"The Storm"

The storm in no way excuses the characters from the responsibility of their actions. The storm set the story up in such a way that you knew something was going to happen. The comment, "She had not seen him very often since her marriage, and never alone," seems to have a hint of jealousy. (256)

The storm outside and the "storm" of emotions in the house was a great set up for the story. Once they were inside they were sheltered from the one storm yet another was raging to be released. "Do you remember --In Assumption," seemed to be the thought that would throw them into a world of their own. (257)

Alcee and Calixta were not expecting anything to happen though neither regretted. They both knew what they did was wrong yet at the same time they felt it was something they needed to do. They may not exactly be unhappy in their marriages but it would be interesting to know why they were not together rather than being married to different people.

"The Storm"

I believe that the characters want to say that the storm excuses them from their responsibilities of their actions, but I don’t think it does. Before the storm even came into the picture Calixta explains her feelings about her marriage. The storm to me means more than just a weather condition. I think it means how Alcee and Calixta feel about their marriages and how they feel about each other.
Calixta and Alcee once were boyfriend and girlfriend. After all the years that had passed they still feel a strong connection towards each other. Paragraph 25 states, “the generous abundance of her passion, without guile or trickery, was like a white flame which penetrated and found response in depths of his own sensuous nature that had never been reached.” This to me makes it seem that they are not guilty at all about what they are doing. They obviously still have passion for each other.
Even when Calixta’s husband arrives home from the storm, she acts like nothing has happened. Calixta wanted to find some comfort from the storm and from her husband leaving. Alcee just happened to come in at the right time. I think for some odd reason the affair helped bring each of Alcee and Calixta’s marriages closer. On paragraph 35 Chopin states, “…and she gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek that resulted.”
This is a strange situation in which an affair actually brings people together instead of pushing them away. The storm was just an excuse for Calixta and Alcee to have the affair that they wanted to have for some time. After it was done they returned to their loved ones with more compassion then they ever had.

I Stand Here Ironing...

The mother believes that she has not raised her daughter Emily well by not smiling at her when she was younger. She got knocked up at a young age, divorced and then her husband left her. She could not give her daughter everything and was a struggling single mother. I believe that she tried her hardest to keep her babies happy, but I don't recall who the father of the other children were. I think if she realized how hard it was to take care of one child on her own, maybe she should have been a little more careful before she had the other two. I don't know what kind of birth control they had back then, but something could have been done. I think she could have been a little more caring to Emily like she was the other children, but in the end Emily turned out just fine. The mother did the best job that she knew how to do, and sending away Emily had to have been a tough decision but it needed to be done. Not everything is an easy decision but everything will be okay in the end.

The Yellow Wallpaper

By the end of the narrative, the fragile mind of the narrator has begun to crack, beyond the nervousness diagnosed previously. She repeatedly tries to tell her husband that the treatment plan is not working. The very things he tries to tell her not to do, such as letting her mind go on with fanciful thoughts, becomes her escape from her isolated state. With nothing to do she stares at the wallpaper, studying and agonizing over the details, seeing things moving and a woman creeping. Many of her recorded thoughts show that she still comprehends reality and does care about things around her, such as her baby, "There's one comfort, the baby is well and happy, and does not have to occupy this nursery with the horrid wallpaper." (p.372). The wallpaper seems to be a symbol of her mental condition, in that she wouldn't want her baby harmed by its effects. The change in plot occurs with the woman's changing view of the wallpaper. The wallpaper that had repulsed her when she first moved into her room becomes an enjoyable obsession for her (p.374) When her husband expresses pleasure for her improvement,"in spite of my wallpaper", in her mind, she credits the wallpaper (p.374) Though she goes along with her husband (and other family members) urgings, the woman of the story appears to be greatly misunderstood. By isolating her in a room and trying to keep her mind inactive, her husband inadvertenly trapped her into her mental illness and furthered its progress. Even in her apparent insanity, the woman has clarity of mind to see that escaping from her room through the window would be "miscontrued" by others (p.377). Instead, she becomes the woman creeping in the room as a means of escape. When they first arrive, the woman expresses her dislike of the whole situation,"... there is something strange about the house--- I can feel it." (p.367). "I don't like our room a bit." She does not go into detail as to why she dislikes the room, but describes the room she would have preferred, "I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings." However, as happens too often in the story, her husband decides what is best for her and ignores her desires, "But John would not hear of it." (p.368). And the "repellent, almost revolting" yellow wallpaper. (p.368), which becomes a source of excitement, "Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be. You see I have something more to expect, to look forward to, to watch." (p.374). I don't believe this woman was so much insane, as forced to be obsessed with her mental state, much like she became obsessed with the yellow wallpaper.

