My Favorite and Least Favorite Story

Out of all the stories we read, I would have to say Bradbury's "The Veldt" was my favorite. I also chose this one for my Film Adaptation paper. I found this story to be a fun and easy read. This story also reminded me of the Disney movie Smart House that aired years ago, but I loved it. As I was reading it, I kept relating it to that movie and it gave me a good mental image of what the Hadley's house would've been like.

My least favorite story was probably "Girl." Being one long, drawn out sentence, I just felt like it was a pointless read. Nothing about it intrigued me and I didn't understand the meaning of it. Maybe if there would've been more background information on the mother and daughter, it would've made more sense. To me, the story was just too underdeveloped. Overall, I liked the majority of the stories we read this session. I never thought I would enjoy them as much as I did!

The Man Who Was Almost a Man

In Wright’s “The Man Who Was Almost a Man,” the main character is a seventeen year old boy named Dave who considers himself almost a man. The story begins with him walking home from another days work in Mr. Hawkins field. In route to his house, he begins fantasizing over getting a gun and practicing shooting with the hopes that the other men won’t talk to him as if he were a little boy anymore. Although, when his wish finally came true, a disastrous event took place when he accidentally shot the mule, Jenny. Despite the damage that took place the first time he shot the gun, Dave remained intrigued with it. He snuck out in the middle of the night and gave the gun another shot. He loved the power that came over him when he pulled the trigger. He then proceeded to jump on a train with nothing but his gun.

The gun is very significant in this story. The whole story revolves around Dave and his long for a gun. Dave doesn’t want to be considered a child anymore. As readers, we learn that Dave associates manhood with owning a gun. For example, when he was talking to his mother, Dave said “Ahm almos a man now. Ah wans a gun” (Pg. 1612). This statement makes it very obvious that he feels as though the ownership of a gun will make others view him as a man, instead of a little boy. In order to gain respect from the others around him, he needed something in his power that he could have control over. Therefore, the solution was easy; Dave had to buy a gun.

A Worn Path

The author of “A Worn Path” tells the story from a third-person limited point of view. This point of view lets the readers think more themselves and allows the reader to sympathize with Phoenix, because her thoughts and actions are blatantly exposed. With third-person, the reader can view Phoenix from a distance and gain insight into other people’s perspectives.

I was most sympathetic towards Phoenix. She is an elderly black woman trying to take care of her sick grandson while living in a white world. She is also dealing with different kinds of conflict. The two conflicts I saw were Man vs. Nature and Man vs. Society. We see Man vs. Nature when Phoenix faces the hardships against nature while traveling along her worn path. As a black woman living in an all white world, Man vs. Society arises. The encounters with the hunter and the attendant show conflict between Phoenix and society.

The Lady with the Dog

In Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog,” Dmitry Gurov is the protagonist. He is not yet forty and has three children and a wife. He had been talked into marrying his wife in his third year at college, and now she looked twice as old as he did. Because he disliked being at home so much, Dmitry went on a vacation at a resort in Yalta. During his stay, he keeps seeing a lady walking around with a white Pomeranian. Eventually the two of them meet and start having an affair, even though both of them were married. Anna is Dmitry’s lover in the story. She is a young woman in her twenties who has also ventured to Yalta to get away from her dissatisfying life. When Anna and Dmitry first meet, readers learn that she grew up in Petersburg, but had gotten married in the town of S., where she had been living for two years. Once the affair began between Anna and Dmitry, she feels a great deal of remorse and fears that Dmitry will no longer respect her. She expressed to Dmitry that she has been deceiving herself for so long. She is married to an honest man, but claims he’s a “flunky.” The only reason she married him was to cure the curiosity that was burning within.

Dmitry’s character changes drastically from the beginning of the story to the end. Despite the fact he is a married man, Dmitry has been deceiving and unfaithful to his wife for a long time now. Because of this, he referred to women as the lower race. However, without women, he couldn’t exist simply because he was bored in the presence of men. In the company of women he felt more comfortable and at ease. When he first started the affair with Anna, he assumed it would be more of a casual acquaintance. He had learned from previous love affair experiences not to get involved because they always end badly. However, once the two had gone back to their separate cities, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. His character starts to change when he then goes to Anna’s city to find her. It was very unlike Dmitry to behave in such an spontaneous, romantic way, but he has finally realized that he has found true love and can’t live without her. In the end, he is willing to sacrifice everything in order to live openly with Anna. From beginning to end, Dmitry’s character transformed from a casual seducer to a man who is happily in love.

The Girls in their Summer Dresses

In Irwin Shaw’s "The Girls in their Summer Dresses," there are two different types of conflict presented that are causing Michael and Frances' relationship problems: Man vs. Man and Man vs. Self.

