blog 4

The Chrysanthemums By John Steinbeck and the Cathedral by Raymond Carver were two great stories. In Steinbeck's short story he uses alot of symbolism and gets the meaning across mostly how woman felt earlier in time when they werent looked at as equals to men. I got this from the fact that even as the story starts it even describes the ranch as being "Henry Allens foothill Ranch" even though he is married. As the story goes on there is a incident where the husband is talking to two guys in suits and made a buisness deal and didnt even include his wife and I think she didnt even know about it till after the fact and she asked HIM what the  two guys were there for, she wasnt treated as equal or partner in her relationship. I also think the flowers that Elisa planted symbolized her strength and intellegence as a woman because chrysanthemums are one of the tallest growing flowers and the strongest, and in the story it even describes her scissors as powerful and the stems seem to easy and small for her energy, I think that also symbolizes her as being a strong woman. Also the clothing, her outfit she used to garden, a mans black hat, clod-hopper shoes, and a big apron, you associate all this with masculine, in turn associate it with a man meaning intellegent, strong. And independent. The meaning of these clothes on Elisa was the idea that she and all women are as capable as men. When her husband left and the guy came and talked about all the things he did like fix pans and sharpen items and stuff I think is when we got a real look at Elisa's independence, will, and power,  she got really mad and defensive when the man first pulled up and asked her about directions and she told him, but I felt that he sort of questioned her answer when he first said "it might surprise you what them beast can pull or when he said " I aint in no hurry" I just felt everything she was saying he disagreed. I also feel that Elisa is sick of being treated like an inferior just because she is a woman and I don't see it when she is interacting with her husband but when she interacts  with the traveler man. I see this in some of her reactions like when he said he sharpened knives she comment the fact her knife was already sharpened and she doesn't need his help I also think the meaning for this was  she is her own woman and can handle her own. Another symbolic meaning in the story was when she told the drifter guy how to plant and raise these chrysanthemum flowers, her whole attitude changed after that " her eyes grew alert and eager" in this moment explaining the process of taking care of the flower, the process, water it, and how to transfer it I felt that was her strength and gift and I think it was meant to represent woman as a whole like look I am smart, I can do something on my own woman can stand up tall and strong just like the flower. Good story! Another story was the Cathedral which I really  loved, I felt this story meaning focused more on human ignorance and also acceptance. The narrator in the Cathedral is the husband and I know this because he says I a lot, through this whole story I think the husband is a bastard and he treats his wife like he doesn't love he'd in my opinion, more like he just like her if that. I see this because even at the beginning he talks about her friendship with this blind man and she wrote a poem and he goes on to say "I can remember I don't think much of the poem, anyway" throughout the story he is real dismissive about anything not containing to him like when he said he was gonna take the blind man bowling and he asked if his wife was a negro because her name was Beulah and he wasn't really compassionate about the wife passing. He was just a real ignorant shallow bastard. I believe the irony in the story was that the the friend was technically blind but the husband was the one that was really "blind" to his own ignorance. Saying things like blind people don't smoke and how can he be married to someone you can't see. I believe a really crucial time in the stories meaning was the incident when the husband asked the blind man if he had a tv, and to me this represented the period of time when there was racial discrimination laws and I also knew when the husband uses the word negro that it's during a time when segregation was "right", and when the blind man answered he has two and he always turns in the colored tv and for me I think that represents change and when he speaks bout the black and white he calls it old like in old ways we need to change. I don't know what I take from the ending I think after getting to know the blind man the husband kind of realized he misjudged and he is wrong and that was him closing his eyes and when he said "it's really something" but that's what I got from that.