"A Good Man is Hard To Find"

The only religious pretender in this story is the the grandmother. She pretends to the this righteous person, but instead is a very selfish person, who lies and is prejudice. She was selfish with wanting to have her son Bobby turn the car around and go look at a house with a secret panel with hidden silver. When realizing, the house was in a different state, she did not speak up to tell him. She was prejudice toward the the little colored boy calling him "picnicking" and "Niger". When the family met up with The Misfit, she only worried about herself. Stating, "You wouldn't shoot a lady" (pg 361) showing no remorse, as her family is being brought out to the woods and shot. When she reaches out to The Misfit, is the moment of grace for her "Your one of my babies, your one of my children". It's like she was asking for forgiveness, knowing she was going die. She had to die, to achieve grace.

The Misfit was the the one with true faith. While talking with the grandmother, she raised doubts with his beliefs with Jesus. When the grandmother talked about Jesus raising the dead, The Misfit said " if I would of been there I would of known and I wouldn't be like I am now". (pg 364) And in the last sentence, The Misfit said "It's no real pleasure in life". (pg 365) He got upset with Bobby Lee stating it was fun to have taken lives.

A&P

I think that this story was about conformity. The narrator talked about how the people moved around like "sheep", just grazing along the aisles in the same pattern so they do not disrupt anyone else (221, paragraph 2). Then in walks these three young girls deciding to make a statement. Not only were they barefoot in a grocery store, but in nothing but bikinis. Considering it was inappropriate to dress like that anywhere other than the beach, and the beach was five miles away (page 221, last paragraph), what excuse did they have? They even seemed to acknowledge they knew they where breaking the rules by acting a little nervous about being in the store. The narrator stated (page 220, paragraph 2 toward the end) "She kind of led them, the other two peeking around... but you got the idea she had talked the other two into coming in here with her..." When Lengel told the girls he wanted them to be dressed decent the next time they come in, "Queenie" responded, "We are decent" (page 233, paragraph 2 &3). I believe this is why Sammy spoke of them like he had just seen a couple of movie stars walk in to the store. He was also bored with the humdrum ways that most people lived and found the action of these girls exciting, changing the pace. When his boss came into the picture and embarrassed the girls in front of him. Sammy felt that he had to stand up for them. He hoped by saying he quit , the girls would think of him as their hero (page 223, paragraph 7). I think that Sammy really felt that the girls did nothing wrong. He could have taken what he said back, his boss would have forgave him. Although everyone thought he was making a bad choice, he still felt it was the right one. I think the epiphany Sammy had, was when he realized that nothing turned out the way he thought it was going to, and after looking back into the store he had some regret knowing how his choice will affect his future.

"A&P"

"A&P" is a story about conformity. Conformity is all around Sammy in his job at the grocery store. Customers walk down the rows in the same directions every day. Lengel spends each work day in his office, hiding away. Stokesie's life dream is to replace Lengel and manage this small town grocery store.
However, when the three girls walk through the door, they are the image of nonconformity. They walk against the usual traffic patterns, wearing nothing but their bathing suits, which is against the store's policy of customers having their shoulders covered. Queenie is even wearing her straps down off her shoulders, and she argues with the manager when he says that their clothing choices are inappropriate. The girls transform the story into a struggle between conformity and nonconformity.
Sammy can't seem to take his eyes off these girls, and becomes somewhat entranced by their every move. When they are confronted by Lengel at Sammy's register, Queenie is embarrassed and blushes. We are later told that that's what made Sammy upset enough to quit his job. He is angry at Lengel for embarrassing the girls, and he also hopes to become a hero for them and draw their attention with his quick resignation. As Sammy begins to remove his uniform, he has second thoughts about his decision. He knows that the girls have already left, without paying any attention to his attempt at becoming their hero, but feels that "once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it" (223). This is when Sammy begins to understand his final epiphany. He has the option of sticking around at the grocery store, keeping his parents and Lengel happy, but he wants to stick out, to get attention, and to be a nonconformist. Thus he loses his job, the respect of his boss, and possibly the approval of his parents all for Queenie, who may never give him a second thought. However, he seems to gain a sense of pride in his ability to make his own decisions. While his family experiences feelings of dismay over Sammy's unemployment, Sammy doesn't think it's sad. Nevertheless, this experience causes Sammy to realize that deciding matters on his own has made his world much more complicated than ever before.

