The Lesson

"The Lesson" takes place in New York's inner city. The fictional story begins with a group of poor, uneducated, lower class city kids standing in front of a mailbox, preparing themselves for another day of being taught by Mrs. Moore. Mrs. Moore felt that it was her duty to help underprivileged children learn because she was one of the only women in the neighborhood to earn a degree. Sylvia, the main character in the story, tells the story in a first person narrative. Sylvia is a young African American girl, probably around fourteen years old, who is very judgmental about the world around her. The story surround the issue of discrepancies between poverty society and the wealthy society.

A&P John Updike's

John Updike's short story “A&P,” centers on a young immature and morally ambitious teenager who faces down the generation gap and, rather than bending to the dictates of the elders, rebels against them. The meaning of a&p is about conformity, and breaking free from the straight and narrow. The girls represent freedom and individuality, and the store and people within it represent conformity. Sammy is the person struggling to find his place in all this.

A Worn Path

Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" is a story that emphasizes the natural symbolism of the surroundings. The main character in the story, Phoenix Jackson, is an old black woman who seeks out to find medicine for her sick nephew. This story contains a motif, which is the continuous walking of Phoenix Jackson throughout her journey. She lives in the pinewoods and faces the challenging experience of walking through the snowy, frozen earth to get to the hospital in the city of Natchez. Phoenix Jackson is a very caring person, and is in love with life. Although she is very old, it seems that she has many years ahead of her. Eudora Welty brings realism into the story describing the realities of being old.

A good man is hard to find

The story "A Good man is hard to find" is mainly focused on prejudice and intolerant Grandmother. Who believes that people of good character are bred by "good families", and she's self-righteous enough to believe she, of course, comes from a good family. This attitude gets her whole family killed as well as herself. She has spent her life concerned with only what she wanted, never thinking of what others needed. This all changes when the Misfit sticks the gun in her face. Its to bad that she was a little to late to be graceful.

A Hungry Artist

A Hungry Artist by Fanz Kafka, is such a weird and complex story that I had to read it again! I was inspired on how a short story about an artist making himself hungry be so simple but yet complex? The story start out on describing about fasting artist, who spends his time in a cage being a public display being a spectacle. Weird as it is he was a big hit but still was never satisfied with his performance. ( This reminds me of the rich and the famous, NEVER SATISFIED lol!) " Hunger Artist was misunderstood, and so was his vision of transcendence and artistic excellence was which rejected or ignored by the public.

What made me interested in the story was that he was able to be loyal to himself. He dare not to cheat and did it because it was something he believed in. He reminded me of godly-like character that surpassed human nature. It's ironic how things turned out for the hungry artist, finally when someone finally notices his ability to starve and give him some recognition it was just too late.

Young Goodman Brown

Young Goodman Brown is a story about good vs. evil. How ironic, right on Halloween. Anyway what makes Young Goodman Brown so drawn to see the evil? What makes us humans want to see the bad in the world? Why are we so more interested in the bad then the good in people? I ask these questions, because I wonder what makes us want to join the dark side? Is it because we are tempted with our curiosity on how it feels or is it just the influence we get from the T.V shows we watch. If you think about all our T.V shows are only about sex. drugs and Rock n Roll. Will lol not Rock n Roll but murder, or some type of death. If you think about it T.V influence us so much that people start wanting to be what they see on T.V. I bet you tonight I am going to hear the door bell ring and see trick treaters dressed up as Obama's and Palin's. Over all the story had a lot of meaning full symbolism and that's what made it good.

The Purloined Letter

In the story "The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allen Poe, was another detective stories that was about prefect, a frence police dective being bewildered on where are the where abouts of a stolen letter that was stolen from the Queen of france. This letter has high importance and puts the Queen in a uncomfurtable postion. The police investage but are mislead, by using logical methods that are based solely on past experience and established systems of thought. Their investigative methods reflect the types of rational thought prevalent in the mid-nineteenth century. In the end, the police are unsuccessful in finding the letter because the thief has hidden it in the most unexpected place right under their noses. Dupin figures this out and recovers the letter, turning the political tables on the thief. This story was surprise for the fact that Edgar Allan Poe is reconqized as a great horror story writer. I was expected some thrills and chills but nontheless it was worth the read.

The Use of Force!

One would have thought this would be a normal check up, but turned out to be much more. William Williams exposes a psychological covert about the characters he writes about. William writes “Oh yeah? I had to smile to myself. After all, I had Already Fallen in love with the savage brat”. What does this exactly mean? In my opinion, he enjoyed struggling with the little girl, it turned him on. It made him feel good overpowering her. What’s your opinion, do you think he was just being a kind, worried doctor or he had different intentions? I would like to know what you guys think?

Hills Like White Elphants

Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills like white Elephants" is about a young couple converstating about an abortion. Jig, the female character is being persuade by her boyfriend (the American) to go through with the operation, making it seem like it isn't a big deal. He states "I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. Its really not anything. Its just to let the air in." Not so certain of what to do, she asks her boyfriend if he loves her and if she does go on with the operation, everthing will go back to normal as it was before.

Its seems that the boyfriend is not really interested in having a child because he keeps ordering more drinks for him and jig. We all know that drinks and pregrant women don't mix and no one seems to care. It's obvious from the text that the girl loves her boyfriend very much and if the boyfriend would keep on insisting that she have an abortion, the girl would probably do it. The girl believes that her love for her boyfriend would be an acceptable reason to have an abortion. However, deep inside her heart, the girl knows that she would rather not go through with the operation.

The Yellow Wallpaper

"The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Gilman, was a bizarre but interesting short story that through me to the wall. In the beginning of the story we were told that she is suffering from a nervous condition and feels unwell. Her husband John, who also is her doctor denies that anything is wrong with her but nonetheless she has to “have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day”, weird? Why are her husband and brother denying the fact that something is wrong with her? In my opinion, I think they just didn’t know how to deal with it and kept thinking that she will get better. Why to you think they were so in denial?

As the story progresses, she is more, and more fantasized about the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom. She hallucinates about the women in the wallpaper changing the designs on the wall at
night and also thinks the woman crawls away to fast to see her in the day time. This makes me believe that the woman on the wallpaper is a mirror image of herself for the fact that the woman is trapped, just like she is trapped, not able to do anything about her condition or her
life. This is a story that I hope I never get to relate too or experience!

Are married couples happy?

As I started reading the story, “ The Story of an Hour”, I had one thing in mind- this is going to be another tragic heartbreak story. Well, was I wrong. As I read on, things truly unveiled and a question popped up in my head. “Are married couples really happy?” . Well, lets twist things up. We know how Mrs. Mallard felt about the relationship but lets say hypothetically if the story continued would Mr. Mallard feel the blue’s or in reality would he have felt the same way as Mrs. Mallard did. We would never know, but nonetheless, I see, as an American, I feel I meet more and more people whose parents are divorced. Why are married couples not happy?

Mrs. Millard felt she had a fresh look in life and shows her new attitude of “out with the old and in with the new” within a matter of a hour. She prays for longer life to come but yesterday felt as life was long enough. She felt now she has a chance to be free. I feel Americans are quicker to dispose their spouses than fix things through.