The conflict between Michael and Frances is Man vs. Man. The two of them are having an argument because Michael's tendency to look at other woman everywhere he goes. Frances doesn't understand why he has the need to do this when he says that he loves her very much and is happily married. As she keeps bring the subject up, Michael tries to explain himself, but even he is unsure as to why he looks at other women.

There are two different conflicts dealing with Man vs. Self: Michael vs. Himself and Frances vs. Herself. With Michael, he is having conflict with himself when he looks at other woman. In a sense, I think he knows it's wrong, yet he still continues to do it. While trying to explain himself to Frances, Michael states, “When I think of New York City, I think of all the girls...all on parade in the city. I don't know whether it's something special with me or whether every man in the city walks around with the same feeling inside him, but I feel as though I'm on a picnic in this city” (pg. 1338). When looking closely at France’s conflict within herself, you can see that she was hesitant to bring up this sore subject on their planned Sunday. After his first response, she tried to drop the subject and carry on with their day, but she continued to egg him on and search for more answers. In the end, when Michael had full exposed himself, she had finally heard all she wanted to hear and told Michael to stop talking about the pretty women and to keep it to himself. One might question whether or not Frances regretted bringing up the subject at all.

The Birthmark and Desiree's Baby

In the beginning of Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark,” Hawthorne describes Aylmer as a man of science who has a great love for his young wife, Georgina. However, soon after their marriage, Aylmer becomes troubled with the crimson hand that lies upon Georgina’s cheek and brings up the thought of having it removed. He said to her, “You came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection” (pg. 649). It had never occurred to Georgina to remove her birthmark because she was a woman of great beauty whom many men desired and viewed her birthmark not as a sign of her imperfection or flaws, but a kiss from an angel or a fairy marking. While she wasn’t troubled by her husband’s remark at first, but as his continual remarks on the removal of the birthmark begin to become more and more persistence, she too begins to develop a hatred for it as well, especially when she notices him reacting anytime her face becomes pale or flushed enough for the birthmark to appear intensely visible. Because of Aylmer’s blunt disgust for the birthmark, Georgina’s view of it is also altered. What she thought was seen as a “charm” was now a defect to her perfection. Eventually Georgina becomes equally obsessed with the removal of her birthmark mostly because she sees how its presence disturbs her husband so much.

Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby,” had many surprising twists in its plot. The story begins with the background information of Desiree herself. When she was a child, she was found sleeping in the shadow of a big stone pillar next to the gateway of Valmonde. Monsieur and Madame Valmonde, a wealthy couple in Louisiana, found Desiree and adopted her into their family. As she grew older, she married a wealthy man named Armand Aubigny. The two of them loved each other very much and eventually gave birth to a child. As months went by and the child grew older, they realized that the child wasn’t white. The child’s skin was part black. Armand automatically assumes that Desiree is part black because we are unaware of her origins, since she was adopted. He willing supports her decision to return to the Valmonde estate to be with her mother. Once she had left, he never saw her again. He created a huge bonfire to burn all of her belongings along with the letters she had written him before their marriage. While going through the pile of letters, Armand comes across a letter that his mother wrote to his father. In reading this letter, he discovers that his mother was black, meaning that he was the one who was part black, not Desiree. When I was reading this story, I didn’t expect this ending. It definitely added a twist to the plot. Overall, I enjoyed this one.

Everything That Rises Must Converge

Today I read Flannery O’Conner’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” The title itself in this short story has meaning. “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” is about a mother and her son, Julian. The mother is forced to take part in a reducing class at the downtown Y, due to her high blood pressure. However, because of the recently racially integrated bus system, she forces her son to ride with her. Throughout the story, the setting mainly takes place on this bus. As they make their way downtown, you can see the tensions rise between the mother and son when black men and woman board the bus. The mother discovers the black woman, whom boarded with the small child, is wearing the same hat as her. She tried not to think about that and instead focused on the cuteness of the little black boy. When Julian and his mother got off the bus at their designated stop, the black woman and her son followed. Julian’s mother was adamant to give the little black child a nickel. In her attempt to hand the child the coin, she found herself lying sprawled out on the sidewalk. A few moments later, she was dead. Through the exposure of the human weakness portrayed, O’Conner creates a message for the readers. Well known for her representation of Roman Catholicism, O’Conner attempts to reveal and uncover the sinful nature of humanity that goes unnoticed in the modern, secular world to her readers.

Good Country People

In Flannery O'Conner's "Good Country People," the symbolism of the chosen names is very apparent. In the story, certain names seem to hold some sort of meaning.

One example is Joy and when she changed her name to Hulga. After loosing her leg at the age of ten, she didn't feel as though she deserved such a name as Joy. Joy considered her name a personal affair. Originally, she had chosen the name based on the pure ugliness of it, but then she realized it had a deeper meaning. "She had a vision of the name working like the ugly sweating Vulcan who stayed in the furnace and to whom, presumably, the goddess had to come when called" (1215).

