Happy Endings

Margaret Atwood wrote "Happy Endings." I loved this piece of writing. It was very unique, straight to the point, and the sarcastic nature of the writing made me think and also contradict myself. The scenario of John and Mary was very boring. In that very small paragraph the word "stimulating" was used three times. This "happy ending" showed that if life were that simple it would just be boring. Story B was much more realistic. Mary thought that with time she could change John and he would eventually marry her but he did not have the same feelings for her that she had for him. It was still pretty sad that she killed herself over this man who never loved her.

When Atwood connected Stories B and C by using the same names it was pretty unexpected. They use some of the same names but are related in no way. In this story John is not happy in his marriage with Madge and cheats with Mary, who really doesn't love him; she really loves James. Crazy, right? But that's how life is. Again in this story someone kills themselves. I guess they rather be dead than have to live loving someone who doesn't love them back. Stories D and E are very unfortunate and they connect directly.

Story F concludes everything. No matter what a person does for a living, who they are in a relationship with, or whether they are happy or not the results are still the same: They die. But this is simply what happens, no explanation, to the point. It does not explore "how" or "why." I liked how a lot of plots were given and where things needed to be explained it said "the rest of the story is about..." I like how Atwood changes up the stories to show different sides of love. She also gives insight to how the female mind set. Many women feel they can change a man, I believe that after a certain age there is no changing a man back.

The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper." The woman in the story believed she was sick. I think she believed she was a different type of sick than she actually was; she had post-partum depression. This disorder was not discovered during this time period and she said that her husband did not believe she was sick. Her husbands' name is John and she like many other woman in other stories we've read goes unnamed. I found it interesting how comfortable the woman was with her husband basically being in charge of her life. It shows the time period and that the role of man and woman has changed drastically.

The woman doesn't like the room she stays in constantly. She is never "allowed" to see the outside world, she just has to look at things outside through the window. Her focus is primarily to the digusting yellow wallpaper in this room. She describes it as old, smoldering, unclean, dull, and sulphur tinted. The woman makes comparisons with this wallpaper and sounds down-right crazy and delusional. She says the wallpaper has a "spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down." She says the eyes crawl all over the wall, up and down and sideways. WEIRD!!!

The woman speaks of the wallpaper so vividly that it almost comes alive. I think if she was allowed to see places other than the yellow wallpaper, it wouldn't bother her so much. She has spent too much time looking just at the wallpaper and now it sort of hunts her. The wallpaper becomes part of her life, it is an obsession. Because of this she creates another life, another personality, and has crazy dreams. At the end she creeps around her husband and tells him that him nor Jane (split personality) could keep her in the room. She tore down the wallpaper so she could not be put back. If the woman had post-partum depression it only worsened due to the yellow wallpaper.

A Rose for Emily

William Faulkner wrote “A Rose for Emily”. I think it was very sad and inconsiderate how the people in the town only went to Emily’s funeral to see the inside of her house. Emily was old and the people around her weren’t therefore they did treat her the way the generation before them had treated her. This story was kind of hard to get into. Maybe it’s just that I have senioritis and I’m ready for June 10th to get here.

Emily was a very strange character. She killed Homer because she was afraid he was going to leave her and because he didn’t love her like she loved him. I think Emily is crazy and should have been taken away by some mental institute; I mean she sleeps with Homers’ corpse for God’s sake. Her father kind of ruined her for life. Him running men out of her life didn’t do anything positive, it was probably the reasoning for the crazy/negative things she did. And like Homer, Emily kept her fathers’ body in the house also. I don’t think her personal condition can be described, but her father had such a strong impact on her that she thought he was the superior to anything or anybody.

Hills Like White Elephants

"Hills Like Whit Elephants" was written by Ernest Hemingway. The first thing I noticed about this story is how the male in the story was referred to as a man while the female was referred to as a girl. This suggests the time period this story was written in and also that the "girl" was younger than the man was. I also noticed that Hemingway noted that the man was American and said nothing of where the girl was from. I think she may have lived in Barcelona or somewhere in Spain, which was also mention in the first paragraph.

