Saturday, January 30, 2010
The Yellow Wallpaper
The story really starts to shift when she refers to the wallpaper as a “fungus” (Gilman,372), she is starting to change her mind about that wallpaper and from then on everything is changing about that wallpaper. She sees a woman in the wallpaper who is trying to get it, that woman is representing herself feeling trapped. She has lost her mind.
I think the house in general upsets narrator, everywhere in that house is a constant reminder of that wallpaper, she referred to it as a fungus, she says it has a smell to it that fills every room in the house she goes to. I believe that wallpaper has taken over her, she is so consumed by it and that’s why she wanted to get rid of it in the end of the story.
A & P
Sammy has several reasons to quit his job and they all stem from Lengels behavior. “Lengel is pretty dreary, teaches Sunday school and the rest, but he doesn’t miss that much. He comes over and says girls this isn’t the beach” (222). This shows how rude this manager is. He is the nitpicky guy that you would hate to work for. “He didn’t like my smiling” (222). Sammy was not allowed to have a sense of humor also. Lengel seems like the unhappy guy who wants to bring everyone else down with him.
Sammy’s epiphany is that he would be better off without this job. His boss is mean and he doesn’t have to stand behind him anymore. His epiphany occurs when Lengel is repeatedly whining about the girls coming in the store in swimsuits. Lengel says, “It’s our policy. He turns his back. That’s policy for you. Policy is what the kingpins want. What the others want is juvenile delinquency” (223). Sammy thinks the girls coming in the store with their swim suits on was cool. I do not know of a teenage boy who would mind this.
Friday, January 29, 2010
A&P Mini-Essay
A & P
First, I think he quit because he really wanted to look like a huge hero to the girls. When he ended up walking out of the store at the end they were gone. They really didn’t notice him at all to even know that he quit his job for them. Sammy did think that the girls would notice even though they didn’t at all.
Second, I think he wanted to show his boss that embarrassing the girls like that was wrong. Meaning it was right out in the open in the store Sammy thought it was wrong to do that to the young teenage girls. The boss was telling Sammy that it was wrong to not obey the dress codes that the store had even though they came to buy a couple of things. The boss also didn’t like the idea of them not having anything appropriate on because back in the day they weren’t used to seeing anything like that except on the beach.
Lastly, I think Sammy quit his job because he thought Queenie, the main girl of the three, was hitting on him. He thought that because she made eye contact with him when she first came in the store and also when she was pulling her money out of her bikini top that maybe she liked him. I think because of that Sammy thought if he stuck of for her that maybe she’d be impressed even though she never cared about him at all.
In conclusion, with his mind not thinking 100% he quit his job for many different reasons. All the reasons had something to tie in with the three girls that had came in the store and he just really wanted to look manly and really impress them even though it didn’t work.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
A Rose for Emily
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
A Rose for Emily
The narrator sets the tone of the story as odd from the beginning. This is shown by the wording of the text. For example, there was only a short span (p. 209, Kirszner & Mandell) that she was referred to as something other than “Miss Emily”. And at that time they referred to her as “Poor Emily”. The only time that she was humanized was during the times she was referred to as “Poor Emily”, when they felt sorry for her. The order of the story was peculiar. With the end of the story actually being the beginning it makes it hard to follow in some parts. On the other hand this is what is intriguing about the story. Certain parts would have to be re-read in order to figure out where I was at in time with the story. But, in doing so I was able to see more into the foreshadowing within the story.
I had an eerie feeling right before the end that something weird was about to happen. I think that her poisoning Homer was out of pure love for this man. She had finally found the love of her life, other than her father who passed many years ago. Her whole life revolved mainly around what happened in her house as she rarely went out. Her home was her world and she was going to make sure that Homer never left that home alive. Miss Emily loved Homer so much that she never wanted him to leave her world. She felt in order to so that she must kill him. She loved him up until her very end, which was evident by the gray hair left next to him on an empty pillow. She had lain with him every night – up until the day she died.
A Rose for Emily
I believe foreshadowing is part of the reason why this story doesn’t seem to be in chronological order. The author mentions Emily’s funeral in the beginning then towards the end of the story he or she provides a little more detail about her funeral. Also, when Emily buys the arsenic, we don’t know what she’s using that for until the end when we learn Homer has been dead in her house since he vanished.
