The Story of an Hour

In The Story of an Hour a young lady finds herself mourning the sudden loss of her husband.
In the story we find that she becomes somewhat happy at the notion that her husband is dead.
During the fifth paragraph Kate Chopin pays particular attention to her surroundings by telling us how the sky looked and how the air felt. I think the main reason for Chopin doing this is to give us a little insight on the secluded unemotional world that Mrs. Mallard was living in. This paragraph to me illustrates how she is just waking up from her life and noticing the world around her. Once she believes her husband is dead she now is awaken from whatever hold her husband had on her. No longer was she going about life in a daze, now she was fully aware of the beauty around her.
The quote from paragraph seven, "suspension of intelligent thought", shows her going through the process of realizing her husband is dead and that she realizes that she is going to be far happier with him gone.

"A&P"

I believe that John Upike’s story is about a feminist protest. The girls that came into the store dressed in their bathing suits were not doing any harm. They were just dressed “inappropriately,” according to the manager of the A&P. I feel that if a group of guys came into the same store in their swimming trunks, without a shirt on, they would be treated differently. I don’t think the manager of the store wouldn’t have thought twice about acknowledging the fact that they were inappropriately dressed. The females that were dressed in their swimming suits also stood up for themselves when they were confronted. The fact that the manager confronted the females about their apparel was one of the factors that made Sammy want to quit. Sammy also wanted to quit because he was tired of dealing with costumers. The quote that supports this is “By the time I got her feathers smoothed and her goodies into a bag-she gave me a little snort in passing…” I also feel that Sammy was bored with his job. Sammy also quit because the manager had a talk with the girls about their appearance and he felt that it was unjust and not a big deal that they were in swimming suits. He was also trying to impress the girls by quitting. Sammy’s epiphany occurred at the end of the short story. When Updike states, “I looked around for my girls, but they’re gone of course.” Then later in that paragraph he also says “…I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” This gives me the feeling that Sammy finally realized that nothing is like the movies; meaning that just because he stood up for what he believed doesn’t mean that things will turn out great in the end.

The Yellow Wallpaper

With our protagonist, we see some parallels drawn in her psychosis. She begins to project herself into the wallpaper. From here we can see already where this is headed and already have a good idea of the ending. She needs stimulation and human interaction; neither of these needs met. With this basic human need unmet, she begins to personify the wallpaper. Soon she sees a woman trying to escape from the wallpaper. The wallpaper may be symbolic of her isolation, or her suppression by John and ultimately, men. I would prefer to interpret the story as the former, rather that the later. If this was an argument for feminism, I would think feminisms champion would instead be one of sound mind. As her isolation drags on- her need for interaction unmet- she begins to see other women in the wallpaper struggling to get out. The story’s ending was a natural progression in her schizophrenic state. She became the woman in the wallpaper, trying to escape. She states, ‘I’m getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper.’ She continues, ‘Perhaps because of the wallpaper.’ The wallpaper allowed her to meet the need for interaction and stimulation. We do see a shift in the tone when she begins to see John as insincere: ‘He asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be very loving and kind.’ This is when her mental state slipped from bad to worse, as she had now worsened her condition by isolating herself from him as well. Following her isolation from John, is her isolation from Jennie and corresponding decline. Reading the story, she seemed to have suffered from some form of schizophrenia as a child: ‘there was one chair that always seemed like a strong friend.’ In the end, her supposed postpartum depression and isolation set her off into a schizophrenic episode that she ultimately lost herself to. She could not be silenced anymore, the wallpaper had come down. Her ‘creeping’ over her husband could be interpreted as a symbol of her delusions of victory over men and/or isolation.

A&P

I agree with Updike that this story is about manly decisiveness. Once Lengel disrespected the girls that were shopping, you could tell from the story that Sammy immediately decided that he had enough of it and quit. I think Sammy’s epiphany is that his family feels that all a person has to do while working at a grocery store is watch customers when it is slow. You can tell that this is something that has been bothering Sammy for some time. I think that Sammy is just bored with working at a grocery store to begin with and then when he has to deal with his manager embarrassing him and the girls, he has just had enough. Sammy spent however long daydreaming while watching these girls walk around in their bathing suits. When they finally came to his register to check out, everything changed for the worst when he was embarrassed by his manager. By Sammy quitting right on the spot, this is showing his manly decisiveness because he is sticking up for women because he felt that the way his manager told the girls that they were not dressed appropriate was inappropriate.