The way that Hemingway writes is very different. The whole story was merely a conversation. When the girl said that the hills looked like white elephants I think it was just a conversation started but the man had something else on his mind. Later the girl says, "They don’t really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees." The man mentioned to Jig, which is a really awkward nickname, that it was really a "simple operation." The type of operation is never written out so one can read it but the context clues suggest an abortion.

I could tell that Jig was young and very naïve, she was very insecure and needed to be constantly reassured. This is why much of their conversation was repetitious. The man describes the operation by saying, "It’s just to let the air in." I think referring to an abortion like this can only come from someone who is ignorant and inexperienced. The girl wants the man to be happy and doesn’t care about herself. The man tells her that everything will be like it was before because "it" is the only thing making them unhappy. Through her uneasiness I could sense that Jig did not want to have the operation. The girl was simply a "girl" and only wanted to make him happy and would go through with the operation.

Lady With A Lapdog

"Lady With A Lapdog" was written by Anton Chekhov. Dmitry was the main character in this short story and he had an ignorant attitude toward the opposite sex, women. In the very beginning of the story he referred to women as "the lower breed." It is obvious he has no respect for woman or her feelings. This is probably because he was never taught to respect a woman and being forced into a marriage, with an older woman in his early twenties, did not help the situation. He spoke of cheating on his wife as if it was as simple and natural as breathing. He didn’t care and this all came through in how and what he said. Throughout the story Dmitry did change and it shows that he is a dynamic character.

When Anna, the lady with lapdog, was first mentioned I really wasn’t expecting for she and Dmitry to hook up. I think Dmitry’s intentions with her started out as just wanting her to be his next mistress but changed when he mysteriously fell in love with her. I believed that Dmitry has fell in love with Anna. Anna is young, shy, and also has a husband. She is also very dramatic and demands respect from a man who is very disrespectful to women. But she gets the respect. It is obvious that she is also not happy in her marriage, even though she is skeptical about having the affair at first she goes through with it, which shows what her heart truly wanted. Dmitry’s whole demeanor changed when he met Anna and when he can’t get her out of his mind it’s evident that he is in love. The story ends on a note where the reader can make up the end. I think that Dmitry loves Anna and even though it’s hard to express this love he eventually does it and becomes a better man all around.

Proposal: Essay 2

The past chapter was full of stories about families. I enjoyed reading many of the story and loved the movie Ordinary People. For this essay I want to focus of "Bone Black." I want to explore how abuse can effect children in a family. I believe that whether the children are hit or not they are being abused. They are taking in ideals that can scar deeper than physical wounds and since they are younger this sometimes can become a way of life. I will discuss how negatively both parents are viewed. The girl in "Bone Black" lost respect for her mother (the one being abused) because of the lack of communication, she didn’t feel like she stood up for herself. And when the daughter wanted to stand up in her mothers’ defense she was either deferred away for the situation or couldn’t get through as being positive. I want to research more on abuse and why people do it and show how it affects each individual in a family differently.

Ordinary People: Part 3

Maybe I wasn’t paying that much attention, but now I know that Conrad slit his wrists. This has to be painful, and one would venture to say that he was brave in trying to kill himself. I know for a fact that could not put myself in that much misery. When Conrad get into the fight with the boy from the swim team, I felt good. I felt like he got something off of his chest and he of all people didn’t need any extra baggage to cause more depression in his life.

When Conrad found out that the girl from the hospital Karen had killed herself, I thought for sure he was going to relapse. But he didn’t, which made me feel relieved. This was also a very remarkable moment in Conrad’s life, he had a breakthrough and overcame another hard milestone in his life. Conrad’s conversation with Dr. Burger the night he found out was very weird, because he spoke to Dr. Burger as if he were Buck. It revealed that he was angry with Buck, but couldn’t admit to it. He felt that he did the wrong thing by staying with the boat while Buck couldn’t and died.

I was kind of disappointed with the ending of the movie. The father and mother had an argument and the father revealed that he didn’t know if he still loved his wife. The mother proved her selfishness even further by leaving the father and son. I didn’t necessarily need closure; I just wanted for the mother so badly to have a break through. I wanted her to accept what had happened and love her remaining son as equally as she had loved her deceased son. She didn’t necessarily have to stay with her family but would have been great to see a barrier broken down.

