Friday, November 14, 2008

Those Winter Days

I liked this poem, too. A hard working father, who seems to want to do anything for his child. The father is playing the mother role, which makes a person wonder, what happened to her. Did she die, are they divorced? The father is lonely, maybe angry that he is alone, raising a child on his own. The child fears the anger. When the poem mentions, when the rooms were warm (Hayden) he'd call- the father was up early, making the rooms comfortable for him before he rises. I think the child was probably disrespectful to his father when the poem mentions he spoke indifferenty to him.

Jump Cabling

I liked this poem. I think it focusses on the meeting of two people, coming together, becoming one in their journey of life. When you lifted the hood of mine to see the intimate workings underneath,(Paston) meaning understanding the inside and out of one another, and accepting each other for who they are. When we were bound together by a pulse of pure energy- meaning the intimacy the couple has together, they connect with each other, understand each other. The description, when my car like the princess, means how one really cherishes the other.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been

This story upsets me because things like this actually happen and people like Arnold Friend do exist in the world. Arnold Friend creeps me and makes me sick to my stomach the way he talks to Connie, a young girl. It really bothers me when he says, "And I'll come inside you where it's secret and you'll give in to me and you'll love me--" (Oates 517). To me he is a twisted man who obviously has some problems. "I hated that he manipulated Connie by telling her that he would hurt her family if she called the police or did not come with him. It also makes me said that he tells her that they would have never done that for her. I did like the ending because I am sure that he did bad things to her and I would not want to have read them so I like that the author left it in the air.

A Worn Path

While reading the beginning of this story I really did not like it because I did not know what was going on with Phoenix Jackson. She seemed to be making no sense at all. "She did not dare to close her eyes, and when a little boy brought her a plate with a slice of marble-cake on it when spoke to him.”That would be acceptable," she said. But when she went to take it there was just her own hand in the air." I think she is out of her mind the way she talks to the scarecrow and how she talks about getting by a two-headed snake last summer during her journey. I also do not think she even has a grandson but that she has made it up for an excuse to come to town and talk to people. It just seems ridiculous because what kind of doctor would just give meds out without seeing the patient.

The Crysanthemums

I did not enjoy this story because I thought it was boring and it did not have a point to it. I thought this mostly because I did not understand the story. The man that comes and asks for directions and then aks if he can fix things seems strange to me. I feel like he was taking advantage of Elisa when he ask for some Chrysanthemums. "She whispered to herself sadly, "He might have thrown them off the road. That wouldn't have been much trouble, not very much. But he kept the pot," she explained. He had to keep the pot. That's why he couldn't get them off the road."" (Steinbeck 639). It confuses me if she is upset because she thinks he did not love the Chrysanthemums like she did or if she was just upset because he ripped her off. I just do not understand Elisa or what the point of the story is.

"Jump Cabling"

This poem is about two lovers but explained using cars. "When we were bound together" Linda Pastan. Here we see that they are talking about people, lovers? Cars can not be bound together but humans can be bound together in a way when they make love to each other. This poem starts out describing a setting were two people come together and explore each others bodies. In the end they come alive with energy. "In the tale woke with a start, " Pastan stated. This part comes to me in a meaning that she/he has had an orgasm. She/he has awaken after sometime to realized that she/he is in love with the other person. This person is willing to take a chance on this person and see what they have to offer. To live a life with this person and hope that they are willing to do the same.

A Worn Path

When I read this story I was thinking that maybe Phoenix, the protagonist in the story, was on a journey toward the end of her life. She is old and the obstacles that she is up against seem to wear her down as the story goes on. She has a vision after crossing a log and sits down to rest, she sees marble-cake and a little boy. The marble-cake gives a symbolic point of view with the chocolate of the cake representing African Americans and the vanilla or white portion of the cake representing white people. This starts to show that maybe this story is about the segregation, slavery, and poverty of the African Americans in the South. When Phoenix stealthily picks up the nickel so that the hunter doesn't notice, you know she is poor because its just a nickel. I found the fact that Phoenix wanted her shoes tied once she was in town, she wanted to look "proper" in the city amongst all the white people at Christmastime. The fact that it was the Christmas season foreshadows the free medicine given to Phoenix for her grandson, a handout that was the main reason for the long journey into town in the first place. She forgets what she is going to town for periodically, "...[i]t was my memory that fail me. My little grandson, he is just the same, and I forgot it in the coming" (Welty 454). I wondered if her grandson was the reason that she kept pushing on with her life, to make sure that he had his medicine to make him feel better.

A Good Man ...

I read "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and thought it was predictable from the start. When the grandmother talks about The Misfit and the things that he'd done to people, and the fact that he was heading to Florida like they were, you just knew that somewhere down the line they would come across him. Foreshadowing was used to let the reader know that something bad was going to happen. Just outside a town called Toomsboro, the grandmother gets her "idea" to go see this plantation that she had once visited. The house on the plantation had six columns, and there were six of them in the car. The passed a graveyard that the grandmother said was a "family" graveyard. Bailey is reluctant to take the time to find this plantation, but eventually gives in leading the reader to wonder how they would of run across The Misfit if they hadn't taken that backroad. After they had the accident, June Star says "[b]ut nobody's killed" (O'Connor 359), and she sounds disappointed. I think its funny that when Bailey and Bobby Lee go back in the woods and they hear two pistol shots, that there isn't any real emotion shown. Do they know what's going on the woods? When the children's mother and daughter are asked if they want to join her husband and son, she seems way too willing to go. Are they not aware that they are dead or does she just want to get it over with ? All in all I didn't care for the story, but I did find the foreshadowing used very interesting.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Doe Season

I thought this story was very long and drawn out. The author used extremely detailed language, describing many things that didn't seem to be an important aspect of the story. "The road crossed a stream, which had mostly frozen over but in a few spots still caught leaves and twigs in an icy swirl" (Kaplan 462). I think sentences like this unimportant on should have been left out of the story to prevent it from dragging on. In other parts of the story I did like how the use of detail for a purpose; to give a better picture of what was going on. "Her father's knife sliced thickly from chest to belly to crotch" (Kaplan 467). I also thought that the author did a good job of foreshadowing how Andy would change later on in the story. This was done with Charlie and Mac making comments about her not being ladylike or how she should have just been born a boy.