"The Man who was Almost a Man"

manhood to Dave seems to mean buying a gun so that people will take him seriously as an adult. He believes that everyone views him as just a young boy rather than the man he wants to be an believes that this gun is the key to becoming a man. The effects of the dialogue allow the reader to realize the setting is in the south during the time right after the civil war when many African Americans were still uneducated and working the fields. The author does this by having Dave talk in choppy sentences using words that are constantly mispronounced and hard to understand from a gramatical point of view.

the conflicts that Dave faces are man vs society, man vs self, and man vs nature. Man vs society because the whole reason Dave is buying a gun is because everyone around him views him as a boy rather than a man and he is uneducated and unable to change this in any other way because of his place in society. Man vs self because Dave is obviously facing alot of internal confusion and anger about the way he is treated. Finally Man vs Nature because Dave in his climatic moment of shooting his gun strikes and wounds a mule. Then Dave tries to fill the wound with dirt thinking that will fix the problem which further goes to show how uneducated and in a way innocent (doesnt know any better) he is.

"A Worn Path"

Phoenix's conversations with herself go to emphasize her age by showing that she is slightly dilusional at times because of her elderly age. It also allows the audience to have sympathy for Phoenix because it sets her up to be just a frale, innocent, slightly dillusional old granny. The fact that she talks to herself does make it difficult to decide whether or not she is in the right state of mind. I do not believe that she is in the right state of mind however because along the way she sees, and does things that a person who is thinking normally would not do. This includes dancing with a scarecrow, talking about two-headed snakes, and spacing out completely in the nurses office. Phoenix is able to make this trip not because she is of the right state of mind but because she has done it so many times that it has been commited to memory and she just continues to do it. I still am very unclear as to whether or not the grandson is dead but this could all be part of her state of mind as well.

"A Spinsters Tale"

The Author most likely chose to write this story as a flashback because she is remembering events which effected and ultimately shaped her life into what it is today. She is reflecting on issues which at the time they were happening may have seemed irrelevent or un-important to her since she was a young girl but now that she is a grown woman she better understands the deeper meanings of those occurances and can better describe the impact they had on her.

The conflict that occurs most to me is man vs. self, and the character that manifests this is Mr. Speed. Mr. Speed is the town drunk and has obviously had events occur in his life that have pushed him into that lifestyle and his internal conflict is nummed by alcohol. Man vs. Man could also be argued for this story because of Elizabeths near obsession with Mr. Speed and what made him be the way that he was. This is more of a wanting to gain knowledge situation on Elizabeths part however and not really an actual conflict. Man vs. Nature is slightly present because of Elizabeths battle with her childhood environment which was heavily infiltrated and affected by alcohol whether it be Mr. Speed or her brother getting drunk it was a part of her everyday life.

"The Lady with the Dog"

The main conflict in the story "The Lady with the Dog" is man vs self. Ana is the character who portrays this the most. She is constantly thinking about how she is supposed to act or what is the proper way in which society wants her to act. This is brought to the forefront as is her internal conflict when she is having an affair. She knows she is suppose to be honest and faithful to her husband however she is not. I believe that the reason she is cheating on her husband may be because of her age as well. She is a young girl and I believe this affected her ability to be tied down to the home constantly. Anna does show that she knows what she is doing is wrong (having an affair). Anna in one scene is crying which brings her internal conflict to the eyes of the reader. This allows the reader to relate to her position of being a young confused and conflicted girl who is having trouble fitting into the role that society deems fit for her and this allows the audience to have sympathy for her.

"Chrysanthemums" & "The Girls In their Summer Dresses"

in the story "The Girls in their Summer Dresses" the author must have the setting be located in an urban area in which a large scale shopping mall or strip is available because this is crucial to having the mass amounts of women in their dresses be plausible. The author could change the setting from one major city to the next but other than that this story offers very little room for change in the category of setting. The conlfict that most jumps out at me in this story is man vs self and Michael more than anyone is the best example. His love and almost ubsession with women is causing him to have doubts and question his relationship and whether or not he would rather be playing the field. However a spin off of Michael's internal conflict is that he is making Frances question herself and is making her feel insecure because she sees him looking at other women and begins to wonder if she is good enough or if a relationship with a guy like Michael is what is best for her.

