"Miss Brill" - Katherine Mansfield

"Just at that moment a boy and a girl came and sat down where the old couple had been. They were beautifully dressed; they were in love." (Page 185)

    Miss Brill is definitely an odd character. At first, she seems to be a stereotypical old lady. She gets dressed up, goes to a park on a Sunday, and sits and watches people as a band plays. All she needs is a bag of crumbs with which to feed the birds and she could be the woman in Mary Poppins who feeds the birds. la la la music. However, she isn't a typical old lady. The reader gets to understand her emotions through her actions. She loves her fur fox that presides on her neck, but she is hurt when the young couple make fun of it as they sit and talk to each other beside her at the park. That is the moment when the reader truly sees that she is a woman with feelings just like an young person.
     Not only is she an emotional being, but she is also an excellent and extremely consistent people-watcher. Hence the above photo that proclaims a newscast that stated the Top 10 Best People Watching Spots. The news site that boasted the knowledge of these 10 spots is a local news station of no consequence to me, so their top 10 spots are irrelevant to me, or I would have included the list in this blog.

"Eveline" - James Joyce

"She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal." (p. 222)

    This is the image I get in my head when I think of Eveline. She knows that danger awaits her if she remains in her old life just as the deer knows that it will be hit by a car if it stays in the middle of the road. Eveline's imminent danger in her life is the abuse with which her father has previously threatened her. She has never been physically abused like her brothers, but she may very well have it in her future if she stays where she is (which she does). Like the deer, she realizes that if she leaves her current position as a clerk in a store, she will be safe. However, she does not have the courage to leave. She can't summon the will to abandon her younger siblings for whom she promised to care and protect. Before her mother passed away, Eveline agreed to be their advocate and guardian. She cannot force herself to abandon this responsibility despite her longing to start a new life with Frank in Buenos Aires.

"A Worn Path" - Eudora Welty

Responding to Question #3: Discuss the way the characterization of Phoenix contributes to the theme.

" 'I bound to go to town, mister,' said Phoenix. 'The time come around.' " (Page 227)

    A central theme is Welty's story is one of consistency and the inability to move on from the events of one's life. Phoenix is characterized as an old woman who is still capable of walking a long distance every so often even though she is nearing the end of this ability. She is also extremely stubborn as well as respected. The other characters in the story all call her Grandma even though she is not their grandmother. This is a sign of respect to her in her advanced age. Another theme in the story is that we never know exactly what is going on in someone's life, and Phoenix embodies that. She is a consistent woman who the doctor knows but can never fully understand. All the people in the story wish to help her despite their lack of knowledge about her, and that contributes to the theme of helpfulness in this story.

"Once Upon a Time" - Nadine Gordimer

Responding to Question #6: Analyze the story's final paragraph in detail. How does it help to elucidate the theme?

"Next day he pretended to be the Prince who braves the terrible thicket of thorns to enter the palace and kiss the Sleeping Beauty back to life..." (P. 236)

    The title of this short story implies that the reader is going to be treated to a lovely fairytale filled with princes, princesses, magic spells, and the like. However, the story is practically the opposite. The author tells a story of droll reality in which fear of possibilities that are not quite ideal is the central theme, and that theme is still present in the last paragraph despite the presence of the title of an actual fairytale: Sleeping Beauty. Finally, the reader gets to experience a proximity to a story that actually begins with "once upon a time..." but that reference does not last. The boy's demise via the coils at the top of his parent's security fence is tragic and ironic. They worked to build a fortress around their private little residence, but the fortress actually did the opposite of what was expected of it. It did not protect their family.
    The gardener and housemaid were present throughout the whole story, so their place among the last few sentences was practically mandatory. They were the ones to find the little boy first, and they proved their loyalty to the family, which had been questioned the whole story, by trying to save him.

"Hunters in the Snow" - Tobias Wolff What's up with that?

' "I hate that dog." Kenny was behind them....Kenny fired. The bullet went in between the dog's eyes.'

