Sad But Funny

Throughout the story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find", Flannery O'Connor uses irony more than once. One part of the story where irony shows up is when the family got in the car accident. It was ironic because they were on the unpaved road because the grandmother wanted to show the kids a house, but the house wasn't even located in the same state they were in. If the grandmother would have remembered what state the house was in, they wouldn't have had to drive down that dirt road. It is also funny that the grandmother caused the accident by scaring the cat, who jumped onto Bailey's neck while he was driving.

The crash was sort of forshadowed in the beginning of the story when the narrator said, "In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady" (366). And after the accident happened, the grandmother's hat was still on her head just like she would have wanted.

Another ironic event that happened was that one person that drove past the family on the side of the road was the Misfit, of course. This is ironic because the Misfit was the one and only person that the grandmother wanted the family to stay away from during their trip and they happen to run into him.

And of course, the last part of the story that was ironic was when the grandmother realized that the Misfit was one of her sons. It is funny that all along, the grandmother was trying to stay away from her son and she didn't even know it was him until he shot her.

All of these ironic points makes this story sad but funny at the same time. It is sad that the family got in a car accident and that one of the grandmother's sons killed his own family, but it is funny because how oblivious the grandmother was the whole time.

A Rose For Emily

While I was reading "A Rose for Emily", I saw all of the townspeople as being one character. The reason for this is because the narrator referred to the townspeople as "we all" throughout the whole story. For example, the narrator said, "So the next day we all said..." (471), when he/she was talking about what the townspeople thought after Emily bought the poison from the drug store. When the narrator does refer to the townspeople as "we all", it is at a point in the story where they are making an assumption about Emily. They try to predict what she will do next even though they dont know her. Throughout the story, they sneak around to spy on Emily to try to see what is wrong with her when they could leave her alone. It seems as though the townspeople have nothing better to do than to spy on an old woman. They even try to eaves drop on her relationship with Homer Barron and they make eachother believe that they are getting married just because someone saw her go into the jewelry store.

"Interpreter of Maladies"

There was more than one emotion running through me when I read "Interpreter of Maladies". At first, I was embarrassed and angry with the way the parents (mainly Mrs. Das) treated their children. When the tour started, Mr. and Mrs. Das were arguing over who should take their daughter to the bathroom because neither of them wanted to. After that, Mrs. Das decided that she needed to paint her nails in the car and her daughter wanted her nails painted as well, but Mrs. Das said, "Leave me alone. You are making me mess up." This nasty remark makes it seem to the driver as well as the readers that she is not qualified to be a mother, and more like an older sibling.

When the tour guide, Mr. Kapasi, started to take interest in Mrs. Das, it made me uncomfortable especially because her husband was right there with them the whole time.

It was sad to see the kids so excited to be on the tour, when the parents obviously didn't care at all. Mr. and Mrs. Das were not very nice to their children the whole time until after Bobby was attacked by the monkeys. After that happened, they seemed to act as if they cared more for eachother as Mrs. Das offered a bandaid, Mr. Das brushed the dirt off Bobby, and Ronny gave him a piece of gum. It was like something bad had to happen to one of them for the parents to show affection towards the children and realize that they love them.

How to Ride a Bike

You might want to start off by putting training wheels on the bike. You will probably also want to grab a helmet and a spotter, or someone who can be a witness to what happened when the paramedics come. After that has been situated, you can safely hop onto the bike, place your feet on the pedals, and press down in a circular motion, one foot at a time. If you want to go faster, simply press the pedals harder. If you are going too fast, and you are worried that you might crash into that upcoming mailbox, grab the metal brakes located on the handlebars and squeeze them toward you. You will probably need to ride around the neighborhood a few times until you feel comfortable. Once you do feel comfortable, you can take the training wheels off and practice riding that way. Then ride around your neighborhood a couple more times and if you haven't fallen off or crashed into anything, you will have mastered the skill of bike riding. Keep practicing and have fun!

Obsessed

The woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is secretly obsessed with the wallpaper that surrounds her bedroom. She doesnt realize this completely, but she does more toward the end of the story. When she first notices the paper, she felt hatred towards it as she exclaims, "I never saw a worse paper in my life." (514). After a while of studying the paper, she notices that, "There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down." (516). At this point, it seems as if the wallpaper has humanistic features and she almost considers it an aquaintance. When she was younger, at night she would think of a chair in her room as a strong friend. This makes it seem like she likes the wallpaper because it keeps her company while her husband is away all day.

Having to stay in that room almost all day and night is like being in jail. The bars on the windows act like bars in a jail cell, and John, her husband, won't let her take down the wallpaper while they are staying there. It doesn't seem like a good place for a sick person to stay especially since she can't stand something that surrounds the whole room.

Another metaphor in this story is how alike she and the wallpaper are. They are both sickly looking and they are both run down. This is another reason why she is secretly obsessed with the paper, because they have things in common.

Denial

In "Sonny's Blues" James Baldwin uses the term 'denial' as a theme throughout the story. Only one character attains this trait and he is the narrator. There are four main parts of the story where the narrator shows us that he is in denial. The first time is when he first reads the newspaper which tells him the bad news about his brother. After reading the article a couple times, he says, "It is not to be believed and I kept telling myself that..." (88). Here, the narrator doesn't want to believe that something so horrible as his brother being in rehab could be possible.

After reading about his brother, Sonny, the narrator has to go straight to the school where he teaches algebra to young boys. As he stares at his students, he starts thinking that whether he knows it or not, these kids could be doing drugs in the bathroom right behind his back. But again, he doesn't want to believe that these kids would ever do the things Sonny did to get himself into trouble.

Later in the story, the narrator flashes back to when him and his brother were younger and his Mama tells him a story about how his father's brother died. His Mama was telling him this because she wants him to look out for his brother if she dies. After she tells him this, he says, "I guess i didn't want to believe this." (97), which proves that he is in denial about his brother being a troublemaker. The narrator ends up promising his Mama he won't let anything happen to his brother, but deep down, he still didn't believe that anything bad could possibly happen.

When the Sonny had almost finished school, he told the narrator that he wanted to play jazz music to make money. The narrator doesn't believe that Sonny can play the piano and make enough money to support himself because he had never played the piano before. Even though he is trying to look out for his brother like he promised his Mama, he doesn't believe that Sonny could play that kind of music without getting himself into trouble.

Throughout the story, denial is written all over the narrators forehead and he doesnt realize it until the end. Not only did he deny to himself that anything bad could happen to someone he loves, but he also didn't believe that Sonny would succeed in playing the piano. Lucky for him, he finds out how good Sonny is at playing jazz music and how it made him feel.

First blog ever

Hey, I am Brittany Damschroder and this is the first blog i have ever written. I am a freshman and i live in the dorms with my best friend from high school. I am from Saint Joseph which is only about 50 minutes from kalamazoo. I havent yet declared a major, but I am considering one that deals with animals because i love animals. I generally dont enjoy english classes, mostly because im not the best at writing, but I am excited about this class because I love to read.