In the story "Chrysanthemums" I find the pot fixer man to be extremely untrustworthy. His tone made him come off as the kind of guy that will tell you anything in order to get your business. He is also very pushy for business and attempts to make the woman feel guilty when she has nothing for him to sharpen or fix by telling her that he guesses he wont be eating dinner that night. It was also very annoying how he felt the need to say that he was good at everything he did, overall he came off as untrustworthy and irritable to me.

"The Birthmark" & "Desiree's Baby"

I believe that a person nowdays has an oppurtunity to improve themselves physically if they choose to and if that would make someone happier on an everyday basis then they should by all means do so. I feel that it is common sense that if you are unhappy about something and you have the tools at your disposal to take care of whatever makes you unhappy then you use those tools. I do not believe that improving ones body is tampering with mother nature rather that it is improving the one thing that is that person's and the only thing that person has totally and completely to themselves.

Geogiana went from viewing her birthmark as a charm to viewing it as a curse because of her husband. Befor Georgiana thought the birthmark was special and made her unique but then her husband made the comment about how she was almost made perfectly by the hand of nature except for her one blemmish (the birthmark). The author even describes that the wife was red in the face from anger as her first reaction to the comment and then the sadness of her husbands words sank in and she burst out in tears because the one person who is suppose to love her completely sees the birthmark more than anything else.

the fact that "Desiree's Baby" is set in the time period right before the Civil War makes the ending to this story so much more shocking and surprising. I did not see the fact that the mother was the color of a slave coming at all! As well as when Armand is burning Desiree's things after she has drowned herself and their baby he finds the note from his mother basically telling him that he is the race of the slaves as well and this is a moment of great internal conflict for Armand in this story.

Group Project Topic

Our group is doing our project over a story called "A Worn Path", it is about a fascinating and unique elderly women's adventure as she walks from her house in the country to the city. We chose this story because in comparison to the other story "the Jillting of Granny Weatherall" it actually follows a chronological path and allows us to develop a timeline about the story instead of an elderly women laying on her death bed rambling. "A Worn Path" also gives us many more options for facebook because there are several friends we can add and post we can update.

"Conversion of the Jews" & "Angel Levine"

Manishevitz questions about the angel were only logical ones in my opinion. In our day and age it is hard for someone to automatically accept someones word that they are an angel. This does not mean that people have no faith in God or they dont believe in divine spirits just simply that there are crazy people out there that may believe they are angels when they really arent. Manishevitz questioning of whether the angel was Jewish or not was totally reasonable because I personally have never seen a Jewish person who was black and I am guessing that there is a rather small overall number.

I believe the hardships that many felt about the loved ones they lost during the war definately come through in the stories. When Manishevitz feels extreme pain from the loss of his son during the war and the unexpected and unannounced marriage of his daughter to a low life and her running away with him and cutting all ties with Manishevitz and Fanny. Also the Holocaust was a horrible time in Jewish history and the entire story is about the suffering and hardships of a Jewish man Manishevitz who is dealing with the death of a son, a runaway daughter, sick wife, and his tailor shop burned down. I believe the fact that Manishevitz was a older man was also important because it really emphasized the pain that many parents felt about the loss of their sons during World War 2 and that many of these parents held their sons in such high regard and expected great things from them.

