Happy Endings

This was a very interesting Story that gave a very interesting perspective one endings. I really like this point of view and thought that there was a lot of truth to it. Artwood's opinion on how endings are all the same and people should focus on the how and why is really interesting.

The characters that she used in her endings were interesting as well. Her recurring use of names was really effective. The character John was shown to actually still be attached to the character Mary who could have been a reincarnation of the older Mary. John realizes what he had with Mary despite his "Happy relationship" with Madge. He is treated like he treated Mary when he falls in love with the younger one.

The thing I found interesting with the resolution to this story is how Johns method differed from Mary's. When Mary found out she attempted to kill herself and let John save her, but when John found out he killed James, Mary, and himself. It is a very interesting contrast of how different the different gender's methods are.

I also agreed with her on how most of the time the ending of the story shouldnt be as important as how the characters got there. I think that as long as you enjoyed the ride then the ending doesnt really matter. It is an interesting perspective that I have never seen in Literature.

The Yellow Wallpaper

This was a very interesting story. The point of view was from the woman of the story and once again the main character was left unnamed. This has been a recurring role in many of our stories including "Hills Like White Elephants" "Sonny's Blues" and "A Rose For Emily". this recurring role has been an interesting thing in every story. i really like this fact about all of these stories.

The woman in this story was very accepting of the man's dominance over her. this was a very interesting fact about the story. she talked about him running her life like it was a normal day occurrence. "He doesn't like me writing". This line was very interesting to me. why would she write this in her personal diary unless she was communicating with someone. I think that she was definitely writing this journal for a reason other than for her personal relief. the voice that she is writing this in made it sound like she was in a state of urgency. it was an interesting point of view and an interesting voice that she was speaking in.

The character John was a very interesting character as well. he remained calm for the entire story no matter what was happening. he also kept a very calm demeanor while he was controlling the woman. the voice he spoke in made it seem like he wasn't controlling but he in fact was. this was also a very interesting character style.

This story was very interesting. it was a very creepy story but it was also very interesting. i think the fact that the characters were written as the way they were made it a lot less creepy than it could have been.

Hills like White Elephants

This was a story by Ernest Hemingway. The main characters in this story were a man and a woman that remained unnamed. There has been a recurring unnamed main character in a lot of different stories we have read, such as “Sonny’s Blues”. It is an interesting strategy that makes the characters in this story seem way more mysterious.

This entire story is a conversation between the man and the woman. The interesting thing you can find out about the age difference in this relationship is what they are referred to as. The main male role is referred to as the man while the main female is referred to as the girl. This is a perfect clue as to what is going on here. This means that there are a few years in between the people in this relationship.

Another notable clue about how this relationship is going is how they talk to each other. The girl’s voice is still full of passion and imagination which shows you that she is still very much in love with the man. This is evident when she refers to the hills as they look like white elephants. The man’s response is very flat and bland which shows you that he also cares more about their business in Spain rather than strengthening their relationship. Also when she says “Will you like me more after this” is also a good clue as to what is going on in their lives.

There is a sharp contrast in their personas however. The man soon starts to act like the girl when the story is winding down. This is a very interesting change for Hemmingway to make, especially in the last couple of lines.

This story was really kind of depressing but it was written in a very mysterious way. It peaked my interests and it was a different type of read for me.

Lady with a Lapdog

I have just finished reading the story “Lady with a Lapdog” by Anton Chekhov. This was a very interesting story to say the least.

The main character, Gurov, was a man that had an arranged marriage to a woman that he did not particularly like. His character was an interesting one. He always seemed to be changing to me. In the beginning of the story he seemed pretty normal then he just seemed like a womanizer, then he couldn’t get Anna out of his head, then he just realized how much of a lie he was living. He had a very interesting and dynamic character. The other thing about his character I found interesting was how lightly he talked of cheating on his wife. He spoke of it like it was an everyday occurrence. The whole voice of his character was very interesting to me.

There were a lot of comic relief lines in this story as well. This struck me as strange as well. There were a few lines in this story that were just out of place. The conversation he had with his wife before he went to Moscow was very comical and seemed to play as nothing more than just a relief from the drama of the story. These moments were pretty interesting.

