The reading from this semester that I found the most meaning in would have to be “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates. I relate with this story because I’m still a young girl, myself. I see a lot of the tendencies I used to have in the main character, Connie. Personally, I have met people similar to all of these different characters in this short story and it was easy for me to visualize them. This story acts as a blatant and terrifying warning to identify strangers, no matter what. It’s hard to remind yourself of your naivety without it smacking you in the face. I think it’s important to listen to your gut, as people say. Not only did it impact me, it provided an extremely valuable message which, in most cases, I believe is one of the most important take-aways from a short story.
Isabella Sena
In The House on Mango Street, the vignette that connected most with me and the other readings we have read this semester is “Alicia Who Sees Mice”. It discovers the theme of lack of equality in gender relations. We learn that Alicia’s mother died recently and left her feeling the responsibilities of the house since that was the order that was expected. Her father, in a very old fashioned way, warns her of the mice around her (I imagine they symbolize success). But, Alicia takes “Two trains and a bus, because she doesn’t want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin”.
In “The House on Mango Street” written by Sandra Cisneros, the vignette that connected most with me and the other readings we have read this semester is “Alicia Who Sees Mice”. It discovers the theme of: lack of equality in gender relations. We learn that Alicia’s mother died recently and left her feeling the responsibilities of the house since that was the order that was expected. Her father, in a very old fashioned way, warns her of the mice around her (I imagine they symbolize success). But, Alicia takes “Two trains and a bus, because she doesn’t want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin”. She is afraid of that life. I found the wording of “four legged fur” interesting, it made me think of cleaning on your hands and knees, 4 limbs towards the floor. I don’t know if that was intentional but I found it interesting. As a woman, I can relate to this vignette easily. The limitations based on gender identity are still common in the present day.
The psychoanalytic view on this story plainly addresses the dangers of narcissism not only in children, but adults as well. This was one of the more prominent themes between both Snow White (Grimm’s Fairytale Version) and Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment. The paragraph that stood out to me as a theme between the two follows as: “The story of Snow White warns of the evil consequences of narcissism for both parent and child. Snow White’s narcissism nearly undoes her as she gives in twice to the disguised queen’s enticements to make her look more beautiful, while the queen is destroyed by her own narcissism” In this quote, Bettelheim connects the queen’s successful attempt to entice Snow White to the fact that Snow White fell for it because she was blinded by her own narcissism.
Regarding the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, I understand why Rena Korb interprets it as an “inverted fairytale”. It highlights a teenage girl, Connie’s, naivety and vanity as she grows into a young woman, craving independence (her family-life doesn’t exactly help with that either). She soon became familiar with Arnold Friend and Ellie who had seemingly been stalking her and had learned things about her she never revealed. Unknown to Connie, Arnold is manipulating her, faking this folksy persona to a degree that you suspect he’d spent years perfecting. Personally, around this time, it’s getting hard for me to contain my emotions as I can understand the physical jolt she implies from her bubbling anxiety as she finally sees what the man in the backseat looks like. To relate back to the inverted fairytale angle, I would say the typical prince charming is alluring and persistent (somehow not seen as creepy) as where Arnold Friend can be interpreted as the embodiment of evil as the implication at the end of the story is spoken for.
What most impacted my view of poetry from this week was the How to Read a Poem article. I’m only just realizing that you need some sort of guidance to understand leveled (mostly artistic) media. I’ve learned, like all interesting media, you must learn how to interpret information in an accurate and cohesive manner. Making things too convoluted can easily muddy your thought process and the subject matter itself. I’ve always had trouble understanding the lineation within poetic stanzas but this article showed a perspective that played close to my interests. As a rhythmically focused person, I enjoyed the part in the article that mentioned the relationship between music and poetry. “Some poets think of their words as music flowing from a horn; they think of phrases the way a saxophonist might.” For me, this is a great tip to keep in mind when reading artful writing.
During an earlier time period, women were not on equal footing with men. The Story Of An Hour by Kate Chopin and The Wife by Emily Dickinson relate heavily to this theme since they both address the unhappiness of the oppressed woman. At the time, a woman’s main goal was to find a husband and sustain a family. In more cases than not, the wife would wind up miserable and emotionally suppressed. Mrs. Mallard from the Story Of An Hour suffered the same fate up until her husband’s death which is when she had finally realized what she had been missing for all those years. She briefly shares her thoughts in this quote: “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: free, free, free! The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes “. On a more imaginative note, the poem, The Wife, by Emily Dickinson also alludes to the unfortunate wife’s sacrifice to her husband and family. Laying out the imagery, Emily wrote: (referring to the wife’s depression) “It lay unmentioned, as the sea Develops pearl and weed,” To me this evokes a deep, sinking feeling as mentioning the sea is synonymous with depth. Seemingly, nobody knows about the troubles that come in upholding entire families and nobody cares. I believe both of the characters I mentioned were emotionally, and at some points physically, stuck in pits of desperation as they went completely unnoticed.