I believe that this story was trying to convey a message of God may not always take the form or shape that you expect but he is there to help. Manishevitz was not expecting a Black Angel but he got one and in the end when Levine had helped cure his wife and bring happiness back into his life God had heard his prayers and answered them and the Angel he sent no matter the shape or form was his messenger and did his doings

Authors Note

I wrote my film adaptation piece about "The Veldt" because I enjoyed Bradbury's piece the most of the stories we have read so far. I felt that the generational conflict that this story brought to the attention of the reader was an important one so I selected actors and actresses that I felt would best embody these differences and their conflicts. I believe my paper flows very well and that my film would allow the viewer to become invested in the film early by the opening scene and their curiosity captured. The viewers attention will be captured the entire time in this thrilling film. I dont have any parts of my paper that I felt were weak spots. This film uses all the tools Irony, Symbolism, and conflicts to allow the story to unfold in the most exciting way possible.

I enjoyed this assignment very much because I have often found myself when watching a film that I did not find very entertaining wondering how I could make it better or reading a story and saying "I bet they make a movie about that" and this allowed me to have complete control over my own movie. I really enjoyed being able to create a character and tie them into the story any way I pleased.

Movie Prompt

I will be remaking "the Veldt" into a full motion picture. This short story captured my attention at the very beginning and kept a tight grip on it all the way until the surprise ending and I believe it will do the same to movie go-ers. In order to reach the required length I will be adding in several scenes and possible characters to the mix.

My first change would be to change the setting to Rural upstate New York (not in New York City) so that I can show that the wealthy family that bought this house wanted to be isolated away from the constant interaction you deal with when living in a big city. I would also make the father a man who had acquired his money through working his way up from a law student to environmental lawyer to head of the environmental agency to show his general distrust of mans progression technologically and have that be part of the constant conflict (Father vs the House)

Intervention

By focusing on generational conflicts as our main topic recently it has forced us as readers to look at the stories from two points of view rather than just one so that we can see which side or generation we agree with. As an effect of this we begin to read the stories much more closely so that we can see the smaller details that may give us insight into what one of the characters is thinking and at the same time tell us about that generation in the story. I also find myself comparing the generational differences in the stories to those in my own life and through this comparison basing my decision on whether or not the difference is rational or not.

I chose Intervention because there is always a unique and interesting story however sad it may be that goes along with that title. The reasoning behind this is that the only time an intervention is necessary or had is when a problem reaches such a level of intensity that the help of those closest to that person are necessary to intervene and hopefully end it.

Enablers are people or things that allow someone with a problem to continue doing whatever it is that is hurting them. Enablers for multiple reasons see that a problem is occuring and rather than attempting to stop it allow it to go on and basically turn a blind eye. This is a very negative role to have because you are allowing someone to continue hurting themselves because you are either scared to try to help them or you dont want to make things worse. In the story this would be Marilyn because she realizes that Sid is an alcoholic but allows it to occur anyway because she knows it is his coping mechanism for dealing with his previous hardships.

The Veldt

Bradbury's story "The Veldt" is controversial because it brings up the conflict that since the industrial revolution we have faced of when is to much technology bad. Today we rely on machines and technology much more than our parents did and they relied on it much more than their parents did. If this trend continues where does it end, that is what this story asks. Not to mention that because we rely on this technology day in and day out we become very attatched to it and if anyone including our parents attempts to take it away from us it is a very difficult task. We become lazy when depending on technology constantly and begin to do little for ourselves and when this occurs we are truly as Bradbury so gracefuly put it "allowing technology to live for us."

There is also the obvious controversey that was brought up in the Beaverton School District article that the story is slightly disturbing since the ten year old children murder their parents for taking away their technology. This is a shallow way of looking at this story however because the killing of the parents is not to encourage or say that children would actually committ murder but rather that the bond between young people and technology is strong and growing stronger and breaking that bond wont be easy.

Like in the Minority Report, The Veldt is about future technology that is invented to do good and make our lives both easier and better however the flaws of that technology are quickly shown when people become to dependent on the technology instead of themselves. It is only after a confrontation occurs with the technology and the people that the problem is truly analyzed and the people become aware of their blind addiction and supressed nature.

