The Lame Shall Enter First

In Flannery O'Connor’s “The Lame Shall Enter First” the theme of redemption and good v. evil to show how a doctor can loose his grip on reality and loose his only son. After the loss of Sheppard’s wife he becomes obsessed with his job instead of dealing with his grief. Being a doctor he felt the need to help others. He became obsessed with helping this troubled teenage boy. At the same time Sheppard’s son, Norton was completely neglected and actually treated very poorly be his father. Sheppard felt that his son lived too nice of a life and he was spoiled. Although Sheppard thinks he is helping this boy he forgets how that he is loosing his son.
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.

Everything That Rises Must Converge

In Flannery O’Conner’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge” the theme of old southern tradition as he reason for the death of Julian’s mother. These old tradition of race relation between blacks and whites still remains with older generation and Julian’s mother was no exception. This large woman lived her life the same way she did 50 years ago when she was a very prominent member in her town. It doesn’t mention what happened to Julian’s family but the mother makes several references to the prior grander of her family, like “ your grandfather was a former governor” and “ your grandmother was a godhigh” (395). This mother considered her self to be a southern lady who took grate pride in her appearance, and was always polite to everyone black or white.
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.

A Pair of Tickets

In Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets” the theme of identity and self-awareness are used through out the story as a Chinese- American girl who goes to China and meets her family after the death of her mother. The story is bit long because the narrator, Jing- mei, spends the beginning just meeting family members in China. Not until Jing-mei’s father tells the story of why her mother left her twin daughters in China does the reader really understand that Jing-mei’s identifying her self with her family was her mother dream. Trough out the story you hear about Jing-mei’s mother and how much she cared about her family that it seems difficult to understand how she could leave her twin daughters on the side of the road. After Jing-mei hears her father tell the story she understands all the sacrifices her mother has made and how important it was too meet her family and assume her identity; not as a Chinese- American student in San Francisco, but a Chinese woman.
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

In Yasunari Kawabata’s “ The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket” the theme of youth and love are used to explain the transition of emotions from children to adults. The children are outside playing with their lanterns, that they have made in search for grasshoppers. Now when the boy finds a grasshopper his reaction is a bit unusual to the narrator until he says “ how silly of me not to have understood his actions until now”(495). The narrator is much older than these children and the boy’s intensions still fool him. Unlike the other children this boy is using the caught grasshopper to interact with a girl he seems to be infatuated with. Kawabata uses the lights as a symbol of attraction and discovery when both the girl and the boy’s name show up through the lanterns on each other bodies. The interaction of the two children shows how both of them are changing because; instead of looking for grasshoppers they have found each other.
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.

How Much Land Does a Man Need

In the short story “How Much Land does a Man need” Pahom gets lost in his own greed and meets a fate that he had feared his entire life. Pahom starts off as a hard working farmer, although poor, is able to feed his family and live a simple life. The conflict between rich and poor comes up at the very beginning when two sisters are having and argument, the one is rich and one is a poor farmers wife. This argument is very interesting because the advantages of being rich is clear but the younger sister makes the best of her situation and lists reasons why it is better to have fewer luxuries. Even though they are a poor family they will always have enough to eat and because they spend all their time working there is “no time any nonsense settle in our heads (222).” The point that the woman makes is that free time can lead to bad things and too much time to think can make people want more. Pahom is the husband of that woman and although he understands his wife he doesn’t heed her warning.
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

The Loons

Margret Laurence’s “The Loons” is a story of racism and the way society deals with social barriers. Vanessa, the narrator, explains the social structure in her town in Canada. Piquette is a French Canadian girl that Vanessa calles a “Half Breed”. This idea of race makes Piquette feel inferior toward Vanessa, which is one of the reasons they do not get along at the lake. Piquette also has tuberculosis which makes her feel even more frail. Although it seems like Vanessa is just trying to be nice to Piquette she does have her own agenda. She is convinced that Piquette knows a lot about the woods due to her heritage. This inability to communicate is the reality. On the other hand there is the dream of perfect communication, which is personified by the loons. Vanessa describes the loons “ they rose like phantom birds”(202). Vanessa sees the birds as beautiful but she never wonders what they are trying to say. She hears the beauty of the sound but doesn’t even try to understand the meaning. Vanessa invites Piquette to join the loon watch with her father but the offer is rejected with “who gives a goddamn”(202). This shows the scorn that Piquette feels toward Vanessa and everyone else who tries to help her.
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”

Sonny's Blues

Most people are forced to deal with their inner demons in order to find happiness but in James Baldwin’s Sonny Blues Sonny is trapped, physically and emotionally in his attempt for salvation and peace. Growing up in Harlem Sonny lived a tough life, surrounded by crime and drugs. Baldwin uses referrers to Harlem as a dark place and how difficult a child’s life can be there “Those who got out always left something of themselves behind” . The story is narrated by the voice of Sonny’s older brother who has never been able to understand Sonnies struggles with Heroin and his aspersion to be a jazz pianist. After reading that Sonny has been arrested he begins to reflect his relationship with his brother along with his mother. Sonny helps the narrator see that everyone suffers and there are different ways to deal with it.
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.