It is crazy how it is already the middle of the semester. It seems as if it goes by really fast. I have learned all sorts of things in this class. Like, how to analyze short stories, I have learned things about gothic literature that I have never known before. I have also enjoyed reading these short stories, even though sometimes they creep me out. I am also one of those people who enjoy reading though so that could have something to do with it! I have learned about so many new authors and I have learned new things about authors that I have already known about like Edgar Allen Poe. I would love to learn about other short stories that are not gothic literature. I know that with this being an online class I am not learning near as much as the students actually taking this course face-to-face but I like online classes because of the flexibility I have with them. In matter of fact, I do not mind writing the research paper. I enjoy writing things like that, maybe because I had an awesome professor last semester in English 1301 who taught us how to write them step-by-step. The only thing is that some of my classes are APA format and this one is MLA, which I like MLA better it sometimes just gets a little confusing.
“Hills Like White Elephants”
Ernest Hemingway had two younger sisters. In 1918 Ernest signed in to be an ambulance driver during World War I and received an Italian Silver Medal of Bravery while he was severely wounded. He had four wives throughout his lifetime. He committed suicide in Idaho in the summer of 1961. He is considered the “master of dialogue” because he only uses important information and leaves out dialogue tags. He uses things such as “it,” without referring what “it,” means. Most of his stories are in a dialogue format. At first I was not sure what the story was about. I read it at least three times before I started getting ideas about what they could possibly be talking about. Once I had my ideas written down I researched it to see if I was anywhere close and I surprisingly was. When the girl said the mountains looked like White Elephants that symbolizes that it is something no one wants; referring to the unborn baby. At the end of the story the girl sort of takes her comment back maybe meaning that she wants to keep the baby instead of getting an abortion, which is the operation they were talking about the whole time. The fact that at the end of the story the American man and the girl both drink alone implying that they will break up and go their separate ways.
“A Good Man is Hard to Find”
I enjoyed this weeks short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. It was a bit unusual but that just might be because I’m not use to reading things like this. The ending was shocking it definitely came out of nowhere. I would of never expected for them all to be killed and I especially thought that the misfit was not going to shoot the grandmother. I thought this because she kept telling him that he was a good man and I thought the misfit would fall for it and spare her life. She also was asking if he would shoot a lady and he said he would not like to. I guess I should have seen it coming though because the grandmother was all dressed up and the narrator states that, “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” The grandmother brings up the misfit when they are eating at “Sammy’s Famous Barbecue” and says that he would probably attack this place. I think the ending went along with the whole story and it sort of had a point to it. I think the grandmother was trying to help the family be happy because they seemed depressed and that they did not really care about anything even though she came off as annoying I believe she only meant good.
Blog Topic 2- Heather Lloyd
Honestly, they both had me a little uneasy about him once I read them. If I had to pick one I would pick “The Fall of the House of Usher.” I’d pick this one because it’s interesting how the things played out. He showed up at his childhood friends house where Roderick Usher and his sister, Madeline lived I’m assuming just to visit for a few days and then this dramatic turn of events occur. In Edgar Allan Poe’s writing I believe it reflects a part of him. He was put up for adoption and such so I’m sure that affected him. His short stories aren’t what I was expecting but they weren’t terrible. In “The Fall of the House of Usher” they buried Roderick’s twin sister alive, which the narrator did not even know that he had a twin sister but they were “childhood” friends. It did not really make sense to me how any of it could have happened actually.
Heather Lloyd
Blog 1
We have read “A Rose for Emily” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” this week. My perferred story was “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulker. William Faulker attended the University of Mississippi where he served as postmaster but the townspeople emitted him because they were not receiving their mail. He served during World War I with the Royal Canadian Air Force. His personal life was a struggle with money, even after he became famous.
The major character in this story is Miss Emily. She is this mysterious, but yet predictable, lady. She was raised to be that way. Her father wouldn’t allow her to marry. I said she was predictable because all of the town predicted her actions throughout the entire story; but she was still mysterious because no one was ever inside her house, except her servant, and towards the end she never left her house.
The theme of this story would be the sympathy that the town had for Emily. They were sorry that her father died. Then, they were sorry when her house smelt bad, and when she stopped coming out as often as she did. Then, they were sorry when she died. Last, they were sorry when they found out that Homer had passed on and they had found the gray hair on the pillow next to his corps.
The setting is in Miss Emily’s house. That’s important because she grew up her whole life in there. She loved and she lost everything she had let in in that very house. Even though garages and cotton gins had taken over the street. She still stayed there; all the way to her death.
heatherlloyd14 