I think Emily killed or poisoned Homer because she was afraid of being alone. She had been alone ever since her father passed away, so she killed Homer. Emily thought Homer was going to leave her because he wasn’t the marrying type and he bluntly stated he liked men and hanging out with the younger men in the Elk’s Club. Emily was able to get away with poisoning her lover because nobody ever went into her house. In a way, I felt bad for Emily because all she wanted was someone to be with since her father died, but I think she went a little too far with the Homer situation.
A Rose For Emily
Another reason for the jumbled order of the story, which leads to a grisly revelation, is that it supports the “poor Emily” schematic. By telling the story in order, it would be clear near the beginning or middle what Emily did, ruining the ending. Emily murdered the laborer Homer, whom had been supposedly courting her while he was in town working on construction. Homer’s preference in sex is explicitly mentioned in the story, and since “Homer himself had remarked – he liked men…that he was not a marrying man” (pg 210 Kirszner & Mandell) Emily would have been rejected as a potential partner.
Emily had previously been rejected, and was traumatized by it. With the fear of another public rejection, she decided to take matters into her own hands, and ensure that this one won’t get away. She decides to poison Homer with arsenic, after making it seem to the townspeople that they were to be wed. Emily went as far as purchasing wedding bands, personalized toilet seats, and creating a bridal tomb for Homer in an upstairs room. After Emily had passed away, the townspeople inspected her home, and a strand of silver hair was found laying on a pillow next to Homer’s rotted corpse. Emily reacted at the thought of rejection, the fear of rejection, and thought that the most prudent recourse would be in murdering her suitor and keeping him with her forevermore.
A Rose For Emily
The Story of an Hour
I believe the meaning of paragraph 5 was that even though she just lost her husband, she was very quickly able to enjoy and notice the pleasent things in life. "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life." (Choplin, 1984) That sentence I believe was a sign of what she thought was going to be a fresh start.
"It was not a glance of refection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought."(Choplin, 1984) This sentence I believe is saying that she is not so much thinking of him while in a daze. She was actually thinking pretty clearly and pondering a selfish thought. I say selfish not in a bad way, just that she now could think about herself and her freedom.
From this point on she knew she was going to live for herself. Even though the man she was married to and "loved sometimes" just passed away, these were pretty immediate thoughts for her.
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Story of an Hour
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin shows the mind of a woman in suffering and her realization of joy, but the source of both of these emotions is much more complex than we the readers first understand. In examining Mrs. Louise Mallard’s behavior after learning of her husband’s death, the author describes her as having a “fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength.” (Chopin, 1894) This strength is fast replaced by “a dull stare in her eyes” which “was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.” (Chopin, 1894) This statement is an overture of her forthcoming behavior and sensibilities, and I believe shows that she was less worried about the social conventions of what a grieving widow should be, than expressing the grief about the life she had missed.
As the story begins, we read through paragraph five which seems to be an unrelated descriptive paragraph where she sat staring out her window, in reality, it is an internal reflection of Mrs. Mallard’s desires, to be teeming with life as all of the things around her seem to be. This is reinforced later in the story as she “was drinking in the very elixir of life through that open window.” (Chopin, 1894)
As we read through the story we get the sense that Mrs. Mallard, though she loved her husband “sometimes” deeply regretted marrying the man as “Often she had not.” (Chopin, 1894) After the shock of the death has begun to wear off, we see that her actions are less a concern for what would be considered proper mourning, but a realization that she may never have loved the man that she married. This is followed by a deep regret for the time she had wasted with him and the acceptance that with his death she was now “Free, free, free!” (Chopin, 1894) Paragraph thirteen of the story perfectly illustrates this point and to my mind is the theme of the story. It shows the tenderness she felt for him, yet at the same time the exuberance she felt at the thought of “a long procession of years to come that would be hers absolutely.” (Chopin, 1894)
As we come to the end of this story, we see the opposing side of Mrs. Mallard as we met her. Instead of sullen and near comatose, we find her in the grips of the strongest emotion she had ever felt, including love, self-realization. “What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being.” (Chopin, 1894) This discovery gave her the power to overcome her feelings regarding her husband’s so called death, her years attached to him which she considered a waste, and her own feelings of inadequacy.