I think the mood of this story shifted a lot too. In the beginning it sort of felt like a light comedy and then it shifted to a slight drama,. Then it shifted to a big drama, and in the end it sort of ended up like a romantic comedy. I thought the ending was really good though. I like an ending where I can come up with what happens next. I like being able to imagine what happens after the story has ended.

This was a very interesting story and I think it ranks up there with some of my favorites.

Essay 2

In this unit we have read many great stories. There is one story and one claim that I want to focus on for our next essay however.

The story "Sonny's Blues" was a really good story. I could relate to it because I have grown up with two brothers and I would do anything for them. I liked how the two brothers relationship was in this however because i think it strengthened the overall outcome between them.

In my next essay I want to focus on how in lots of different stories and movies the relationship between two brothers is struggled and awkward even, but near the resolution of the story they are closer than ever and the awkwardness sort of melts away. I think i could be able to write an essay on this topic

Ordinary people

We just watched the film Ordinary People directed by Robert Redford in our class. There were many different characters that had changed a lot by the end of this movie. I really thought that the ending was fitting and I thought it contrasted the beginning of the movie very well.

The main character that we follow in this movie is Conrad Jarret. From the opening he seems like a normal 15 year old boy. We then see him wake up from a troubled sleep and his character evolves from that. His personality changed a lot by the end of this movie. At the beginning he seemed like he was so tormented by events of his past that he could not be helped. Throughout the course of the movie he sees a psychiatrist by the name of Dr. Berger. Through his sessions with this very liberal psychiatrist he slowly changes his way of thinking. In one of the most important scenes in the movie Conrad finally finds that he needs to stop punishing himself for events that he couldn’t have helped. This was a very intense and memorable scene which was made even more real by the phenomenal acting. By the end of the movie Conrad was nearly the opposite of his former self. It is like he transcended from his former self into a new state of being that was free from the torments of his earlier character.

Conrad’s feelings towards his friends and peers slowly changes throughout this movie. At the beginning he seems to be indifferent but when he goes on a date with a girl he likes from his choir class his feelings toward them seem almost intolerable. A couple of his friends interrupt them and the girl, Jeannine, finds them funny. Conrad doesn’t find them that funny and the awkwardness between the two grows until the end of the date when Conrad drops her off. This was he most awkward part of the movie to watch and Conrad still being tormented inside makes it clear. Another example is when he beats up one of his former friends for saying bad things about Jeannine. His reaction was very human which made him seem like a very real person to me.

Conrad’s Father Calvin was another very important character in this movie. Ever since the boating accident with Conrad and his older brother Buck in whom the latter died, Calvin was very cautious with what he said around Conrad. Calvin never yelled at Conrad and only supported his actions of seeing Dr. Berger. Calvin changed a lot by the end of the movie as well. At one point in the movie Calvin saw the same Doctor that Conrad was seeing and they had a very in depth conversation. Calvin talked about how much Compassion Conrad’s mother, Beth Jarret, showed Buck but no one else. He also stated that at the funeral the only two people that didn’t cry were Beth and Conrad. He also said that the reason Conrad and Beth didn’t get along was because the two of them were so much alike. In the end of the movie Calvin finally stated that everyone’s thinking that Beth was strong for never crying or showing emotion was just the opposite. He called her weak for not being able to cry or show emotion. This was a very true statement because only a strong person could come to grips with their emotions and not care if they were accepted or not. He then said that the woman he loved had more or less been buried with all of her love when Buck died. This was a very memorable quote for me because none throughout the entire movie had spoken their mind about her until that point and I was very relieved that her husband was the one to do it.

The final major character in this movie was Conrad’s mother Beth. This woman had an awful character throughout this film. She was more concerned with the family’s appearance to others than the emotional stability of her husband and son. She also changed but not really for the better. Throughout this entire film she never once showed emotion. She also frowned upon Conrad seeing a psychiatrist stating that smart people can deal with their own problems. She also is upset with Calvin for talking about their son with other people because she doesn’t think that what goes on in their family doesn’t concern any outside people’s thoughts. Throughout the film she also shows how much she doesn’t care for Conrad. In one scene where they are at her parent’s house she refuses to take a picture with just the two of them in it. She also throws away a perfectly good breakfast the second Conrad says he isn’t hungry. In the end of the movie when Calvin accuses her of being weak she finally shows emotion. She begins to cry and then reinforces his opinion of her by leaving for a while. She was a very unlikable character but she was played outstandingly.

