Sea Oak

Sea Oak by George Saunders

Yuck, you rarely hear me say that about something I have read, but yuck. I am sure there are people who like reading such as this but not me. It is out of my box. Out of all of the writings I have read, this one is my least favorite. Sometimes slang language adds to the writing but in this one, to me it took away from the story. Actually, the subject matter was tacky. To get a full view of writers and their works I understand we have to read short stories, poems, and books that we disagree with the content. This one is most definitely high on my disagree with content list. I have to add, now I have been exposed to readings I would not have normally have been exposed to.

Raymond Carver

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

So with this story, I felt as if I was sitting in one of the chairs listening to the four talking about love. One of the first things I noticed was how Carver used the sunshine in the window all through out the whole story. At the beginning of the story, the sunshine filled the kitchen. You notice the four talked all day and into the night until the room went dark. I think there is something there. Carver did not put that in the story just for us to know what time of day it was. I am thinking it was about life in general. I know the story is about love but it is also about life and how we live it. Carver hit some heart strings with the story about the elderly couple. In this story he shows several types of love. The deep unconditional love an old man had for his wife and how he had become so depressed because he could not see her because of the wrappings on his face. Then you had the dangerous type of love that was described by Terri. I was appaulded at the idea that she could still care about Ed eventhough he tried to kill her and had threatened her. Actually, that is sort of an unconditional love in itself, stange as it may seem. Anyway, the four are sitting around drinking to the point where the day was gone and the Gin was also. They kept talking about going out to eat at a better place. I had to wonder if they were really taking about eating or were they talking about Heaven??? I guess, Carver knew the answer to that.

The Balloon by Donald Barthelme

I wish I had the time to really go through this one paragraph by paragraph. I can tell there is so much in the piece. The balloon starts off at Fourteenth Street in New York City. There is some personification involved with the balloon, “But experiencing a faint irritation at stopping...” The balloon continues through different sections of the city. At times children were jumping to catch it and then there were people who thought it was “interesting.” Hostility was mentioned and I wondered what type of balloon were we reading about? It evidentually was not for kids and it talked about the hidden gas valves. For some reason I am thinking we were in a recession at the time this was written. So is there a connection??? I think the “heavy feeling” might have been from the state of our country at that time. Could the protagonist be the people of NY and the antagonist be the economy???

The Man-Moth by Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth Bishop’s, “The Man-Moth”

Right off the bat with this one I can see there is a connection between man and the life of a moth. As I read I could see the relationship between a moth and a man. The man who is lonely and wanting to be loved, "He does not see the moon; he observes only her vast properties, feeling the queer light on his hands, neither warm nor cold, of a temperature impossible to record in thermometers." This sounded like someone who might be depressed; maybe just getting by. The Man-Moth is looking up at the moon,“He thinks the moon is a small hole at the top of the sky, proving the sky quite useless for protection.” I am thinking this is someone who is looking at the moon as a goal to shoot for, but the moth falls. “But what the Man-Moth fears most he must do, although he fails, of course, and falls back scared but quite unhurt.” This is why I am thinking he is, trying for something and just can not quite get to it. Even though it talks about the Man-Moth, I think it is talking about people in the subways going to and from work, "Each night he must be carried through artificial tunnels and dream recurrent dreams." Can't you see people getting into the subway going home at night dreaming of what they could do and wanting to do it? The line, "Then from the lids one tear, his only possession, like the bee's sting slips," this is a strong statement but I am still trying to figure this into the reading. I can not wait until tonight so I can hear other's ideas and comments on this one!

John Updike's A&P

“A & P” by John Updike

This is another piece that I could look at as actually taking place. Here this guy is doing his job at the A & P when suddenly he notices these girls coming into the store. He immediately knows they have come from the beach which is not too far from the beach. The rest of the story is about how he and others notice the girls and the bathing suits they have on. Usually, I see the antagonist somewhere in the beginning or at the middle, but with this story the antagonist comes toward the end of the story. Mr. Lengel did not approve of the girls attire in the grocery store and was ready to let them know. Sammy was the protagonist who was standing up to Mr. Lengel and in the end gave up his job to prove he did not like how the girls were treated. I think to begin with he thought maybe the girls heard what was going on but they just walked out. So why did Sammy go ahead and give up his job? Was it pride or did he feel some type of justification by doing what he did. I tend to think it was a little of both. Throughout the reading we see very discriptive words, for example, “Do you really think it’s a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glassjar?” This is a simile. Another simile is, “...this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light.” Updike used discriptive language to keep the reader’s attention and boy did he do a great job. Updike suprised me when he had Sammy say, ”All of the sudden I slid right down her voice into her livingroom.” Wow! That got my attention. That was a great way to transition to another place or another thought. This was another great read!!

Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing"

Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing”

This one tugged at my heart. Being the mother of four children, I could really feel for the mother. It is hard when you have small children. My first one was four when the second one was adopted and then we adopted two more at two years apart. A mother feels stretched; she feels exhausted and tired. This story really bothered me. The mother was going from work to taking care of children and then back to work. When I began reading this reading I could not understand the first line, “I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron.” Now, I understand that as she irons she is thinking about the past with each stroke of the iron. The story follows the life of the woman’s daughter, and the regrets the woman has had due to the distance (physically and mentally) that has been placed between her and her daughter. This is all due to living in a time and place where poverty was common place. “I Stand Here Ironing,” really bothered me. It troubled me to read it. I feel the antagonist in this piece is not a person but poverty. I have always looked at the antagonist as a person, animal, or another type of living thing and not a situation. The speaker or narrator would be the woman. We seen flashbacks throught out this piece which helps us understand what the woman, daughter, and the other children went through.

Why I Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty

“Why I Live at the P.O.”

Eudora Welty was able to capture a small town family in an exceptional way. There is so much drama in this story. I have to wonder, was there incest? When Sister mentioned how Shirley T looked like Papa-Daddy, she must have thought there was a sexual encounter between her dad and her sister, Stella-Rondo. No one jumps out to say anything about Papa-Daddy as far as incest is concerned. Wouldn’t you think someone would have made a “stink” about that if it were not happening???? Could Stella-Rondo have been pregnant with her daddy’s baby when she left and really never married Mr. Whitaker? Oh, and the pearl necklace, that sounded strange to me. It did not say her mom and dad gave it to her, it only said Papa-Daddy. Hmmm, sounds suspicious to me. What about the sentence, “Stella-Rondo just calmly takes off this hat, I wish you could see it?” Why doesn’t Welty say, “her hat?” What is up with that??? There has to be something there.Could this mean her past? Maybe she took it off and put it behind her, just as someone might put their past behind them. Once Stella-Rondo came on the scene, life for Sister changed. She could see how her family thought the sun rose and set on Stella-Rondo. I cannot help but think about the Prodigal Son in the Bible. He went off and lived it up while the others stayed home and worked. When he came home there was a feast and excitement from his father. I see the Post Office as Sister’s refuge. In this story the antagonist would be Stella-Rondo. The protagonist is Sister. The conflict is easy to see in this story. We see it as soon as Stella-Rondo comes home. The point of view must be Sister’s because the story is told from a first person view point.