Gorilla, My Love/ Every Day Use/ Girl

all three of these stories have different points that they make about generational differences. In "Girl" it is just a bunch of rules that a girl or woman must follow in her every day life. Many of these rules are jobs that many woman still do now days but at the same time you can obviously tell that this is from the past even if it is a not so distant one.

In "Gorilla, My Love" I side with the children or the younger generation because this story shows how the older generations seldom give younger generations respect. I believe that this is one of the main cuases of generational disputes and is often overlooked and just passed off as a young person having no respect for his or her elders and is trying to be rebellious which alot of times just isnt true.

"Everyday Use" did a great job of showing disputes between siblings of the same generation and how 2 siblings growing up in the same household with the same parents and grandparents can come to have such different views about their family. This is true in alot of families especially in the United States where the family is often put in second place behind jobs and work or school and popularity.

Film Adaptation

Going through all of the short stories that we have read during that last class periods one really stuck out in my mind as being movie capable. This story was "The Yellow Wallpaper". I chose this story because it can be approached in two different ways in my opinion, as a horror film or as a drama. The main character's eventual slip into insanity would allow the audience to go along for the ride on her crazy train. I would have the women who starred in Harry Potter and Sweeney Todd play the main role of the wife because she has been either crazy or slightly disturbed in every movie I have ever seen her in and had me convinced as a viewer. The actor who would play the doctor husband is of less importance.

Like any short story turned into film I will have to add in some material in order to reach my desired length for a film. This will be an easy task in this story, I will be able to add in more scenes showing the wife becoming crazy and show some of her holuscinations. I will also allow the audience to see what is going on in the room through her eyes and then be shown what is really occuring so they may appreciate the contrast. I will also touch on a history of the house and an explanation of why the bed has straps on it and why the windows are barred. This also has the potential of being turned into a flashback or a horror twist.

Minority Report Part 1

Even though the Minority Report movie starring Tom Cruise adds in some events and sequences the short story written by Philip Dick is still a very exciting story. I believe that the author is almost helped out by the fact that the audience is naturally drawn to wanting to know more about or being curious of what they dont fully understand like the idea of precrime. Along this same line the idea of precrime is not that unrealistic of a possibility in the near future. This causes the audience to pay closer attention as they want to know what precrime does exactly and how it is justified in convicting a man or woman of murder before he or she committs the crime.

If I were directing the film I would give more of an insight or even begin the movie with a clip of a flashback to when precrime was first invented and the divide it must have caused in the citizen population between those who wanted it to be used and those who did not. The reason for this being one of the first questions I asked myself when reading this piece and when I saw the movie was "isnt this against their rights?" The story is a very interesting and provocative piece however and there is not doubt in my mind why they decided to make a motion picture out of it.

In order to make this short story a feature length film you would need to add in a couple of scenes that are not hampering to the flow of the story like my earlier suggestion and perhaps create a semi flat character in which the main character can interact with once or twice in the movie. This would add lenghth,perhaps a twist and would allow for the story to remain for the most part in its original form.

The plot, conflict and irony are pretty well taken care of by the original story, the plot must take place in the future since we do not have precrime in our present day, and the irony being that society will one day vote away their personal rights in a sense for a feeling of security and will allow the government to go further than it ever has. The conflict is that the main character has spent the majority of his professional career serving as a precrime officer and believing in the systems ability to prevent crime and then he is convicted and his beliefs change instantly.

"The Story of an Hour"

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" is about much more than a woman who is grieving over the recent death of her husband in a railroad accident. This story is about a woman who because of trajedy of her husband has come to the realization that life is a more precious comodity than she thought and is not always as long as one thinks either. The death of her husband causes Mrs. Mallard to begin noticing the small things in life like the beautiful trees or the blue sky, and causes her to have a sudden revelation to live every day to its fullest. This plays on the saying "you never know how valuable something is until it is taken from you". The ending of this story is a surprise, when the reader believes that Mrs. Mallard is done grieving over her dead husband and is ready to go out and live her life on her own for the first time and she sees her supposedly dead husband walk in at the bottom of the stairs. It is right after this you find out that Mrs. Mallard is already dead of either heart disease or failure. Ending the story with "a joy that kills". Did Mrs. Mallard really die of joy, grief, shock, or medical reasons only, the reader is left to figure this question out on their own and the story is better for it becuase it allows the reader to connect with the story on a more personal level.