This was a very interesting movie to me. It really showed how strangled and struggling a family relationship can get when a member dies. Some can pull through and become closer than ever, but some, like this movie, can almost completely fall apart. It was a very interesting look into appearances as well. From an outside perspective this family could seem very normal and not have a problem but appearances only run so deep and it was obvious with this movie.

I Stand Here Ironing

I have Just finished the story “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen. This was a very interesting story about a mother’s relationship with her daughter.

I noticed a couple of things that were really interesting to me in this story. The quote “There is all that life that has happened outside of me, beyond me” from the mother on the first page struck me as important. It set up for the relationship between the two in farther into the story but it also was true of any parent’s relationship towards their child. While their child is growing up there is a ton of things that the parent is not a part of. It interested me that this was in this story as well.

The mother in this story lived a very struggled life with her first daughter. This relationship is the focal point for the story. The voice that she is speaking in this story is that of regret. She is flashing back on her life with her daughter and is talking about it with a tone of remorse and that she should have done many things different. I think this was an interesting voice for the mother to have. Her voice didn’t change much throughout the story either which was interesting as well. Despite all of these depressing things that have happened in her relationship with her daughter she still keeps going in the mentality that things might not ever get better. It was very heart wrenching to read it like that.

The fact that this story is told from the point of view of the mother instead of the daughter was also really interesting. I think that this was an interesting insight on how a mother goes through the relationship of mother and daughter. I ave never really read anything about this so it was a new point of view to read from for me. I think this gave me a better insight onto the reasons that mother’s do things for their daughters. Despite the daughter’s objections and arguments the mother always does what she thinks is best despite the total outcome.

This story was really interesting for me to read. I am not a girl and have not had that mother daughter relationship struggle that a lot of girls have so reading about what happens between a mother and a daughter was really interesting for me.

Sonny's Blues

I have just finished reading the story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. I found this story really hard to analyze after the first time I read it. The language that he wrote it in was kind of hard for me to understand the first time but after a second read through I began to comprehend more and more of what he was writing. I still found certain aspects of this story hard to analyze however.

The one thing i noticed about this story is how different the ending was from the beginning. It was different from other stories however because when I was done reading it, it just seemed like a completely different story. It was an aspect that I found very interesting in this story.

The main character in this story is never named which is a fact that I really enjoyed about it. this is similar to a movie "Fight Club" where the main character is referred to throughout most of the movie simply as "The Narrator". Anyway, the narrator in this story changes a lot from his introduction. Just like in the story "Cathedral" the changes that are made in his character are pretty sudden. Throughout the entire story he is trying to protect his brother from drugs and thinks that he is fighting a losing battle the entire time until he realizes at the end that his brother is so much more than he thought. I really liked this about this story. It was a pretty big shift in the story as well.

There are several different moods that are in this story as well. While reading this story i felt differently about every page. It started out as a pretty depressing mood and then went into a very mellow laid back mood and then went into a kind of awkward angry mood and ended in a pretyty happy mood. it took the course of a typical drama sort of movie. I thought this choice was very interesting.

The way that the narrator tells this story through many different flash backs is a kind of interesting method as well. I think that the end of the story might not have had as much feeling because this way you knew how the narrator felt about his younger brother in the present even after their complicated past, and then to have his views changed suddenly made the ending a lot more effective. If he had used the linear traditional style than it might not have felt like much. This is also becoming a really popular style to do movies in.

This story was a very interesting read. It used some styles that i had never read in stories before and it was a new reading experience for me. I can really learn a lot from this story and i think it was a very interesting read.

Essay 1

I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do for my first essay. I have re read all of my different journal entries concerning all of the stories we have read thus far and have decided on certain issues I want to focus on.

