Week 8 - First collection of poems

Starting a new section into something different, I have to admit, I did enjoy, however, I didn't necessarily like all the poems. 

One that I did like was My Papa's Waltz - I appreciated the authors descriptiveness and this poem could have been interpreted different ways.  The way that I interpreted it was that his father did drink and while he didn't like it, he hung on to his father tightly.  They danced crazily making the pots and pans and other items spill about - much to his mothers chagrin - he talks about how his father beats time on his head.  I found this endearing, however, the word beat sounds harsh to me.  I thought it was more a tap on his head...I didn't take it to be so hard.  It also talked about the hands of his father.   he sounded like he was a hard working man - and those hard working hands danced the little guy to bed.....and the boy didn't sound like he wanted to as he still clung to his fathers shirt. 

My father never drank, but he worked hard....I too adored any attention given to me by my dad because those times were few and far between because he was busy.

Another one that I could relate to partially was White Lies - while I didn't lie about my racial identity, I definitely lied about other things as a child and I didn't get my mouth washed out with soap b/c of lies, but I did when I said a naughty word...so I could relate with that.  Although the line at the end of the poem left me wondering what she meant exactly  - the line says "believing her, I swallowed suds thinking they'd work from the inside out."  Was the young girl wishing that not only would the soap clean her lies but also clean off the color of her skin?

I am not going to comment on all the poems - I didn't particularly like "The Fish" not because it wasn't a good poem, more so that I just didn't really get into a long poem about a fish. 

Again, it is a nice change of pace to read poems.  I find it interesting that you can, for the most part, get an entire story in just a few words. 

TINKERS Part One and Two

Tinkers Part One - I have to admit - I didn't read but maybe the 20 pages this first part.  I at first had a hard time that the author was transitioning between the different characters, George/Howard.  Then he would throw a whole different text into the mix (ex. pages 16-18).  I did like reading about the clocks however.



Tinkers Part Two - The one that resonated with me in this story was the authors explanations of George and his clocks and how he loved them - into how he describe the time prior to his death.  For example he would say (Page 64) "Eighty-four hours before he died, George thought"  To me that tied in with the clocks as all clocks wind down or stop at one point or another and so do our lives.  Sometimes George would only have to tweek and clock a bit and sometimes he had to rebuild them.  Again I thought of life - how sometimes our lives need to be tweeked or rebuilt. 

The other thing that resonated with me as well was George's perception of his father and what may have been actually true.  George may have hated his father b/c he felt that he left them and didn't love him - when in all actuality Howard did love his children and he did care. 

The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried - Tim O’Brien

There are several things that I liked about this story.  First I found it interesting that the author put how much everything they carried weighed.  It gave me as the reader more perspective and more empathy of what it was like to be a soldier in the Vietnam war. I also found it interesting to see what different soldiers found important to carry with them.  It was different for each of them.  

As for the main character, Jimmy Cross.  The change that took place with him from the beginning of the story to the end to me was sad.  He was getting through this horrible war by thinking of Martha.  Remembering time spent with her, reflecting on letters she wrote, fantasizing about things to come or would possibly never come, and how much he loved her, knowing that she didn’t love him in the same way - or so he thought.  I never read anything in concrete in the story to tell me for sure however, that that was truly the way it was.  I thought maybe she may  not have kissed him back at the end of the date because maybe she had never been kissed before and didn’t know how to react, or there could have been many reasons - but Jimmy thought for sure it was because she didn’t love him.  To me this connection was helping him cope.  When Lavender died, however, Jimmy felt that his daydreaming and emotions and thinking of Martha were the reasons that Lavendar died.  When he was shot, that was a HUGE turning point for Jimmy.  His entire demeanor changed, it’s as if he had lost all emotion - he burned Martha’s photos, her letters and stopped thinking of her.  It’s like his heart had hardened.  He then decided to be more structured, no more emotion and everything was going to be “by the book.”

I wished that I could have found out how it all ended.  Did all the rest of the men make it?  Did Jimmy ever see Martha again?  What did Martha really feel?  I just felt that the story just sort of ended leaving me hanging.

