Stories

My favorite story that we read this summer was the Veldt. The reasoning for this is that the Veldt kept you on your toes the entire story and had an ending which the first time I read through the story I had no idea was coming. It captures the use of foreshadowing perfectly once you go back and analyze the text on a closer level because the author had be dropping hints about the eventual death of the parents the entire story. The Veldt was just an exciting page turner which made me disapointed when it ended.

One story I did not like however was "Rules of the Game". This story was a whole lot of nothing to me. I do not understand how a girl can go from being really good at playing chess, take a break from it, and then come back and be awful at it. Then there is the dispute between mother and daughter over the mother being proud of her daughter and walking around with a magazine that has her daughter as the cover. I understand being embarassed but the way the girl flips out was rediculous. So the next several paragraphs are just the girl getting mad running away and trying to get a reaction from her parents (mom in particular) and her mother just stares at her silently.

"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.