Mrs. Mallard is very different from Shaila in "A Management of Grief" because unlike Shaila who will not except the death of her husband and children for the longest time, Mrs. Mallard has a brief moment of grief weeping in her sisters arms and then isolates herself in her room and basically puts her husbands death behind her in a very short amount of time.

The situations for Mrs. Mallard and the woman from "The Yellow Wall Paper" are quite different. Mrs. Mallard is surrounded by people who are understanding of Mrs. Mallards difficult situation and are willing to help her in the grieving process and to deal with her suffering. The woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" however is surrounded by people (her husband and brother)who do not believe that she is sick even when she says she is.

The point of view in "The Story of an Hour" is third person and told by a narrator. This does not allow for the reader to get the true feelings of Mrs. Mallard however because the reader cannot gain access to her thoughts and inner emotions in order to connect with her on a deeper level.

"A Rose for Emily"

Time and setting effect the story "A Rose for Emily" in multiple ways. This story is about Miss Emily Grierson and takes place in a small town in Mississippi during the time of the Civil War. Emily Grierson is a very sad women who has been abandoned by her lover Homer a man who was contracted to build her a sidewalk but was not interested in marriage and has had to suffer through the death of her father and both of these events combined have caused her to become confined to the limits of the walls of her house. Because this story takes place mostly inside of her house it has a feeling of secrecy and solidarity to it, cloaking Miss Emily Grierson in mystery. Also because her house is located in a southern Mississippi town with a rather small population this sets the scene for there to be gossip amongst the towns people about one another. This comes into play when you discover that Miss Emily Grierson thanks to the generosity of Col. Sartoris does not have to pay taxes after the death of her father. Col.Sartoris simply tells her that her father lent the town money and the town saw this as the most fit way to repay its debt. However later in her life Miss Emily Rose is confronted by a newer younger staff of town leaders who see no evidence as to why she is not paying taxes and during the confrontation notice that Miss Emily Rose is not well physicaly and that her house is not sanitary or kept up either. Finally after the town leader sneak into her house and sprinkle lime everywhere after a complaint from several citizens about the smell coming from Miss Emily Grierson's house you learn of a time she purchased arsenic from a druggist which everyone thought she was going to use to committ suicide. Then Emily dies and the people who discovered her also find a secret room in which are neatly folded clothes and socks and shoes on the floor with dust around them as if they were just taken off and in the bed is the rotting remains of Homer and on the pillow next to his one of Miss Emily Griersons Grey hairs.

the setting of Miss Emily Grierson's house allow for a feeling of solidarity. The attitude of the people of that time must also be examined in setting because in the small Mississippi town during the time of the Civil War there is going to be a stronger community ideology and people are going to take more of an interest in one another. This is strengthened by the fact that the towns population is small.

Intro Blog

hey everyone, I am from Austin Texas, and I am a Political Science Major and Environmental Science Minor here at TCU, I am taking this class because my favorite kind of books to read are historical fiction books and I would like to learn more about what goes into creating fictional stories. Reading is enjoyable for me and I do it whenever I have time in between classes and work. I do constantly switch up which kinds of books I read depending on what I am interested in at that time. I tooki AP english classes in high school and read many of the classic novels during that time and enjoyed most of them but reading some were like pulling teeth for me (Great Expectations). I hope to gain skills that I can apply to all of my writing in this class and learn about what makes fiction so enjoyable to me at the same time. Finally I play lacrosse at TCU and have for two years now I have been playing since 7th grade and love the sport.