Where are you going, Where have you been - Joyce Carol Oates

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been - Joyce Carol Oates

The first thing that I notice from the get go is the jealousy or enviousness from the mother that her daughter, Connie is pretty and she looks at herself often - and that the mother no longer has the looks that she once did.  I guess this is odd to me because as a parent myself, I feel like I would never make my child feel they couldn’t look at themselves because they were pretty and I no longer had my looks.  I would always want my child to feel good about themselves whether I felt good about myself or not.  Connie also had a sister June that at the age of 24, still lived at home.  June was opposite Connie in the looks department and it seemed that the mom cared more about her than Connie.  The father, he worked, came home and took a nap.  Showed little interest it seemed.  Connie would often go out with her girlfriend and it sounds to me that she looked for love and acceptance in boys.  Unfortunately, she caught the attention of the wrong boy/man and he seemed to have an obsessiveness with her.  Arnold knew everything about Connie.  One Sunday afternoon while Connie’s family went to a family picnic, and Connie chose to stay home.  The afternoon was uneventful until Arnold came to her house, insisting that Connie go for a ride with him and Ellie.  Connie didn’t want to and she soon noticed that Arnold and Ellie weren’t even close to her age - they were much, much older.  She was scared and stayed in the house - Arnold said he wouldn’t come into the house as long as she didn’t use the phone and call the police.  Eventually Connie does go for the phone, but was unable to dial.  At the end of the story, Connie seems to concede and begins to go with him.  I am guessing because she was fearful of what Arnold might do to her family as he had threatened her that he would harm them.  

I didn’t like this story - I found it to be sad and in some ways, I could relate.  My dad was a wonderful father - but there was little interaction with him(when I was a young teenager)  as he worked, came home and napped, and read the paper.  My mother was a wonderful mother too - but much like the story, she wasn’t always the most encouraging.  I too know what it was like to be rebellious and think that love was to be found elsewhere.  As I grew older, I have found that love is first found by loving yourself.  I didn’t have the end result as Connie did - but also learned many valuable lessons by making mistakes by trying to find acceptance and love in all the wrong things and people.

Week 5 - Blogs for A Good Man is Hard to Find and Greasy Lake

A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O’Connor

I found this story to be very odd and disturbing.  One of the first things that I found interesting were the details that the author chose to go into great lengths about.  Such as what the old grandmother was wearing for one.  Ironically, the grandmother wanted to look as she did in the event that she was in an accident, it would be able to be seen that she was a lady.  Ironically, not only was she in an accident, but she was ultimately killed by the fugitive on the run.  He must not have cared too much that she looked like a lady.  I also thought about the irony of it all - that the reason that they were out on the road where they had the accident in search of a house that wasn’t going to be there at all because the grandmother forgot that it wasn’t in Georgia, but in Tennessee, and also how fate would have it, that because they went to search for the house, they had the accident and that inevitably would be their demise.  I didn’t understand what point the grandmother was making at the end - I am not the best at figuring out symbolism in stories often times - so I didn’t get what she meant by “You’re one of my babies.  You’re one of my own children!” as Bailey was her only boy.  Did she mean it in the way that he was just like one of her own children?  I just didn’t understand that.  

Overall - I don’t really like stories that are dark.  I think about how cold blooded the other outlaws were too to kill little children and a baby.  The author, while maybe a great writer - I can’t quite relate to minds like the authors that I have read this week.  

Greasy Lake - T. Coraghessan Boyle

As with A Good Man…..I didn’t care for this story either.  The characters in the story at first come off as real tough guys and not having a care in the world.   The spend the third night of summer vacation getting drunk and doing other things and then they come to Greasy Lake because they can’t find anything else to do.  There they mistake a car for a “friend” of theirs and that is when everything just gets a little crazy.  They end up getting in a huge fight, and the narrator spends much of the night thinking that he killed a man with a tire iron.  The story talks about them looking for something that they never find.  I was left wondering what it was that they were looking for.  More booze?  More drugs?  Girls?    It never states.  A car comes along and the three young men hide - the narrator ends up in the creek that was once clear - but is now murky and filled with litter with a dead body.  Eventually, the narrator hears the voice of the man that he thought was dead - so I could sense relief that he hadn’t in fact killed him.  However, the car that came along, obviously had friends of the man and they were wanting desperately to find the three young hoodlums.  By the end of the story, the three seeking revenge leave and the three hoodlums come out of hiding.  They check out the damage that was done to the car of the narrator's mother and decide to get out of there when yet a mustang comes along carrying two young girls.  They are in search for Al - who as we find out is the body of the dead man in the creek.  The boys say they have not seen him when asked by one of the girls.  The same girl asks them if they would like to party with her and do some drugs with her.  To me at that moment, when the boys turn her down and you can feel that they aren’t quite as tough as they seem - because they have no desire to party with her - they all just want to leave and go home.  I see at that point that there is some innocence left in them and that there may quite possibly be some hope for them.  They saw that evening what can/would happen to them if they kept going down the road that they were going.