Ordinary People: Part 2

We started back up with "Ordinary People" with a phone call for his mother. When she started laughing on the phone, Conrad has a flashback of a time when his brother was living and his mother laughing. This was a sign that told the audience that Conrad’s mother scarcely laughs anymore, especially at home. For the first time, on this portion of the movie, we see the father having a flashback. He remembers a time when Conrad and Buck were arguing over a sweater. Then it skips to when Conrad, in a body suit, was being put into the ambulance. The father then starts to see the same psychiatrist as Conrad. He tells Dr. Burger that Conrad and his mother were too much alike and they didn’t connect. This is true for many people that are a lot alike, because they end up competing for the same attention.

Conrad quit the swim team and it was about a month before his parents knew. His mother found out through someone else. This scene was very dramatic and a lot that was kept in surfaces. The mother did not visit Conrad for the four months he was in the hospital. She was going to Spain and Portugal, this also shows her selfishness. Also a line that went unfinished by the mother shows that she believes that Conrad was the reasoning of Buck’s death. The husband reveals that the mother doesn’t show affection to Conrad but really loved her first born; I wonder if it was like this when he was still alive. The father asks if she would go see Dr. Burger and she dislikes the idea.

When Conrad takes the girl out from school on a date she asks him did trying to kill himself hurt. Conrad said it was like falling into a hole that keeps getting bigger and you eventually become the hole and its no longer scary. This was a very deep line that I really didn’t understand. I don't know what method Conrad used to try to kill himself, so his comparison to a hole is completely random. It was wierd way to put it, but probably the best and only way he knew how to explain it. Much more is surfacing in this movie and I can’t wait to get the entire story out so I can have a better understanding.

Ordinary People: Part 1

Robert Radford directed the movie "Ordinary People". The movie started off really confusing with the dream of a choir singing awakening Conrad, the main character. Conrad has nightmares because something very traumatic has happened in his life. His older brother, Buck died and Conrad tried to kill himself. Its seems that these events have disrupted his entire family. Conrad is very distant, nervous, and in the beginning of the movie he is sweating a lot. I was really confused and wondered what was wrong with him.

Conrad’s relationship with his parents is nonexistent. His father tries to console him and they can talk, but it is clear that relationship is hesitant and forced. His mother on the other hand shows no sympathy for Conrad. They agree on nothing and she always seems to fight against anything anyone else says. She comes across as being selfish. But like everyone in this traumatic movie her emotions are much deeper than what the viewer see, I just wish I knew the entire story and maybe that way the way she acts would be more understandable.

Conrad, who is on the swim team, doesn’t enjoy anymore. This shows through his performance. His brother died in a boating accident. I wonder if it was Conrad’s fault in some way. The girl, Karen that Conrad meets at the restaurant was pretty weird. He met her in the hospital and she was very talkative. I think he met with her because he say missed the hospital. Karen repeats herself, but doesn’t even realize it. Conrad begins seeing psychiatrist, Dr. Burger. I think this is really needed because it is obvious that he is not happy or himself. He needs to talk about his feelings, because he doesn’t get them at home. I want to know more; right now I still have questions running through my mind.

I Stand Here Ironing

“I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen was very hard to understand at first. I was thinking who is talking? And what are they talking about? It seems like the mother has given up on her daughter. She states, “You think because I am her mother I have a key, or that in some way you could use my key.” I was still wondering who she was talking to at this point and even more importantly what had her daughter done to be spoken about like this. The way the mother speaks also suggests a time period that has passed, 1953.

The mother was only nineteen when she had her 1st and most beautiful child at birth, as she said, the father “could no longer endure sharing want with us.” She seemed to take this hard and probably had an everlasting headache because of work and a crying baby, Emily. The mother got a job at night to be with her daughter during the day; Emily went to stay with her father. Her struggle mother didn’t have the money to pay for her fare back and when she returned she barely recognized her. I think it was interesting how the daughter at such a young age tried to avoid going to daycare but was never up front about it.