There are a lot of important stories that we have read thus far but I think I want to focus on the story “A Good man is hard to find”. There are a lot of different themes in this story that I really enjoyed when I was reading it. The overall outcome of the story is also one that I really enjoyed.

One of the first themes I really liked was how the writer made the villain not exactly a villain. This style of writing is a very interesting style. I find that it works almost every time a writer uses it. He made the villain seem superior in motive to that of the main character and he made the main character just not that identifiable with. I thought this worked really well.

One other theme is the use of the epiphany in this story. There are many different uses of this in this particular story. The main villain has one and the main character has one. They are at really well done places too. The two epiphanies occur at the exact same time. I really enjoyed that about this story.

I am really excited for this essay and I think that I have chosen a proper essay to write an essay about.

Our Hurried Children

I just finished reading the article “Our Hurried Children”. This article was written in 1981 and I found it to be very interesting. I don’t normally like or read that much nonfiction writing but I thought this article was very well thought out. I don’t think there are going to many many thingsa to try and find a deep meaning for but I will discuss it.

I agreed with most of what the author said in this article. I didn’t however agree with some of the things that he was talking about. I don’t think that the expression “Early ripe, early rot” should apply to all of these aged children. I think this has worked for some children. I have actually had friends with crazy parents who only wanted to talk about how their kids were so smart and would make their kids skip grades and stuff. These kids still turned out fine however. The only problem with some of these kids I know is that they are a little conceited in their own self image, but truly who isn’t a little conceited.

I did agree with the sexuality of teens becoming a huge problem though. This is becoming a huge problem in today’s society. Adult clothing companies are targeting younger and younger ages and it is getting pretty ridiculous. The fact that 9 and ten year olds are wearing the same type of clothes as 17 and 18 year olds is a huge problem. The fact that girls are wearing make up at a younger age is pretty bad too. It doesn’t make sense because from the second a girl puts on make up the brain automatically thinks that she can’t look good without it and the girl is constantly having to wear makeup. Things are definitely getting worse.

This article was very appealing to me because it was on a topic that I like to talk about. Most non-fiction writing bores me and I am unable to focus on reading it, but this article was a very good read for me.

Cathedral

I just finished reading the story Cathedral by Raymond Carver. This story was a very weird story to me. I felt happy after it though.

The narrator was the main character in this story. He was also a very dynamic character. He changed a lot throughout the course of the story. I feel that he was a different person at the end of the game. In the beginning he was not to keen on the blind visitor that his wife was having over. Throughout the course of the story he slowly learned that even though he was blind he wasn’t that different from himself. He showed this by the end with all of there common interests. When first reading this story you would think that this guy was just a typical rich arrogant person.

The wife was a weird character. It was very hard to analyze this woman. Her personality was changing all the time. At times it would seem that her husband and her hated each other but then a couple of sentences later it would be as if they had always loved each other. It was a really strange way to make a character.

I think the blind man was a really important character. He was a lot different than I thought of him. His recurring reference to the narrator as “Bub” made him seem a lot more casual than most. The narrator even seemed to take offense to it at the beginning. This character was really laid back and I thought it was surprising how much he affected the narrator in such a short time.

This story was really hard to analyze. There were some really surprising points that made me laugh and some that made me just ponder them for a little bit. I don’t really have an opinion on this particular story. It was really interesting and I think that with a couple more read throughs ill catch something different.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

I have just finished reading the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’ Connor and all I can say is wow. I really liked this story. It was a very engaging read.

I noticed a ton of different things about this story and the first thing was that the family was white. When I first started reading this story I thought that they were black until when they were in the car the grandmother said a word that I will only refer to as the n-word. She was referring to a boy waving at them from the side of the road. This was really interesting to me because it also revealed the time period to me, because of the fact that she said this word period and the way that she said it. It was written that she said it as if she was referring to him like it was a normal word to use for him so that meant this probably took place in the thirties or maybe the forties because the grandmother also mentioned not liking Europeans. These were just the biggest of the couple of clues that there were.

The mood of this story shifted in an instant as well. It went from a typical drive of an innocent family to a suspenseful thriller. I think the transition that the writer used was smooth as silk as well. The mood just gradually grew more intense as it went on. I really like how he did that.