The Yellow Wall Paper

The Yellow wall Paper is a story about a women who is ubsesive about her wall paper. She has so many thoughts about it and there is so many things she can see in this yellow wall paper. She writes many of her thoughts down and does not want anyone to see them. There was pages of thoughts and what she seen in her mind on this wall paper. In the end she really let it get to her head and didn't see the point in coming out of where this wall paper was she was like obsested with it and her husband had betraite her by reading page after page of her going on and on about this yellow wall paper. I know this was going to be a mysterous story just as soon as I read the title I thought it was a great story after all!

The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper is about a women who is very obsessive and has nervous problems and everyone tries to help her out and tells her she is just doing this to herself. At the end of the story she will not get out of the room with the yellow wallpaper even for John the one who loves her very much and she finds out he reads all her papers which she doesnt want to be read by anyone because they think her writing causes her problems. The shift occur in the plot when she see's the yellow wallpaper, it just makes her alot more happy and everyone thinks she is getting alot better. The narrarior gets upset that the room is jus plain and changes all the time.

A Good Man is Hard to Find!

This story sounds like my family about to take a vacation. My sister and I always fight in the car, and we always disagree on places we all want to see, which leads to us getting yelled at. We have never taken the cats though or my dad would freak out! He is Not a cat fan! If we did pull a stunt like grandma did in this story though, I guarantee the cat would not have lived through my dad throwing it against a tree. The story caught my attention and made me want to keep reading because it talks of the secret places and suprises, I wanted to know what they were also, but yet in the very beginning of the story, there was foreshadowing. The grandmother didnt want to go because of the misfit, and sure enough the misfit shows up in the end. Whe she said that she recognized him, I expected her to say it was her lost watermelon love, but then I knew it was too good to be true! I could not believe that those young boys just took the family into the woods and shot them one by one like it was no big deal. No hearts or emotions at all. Very disturbing to me. The grandmother knew something was going to happen because right from the get go of the accident when the strangers showed up to help, she said she knew he was a good man and started talking about God and Jesus and telling him that he was a good man. I do not understand the last line of the story though. "She would of been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life" Does this mean he hates women and wants them dead, or he didnt like her because she talked too much. I think I may have missed something.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find"

To me, this story is written very well. I am surprised at what happens and thought it was very creepy and dark. The characters who are religious “pretenders” are the two men with The Misfit, Bailey, his wife, and their children. I believe this because the story did not show them to have true faith in their time of peril. The Misfit and the grandmother seem to have true faith, as they both are faced with situations out of their control. The grandmother has a moment right before she is killed and this brings her religious enlightenment. The Misfit went through incarceration for doing something so bad he blocked it out. He knew he was different growing up and thus made bad choices during his life knowing full well the repercussions. He is fine with whatever God has in store for him.
People sometimes have to go through something tragic or violent to shake their core to experience a moment of true faith. Often times this happens right before they or someone they love is about to die; it is a bit ironic.
I think the end of this story is suppose to make the reader feel enlightened by the fact that Grandmother had her “moment”, but I feel a bit disgusted by it.

"The Story of an Hour"

In the short story, "Story of an hour," Chopin describes the view from Mrs. Mallards bedroom window. She talks about "the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new life of spring." (pg.193, p.5) Even though this paragraph doesn't necessarily move the story along I think it plays a very important part of this well written story. As Mrs. Mallard is standing there looking out her window after hearing the unexpected news of her husbands death we, as the reader, can picture exactly what she seeing and only imagine what she must be thinking. When you think of this beautiful picture I feel that in someway it represents her new life without her husband as being as new as spring. Like in the beginning of spring when everything is in bloom and changes from dull to bright. This is when she feels somewhat empowering to be on her own and not have her husband, and she develops a sense of freedom for whatever reason Chopin does not let us know.
I feel that paragraph 13 is of huge significance to the story. When she writes, "she knew she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands... But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come.... and she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome," once again describes how she welcomes the years to come without her husband and is ready unknowing what is about to happen. In irony it is her when she sees her husbands face who will be lying there dead.

A Rose for Emily

This story definitely did not go the way I thought it would. I thought that Miss Emily Grieson was someone who was famous in the town. The first line of the story states that when she died, their whole town showed up to her funeral. After reading on I think that the narrator is someone who either lived next to or close to Miss Grierson because she knew a lot of small details about the house. The part where I thought the stroy started to twist was during the funeral when the narrator started to have flashbacks of Miss Grierson. Homer was known as a funny guy in town so many people were supprised to see them together. I think she decided to kill Homer after he told her that he liked men and she wanted to do it before he left her.