The story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’ Connor rides on suspense heavily. Throughout the whole story we get very interesting and telling bits of characterization. None of these people are supposed to be likeable. Our tension and hate between these characters just builds and builds with every other paragraph. To me, the grandmother, right off the bat, comes off whiny and unapologetic. She’s stubborn, manipulative, and stuck in her old ways. We’re introduced to the rest of the family and it seems like the norm is to ignore the grandmother. I think this is their way of handling her stubborn antics. It’s definitely not the healthiest or most proactive way but it’s telling of the rest of the family. The grandmother warns them of some criminal gone rampant in Florida; the Misfit. Soon after, they are caught by the Misfit. Surprisingly, out of all the characters, the grandmother shows compassion towards the him and acknowledges him as a human being. He shares one last melancholic word with her that her ignorance and lack of self awareness is innate to her character — creating a hideously ironic ending.
“for the contrivance34 of an envied life!445 Great store of jealousy fill your treasury chests, if my friend Creon, friend from this and loyal, thus secretly attacks me, secretly desires to drive me out and secretly suborns35 this juggling trick devising quack, 450 this wily beggar who has only eyes” I feel like this passage best portrays Oedipus’s insecurities after he sought out to become king by any means necessary. This is an excerpt from a conversation between Oedipus and Teiresias. Teiresias is wise to the fact that Oedipus is too emotionally immature and undeserving of this new status. A little into the conversation, Oedipus brings up his friend, Creon, out of nowhere in a fit of paranoia. I interpreted line 445 literally and I enjoyed the imagery of the jealousy store, i think it’s kind of funny. To think that someone (sane) would be jealous of his power and how he got to that point is pretty laughable as well. It goes well with his wildly ignorant character, along with all the hypocrisy.
This story is not so much of a love story as it’s closer to a cautionary tale. This story is rich with literary devices to The symbolism in “Araby” is very prominent and indicative of the young narrators naiveté. To give some context to the story, the nameless narrator we know to be a young boy, falls in love with this considerably older woman he hardly knows anything about. She is always presented in a positive bright light. He is deeply infatuated with her. While on the other hand, truth and reality are always tossed aside in the darkened background. He has a very literal black and white way of thinking. Of course, with this much blind infatuation doesn’t end up well. He ends up not being able to impress her by getting her something at their local bazaar. It seems like by the end of the story he realizes how foolish he was going as far as to call himself a “creature driven and derided by vanity”. I like where this story ended. I think anything more or less would have lessened the impact of the last sentiment.
In “The Lesson” the secondary main character is a black woman named Miss Moore. She has a somewhat jumbled appearance which lets the townespeople feel justified in making fun of her. Unfortunately, eventhough she is college-educated, as a result, she tends to spend her time with the kids of the town. She invites any and all the kids with their vastly differing lives and backgrounds. Most of the kids don’t exactly enjoy their time with her and call her boring. As naive as kids are, they don’t understand the reason for her bringing them to these places. When in reality, she is trying to educate them on the economic inequalities of the town and how far it reaches. On the other hand, probably her most inexperienced child, Mercedes, is a young girl with a wealthy family. In turn, she was more happy and more well-off. She didn’t exhibit the kind of bitterness the other kids did as she didn’t have a reason to. I liked the example of the paperweight. One of the kids pointed out an expensive paperweight not knowing its purpose of it. Mercedes not only tells the kids that she has her own desk but with other goods on top of it… along with the paperweight.
The short story “Salvation” by Langston Hughes is centered around the ideas of transformation and faith. At the beginning of the story, the young and naive narrator has been taught and adheres to the image of faith. In place of faith, he mentally pictures Jesus as a human figure and expects him to be a real, tangible person. It’s not his fault he took this idea so literally. His entire environment supported this kind of idea. Upon learning that Jesus wouldn’t actually appear in front of him, he is so upset he denounces his faith all together. If anything, with his worldview, this seemed inevitable. The tone of the story changes to be more melancholic and helpless as his whole life was based on faith before he understood what that meant.