Week Four Blog

Harrison Bergeron – by Kurt Vonnegut

I have often wondered and thought what a better place the world would be if we were all more equal. If there weren’t people who were richer or if everyone looked the same, or if there weren’t some that were smarter or funnier or more talented. Well, this story touched on that exact thought. It made realize just the opposite – not how much better the world would be if that were true, but how horrible it would be. The story had a Handicapper General – one who saw to it that if anyone was more intelligent, that they would have certain devices put into their ears to jumble their thoughts so as to interrupt their intelligence and people that were beautiful had to wear hideous masks to cover their beauty. The Handicapper General was the one to enforce the implementation of these devices as well and if they weren’t followed – the people would be fined, imprisoned and sometimes, death would occur. There was a rebel – Harrison who didn’t comply - he breaks out of jail – decides that he will be the Emperor, finds someone to be his wife and even if for a brief amount of time – the musicians play without any type of hindrance and things seem momentarily freeing until the HG finds him and shoots him and his would be wife – after that – things resume as they were. With all of it’s heaviness, conformity and to me what seemed like a sad and horrible existence.

There is a part in the story where George and Hazel talk about going back to things the way they were before this and Hazel states “I’d hate it”, George goes on to say – “There you are, the minute people start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to society.” I found that interesting because sometimes, the laws aren’t good ones. Sometimes, society isn’t a better place because of some particular laws. So, a person doesn’t necessarily have to “cheat” the laws but you could definitely challenge them which is what Harrison did and he ended up dying for that choice, however, if you get a group to challenge them with you – there is strength in numbers. Plus, Harrison didn’t really go about the best way either. So..there is another lesson there – when you challenge things, do it through the right channels.

Over all – it was an interesting story, with an interesting concept. I hated the ending.

The Lottery – by Shirley Jackson

This story basically was about a death lottery that happened once a year in this village. Slips of papers were selected and the unlucky person who ended up with the paper with the black bulls-eye at the end was basically stoned to death. The story basically said that the only reason for this ridiculous lottery was because it was “tradition.”

I found this to be a dark story – at first, I wasn’t really sure what was going on or what was going to happen and I was struck by the nonchalant way that everyone

seemed to be acting when they arrived at the town square. I gotta think that if that was me or potentially any of my family members that could end up with that piece of paper, I wouldn’t be all that interested in making small talk with my neighbor.

What this story did make me think about however, was, how often do we do things because it’s tradition or “that’s just the way that we have always done things.” I know that I do quite often. While this story is quite extreme and most things that are done out of tradition don’t have quite this horrible of an outcome – it made me realize that I need to think about why I do things and if they are done “just because that’s the way they always have been done”, does that make it right? Also, there are some things that are don e out of tradition sake that do have terrible outcomes – and maybe as a society – we need to look at those things more closely from time to time and determine if it something that really should be done anymore – and if it’s ethical and right.

Dead Man’s Path – by Chinua Achebe

This story was about a young man that was going to take over a school that he thought was completely backward and in need of new and fresh ideas. He and his wife went in there with determination that they were going to make things great. However, things didn’t go quite as the young man had planned and he started to become irritated that people were walking across the school’s courtyard – so he put up blocks to make it so that the people couldn’t cross. What resulted because of the blocks however was that it made the ancestors of the insulted and his work – all his beautiful work was torn up, a school building was pulled down and when the Supervisor came to inspect things, a nasty report was written about how the headmasters zeal was misguided. You see, in this story, it also made me realize that while maybe not all traditions are still good or necessarily need to be followed anymore – there are some that out of respect to those that have gone before you, or maybe to those that follow ones that I don’t necessarily follow – it is important to respect those traditions. To be mindful of what we do as not to be hurtful to others for what they believe and practice that maybe I don’t. I would in turn, want that from them after all as well.

