The Lame Shall Enter First

I find it interesting that Sheppard, the father, makes a comment or thought about his son regarding his wife's death and it had only been a year since his mother's death and the boy was almost 11years ago. To me in this one passage of this story sums up what the story is about. How can anyone expect a 10 year old to fully copy with the death of their mother? This thought in itself tells me that the father is not coping at all with the death of his wife. The father so paralyzed with grief..thrusts himself into his work and helping who he deems as needing, in this case a boy named Rufus. The interest the father seems to have in this other boy is that he is needy. He has a clubbed foot, one leg is shorter then the other. However, the descriptions of his own son are not any better. His son had large round ears that hung down, and faded out blue eyes and one was a lazy eye. So in the descriptions of the boys they are the same, however one has his needs met, which in the eyes of Sheppard equates to having EVERYTHING and other boy has nothing but an IQ. The theme of the story to me would be that you do not know what you have until it is gone. This can been seen in the next to last paragraph of the story. I personally did not enjoy this story and at the beginning of my 1102 class and this one, I was really starting to enjoy what I was reading to really going back to hating it because the stories in my opinion are sooo blase and blantenly obvious.

Everything That Rises must Converge

This story could be titled; everything that rises must fall. On the surface this is a racial story of a white bigot woman and the indifference she has towards her son. But looking closely there is something deeper. Julian's mother is never named during the story and she is referred to as her or Julian's mother. This character is portrayed as a "well to do" white southern lady. Her blood line as discussed on page 395 states that her grandfather was a former governor of state. So if this woman is SO "well to do" why isn't she named? She is proud to have an apartment in a neighborhood where each house has a "narrow collar of dirt around it and in which sat, usually, a grubby child" (394). Now it states in the story she is a widow raising a child alone....and that the son has gone to college but over and over again it is stated that Julian would "make a living some day..but he knew he never would" (394). This is the story of a woman who has had everything taken from her, even with the best of intentions her own son. He obviously did not turn out the way she had intended and this culminates throughout the entire story. I think the "coloreds or Negros" are the mother's outlet of her own lack of self worth. The black people that are portrayed on the bus are strong characters and one even wears the same hat. To me this is significant.

A Pair of Tickets

I really enjoyed "A Pair of Tickets". There is so much packed into this short story it is hard to know where to start. The theme of the story is that you can not run from who you are and your heritage. In the story, the main character desperately wants to NOT be Chinese but the story opens with her realization that her mother was right, " My mother was right. I am becoming Chinese"(157). The tone and the symbols that are used when the mother is talking during the story; the words are written to read as if someone of Chinese decent would be saying them. As the story continues we follow Jing-Mei travel back to China to meet her 2 sisters that she never knew she had. As much as Jing-Mei started off thinking she did not want to be anything resembling Chinese....the closer she gets to China the more "right" she feels. However everything in the story seems to clinic which Jing-Mies new found interest. When Jing-Mei and her father get to Guangzhou and meet up with her father's sister, she wants to enjoy "Chinese" things; the family, however, wants to stay at the hotel to eat hamburgers. Everything about their meal is American, "sharing hamburgers, french fries, and apple pie a' la mode". There is also the contrast in the descriptions of the train station at Guangzhou as seen here, "the landscape has become gray...." (160) and at the end of the story after the meeting of her two sisters in Shanghai it is describes as, "The gray-green surface changes to the bright colors of our three images..."(171). The importance of this is the transformation and acceptance that Jing-Mei goes through.

Girl

Overall, the theme of "Girl" seems to be that you give your children all of the guidance you can and ultimately it is up to them to decide for themselves what is right and wrong. The story starts off with a "laundry list" of rules that the main character is reciting to herself as she travels to the bakery. The idea of the "laundry list" is significant because rules pertaining to laundry are the first rules that are recited. As the story progresses these rules seem to speed up forming the climax of the story. The rising action are the culmination of all of the rules and it peaks with the references of "this is how to make good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child...."(493). The rising action is also shown in the punctuation that is used. The aurthor use of ";" vs individual sentences I think is very important. The climax is when the main character says, "this is how to make ends meet; always squeeze the bread to make sure it's fresh" (493). The conclusion of the story is found in the last line with what I feel would be a reflection of the main character in response to something they did wrong or feel they have done wrong, as seen here, "...after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?" (493).