The mother doesn’t smile enough as Emily, and as a result Emily doesn’t really smile, there is no emotional connection. When Emily fell sick, the mother was convinced to send her away. It is never made clear what Emily has, just that she had a fever, barely ate, and was becoming very skinny. The place she was sent to stay was no better because she was still loosing weight. I thought it was sad because Emily was only seven years old at the time. When she returns home, only after gaining seven pounds, she has a hard time returning love to anybody. She was taken away from a love environment for so long that she probably forgot, she said, when she was away, “They don’t like you to love anybody here.”

I think that this is a story of a young girl who longs for the attention of here mother and a mother who does not understand her daughter; but tries her hardest. Emily was different than her siblings, who had blonde, curly hair and dimples. The ending is very well put, Emily was depressed, her mother young, distracted.

Sonny's Blues

“Sonny’s Blues” was written by James Baldwin. For some reason in the beginning of the story I thought the narrator was a woman. But as I continued to read I learned that the narrator was a man. The language in which they talked made it obvious that this was from a different time period. They used terms like “get hung” when talking about Sonny’s addiction and said other terms backwards like “school high.” The relationship between Sonny and his brother is very typical of many sibling relationships. They got along, fought, loved, and cared for one another. I particularly enjoyed this story more than “Rappaccini’s Daughter.”

The narrator, like characters in many other stories we’ve read, is not named. I think I that the narrator life is pretty normal beside the fact that he has lost so many people; first his father, then mother, then daughter, and the one person his mother told him to look after used and became addicted to drugs. The narrator spent a lifetime trying to protect Sonny, but tried to come across as being nonchalant to others. In the beginning when he was in character with the other man I could sense him being tense and deeply caring about the situation. I think that it’s kind of sad but one must realize that one can’t be helped unless they are willing to help themselves also.

“Sonny’s Blues” can be classified as a dramatic story because of how much each person changed throughout the story and how they felt. While Sonny was the person with the addiction his brother also needed to grow. By the end of the story Sonny and his brother grew, which make them both dynamic characters. I think that whether or not Sonny’s brother liked his idea of having a career in music he should’ve supported him. Maybe if Sonny would have had a better support system he would have turned to music instead of heroin early in life. But this trial changed everyone’s life for the better and Sonny, unlike many heroin addicts, recovered and changed his outlook on life.

Rappaccini’s Daughter

"Rappaccini’s Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is definitely not one of my favorite stories. The language for example was very confusing and hard to understand. This story is an allegory and I feel like the he was trying too hard to imitate not only the story of the beginning in Genesis but also the language. I don’t feel like it was the best method,. Although the method made me concentrate the extremely confusing nature of the text caused me to loose my train of thought and concentration and I found myself not even comprehending most of the story. I think that this was an overall good story but it was a challenging reading it. I know that it is only going to get harder, so I stuck with and came out with some general understanding. Even though I wasn’t very verbal in class the discussion cleared a lot of my confusion, so it did indeed help.

I had to question much of what I read. In the beginning when Giovanni was looking out of the window it is mentioned that he was at such a distance that everything was minute. But his detailed descriptions suggested otherwise. He described everything to a tee, as much as seeing a very small insect. From the distance he was at this would have been nearly impossible. I think he has an extravagant imagination or very good sight because much of what he described were characteristics of the other characters. I think it was also very interesting how he was referred to as both Giovanni and Gausconti. Why would both names be used? What was Hawthorne trying to suggest? Did Giovanni/Gausconti have two personalities? I’m still confused on this part. Giovanni, to me, comes across as a stalker. And poor naïve Beatrice is unaware that she is a part of her father’s experiment.

The relationship between Giovanni and Baglioni is very uneasy. Giovanno listens to Baglioni for information. Baglioni, on the other hand, uses Giovanni and is jealous of Rappaccini. Hawthorne uses the theme of allegory to an advantage and also twists the story. It is the story of the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. But the characters are switched. Adam being the female, Beatrice and Eve being the male, Giovanni. For Giovanni is given the poison 1st offers it to Beatrice. The roles are switched in the original Garden of Eden story. This twist caused the reader to think. While using the idea he did not every use every component and mimic it in the story exactly.