     This whole scene that involves Kenny shooting a tree and then the dog was a little insane. First, why would anyone shoot a tree? My brain couldn't comprehend why someone would shoot a tree. Instantly, I thought of one of my favorite SNL skits: the What's up With That? musical skits. Here's a clip for your entertainment. The song was just running through my head the whole entire time.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/102975/saturday-night-live-what-up-with-that-james-franco

(It's on hulu, so I can't post it as a video, just a link.)

     Kenny obviously was not right in the head, but like I said, that is obvious. It's Tub that needs to be worried about. Frank and Kenny seem to be his best friends, but he can't trust them. He immediately assumed that Kenny was going to shoot him. (And he probably would have, but still.)  I pity Tub because he doesn't seem to have good enough friends that he can trust not to shoot him.

"Everyday Use" - Alice Walker

"When she finished wrapping the dasher the handle stuck out. I took it for a moment in my hands. You didn't even have to look close to see where hands pushing the dasher up and down to make butter had left a kind of sink in the wood."

        Up until Dee (Wangero) decided to take her mothers things, I could tolerate her. But when she started walking around the house claiming things, I could no longer like her. Her photographing had been understandable as she was returning home because it could be dismissed as nostalgia for her old life. She wanted to preserve memories now that she had a camera, but claiming the butter churn for decorating purposes was just ridiculous especially since Mama still used it. Not only was that intolerable, but it reminded me of going through someone's belongings and claiming them for oneself after a loved one has passed away. To Dee, Mama and Maggie were practically dead because her life was so different than the life her sister and mother led. This whole story is representative of a last visit to her old life before she leaves it behind for good and never returns.

"Bartleby the Scrivener" - Herman Melville

2. Why do you think Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut are introduced to the reader before Bartleby?

"I did this very gently, however, because though the civilest, nay, the blandest and most reverential of men in the morning, yet in the afternoon he was disposed upon provocation to be slightly rash with his tongue, in fact insolent."

     Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut all have redeeming qualities, but the reader automatically sees their shortcomings as more important than any endearing traits they might possess. These three workers initially seem to be the epitome of unprofessional and worthless workers. They aren't consistent, and two of them are insufficient for half the work day. The author's purpose in introducing them before Bartleby is to negate the indiscretions of Bartleby and establish a scale by which he can be measured. Bartleby appears to be a qualified and diligent worker until he "prefers not to" do something. From that point forward, he is just as worthless as the other three workers. The knowledge of Bartleby's character is more clear to the reader because he has three other examples against whom he can be measured.

"Hunters in the Snow" - Tobias Wolff

5. It could be argued that Tub, on the surface, is a stock character: a cartoon-like obese man who is the butt of other people's jokes. What characterizing details help to make Tub into a fully realized individual?

"Nobody knows. That's the worst of it, Frank. Not the being fat, I never got any kick out of being thin, but the lying. Having to lead a double life like a spy or hit man."

       When the story began, Tub (what an unfortunate name even if it is indicative of his physical characteristics) was just the man who stood on the side of the road and was picked up by his rowdy friends. Then he was the one that had to walk by himself along the river and was too distracted by his exhaustion to notice the deer tracks he walked right past. All this time, his weight defined him. He was just the fat man in the story, and Kenny was the fun, outgoing character who tormented him. However, when Tub fought back against Kenny and shot him before Kenny could aim his gun in Tub's direction, the reader gets an idea of who Tub actually is. He's incredibly sensitive and he has a real problem - and it has nothing to do with his glands. He has low self-esteem and an eating disorder. When Tub tells Frank about his shortcomings when it comes to self-restraint, he demonstrates his vulnerability along with his ability to trust. Tub is an unfortunate little man who has a loyal friend that is just as flawed as he is.