Another example of symbolism is through The Freeman's name. The Freeman's last name is ironic because they are not in fact free. Their social status represents the exact opposite of free. Oddly enough, The Freeman's work as tenant farmers for Mrs. Hopewell and are referred to as "good country people." Even though we read that Mrs. Freeman rests her elbow on the refrigerator every now and then, she is by no means a free woman.

As we look at the name Hopewell, we recognize that it's very fitting for Mrs. Hopewell. In the story, she portrayed a very patient woman who always looked at things optimistically. She had a few favorite sayings that she repeated throughout the story. These included "Nothing is perfect," "That is life," and "Well, other people have their opinions too."

Manley Pointer's name is also ironic. Flannery depicted this character as a tall gaunt youth named Manley, yet he was only nineteen years old.

Fiction and Social Networking

For the "Fiction and Social Networking" assignment, our group had the option to choose between "Blackberry Winter" and "A Spinster's Tale." Amongst the two stories, we chose to use Peter Taylor's "A Spinster's Tale" in our social network. After reading over both stories, we felt that "A Spinster's Tale" was the more appropriate choice for this assignment.

Taylor's "A Spinster's Tale" is about a motherless, young girl named Elizabeth whose father and brother are both drunks. She also has a neighbor, Mr. Speed, who was a drunk too. Even though her brother was a drunk, Mr. Speed put a different kind of fear into her than he did. In fear that Mr. Speed would enter her house, she continually sat terrified at the window on a regular basis waiting for him to show up on her doorstep.

I'm anxious to see how we can play around with this short story using a social network. This story has a lot of material that we can work with.

Angel Levine

Malamud's "Angel" has often been connected with the Biblical story of Job. The book of Job tells the story of a Godly man named Job. He lived in the land of Uz along with his seven sons, three daughters, and numerous servants. Job was a wealthy man. He owned a large number of animals that included sheep, camels, oxes, and donkeys. Job frequently offered sacrifices for each of his children in fear that they had sinned. The Lord tested Job by taking everything he had away from him. The animals, servants, and children were all taken out of Job's life.

After reading Malamud's "Angel Levine," it is easy to relate it to the story of Job. Like Job, Manischevitz was very well off. He was a fifty-one year old tailor living in New York. Due to a fire, caused by the explosion of a cleaning fluid container, he lost everything. This fire not only emptied his bank account, but it also the start to a series of bad events. Manischevitz lost his son to war and his daughter to a man she ran off to marry. His wife, Fanny, had been suffering from shortness of breath, which they later discovered was due to the hardening of her arteries at an advanced stage. Throughout these series of events, "He had remained somewhat stoic, almost unbelieving that all this had descended upon his head, as if it were happening" (911). Because he was a religious man, Manischevitz prayed and prayed, asking God why this was all happening. When the black angel appeared, he question whether or not he was real. Never giving up, he continued to question God why he had been neglecting his misery. He received a sign of hope when he was at the synagogue in Harlem. And it was then when he restored his faith in God.

Author's Note

Originally I had chosen to write my film adaptation proposal on "The Management of Greif," but then after reading "Veldt," I changed my mind. Upon the completion of the short story "Veldt," I knew right away that's what I wanted to write about. The story immediately caught my attention and engaged me while I was reading it. Because of it's appealing plot, there was a lot of potention to turn this into a full length film.

As of today, I'm now finished with my paper. It was difficult at times, but overall, I enjoyed this assignment and the opportunity to play with the plot.

Paul's Case

In the opening paragraphs, Cather paints a vivid picture of Paul's attire. He was wearing a jacket that was too small and fraying around the collar, a oral pin in his neatly knotted neck tie, and a red carnation in his buttonhole. Cather describes Paul as a tall, thin, boy with cramped shoulders and a narrow chest. "His eyes were remarkable for a certain hysterical brilliancy, and he continually used them in a conscious, theatrical sort of way, peculiarly offensive in a boy."

Later in the story, Cather uses the same detailed description for Paul's bedroom. His room is upstairs covered with horrible yellow wallpaper. Pictures of George Washington and John Calvin along with the framed motto "Feed my Lambs," hang over his painted wooden bed.

New York City is different for Paul because he gains a sense of freedom. He no longer has to be under the roof with his father. The only thing he liked about home was the theater and the shows because they made him feel free. So when those were taken away from him, he had to find it elsewhere which resulted in him going to New York. New York allowed him to be free from his father, his school, and his burdens.

