“ The yellow wallpaper”

This story was very intriguing, almost like a horror story.  “ The yellow wall paper,” is about a woman who is suffering from depression, i take it after having a child, and is staying in a house temporarily with her husband who is a physician.  They stay in a room where the wallpaper is yellow.  
The women writes in her journal of how she is feeling,  but mostly about this ugly wallpaper.  She starts to hallucinate that there is a woman in the walls who moves the wallpaper mostly at night.  I believe the woman she sees is actually herself, trapped  like the woman in the walls. She describes herself being the woman and tears the wallpaper in the end, hoping to be set herself free.  I believe the wallpaper signifies her own feelings of being trapped, her depression taking over, she tries anything to be free of this emotional pain.

A & P

 The story is about a eighteen year old kid  who works as a cashier in a supermarket and notices three girls walk in wearing bikinis.  He was analyzing the girls, especially the girl he called “ Queenie.”  They get to the register and as they are about to pay , the manager comments on their bathing suits and how inappropriate it is to wear one in a supermarket. The girls leave and the young man quits his job.  I believe he was trying to be the hero to get their attention and realized once they were gone, that he did it for nothing.  Thinking before you leap is always useful.

“ Everyday use”

  The story “ everyday Use” by Alice Walker, is a story regarding a mother and her two daughters.  One of the daughters , Dee is a smart young girl who comes home from college to visit her mother and sister Maggie.  It seems Dee is embarrassed of her mother and sister and changes her name and personality.  She gets upset when her mother does not give her quilts made by women in her family.  She blames them for not understanding their heritage, but the irony is , they never changed who they were, Dee did.

“ A good man is hard to find”

     This story boggled my mind.  The story, “ A good man is hard to find,” by Flannery O, Connor is about redemption.  Life is not what it used to be.     Deception, lies and lack of respect is what this world has turned in to.  With masks of an angel, hides a person who cannot be trusted.  Only when their time is up, they try to find redemption.  This story has many shady characters starting from the lack of respect from a son, the disrespect from children, the grandmother who tries to manipulate her son and a man who tries to help, but ends up killing the family.  No one can be trusted and that is why “ A good man is hard to find.”

“ The lesson”

  I was intrigued by this story, “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara.  It begins with a girl and her friends wanting to enjoy the day, but instead have Miss Moore wanting to teach the adolescents a lesson regarding the difference between poverty and wealth. Miss Moore brings them to a toy store where the prices are extravagant. The price it takes to buy one thing from an expensive store, can feed an entire family.  The lesson being the injustices that people have to face and what it takes to change it.

“ Hills like white elephants”

As i was reading this story i felt like i was trying to figure out a puzzle.  The story begins in Spain. Where a  man and a girl is waiting for the train. They have a conversation regarding an “operation which happens to be referring to an abortion. They were deciding whether they should go through with the abortion.  I felt as though the man did not want the child, and the girl wanting to please him was willing to go through with it.  The character of the girl seems to be contemplating whether or not  she should abort it.  I can sense the girl is in fear of losing him if she decides to keep it.  She has to decide what is more important to her, the baby or keeping him.

“ The Story of an Hour”

I have read this short story a few times.  I tried to put myself in Mrs. Mallards place.  I needed to connect with her before i could understand the story.  I found this short story to be very interesting.  Mrs. Mallard is a fragile women due to her heart condition.  When learning of her husbands death, she is unable to accept his passing at first.  When she is alone with her thoughts and staring out the window, she notices “ new spring life” which indicates she understands that life goes on and she too must go on.  She starts to feel a little release and accepts her husbands demise.  I believe she loved her husband but i feel that she did not really know what love was.  Living in an era where women were dominated by men can have affect on a woman,especially feeling resentment.  Women had no say in their marriage.  Women were basically trapped, so i could understand when she felt “free, free, free.”  When she finally came to accept her new life and the years to look forward to as a free woman, in walks her husband unexpectedly.  The shock and her distress of her freedom being abolished was too much to bear and ended up killing her.  Ironically, she really was free.