"A Rose for Emily"

The story begins with all the townspeople paying their respects at the funeral of Emily Grierson. The entire town attended, however, as is happens, she was far from beloved. Born into a prominent and wealthy family there seemed to be much distain for Emily, particularly from the women in town. The story is told by one of these townspeople. Perhaps this person was as oblivious to how Emily’s story would end as the reader. Her story ends, by the way, when the town discovers the body of Emily’s ex-lover, thought to have left town many years before. Judging by how hard she took the death of her father, I think Emily committed murder out of fear of being abandoned once again. A Rose for Emily is a deceptively clever story about a woman who was known to many yet led a lonely existence and held a terrible secret until her passing.

The Story of an Hour

"The Story of an Hour" provokes a suprising amount of thought within it's short life or length. The fifth paragraph seems quite unrelated in its fresh liveliness after the tragic news of
Josephine's husband. It seems to foreshadow the joy Josephine will feel when she discovers the new life ahead of her without her husband. The new spring day outside of Josephine's
window is a symbol of her new life. In paragraph seven, it appears Josephine has not yet realized the impact of her husband's death. She appears to be in shock, as would be expected
when life has changed in an irreversible, majorly impactful way as death always changes life. In paragraph eleven, we find that the shock of death has left her and in its place "The vacant
stare and look of terror that had followed it [the realization of her newfound freedom] went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed
and relaxed every inch of her body.". The preceding paragraphs go into greater detail of her thought process as she contemplates the loss of her husband and what the gain of a life of
widowhood means for the days ahead of her. The passage that I felt summarized the story's meaning preceded Josephine's triumphant exit from her bedroom. "Her fancy was running riot
along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she
had thought with a shudder that life might be long." The feel of the story is extreme irony, which shows in this passage once you have read the story in its entirety. "Only yesterday" she
was dreading a long life in the bonds of matrimony. In the today of the story, she has lost her husband, freeing her from those matrimonial bonds, and is know looking ahead to a long life.
The ironic conclusion leaves readers with the "piercing cry" and sudden death of Josephine when she discovers that her husband remains alive. Josephine is indeed freed from her
marriage, but has lost the long life she shuddered over and then prayed for.

A Rose for Emily

Although the story does not reveal the narrator's identity completely, it provides many clues as to the narrator's relationship to Miss Emily and the narrator's gender. In paragraph one, the phrase "our whole town went to her funeral" allows us to believe that the narrator is a fellow citizen of Miss Emily's hometown. The narrator states that after the death of Miss Emily's father, "all the ladies prepared to call" and continues on to say that "Miss Emily met them at the door" (paragraph 27). If all the ladies called at her house and the narrator is not one of them, it is safe to assume that the narrator is male. This conclusion is further supported by the narrator's diction in describing the actions of the ladies in the town versus his word choice in describing the men's actions. In the first paragraph, the men are reported to have gone to the funeral out of "respectful affection," while the ladies "went out of curiosity to see the inside of her house." Paragraph 15 states that "a few ladies had the temerity [which means rashness] to call" in the years after the death of Miss Emily's father, and paragraph 54 describes the ladies who called after Miss Emily's own death as having "hushed, sibilant [synonymous with hissing] voices." In these cases, as well as others in the story, women are seen as careless busybodies. Men, however, are characterized in the story by their tendency to respect Miss Emily's privacy, as is evidenced by the actions of Judge Stevens in paragraphs 17-24 as well as those of the Baptist minister in paragraph 44.
The narrator's gender, as well as his stereotypical characterizations of the men from this historical period as being hesitant to become involved in other people's affairs, may play a part in developing the matter-of-fact tone applied in telling this story. The fact that the story is not told in chronological order leads the reader to believe that the narrator is using the events of the past to reflect upon a recent event (Miss Emily's death). He is able to pursue this reflection because he has obviously lived in Miss Emily's town for many years and knows much about her circumstances, as is revealed through the detailed accounts of interactions with Miss Emily woven into this tale.
Miss Emily denies that her father is dead for three days after he has passed away, and those who visit her sense no sign of grief or mourning (paragraph 27). This leads the reader to believe that Miss Emily may be struggling with a mental illness. It also reveals Miss Emily's tendency to want to hold on to the things that are precious to her. Both of these factors may have led to Miss Emily's decision to poison her lover. Perhaps she wanted so desperately to preserve their love that, in her delusional mind, she thought poisoning him would allow her to keep him and control him for the rest of her life.