"How I Met My Husband" and Gone With the Wind

"I lost control, just like a six-year-old, I started howling." (Page 144)

     This particular sentence reminded me of the servant girl in Gone With the Wind who travels with Scarlett O'Hara to Atlanta. The girl was about the same age as Edie, and she was just as naive and a bit annoying as well. When it came time for Melanie Hamilton to have her baby, the servant girl claimed to know "all about birthing babies," but she really didn't which forced Scarlett to deliver the baby. (Successfully, I might add. Go Scarlett!) The servant girl was sent before the delivery happened to find the doctor amid all of the chaos that was Atlanta burning down. She did not find the doctor, and she returned in an almost daze-like manner. Her actions paralleled Edie when confessing to kissing Chris: nonchalant, easy-going, without a care in the world.
     Edie wasn't a character I particularly liked, but I must pick her as my favorite among the main characters provided to me in each of the three short stories we read. She was a bit ditsy, but she ended her life happily which is a tribute to her character as a person if nothing else.

"A Rose for Emily" - William Faulkner

"What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust."

    The first time I read this story, I was reminded of a book I read in the past year (I can't remember the title) that had a similar, yet completely different story. The essentials were all there to resemble this short story: old woman who dies in a small town, curious townspeople who wonder about her life, and a house with more questions than a curious 3-year-old. However, the similarities basically stopped there. The woman in the book I read left all of her money to the town she lived in. The woman in Faulkner's story only left a mystery, a dead body, and some of her "iron-gray hair."
     Miss Emily initially struck me as a small sort of woman who needed pity for her pathetic life. After having read the story, though, I realized she is just a psychotic lady who was too selfish to admit that theman she loved was gay. She couldn't have him, so no one could. Poor thing.

"Interpreter of Maladies" - Jhumpa Lahiri

"When she whipped out the hairbrush, the slip of paper with Mr. Kapasi's address on it fluttered away in the wind. No one but Mr. Kapasi noticed." (Page 166)

Responding to Question  4: Discuss the significance of Mrs. Das's requesting, and then losing, Mr. Kapasi's address. Apart from its function in the plot, how does this suggest a resolution to the story?

       At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Das was portrayed as a women who could not be bothered with the trivial problems of her husband and her family. The speaker wanted the reader to understand that Mrs. Das was a woman whose life was far from perfect. When Mr. Kapasi wrote out his address for her, he made sure to write neatly, but even then he worried that he had misspelled something or inverted the numbers of his address. This exchange of the address is significant because at that point in the story, Mrs. Das still needed help from a source not directly connected to her life. Mr. Kapasi was that outlet, and she had a physical connection to him in her purse. After she questioned him for advice on her life, she realized that he could not solve her problems. She no longer needed Mr. Kapasi. Therefore, the loss of his address to the wind is significant of his lack of necessity in her life. She didn't need a connection to him anymore.

"How I Met My Husband" - Alice Munro

"...I went out with him for two years and he asked me to marry him, and we were engaged a year more while I got my things together, and then we did marry." (Page 146)

Responding to Question 8: Discuss the effectiveness of the surprise ending. How does Carmichael differ from Chris Watters? Can it be argued that the surprise ending is also inevitable and appropriate?

        Throughout the entire story, I assumed that the man she married was Chris Watters. The whole story up until the last paragraph is all about how Edie is infatuated with Chris, so it is natural to think she is going to marry him. However, the story is not an ode to their love. They never even had love. Unlike Chris, Carmichael is a gentleman. He didn't kiss her a few days after meeting her because he respects her. Chris took advantage of the ignorance and vulnerability of a young girl who was in love with the idea of love. She knew what she was doing, but she was not smart enough to understand that he was using her. Carmichael and Chris are polar opposites in the way they treat women. Chris was busy kissing a young girl he met in a small town he was visiting while simultaneously running from a woman who may or may not have been his actual fiance. (She was a bit of a stalker, anyway.) Carmichael met a girl, courted her properly, then finally married her respectably.
      The story was written from Edie's perspective as an older, more mature woman, so the ending was quite appropriate. Despite the fact that it satisfied the title of the story, it also gave the reader satisfaction. If Edie had ended up with Chris, I would have thrown my book across the room out of sheer rage! (Maybe not literally because I don't want to have to pay to repair the book.) Munro did an excellent job of telling an interesting story that had a refreshingly surprising ending.