theirs. In most cases he is burning there barn. The story begins at one of his trials but he is let go because they did not have any proof to prosecute him for the burning of Mr. Harris’ barn. He then takes his family and moves on to the next town in which he wishes to live in. As soon as they arrive he goes to Major de Spain’s house, and on his way to the house he steps on horse manure. When let into the house he smears the horse manure from his shoe all over the white rug in the house. Major de Spain insists that he cleans the rug and when he takes it back looking worse than it did before he is told that he has to pay ten bushels of corn for the rug. He refused to pay and was going to go after his barn because he thought this was ridiculous. His son Sarty interferes and goes and warns them about what his father is going to do, so he is stopped from burning his barn.

That Evening Sun

“That Evening Sun” is narrated by a nine-year-old boy named Quentin Compson, who doesn’t fully understand the adult world. Nancy is an African American woman who washes clothes for the town of Jefferson. Nancy has gotten pregnant by a white man. Her husband finds out, so Nancy fears walking home because she thinks that he will be hiding in a ditch waiting to murder her. Jesus Compson walks her home at night and his wife begins to wonder if something is going on between them, and feels insecure and jealous. Nancy talks the kids into walking her home and wants the kids to stay the night with her. Mr. Compson wouldn’t let them stay. Nancy is still worried about her husband coming and murdering her, she tells Mr. Compson to find another washerwoman.

"Barn Burning" - William Faulkner

In the story "Barn Burning", there is a family who don't have a lot of money or much of anything. The father is a criminal but can't prove what he's been doing. The younger son Sarty knows he's doing wrong but doesn't wanna go against family because his father tells him that's all you will ever have and can trust. In the story, when the father feels someone has done him wrong he will burn something valuable to them, which is usually barns. He has been to court before but no one has proof that he's the criminal. So they just order him to leave town and to not come back. Well with his new boss, he again felt he was done wrong. He was asked to clean a rug. But when he brought it back it was worse than before and he was ordered to give ten bushels of corn back to his boss to repay for the damages. The father felt this was unfair and was about to go do something drastic when the son realized this is wrong and he must stop his father no matter how hard it may be for him. So he runs and tells his dad's boss what's about to happen and helped stop him from doing something wrong. Well this was very courageous of the boy because he knew this would mean that he couldn't go back to his family because he went against them. This shows a lot of maturity from the boy even at his young age. So at the end he goes on with his own life and figures it out from there without any help. I think this story is trying to tell us that no matter how close you are to someone, if they're doing something wrong you need to stop them because it is effecting other people even if you don't agree.

Charlie and Paris

In “Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is a definite parallel between Charlie, the main character, and the city of Paris, which is the setting of the story. Charlie years earlier was a party animal, he and his wife would go out and paint the town almost every night. They would through money around like it was candy because their stocks were doing well and they did not have a care in the world. Then his wife became ill and she eventually died leaving behind her husband and daughter. Charlie also lost all of his money with the stock market crash, he went into a depression and wasted his life away with the help of alcohol. Later at the point when the story is beginning he is recovering, he has limited himself to one drink a day, found himself a stable job, and has come back to Paris to get his daughter.
Paris like Charlie went through a period of prosperity, parties were constantly going on in the city and people were everywhere. Then when the stock market crashed the people could no longer afford to waste money and the city died. When Charlie comes back he notices how empty the city is, it is slowly coming back to life but it is still empty. Charlie also sees this in his life, he is slowly coming back and recovering but he is still empty and needs his daughter to complete him.

Babylon Revisited

In the story "Babylon Revisited", there is a main character, Charlie, who is a recovering alcoholic. This story hits me on a personal level having lived with an alcoholic father. I could not remember a time when i was a young boy that my father did not have a drink in his hand. He was almost always intoxicated, it didn't matter what we would be doing. In the story, Charlie has made the choice to either cut back or stop drinking completely. Much like my father, Charlie only has 1 drink a day, whether it serves as a reminder of the life he used to live or to remember what he lost because of the drink. Either way, whatever its for it seems to be working for him. He is on the track to get his life back and retrieve his daughter to make up for lost time. Also, the ideas of disipation and dissolution in the story help us to configure the thought of something turning into nothing...

sunday morning (EAH)

the woman sits on the porch and is suddenly reminded that she would have gone to church in the past but doesn't go any longer
she thinks of Christ's crucifixion and wonders why we give beauty to god when there is plenty of beauty pleasant in the Earth
Stevens says we should give up the idea of Heaven in order to actually appreciate what we have one earth and stop expecting something beyond the sky(heaven)
the girl says she can be content with the beauty of the earth but wonders what will happen when it is gone because then we will have no promise of heaven to look forward to
she feels as if she needs some form of bliss that will never end
Stevens states that we wouldn't have beauty without death because we need something negative to make us appreciate the positive
the girl wonders why we give heaven credit for all that we have here on earth and refers back to her thoughts of Jesus finally deciding that he did not amazingly rise from the grave and Palestine is just the location of his burial
she accepts the beauty of the earth and realizes that people will live on through nature and is content to simply appreciate the pigeons in the sky

fences (EAH)

I read this poem as a metaphor. In many religious traditions there are many "fences" or extra rules to make sure people never do anything that is actually forbidden. men and women should not even talk to each other or sit next to each other on the bus or be friends, lest they come to be attracted and have an affair... yes, the fences make us careful but they also make us miss out on a lot of human life, the learning and excitement we can feel from having another friend... I think the writer is poking fun at the serious neighbor who lives by all the rules around the rules- spring is making Frost mischievous enough to challenge the set laws and suggest maybe we can trust humans enough to make the right choices even if the rules are a bit more relaxed and only the fences that really need to be there, to keep out the cows ,the major and most likely misbehaviors, are left standing and constantly strengthened.

housewife (EAH)

The young house wife may seem like an easy read to some but important
tidbits about the poem are over passed if it not observed properly. This is
a very dark poem about the duality of lust. The first section is about his
dreams, it is how he sees this woman. He tells us she is behind the walls,
meaning he does not see her, so he fantasies about her and he sees her as a
loose woman. The description of the tone, also implies that she is trapped
in this house and is unreachable... except when she comes out to do the
normal chores, he now looks at her as woman who is begging for attention
and is desperate because she of the realization of time and beauty..not
because she is no longer attractive. These lines are written with anger and
show her as desperately vane. He compares her to a fallen leaf not because
of her physical nature, per-say but because of her soul. As time passes he lets go of
his obsession with her.

Dream Boogie (EAH)

In ``Dream Boogie ' Hughes writes about the frustrated African-American dream of self-creation and self-expression. These dreams are differed or not allowed to take place. The dreams cannot take place because during this time period American people shunned and wouldn't accept the African American way of life. The dream is never lost and remains inside the individual constantly looking for a way out. keeping Ideas and emotions inside you can never be good. In my opinion all these emotions that African Americans may have had built up came out in anger or in a form of art such as poems, the blues, or a new form of dance. The Harlem Renaissance shows an outlet that the African American culture found. Today we may not notice this outlet as much because we are more accepting of their culture, but rap and hip hop can be said to be the modern form of music they use for outlet.