Monday, June 7, 2010
The Lame Shall Enter First
The teenage boy named Johnson tries to teach religion to Norton and this upsets Sheppard. Norton misses his mother and religion gives him the opportunity to find some closeness with his mother’s spirit. Sheppard will not allow his son to be influenced by religion and will not believe in hell because that is where Johnson says he belongs due to his actions. After having the telescope Norton feels that closeness with his mother but his father never notices it because he feels that’s “What was wasted on Norton would cause Johnson to flourish” (380). The idea that Sheppard is doing good by helping Johnson is false because Johnson is not a good kid an he continually takes part in illegal activity. Treating Johnson like a poor disadvantaged boy didn’t help him he needed tough love. Had Sheppard only put his energy into his own son he might not have killed himself. We ask doctors to help the sick and needy but family must always come first.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Everything That Rises Must Converge
The problem with Julian’s mother is that she is an extreme optimist, and tends to patronize black people. For example she gives a penny to a young black boy and gets punched by the boys mother. This event shocks the mother and causes her to faint or die the reader isn’t sure. On the other hand Julian is part of the next generation and sees the world as it is in the present. They live in a neighborhood that was once nice but now has fallen apart and he is unemployed after attending college. While Julian tries to be nice to his mother he resents her attitude and the comments she makes like “ what fun to look back on the hard times” (397) really angers him but he feels he cant do anything because she does it in such a saccharine manner.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
A Pair of Tickets
Jing –mei makes many references to her lack of identity at the beginning of the story when she says “ all my Caucasian friends agreed: I was about as Chinese as they were”(158). She is unable to identify her self with her family in China until she meets her two sisters that had been abandoned by her mother. At that point she says “ together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long cherished wish” (171). Finally Jing-mei’s questions about her mother are answered which allows her to fully accept who she is and what she has become.
The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket
The author also uses the setting to set the tone of this romantic encounter. At night with all the colored lanterns I kept thinking of “A midsummer nights dream” and how all the young children where in an enchanted place searching for love. What I did not understand is what the author says at the end of the story after the girl corrects the boy and says the grasshopper is in fact a bell cricket. At fist I thought this meant that the girl was like the bell cricket in the sense that she was different than the other girls who are grasshoppers. When the narrator says “ to your clouded, wounded heart, even a true bell cricket will seem like a grasshopper” (495). This is a bit confusing but I believe the narrator sees this nice interaction and offers a bit of advice to the young boy because his experience has taught him to be skeptical. As these kids age life will become more complicated than spending nights catching grasshoppers.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
How Much Land Does a Man Need
Pahom is an interesting character because he understands the danger in greed but every time he sees an opportunity to better his life he takes it. When he settles to a new place he believes that his life will get better until something new comes along. Pahom is never satisfied. Greed is a major theme in the story and it leads to Pahom’s death. The story of Pahom’s life follows the rule of three because it’s not until the third move that Pahom allows his greed to kill him. The theme of greed amongst men has been one of the most powerful determinants in history. Men like Hitler and Napoleon all lost their lives due to their greed . Even in today’s society the United States has a negative savings rate due to the excessive use of credit. The fact is people want what they cant have. The title is very fitting for the story because it asks the simple question how much do we really need
Thursday, May 20, 2010
The Loons
The Loons not only represent communication they represent the extinction of native life. For example Vanessa’s father told her that the loons were around way before people moved to the lake, and that soon they will leave due to the development in the area. Piquette’s family were natives of Canada before settlers came and now she was labeled as a minority. Vanessa returns to the lake when she is older she realizes that loons are gone and that “ Piquette might have been the only one, after all who had heard the crying of the loons”
Monday, May 17, 2010
Sonny's Blues
The Narrator is 7 years older than Sunny, which he believes is the reason for their distance. Both men grew up together but Sunny got involved with drugs and with very little supervision due to the fact that his parents died before he graduated high school. The Narrators mother puts pressure on him to look after Sonny before she dies because she knows the darkness in Sonnies life. Even Sonnies father who was seen as a tough man had darkness in his hart and if not for their mother he would have broken down. This theme of darkness is reoccurring through out the story. The children in the story are never informed about their parents struggles because then they will know too soon the problems they will have to deal with in the future. Baldwin explains that there is no progress in Harlem and that the people are set up to fail. The narrator finally comes to terms with Sonny after they have a talk about inner struggles and how differently they have dealt with them. The narrator begins to understand why his brother took a different path than him. The real moment of clarity for the narrator was when he watched Sonny perform at the club. The Blues songs that Sonny played showed the sorrow path he had taken and his attempts to leave Harlem, and break free. This ending really brings growth to the narrator who previously been ashamed of his brother and what he had become.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Ambrose Bierce describes Payton Farquhar’s near death experience to give the reader a bitter sweet view of what Payton’s life could have looked like. Bierce vividly describes Payton’s emotions prior to his death. “ They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife; he feared that he would shriek. What he heard was the ticking of his watch.” Time was slowing down in Payton’s mind because he had little left. Payton starts plotting an escape while looking over the river. Bierce uses misdirection in part 2 by describing Payton and how he came to be in the situation. This break distracts the reader and allows Bierce to take Payton on a survival adventure.
In Payton’s escape he notices things in life he took for granted, “Something in the awful disturbance of his organic system had so exalted and refined them that he made record of things never before perceived. He felt the ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they struck.” Amidst the stress of surviving his escape Payton is able to appreciate the things in life he had always ignored. When he made it to land he described the gravel as “diamonds and rubies”. Reaching the beach Bierce wrote “ He had no wish to perfect his escape- was content to remain in that enchanting spot until retaken”. The use of all these adjectives leads the reader to believe that this near death experience will leave Payton with a new and improved outlook on life. Bierce goes back to the point of the misdirection and has Payton die because he does not want to glorify civilians being hung during the Civil War. Having Payton’s escape be described in such blissful detail only to learn that he indeed died is Bierce’s way to explain the horrors he witnessed as a soldier. It is clear in this piece that Bierce is pessimistic and experienced some hardships as a soldier.