"The Yellow Wallpaper"

The narration follows a woman’s thoughts as she descends from sanity to insanity. At the onset, the narrator is convinced, much at the prompting of her husband, that she is ill, though her thinking and reactions are reasonable. A disliking for the wallpaper for esthetic reason becomes obsession, obsession becomes insanity. "This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!” is the first hint of her degrading state of mind. Her obsession of frivolous “fancies” concerning aspects of the house is actually a reaction to not being able to live a normal life and engage to normal activities. “I’m getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper” she thinks, as delusion sets in when distain becomes fondness, the wallpaper being the only thing on which she is allowed to focus. As the story progresses, isolation causes her imagination to become more and more vivid, convinced a woman “lives” behind the design in the wallpaper. In the end, true insanity sets in to the point where she is the woman, escaping the wallpaper, symbolically escaping her chains of isolation.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

In this story, I feel as though there is only one religious pretender. I feel that the religious pretender is the misfit because even though he is quite intelligent in my eyes when it comes to believing in Jesus, he still kills the innocent family. I feel that if he was really a firm believer in Christ he would have shown the family at least a little mercy and wouldn't have killed them. I also feel like he made them suffer by only killing Bailey and his son first, and making the grandmother, mother, and the two girls suffer by having to hear what was going on in the woods. I feel that if he was truly a believer in Jesus he wouldn't have killed them let alone made them suffer.

I think that the grandmother is the only person who has true faith because throughout the scene with the misfit and his buddies present she tried several times to convince the misfit not to go through with killing her and her family. She also tried to convince the misfit that praying to God in a time of need would do him some good and that just going through with killing them wasn't the only answer or the only way out of the situation. I personally don't understand why he killed the family in the first place.

The only person I feel had a moment of religious grace was the grandmother because she was praying only moments before she was killed.

I think the role violence played in the equation was simply pointless. I don't think that anybody gained anything from the innocent family being killed. The background information on the misfit was too vague for me to understand why he did it, but I think maybe he felt safe in the pen, no matter how boring or how crazy it made him to be locked up in it. I think he felt a sense of satisfaction for breaking out of the pen and then he realized that he was better off in the pen than out in society so he would do anything to be found and put back in the pen, even if that meant killing an innocent family.

"A Good Man Is Hard To Find"

I found the story very interesting. Certainly not what I expected to read as I am sure most people think when they finish reading it. In my opinion it is only between the grandmother and The Misfit on the question of religious "pretenders". They are the main characters that are singled out in their conversation. I believe the grandmother believed in her God. I think she really even believed that her God may get her out of that predicament. At the same time, and maybe it is my own beliefs on God that play a part, I feel as though the grandmother said a lot of what she did to get pity from him. Try to make him see that she is a good religous person and doesn't deserve to die a death that he had planned for her. A way to try to make him change his mind on killing her. When she said, "Why your one of my babies," (364) that was the last straw for him and he shot her.

I also believe that The Misfit was true in his own stance on God (Jesus). He had true faith in his belief that "Jesus thrown everything off balance." (363) The Misfit was true to himself and his faith that no matter what you do bad things happen. Because of this I feel he was not a "pretender" as he was very open about his belief (non-belief) in Jesus and needing his help.

As for violence playing a role in the equation, without the violence the grandmother would not have brought up her beliefs and try to make The Misfit "see the light" and pray. You hear stories all the time of people, when faced with an unimaginable event in their lives, start to pray. They suddenly realize or believe that there is a God out there that will help them.

This was a very difficult question to answer. Not sure if I am even close but this is what I interpreted from the story.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find"

In this story there are what some would refer to as religious pretenders. Differences in the views of what a religious pretender is could make any one character in this story a religious pretender. Is a religious pretender one that relies so heavily on faith that they believe nothing or no one can hurt them? The grandmother in this short story is just that. As she knows her life is about to end she makes a strange comment, " Why you are one of my babies. You are one of my own children!"( O'Connor. 364) This is all said in the midst of a discussion with misfit about Jesus. She seems to be talking as if she is Jesus or He is talking through her.
In the other spectrum, The Misfit could be the religioug pretender. In a heated discussion with the grandmother of whether or not Jesus rose people from the dead he said, "If I had been there Iwould of known and I wouldn't be like I am now." (O'Connor. 364) Acting as if he were one of Jesus's disciples.
In the end, the grandmother relied on her faith and belief in Jesus that she would be safe from all harm. The rest of the family did not act or talk as she did of Jesus. Having true faith did not seem to help the grandmother much at all in the end, when the Misfit shot her. O'Connor's story takes a twist though and puts a question out there....... Is the Misfit a man of true faith or a religious pretender? He can be seeen in both lights, but maybe made to make a reader lean to a man of true faith. The quote above will sum up why. His violence plays a part in all of this too. O'Connor uses the act of killing the religious pretenders, by The Misfit, to show us that they were not of real faith with all the fear they showed. Maybe at the same time showing the grandmother in a naive light of blind faith showed she was a real believer, but still had to die while trying to coddle him (Misfit).

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.