He didn’t use that much character change in this story however. The only dynamic character I got from the story was the grandmother. She seemed to be the only character that showed any different emotions throughout the story. Even the parents showed ignorance to what was happening at the end of the story. The Misfit actually did change a little bit at the end which was a really cool change. He was a really coolheaded person until the very end when the grandmother said “You’re one of my babies, You’re one of my own children!”. I didn’t get if she was being serious or if she had just gone crazy but this rattled the misfit to his core and I really enjoyed that change in him even if it was just a small change.

Finally I liked how he made the Misfit. I am a huge fan of the collected calm and somewhat nice villain in literature. I think it is one of the most popular lately as well. This one was different though. He didn’t show any remorse for what he had done but he didn’t show any clear reason as to why he did what he did. He was a really interesting villain. Usually when a villain is questioned as to why he did something he usually gets defensive and rattled, but this guy just stayed calm and answered as best he could and wasn’t rattled at all. He was only rattled by the quote above and I thought the sudden change in his character was really cool.

I changed my mind about my favorite story so far. This is my new favorite story. I know Clary doesn’t care if you like it but I really enjoyed this passage a lot.

Once upon a Time

The story I just read is called Once upon a Time. It was a very well written story and I enjoyed it a lot.

This story has a pretty classic theme in my opinion. I have seen it a lot in literature. This is the fact that you always need more. You see something that someone else has and despite the fact that what you have is just as good you need their’s too. This idealism will also lead to the downfall of a loved one or yourself.

This story has a lot of elements that are seen in fairy tales as well. One element in this was the presence of an old witch. This old witch has played many roles in fairytales from attempted assassination to the gift bearer. This witch played the gift bearer and was seen in the nice role. She brought the child a space suit and a book of fairy tales, which I also thought was interesting as this story has a lot of those elements in it. I think this was the most important recurring role in this story.

One thing I found very cool about this story was that it happened in a modern day sort of setting. It was a typical rich couple with a son that all of these things were happening too. They need a lot of security and I thought the final execution of the end of the story was incredibly well written. The fact that it happened to the one character that could care less about all of this made it all the more ironic. I liked how he did this though because in most of the fairy tales I have seen this in the downfall is that of the one who wants everything. I really liked how it was.

In conclusion I think that this is my favorite story so far that we have read. I hope there are more like it because this was a really entertaining read.

A & P

I have just read the story “A&P” by John Updike. This story was rather unique in my eye because it was a story I could relate to in a way.

I have worked during the summer in my pool’s snack bar for the past four years and have been managing it for the past two. I love the job for the most part, but sometimes I just have days like the one Sammy had. I think the predominant theme in this story is the epiphany and how it can happen as randomly as on this Thursday. I think it is a recurring theme in literature as well. The author made perfect use of it in this story I thought.

I think that this story could easily have taken place during any time period. It could have taken place 70 years ago or even 7 years ago. This is a very easy story to set within any timeframe. There would be some slight differences however. I think one of the main differences would be the age of the characters and the choice of clothing the author picked to portray the girls. I also think that the manager would have been depicted as a really evil mustachioed black haired man if it were to take place in the 30s as opposed to the 90s where he probably would have been an old lanky bald man. The ability to place this story during any time period still goes undamaged though.

By the end of the story I really just found Sammy to be another awkward teenager trying to impress some girl he had never met before. He had an epiphany that had the perfect timing for a halfway upsetting conclusion. The only thing I didn’t like about this story is that I didn’t feel like anything got resolved.

Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?

This is my reading response to part 2 of the story “Where are you going where have you been”. I really liked the conclusion to this story. It was very well written and some of my predictions for it came true.

My view of Connie completely shifted after reading the second half of this story. I felt bad for her during this entire half of the story, and I felt sheer hatred for the character of Arnold Friend. Connie’s mood shifted greatly from the beginning of the story. In the beginning of the story she was really cocky and thought she was really cool and almost an unbearable character to read about. During this part of the story something that was real happened to her and she became helpless as if she was an infant again. I think the Author did a really good job showing this with the way he made her stutter and sort of trail off with what she would say sometimes. It really felt like she was genuinely scared. While I was reading this I really felt pity for her and I think that makes a good writer, when someone can actually feel emotions about characters they are reading about. My view on Connie completely shifted.