The ending was very unpredictable. They did not die in each other’s arm, all romantically. The twist again makes me wonder why this story wasn’t ended about a page in a half early when Giovanni speaks of the kiss of hatred. It would have been almost the perfect ending and would have allowed the mind room to just wander. It would have been the tragic but romantic death of Romeo and Juliet.

Bone Black

If I said that any of the other short stories we’ve read were my favorite, I lied. This by far was the best story I’ve read this semester. I loved the poetic flow of "Bone Black." The name itself was very symbolic showing that the author, Bell Hooks, put much thought into this story. To me "Bone Black" is symbolic of the color of bruises that the mother endured in the story. The way in which the narrator switched point of views throughout the story was different but it worked. Something else that was different was that quotation marks were not used when someone said something, a capital letter was just put in the middle a sentence.

This story is like real life and I’m sure many can relate to it. The jealous husband comes home mad because he suspects his wife has been cheating on him. I think that this displays low self-esteem in the man, especially when the situation is not true and he has simply jumped to conclusions. What was interesting to me is that the children never heard their parents fuss or fight before. They plainly heard him complain and prove himself to his wife when he thought he could do a better job at something. Hooks pulls the reader so deeply into this story that I could feel the sincerity of the daughter. I completely understood how she felt and her reasoning was genuine. I know how it feels to not want to see someone on his or her deathbed, even though it may appear disrespectful. But, honestly, "What kind of last memory is that to have of a loved one." I think one should remember the good times they’ve had with person.

In chapter 51, it evidently shows how the witnessing of the girls’ mother being beaten has influenced her now. She no longer has respect for her mother because of how she let her husband beat on her and did not take a stand. She was also oblivious to the feelings and concern that her daughter had for her. When the daughter says, "I do not have a mother" it is a monumental moment. It shows the love and hate of their relationship, and their feeling con no longer be controlled and kept in. The dream at the end of the story is beautifully written out. But the outcome is horrible, but oh so true. Men are let free everyday after beating on their wives. It showed how manipulative a person can be, and how one must look deeper than the outside appearance, after all looks can be deceiving.

Essay 1: Posible Topic

I was kind of confused about the initial way we're supposed to go about doing Essay 1. At first I thought we were supposed to write a story. Now that I have a better understanding I think I want my essay to be about how the underdog or less experienced person can teach a lesson. My main focus will be the story Cathedral. I really understand how a blind man can teach a perfectly seeing person how to actually "see" the world. You never really understand anything until you see it from someone else's pointof view. I am completely convinced that a blind person could teach people who can see a lot because they have lived their life understanding the world on a different and deeper level.

Our Hurried Children

I was really expecting another story, and was kind of surprised when I found out that “Our Hurried Children” by David Elkind was an article. This article focused on how children are growing up too fast too soon. I agree with Elkind when he says, “If child-rearing necessarily entails stress, then by hurrying children to grow up, or by treating them as adults, we hope to remove a portion of our burden of worry and anxiety…” I constantly see children at a younger ages taking on the responsibility that I myself wasn’t asked to take on until later in life. This shows that the world is changing at rapid rate and that children are no longer having childhoods.

The quote “early ripe, early rot” was used when referring to a child prodigy. This is not at all true and only describes some and not all people. I also don’t think that it is always a sign of bad parenting. Some parents try but the child may be very easily influenced by others, and the effort put forth could be lost in the act. I found the sub-title “miniature adults” to be kind of funny. I mean it is true that by the end of middle school and especially high school that we are no longer children. I feel that adults rush our growing up experience so much that they can’t even believe it and try to hold us back when it is too late.