Generational Conflict

In all three of the stories, I sided with the younger generation. There's something about children that make you want to be on their side. In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," Walker describes Maggie as the unnoticed sister who was always out shined by her older sister, Dee. Throughout her sisters visit, Maggie "stood nervously in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe." Knowing that she is nervous and ashamed to be in the presence of her own sister, I find it hard to believe that the reader wouldn't sympathize with Maggie or immediately side with her. I'm sure there are many of us that have felt betrayed or discouraged by the ones that they love and can relate to the way Maggie felt in this story.

Film Adaptation Proposal

For my film adaptation paper, I'm going to be writing about "The Management of Grief" by Bharati Mukherjee. "The Management of Grief" provides enough information to build a strong foundation for the film's plot. Because the short story gives us a good foundation to build upon, there are many areas where I can implement my own ideas to provide the viewer with more information about the plot and characters. In doing so, I will be able to turn this story into a full length film.

Minority Report

Surprisingly, I haven't seen the film Minority Report. However, I have read the first half of Philip Dick's "The Minority Report." Even though I haven't seen the movie, the story gives me a good idea of what it's going to be like. After reading the first half of the short story, I know that it is set in the future because of the technology of precrime. John Anderton, head of the precrime department, finds his name on a card that reveals he is going to kill a man he has never heard of before, Leopold Kaplan. Obviously, he knows he is being set up somehow. In order to make this into a film, I would add more character development because we don't really know much about the main characters. Also, when Anderton is given his new identity as an electrician, I would make into more of a chase since people are after him. Like in the Bourne Identity, when Jason Bourne is constantly being chased by the antagonist and continually changing his identity with hopes of not getting captured.

The Story of an Hour

"The Story of an Hour" portrays an hour in the life of Louise Mallard. In this hour, she is notified that her husband has been killed in a railroad disaster. Through this accident, a greater meaning and message to the story is revealed. When Mrs. Mallard was told her husband was killed, she immediately wept at once and proceeded to isolate herself by locking herself in a room. In this room, there was an open window that revealed things to her that she had never noticed before. The images she saw through this window gave her a sense of freedom and new life. She saw "A long procession of years to come that would belong to absolutely her." Her husband had deprived her of this kind of life, but now she was finally able to welcome this new life in with open arms. However, when her sister, Josephine, came to get Mrs. Mallard, the two walked downstairs. As they were walking downstairs, behind the opening front door was Mr. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard died at once.

The grief of Mrs. Mallard versus Shaila Bhave are handled in two very different ways. When Mrs. Mallard was notified her husband had died, she immediately started sobbing. Most of us go into complete shock when hearing new like that. However, with Mrs. Mallard, there was no moment of shock. She immediately locked herself up in her room so she could grieve alone. In contrast, Shaila portrays to the reader a different type of grieving. Shaila was seen as a strong woman. She was able to hold in her grief and keep relying on her sense of hope. While the medications she was taking could have contributed to this, She still remained calm and hopeful that she would find her husband and two sons.

"A Rose for Emily"

William Faulkner’s, “A Rose for Emily”, is set in the Reconstruction Era. During this era, the Civil War had just ended. Therefore, the physical setting in “A Rose for Emily” is greatly impacted by the time period.

After Miss Emily’s father’s death, the mayor, Colonel Sartoris, remitted her taxes. However, as years passed, a new generation came along with more modern ideas. The new generation of mayors and alderman wouldn’t remit Miss Emily’s taxes. They sent her notice after notice and she still refused to pay her taxes.

Northerners were also an addition to the South as a result of the Reconstruction Era. Homer Barron was a Yankee who migrated from the north to the small Mississippi of Jefferson to become a foreman. Homer was a “big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face.” He and Miss Emily had been seen around town spending a lot of time together. However, in the end it is implied that Miss Emily had killed Homer. His body was discovered in a room upstairs in Miss Emily’s house.

Hi I'm Addie McGraw. I was born and raised in Fort Worth, TX. I attended the University of Mississippi my freshman year of college, then transferred to TCU last fall. Now, I'm currently a junior majoring in Early Childhood Education. I love my major and enjoy the pleasure of being around children.

I'm taking this course to fulfil TCU's literary tradition requirement. I'm not a big reader, but I'm hoping that I will discover a new interest through the stories we read in this class. In college, I haven't had many literature classes. However, through my four years of high school, I had many experiences with fiction. Although reading isn't my favorite hobby, I hope to accomplish a better understanding of fiction. I also hope this class will provide me with literature that I find appealing and enjoyable.

In order to teach me well, I require lots of visual learning. I'm the type of person who needs to have the piece of work in front of me so that I'm able to make notes and highlight important points. I'm extremely organized so I like that you have already given us a class calendar. Because I'm so visual, I like having that to refer to.

I have read, understood, and agreed to the terms of the course syllabus.