There was a new character introduced named Arnold friend. He comes to Connie’s house with his friend during the lazy Sunday afternoon and wants to take Connie for a ride and become her lover. The author did a very good job with this character I think, because once again I really felt a burning hatred for this person. He was so cocky and self confident and acted so nonchalant about the event. It made me mad just reading about him. This character proved how young Connie actually was though. When he persisted in asking her to come out she slowly got in a more panicked mood until she finally snapped. It was really depressing to see this happen in my opinion. I wasn’t surprised at all by the events at the end of the story I was just really hoping something would happen that would have made it end more happily, but I know that these type of endings are few and far between. I think Arnold also draws out that ever present timid emotion you find in someone no matter how brave or strong they are. With the way he knew everything about Connie it even made someone as cocky as her fold and that’s what I got out of his character. You hate to see characters like that but they are present everywhere in literature.

The theme of music stayed the same but it was a lot more subdued during this part of the story. There was an ever present form of music but there was also a lot more dialogue in this part which also made the flow stay mostly the same during the story. I thought the predominant them of music would stay the same but it was very subdued in this part.

This was a very important short story for us to read in my opinion. It was very entertaining and it also had a very deep underlying meaning. It was about transitions between stages of life and how some people handle those transitions. It was also about how overconfidence can often just be a guise for a very timid person and how there can be some people that can just push the curtain aside and reveal the truth inside someone. It was a very good story and I really enjoyed it.

Where Are you Going, Where Have you Been? pt. 1

I really enjoyed the first half of this story. it has a lot of different recurring themes in it so far that I have really enjoyed. It also has had some slight character development in it. It has been a very entertaining read so far

I have had different feelings on the main character of this story thus far. When i first started reading the stoyr i just found here to be a normal timid pre teen girl going through that awkward growing up phase in her life. The fact that it also stated how conflicted her mother's relationship with her also gave me more reason to feel this way about her. Another fact that also gave me reason to believe this was how cut off here relationship were her father is. In my experience growing up I have considered these relationships to be true in real life., but not all the time. Once the story got to the part about her and her friends going into town and hanging out for a long time my theory on her being a very timid girl changed completely. A new side of her was shown during this part of the story, a cocky and confident side of her that was shown in the way she acted around her friends and boys that wanted to hang out with her. I figured this would change when it got back to her family.

This was not so however. The cocky side stayed with her in the way she nonchalantly tossed aside things that the rest of her family were doing. It was also shown in her habits during the day; Things such as waking up really late and just listening to the radio all day. I was really surprised at this change and how it remained permanent.

One of the major recurring themes in this story so far is music. In every environment there has been some sort of music that has been playing, whether it be said or implied. Music is one of my favorite themes so it has been an enjoying backround that has helped stimulate the flow of the story for me.

I am really eager to finish the second part of the story because i am predicting a swift change in the mood of the story and the attitude on life of the main character. I hope the theme of music stays the same to help me continue reading with interest. I am really excited about the conclusion to this story.

The Power of Myth

This video was a very educational video. It was the discussion of the power of myth in different adaptations such as literature and Movies. I found this movie to be very inciteful.

The idea of the typical archetype for heroes in this discussion was especially beneficial to me. I agreed with everything they said about heroes in this discussion. I am a big fan of such fictional works as Star Wars and other stories that were talked about. I am a big fan of fiction and I love the typical archetype of a hero.

I am also glad that we watched the film because they talked about ideas in myth and stories that I had never even heard of. It was a very engaging film and am glad that it was shown to us

MORE FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey i forgot to tell everyone that my name is John and i am a senior at Open High School. i am having a really good year and i just finished my community service hours. io have finished all of my senior stuff too. ITS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!

I am in English class right now and i am making and blog. i already made a URL for my blogspot and i am entering my first blog. tonight i have to play with my blogspot for homework and i also have to find 35 pictures of my theme for prinmaking. yay for this im done.