Week Three Readings

Week Three Blog Posts

 

A Pair of Tickets  by Amy Tan

 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this short story.  I liked how through out the story the author talked about how even though the main character never really felt Chinese, that it was indeed in her and it was just waiting to be let go.  This reference came up a couple of times and in the end – when she sees her sisters, she realizes that the part of her that is Chinese is her family.  I also liked how she described the angst that she felt about meeting her twin sisters and the scenarios that she played in her head.  How often I have done that with things in my life as well.  Most of the time, much like narrator, I think that things will be far worse than they actually end up being.  When the time does come and she meets her sisters – the reunion is joyous, loving, wonderful and nothing like she anticipated it would be. 

 

Another chord that really resonated with me was when the mother left her two daughters on the side of the road.  I am a mother myself – of five children and I cannot fathom leaving my children on the side of the road – however – yet I have never been in a situation anything remotely the same as that mother and the sacrifice that she made for them – hoping that they would be found safe, pinning to them all her material possessions in hopes that they would be cared for was such a sacrifice.  I cannot imagine what it must have been to walk away, not look back and live the rest of my life not knowing for certain what happened to my children.  That’s the one thing that I wish had had a different ending – that the mom could have known and seen her beautiful girls – to have known, that they had been well taken care of and that they were alive.  I also thought it was very neat of the mother that took them in – that she didn’t hide from her daughters that they had another biological mom and that she had encouraged them to want to find her too.

 

 

A Clean, Well-lighted Place – by Ernest Hemmingway

 

I honestly didn’t like this story at all.  For me it was not an easy read and I found the flow to be less than smooth.  I thought it was a dark, sad story with no real happy ending.  Here you have an old man – one that comes to the café frequently and gets drunk.  He is obviously a sad and lonely old man as the story indicates that the week before he tried to kill himself by hanging.  Then you have another character – an impatient, uncaring waiter that is mostly concerned with himself and getting home to bed and to his wife.  He is nothing short of rude to the old man and clearly has not time for him.  The older waiter seemed to have a bit more compassion and understanding – knowing that some people needed the well lit little café and the drinks that it had to offer.  Maybe to feel less lonely – maybe to not feel all alone in the world. 

 

The thing that resonated with me in this story was that even though I disliked the younger waiter the most in the story, I think that at times, I am most like him.  Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my own thoughts, worries, sorrows, troubles, engagements, etc. that I forget about those around me that might need a cheerful hello, or a smile.  Instead, at times, I am short with others, non-caring and also nothing less than rude.  

 

 

The Gift of the Magi – by O. Henry

 

While at first, I had a bit of a hard time getting “into” this short story – it paid off to press on through because the story was amazing and touching.  This young wife, who so loves her husband, is troubled that the next day is Christmas and all she was able to manage to save for a gift was $1.87.  That simply wasn’t enough to get him something proper.  She is sad about this and then finds a way that possibly she can earn more and get that special gift.  You see, our young wife has beautiful long hair.  I am guessing that this hair is something that her husband also very much loves about his wife.  She proceeds in having her hair cut off so that she can sell it and in turn gets $20 for her hair.  She is then able to buy her husband the chain for the beloved watch of his father and grandfather.  While she is saddened by the loss of her hair, she is more excited that she was able to purchase the chain for her husband.  She is worried about what her husband will think of her without her precious hair – but she reassures herself (and him when he sees her) that her hair grows back quickly.  The husbands response to her haircut was so sweet to me.  He says “I don’t think there’s anything in the world that could make me like my girl any less.”  So his hesitation wasn’t that he loved her less because of her sudden lack of hair – but more so by the irony of the entire situation.  He bought her combs for her hair by selling his beloved watch.  She sold her hair for a chain for him.

 

I agree with the author – these two characters were the wisest.  They gave completely for someone other than themselves.  They sacrificed their greatest treasures for the other person. 

 

I can only imagine the telling of this story from year to year and how their eyes must have shone when the recounted the story of how great their love for one another was.