blog 3

In "The story of an Hour" the setting took place in the 19 century at a house I know this because back in those days when men, military men, or important people died they would print there death in the newspapers and also send telegrams to the wives just like what happen in the story, the setting also takes place in a house like when the narrator mentions mrs Mallard going to her room after finding the news that her husband died. This story somewhat confused me because as a reader  I know Mrs Mallard loves her husband, in the story it goes over and over about how she weeps for him, and after she hears about the death she cries and goes to her room all by herself and sits in a chair and stares out the window. To me the setting gave a since of pain, a usual reaction to someone greiving the loss of a loved one, by incorporating this the story becomes more sad and I also felt the story was slow paced and that to made the story seem a little more sad. What I feel about the story was that obviously Mrs Mallard loved her husband are she wouldnt have reacted the way she did but she also kind of felt a sort of freedom when she thought he was dead because in the story "she said it over and over under her breath: free free free'. However I do not think she wanted to feel that way I actually think she was sort of scared and confused that she was having this feeling of being "happy" or a since of relief that he was dead, I got this from the fact that in the story it describes something was reaching for her and she did not know what it was that she was begginning to recognize it and after repeatedly whispering free free free she was terrified and had a blank stare on her face. She didnt know how to take that feeling if it was monstrous or not to feel that way and towards the end of the story it seemed that she was more excepted of the feeling and had admitted that she would again cry for him but she was excited for the years to come and welcomed it. After awhile I think she was actually looking forward to it for example her summers and spring days she was so looking forward to. I personally think the real reason she died was because her husband had showed up and he really wasnt dead so all that free wishful thinking was gone and she probably felt trapped or depressed or however sshe felt, but the same feeling came back to her so she probably died from shock are something of the sort. Another story I really liked was the "Hills Like White Elephants" I think the setting was a good factor in setting the mood, when I thought of the setting, two people at a train station having a conversation, gave a since of loniness and confusion, like which direction are we going. The whole time reading the story I was curious and excited to learn more and more I really wanted to know what they were talking about. The crazy thing about it that even though they never said abortion right out I could feel what they were talking about, I thought to myself they are talking about abortion I have heard this conversation before, not nevering haveing had one myself, but the tone and the clues made it more then enough information to catch on to what they were talking about. I can say it was probably easier for a woman to catch on quickly because it is such a sensitive topic and discussion, just being woman you have thought about it, if your against it or not you have thought about it and have an opinion about it. This story touched me as a female and and it was even a little sad I thought because you can tell by the way the woman speaks and she really doesnt know what she wants to do and is really worried, it really piss me off when the guy keeps insisting its the right thing to do. he says stuff like its an "simple opearation" and he keeps assruring her they will be fine. It really makes me angry several times she ask if he loves her and if he would love her if she keeps it, the story was so realistic and I actually felt I knew those people and this is stuff that happens all the time the author did an amazing job. Overall the stories were all good but I ecspecially liked these two.

Jessica Blog 2

I thought all the short stories were good but "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "An Occurrence at owl creek bridge" by Ambrose Bierce were two of my favorites. I was shocked by the ending of "The Lottery", Jackson really lull her readers into thinking that the story was going to be a little ordinarily happy story with a happy end, being that the story starts off describing the village and how its little and talks about how the kids are in school and playing, the adults chattering, husbands spending time with their wives the author also gives an description about the weather how it was sunny and bright in the middle of summer, a reader would have never anticipated a more horrific ending. This short story consist of Irony, for example in the Title itself; "The Lottery" you automatically assume the story is going to be about someone winning money or someone's life changing for the better, and even when Tessie was picked as the "winner" is a type of Irony because most the time when someone is picked in a raffle are drawing of some sort the "winner" is usually given something or benefits in some way, but in this story that wasn't the case. I believe in this story the point of view was in 3rd person because the narrator did not participate in any action as one of the characters, however im not sure if I think the point of view is omniscient because the narrator didn't really tell information about the characters, I felt the narrator didn't know everything about the characters, like for example the author would say "all of the children' or "The men and woman" and yeah there were some significant like Summers, Tessie, etc. but I actually did not know much about them except they live in the same village, I related to none of them more then the the other. I think Jackson made that a point and used this strategy on purpose and I think the story benefited from it because its like all of the characters are just as valuable are even as UN-valuable as one another, meaning that anybody's name could have been picked from that box, none of them were above or below it all, nobody was safe. Using this strategy the author creates suspense and doubt. The author also misleads in the the title, the first paragraph and also through the story leaving the readers flabbergasted as the story unfolds. On the other hand "An Occurrence at owl Creek Bridge" was not as much as a misleading story, I felt the story started off cold and dark and ended that way. This story was also in 3rd person but more towards limited omniscient point of view, I think this because the narrator knew a lot of information about this guy Peyton, he was a plantar and a slave owner he was married with a kid and for the most part was an OK guy, a guy you wouldn't think placed in the predicament he was facing. The author also gave really descriptive details about the hanging, how Peyton fell into the water he could feel it, he could hear the gun shots and his watch ticking which I think represented his death. This made the story more suspenseful. I love how Ambrose Bierce told the story I think it was really spiritual and sort of represents death and after life as well as one's mans love for his family when he was being hung and he thought about his family and how he wanted to see them again one last time, I think the part with him escaping and going through the forest and going back home and seeing his family like if nothing happen signifies his last unfinished business, kind of like he had to see them before he goes and he got to to him he got to see them and then at the end the bright light came and he was hanging from the tree. I think the light represents his "passing" not his death but his passing. Either way the stories were both really good and I liked both.