How much is enough.

There are 9 individually labeled sections to this short story. Nine normally represents harmony and patience and I even found it to represent the reward for successfully passing "tests", which is ironic for this story since the complete opposite happens to the main character. During each section Pinot is tempted or tested by the devil himself and each time the devil wins. The main character starts off in each section highly successful but for numerous reasons ends up on the losing end of the situation each time by his own doing. This perception of loss is only perceived by the main character and becomes the driving force in his downfall. This deception occurs in various ways; destruction of his property by others due to the close proximity of land plots, jealousy and in the end his own greed for more. If the "peasant" had been happy with his life and what life provided for him, he would have lived a very rewarding life. However the adage things are always better over the hill or the next town over caught the main character's attention. There are also biblical references as well with the devil himself playing his antics in this story. An idle mind is the devil's playground and this definitely comes into play throughout all 9 sections of this story.

The Loons

We talk about symbols and inner meanings in a story and when I went back through and started to dissect this story I find tons. Right from the very beginning in the description of the place where the Tonnerres live is described in an unfavorable light. Everything about the description has negative connotations to it. The river was brown. Normally one would think of the sound of a river aqs being soothing but in this story it is said that the river is noisy. The trees that line the property also are symbolic. If you look at pictures of scrub oaks, the branches of this particular oak are all twisted; the tree itself is not very pretty to look at. Then the arthor describes the grey-green willow tree. willows have the representation of weeping and in this case the meaning of saddness.(198) Later on in the story the arthor talks about how the children of this family would panhandle by knocking on the doors of the town's brick houses.(199) The use of the term "brick houses" also cements in the arthors description of the different between what is perceived as "normal people' and who are labeled as "half-breeds" in this story. (199) In comparision the land and description of the lake house are in direct oppostion of that of the Tonnerres homestead. I find it interesting that even though the Macleods are considered acceptable, the author makes a unique reference to their lake house having no name like the others. (200) I think in a small way the arthor is trying to show us, the readers, we are all alike in some fashion. The description of the lake house and the surrounding area are in direct contrast of the aurthor's description of the Tonnerrer homestead. Here the arthor talks about the filigree of the spruce trees, the water glistening greenly as the sun caught it. (200) But then again the arthor makes a point to describe raspberry plants as being sharp-branched. (200) Maybe this is a reference to how "normal" people are towards what is considered an outcast, half-bred; with sharpness and bitternesss. Even the beauty of the strawberry is clouded with the reference of the hairiness of the stems. On the surface this story seems to be about someone who has been put down all their life and never really is able to rise above that. The deeper meaning found in the symbolism in this story seems to be we are all alike whether we like it or not and we all have a choice and must live our lives with those choices.

Sonny's Blues

Looking first at the title, "Sonny's Blues" a reader can discern quite a bit about the story. Combine the title with the date in which this particular story was written, 1957, a reader can almost anticipate some sort of racial tension. The era in which this story was written was at the heart of the Civil Rights movement, as well as, an influx of at the time, socially unacceptable music called the "Blues". One can also expect tension in the story to include something that may or may not be considered "socially acceptable". In this short story all of this is correct. This particular short story is about two Africian American brothers living in New York City. There are many different conflicts that take place in this story, there is the human verses human element that exsists between the two brothers, human verses self, and also human verses society. This story revolves around the disfunctional relationship these two brothers share and the willingness of the older brother to except his brother for who he is. The story opens with a fantastic use of imagery where the older brother hears about his brother being arested and the burning sinsation he experiences which reflects how one might feel while taking drugs as seen in this passsage "A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there slowly...." (47). This is the first time the older brother has any insight into his little brother's feelings. Based on the title the story, the story does revolve around the narrater's brother, Sonny and his musicial aspirations and the acceptance of his older brother. The description of lighting is used through the story. Racial tension is see in the story of their father and how he was killed on a street lite with moonlite as seen in this passage "....into the road, in the moonlight." (56) Shadows are cast upon Sonny while looking out the window talking with his brother and finally at the end when the light formed a halo as seen here, "it glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling." (70)