The tie between the dress of a child and their actions is one I didn’t think of myself. I work at a daycare and like the author says little girls wear tight jeans and act older than their age. This is why they are now seen as miniature adults. The clash at the adolescent stage show that children were rush out of childhood only to be stopped at the wonderful age of sixteen, when you still can’t do anything. And being 18 is great but living under your parent’s roof in high school, still prohibits all adult activity. I do agree with many of the ideas in this article and I am a product of some of the characteristics described as out growing up too fast. But I feel that I have turned out just fine. :)

Cathedral

I went into this story wondering if the wife or female would receive a name. As I began reading it was evident that no one had name in this story. The first name mentioned was Beulah, and she wasn’t even a main character. I think the significance of this name being mentioned was to reveal the color of the main characters. The second and last name mentioned was Robert, the name of the blind man. Even after he received a name the narrator still referred to him as the blind man, the first time he called him Robert was when he referred to "Robert’s trip." (p. 124) I think it also important to remark that the narrator was a drinker, this may have been a cover up of his insecurities, but by the end of this very short story he had a total of five drinks.

The narrator was indeed jealous of his wife and the blind man’s relationship. While they had a relationship where love was present it had become somewhat convenient, she talked to Robert, she told him everything, and I believe they connected on a different level. But I believe she and her husband had a good relationship, he was just not in touch with his feeling, expressing what he felt, and putting it into terms others could understand. He was very ignorant in the area of blindness. He only had preconceived notions and had learned these from the movies and TV. When he saw and met the blind man the notions had to fly out the window, because he was nothing like what the narrator imagined. By the end of the story the blind man became the teacher and helped him see that there was more to life than what the naked eye see, it what one feels.

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

I found that this story was very unfortunate. It was unfortunate that the entire family was killed in the end. I really wasn’t expecting it to end this way, it had a tremendous twist and was very unpredictable. In reading this story I felt that the entire family had grown accustomed to the very talkative grandmother. They sort of ignored her and probably tuned her out. No one ever responded to anything she said, but this didn’t bother her. Honestly I just think she liked to here herself talk and having people in the room was just convenient. The character of the grandmother made me feel no remorse for anyone, especially her even when they got killed. She grew very annoying and was very fake in my opinion.

The children were very rude to everyone. This was probably a product of their parents’ leisurely attitude toward anything that they did. They weren’t punished for their rudeness or smart remarks. Their parents were almost nonexistent in this story, especially the mother who doesn’t receive a name. And the father doesn’t appear to be happy. He barely has a relationship with his mother, who is always talking to him. This is a typical story where the character worries so much about something that it happens them. The grandmother worries about The Misfit and doesn’t want to travel to Florida because that’s where he is going. But runs into him when she gets the crazy notion of going to visit a house that she remembers so vividly. And all the while the house is in a completely different state than they are currently in. (If this happened to me and I found out I would be SO MAD.) what bothered me was how the family was saw to be kind of ignorant. After the father and son were taken away and two gunshots were heard, I would expect their loved ones to be hysterical. Instead the grandma continues to carry on a conversation and the mother and daughter don’t even budge. The last I would do is go freely with men that I knew were going to kill me. But the grandmother being her selfish self continued talking, in hopes of saving her own life; and of all people to try to get sentimental with and touch she chooses a man that gets nervous by the appearance of children.

Once Upon A Time

Nadine Gordimer wrote "Once Upon A Time". I loved the tone of this story. It flowed beautifully. Gordimer’s word choice and sentence variety made this a great work. It started out being about an author who didn’t write children’s books. Then later being awakened by something, from there the mind wandered and the imagination created something extreme. It is so true that when a person is home alone any sound examined can be morphed into something so scary that otherwise would be ridiculous to believe. The bedtime story she tells herself is not the typical bedtime story. It talked a family and a neighborhood that get too caught up in security systems. This family has electronically controlled gates, burglar bars attached to the doors and windows, an alarm system, high walls on the outside, and pieces of glass embedded on the top of the wall. When people get this caught up with protecting themselves, you can no longer live and enjoy it. And this is shown when they go for a walk, but can see no yards only other options for more security. They don’t get the joy seeing the world the way it was intended to be seen they see the world behind bars. I feel that if someone wants to break into something bad enough they will find away no matter what type of security one has. The couple that lives in this house may feel safe but eventually their high security system turns against them. Their son pretended to be a Prince from a story that was read to him. He dragged a ladder to the wall and climbed through the barbed wire; only for the embedded glass to stick into his little hands and knees. And what more is there to do for a kid than panic. When he panicked his injuries grew more in depth and he cried. Only when the alarm went did the parents come running to his rescue. This story teaches a great lesson of something that can go wrong with being too careful.