A & P

In reading the short story "A & P", there are many themes going on within the context. The one that I have chosen to write about is "manly decisiveness". There are many reasons why this story is about manly decisiveness. Some examples of that are first of all the way the way that both Stokesie and Sammy look at the 3 girls and keep watching them throughout the entire story. Their very thoughts are constantly on the girls which causes them to avoid their duties within the story and are distracted because of them. Their manly decision is to pay attention to the girls rather than doing their work. This is shown by the way that Sammy describes each girl in detail, the way that he feels and the way that he keeps tabs on them throughout the entire story. They kept going in and out of the aisles and Sammy kept waiting for them to re-appear. The other big decison on Sammy's part and the basis of the whole story was when he decided to defend the girls against Mr. Lengel, the manager. He could've just kept quiet and maybe even agreed with Mr. Lengel but instead he chose and decided to speak up against Mr. Lengel and then even quit his job over it, knowing htat as stated in the very last sentence that "I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." This decision was probably the very beginning of him going from boyhood to manhood, knowing that there will be choices as a man he has to make throughout the rest of his life and this was just the start.
Some of the factors that caused Sammy to quit, in my opinion, were first of all he didn't want to end up like his co-worker, Stokesie and be stuck in that type of job, conforming to the rest of what was expected of him for the rest of his life. He also wanted to make an impression on the girls, which in the end, was probably not even known by the girls or reacted to by the girls. I think he also quit because even though he was still young, he knew then that he needed to pull out of this and make some decisions on his own, allowing him to make mistakes and grow from them.
Sammy's epiphany is realizing that he needs to stick up not only for those girls but for himself and society in general from people like Mr. Lengel who wants everybody to mold to his ideal of decency. When Mr. Lengel states that it is our policy to have women's shoulders covered and stating it was "our policy" when it actually was not even the store policy but rather Mr. Lengel's own personal policy was when Sammy realized that he needed to get out of that atmosphere before he was trapped by Mr. Lengel's and society's labels. This is shown to me when Mr. Lengel stated that it was our policy and turned his back. Sammy states "Policy is what the kingpins want. What the others want is juvenile delinquency."
There were many very interesting themes within this story and the decision of Sammy to be a man was one of them. Sammy chose to leave boyhood and start being a man. I would love to read a story written with this same character but a longer version showing what happened next. Perhaps he meets the girls again, becomes friends with them. Perhaps he moves out of his house and away from his mother who seems to be "babying" him a bit too much (as shown when it states she ironed his shirt). Perhaps he and Queenie get married, he gets a good paying advancing job and they have children and live happily ever after.

"The Story of an Hour"

What a twist!! Chopin has written a great short story, in my opinion. In the beginning of the story Chopin foreshadows what the end will bring, but I did not catch on to that until the end.
Mrs. Mallard learns there has been an accident on the railroad and her husband has died. She can not handle the news and keeps to herself as she enters a world of depression. She tells herself that there is no reason to live. At the end there is a key in the door and her sister cries to see Mr. Mallard enter through. He had not been anywhere near the accident and now he is too late to see his wife. Mrs. Mallard passed away from heart disease. Now he will endure the hurt she endured without reason.

" A Rose for Emily"

This story grabbed my attention right away. I first assumed that everyone had gone to Miss Emily Grierson's funeral because she well liked and looked upon as the town's elder. I was way off. In this story Faulkner has done a great job at attracting the attentions of readers and keeping that attention.
In this short story Emily Grierson is painted in a dim light. She is considered a psychotic off spring of a long line a mentally unstable family members. Living in the south, Emily was not afraid to go against the grain of society as she dated a northerner by the name of Homer Barron. Society had pity and condemnation for her. Faulkner has made this short story interesting in the order that he writes the events. When Emily goes to buy poison I had assumed it was for Homer, but then she buys weeding rings and men's attire. As the neighbors begin to complain of a stentch coming from her home I has assumed that maybe the food in the house has been spoiled and never cleaned.
The end of the story was quite interesting. When the neighborhood bust down the door to a room to see it nicely decorated and all attire for a wedding there and a dead man in a bed, I then realized where the stentch had come from.
This story is narrated by obe of the people in the town. I think that it was narrated as such because this person new the family background and it gave it a more dramatic, if you, appeal. The narrator of this story did it in an interesting order. He/she started by explaining the funeral and then goes back in time to explain the familie's history. Great order!