The author's use of irony in ending the story was very refreshing, in that the “monstrous joy” which had consumed her was ultimately the “the joy that kills.” (Chopin, 1894)
"A Rose for Emily"
Emily murdered Homer Barron by poisoning him. She went to the druggist and asked for some arsenic. The druggist said, “…the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for” and “Miss Emily just stares at him…until he looked away” (Faulkner, 1930). In this gesture, it is my opinion that Miss Emily feels that she is better that others and does not need to give an explanation to her purchase of the poison that she is above the law. Emily used the arsenic to poison Homer, because as stated in the book, “…Homer himself had remarked-he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elk’s Club-that he was not a marrying man” (Faulkner, 1930). Emily did not want Homer to leave her so if she killed him in her house he would be there forever.
"The Story of an Hour"
Once Mrs. Mallard found out about her husband's death, she had very mixed emotions and became in a distant state of mind. At the end of paragraph seven, I believe that is what "suspensions of intelligent thought" means. She was not having any intelligent thoughts going on at all, but in a daze, not knowing what to do next. "But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky." This quote is evidence to me that she was sort of spaced out of reality; not thinking of just one thing in particular but in utter shock and disbelief of her recent loss.
Later on in the story, in paragraph sixteen, Chopin exerts, "Free! Body and soul free!" I chose this passage to signify the difference in how she is now feeling. Mrs. Mallard went from being in a complete daze to realizing that she is now a free woman to do as she pleases. There is no longer a man telling her what to do, but she, now ready to carve her very own paths in life. Though this passage is short, it made my mind turn in ways to wonder what Mr. Mallard was really like, which is a huge part of this story's significance.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Response to A Rose for Emily
quence helped to build the suspense of the story. There were so many different things happening in such a short story that at first I had quite a hard time following, but I also believe that if the events were listed in the order in which they happened, the story would seem dull. The way William Faulkner has the story set up goes along with the saying, "Save the best for last." All the events in the story and the way that they were ordered led up to the conclusion.
As far as the narration of the story, I believe that it was someone in the town that Emily resided in that told the story. There were several different examples that support my theory. Any time that the narrator referred to a situation or an event that happened the narrator would refer to it as, "We," such as saying in the fourth paragraph of page 211, "We didn't even know she was sick," It implies to me that it was a very close knit community, one where everybody knows everybody. I also wonder if the narrator of the story wasn't on the city board in some way. I will refer to another example on page 211, in paragraph 3, "Each December we sent her a tax notice, which would be returned by the post office a week later, unclaimed."
I really was surprised at the end when the townspeople found Homer's body upstairs in the room with the items that Emily had purchased for him so long ago. Even with the foreshadowing of her buying the arsenic, that was one part that I didn't see coming. Emily poisoned Homer with the arsenic. I believe that she did it so he would never leave her. I think that being robbed of the normal life of a woman by her father had that effect on her. I don't think that Emily realized it, as we sometimes don't. In the end, she didn't want to be alone, so she killed.
A Rose for Emily
Emily poisons Homer with arsenic, that she bought at the drugstore. (William Faulkner, 1930) She was left alone when her father died, even though she was in denial of his death and had kept him there. She didn't want to be left alone again. She knew Homer "liked men and wasn't a marrying man." But they knew "she would persuade him yet." Emily would rather have Homer anyway she could, so she wouldn't be alone. So she let his body decompose in her upstairs bedroom and lay with him, whenever she wanted to. She knew she could get away with it. No one entered her home and knew they wouldn't "accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad."
A Rose for Emily
I believe that Emily killed Homer. I think she did this because she loved him so much and did not want to lose him like every other man. She was so used to having her father driving all the men in her life away that she did not want it to happen again. The passage on page 208 of the Literature book says, " We remembered all the young men her father had driven away. . ." This tells us that the people in the town were very aware of why Emily never had a husband before her father's death. Killing Homer was her way of keeping him with her forever.