A&P

Sammy seems very bored with his job. Everything from his body language to his thoughts shows how unhappy he is with being a cashier. The author John Updike uses great figurative language and I could just picture Sammy leaning against his register arrogantly making assumptions about the customers. Sammy was very sarcastic and I thought some of his sayings were amusing while others were rude or offensive; like calling the customers sheep for example. The biblical meaning for sheep is very different from Sammy’s. Sheep in this story has the meaning of being stupid and ignorant. It is very evident that from working in the grocery store he has really learned to read people from first appearances. I feel that the three girls who walked into the A&P were screaming for attention. Walking into a public grocery store with nothing but bathing suits on was rude in my opinion, and the fact that didn’t even have the audacity to put shoes on was beyond belief. When Sammy quit, in hopes of being somewhat of a silent hero, it was surprising. The girls had no idea of how he felt about them, and probably didn’t care. Sammy showed no interest in them on the exterior, we as readers were fortunate enough to hear his thoughts and understand everything from his point of view. At the end of this story Sammy had an epiphany. He realizes that he did make a mistake and cannot take it back. It is kind of tough reality when one longs for something but its not there (i.e. the girls in Sammy’s case). But one must learn from such situations. Throughout this story it shows how Sammy has grown and he now feels that he is in the real world and knows that the world was going to be hard to him after this step stone in his life.

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Hey everybody, sorry I wasn't at school today but I was sick and just couldn't get out of bed. And on top of that I had no voice. But I did complete the reading here's my response.

I found myself very interested in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" It kept my attention and was very suspenseful. All the while keeping me thinking and wondering of what was going to happen next. But I was kind of disappointed with the way ended. It felt incomplete like it wasn’t a finished story. I was still confused looking for more at the conclusion of the story. I knew from the beginning that the man in the gold convertible was kind of scary. If I were Connie I would have been extremely scared of him. Not only did he know everything about her but her also started threatening the lives of her family members. It wasn’t clear who Arnold Friend really was, but I think it was very evident that he was an older man who had a bad limp and should not have been trusted. This story leaves me with a very perplexed feeling. The story does not end with a feeling of closure. I was left still wandering: What happened to Connie? How old were Arnold Friend and Ellie? How did Arnold Friend know so much about Connie? I guess the author, Joyce Carol Oates wanted the reader to continue wondering where are you going and where have you been? And I’m still wonder why this story was dedicated to Bob Dilan.

Ummm.....

IDK if we're supposed to blog on that story because it's not on Clary's but I'm going to do it anyway. I think the girl in the story was conceited. But I could tell that there was some doubt and jealousy in her mind, because of how she describes herself in comparison to her sister. And also how she's always like she knew she was pretty and looking in the mirror. It seemed like she had to keep reassuring herself. But obviously music has a special meaning because it is repeated several times. And just to put my guess out there I think something is going to happen to her. She might get hurt, raped, or stalked by the dude in the car that said he was gonna get her. Then again he could just be a character that showed that others also thought she was attractive.

The Power of Myth

...I think that's what it's called. Well that goes to show how EXTREMLY BORING the movie was. From the moment it was turned to when it was turned off it may have caught my attention a mere 1 or 2 times. He seemed to have no emotion...almost like the paragraph Clary read to us about a lot of five letters words combined in a paragraph. It was monotone. I wad so lost and I felt restless and the one time it did catch my attention his little story had no point it went no where. I'm sure there are other more interesting movies out there that talk about the connection between myths and religion and I wouldn't mind watching them, but as for another Joseph Campbell film....WAKE ME UP WHEN ITS OVER PLEASE!!!

What Does SDCC stand for?

Well I didn't really mean for that to be my title, but it stands for Sunny Day Child Care...it's where I work. It's cool I like but those kids are so bad and I'm only there for four hours. So since I explained that I don't really have anything else to talk about, I'm not really for this blogging thing...so all my blogs will probably sounds like this. You know pretty random! I can't wait to go get my slurpee....Goodbye!!! :D