In the story “Little Snow-White” the observations that stood out to me were sexism and jealousy. Snow White was an innocent girl who was poisoned by her own step mother because she was jealous of her beauty. Jealousy can destroy even families just because someone is better than the other in any way. In the story sexism is also shown to Snow White by the dwarfs when her only way to be accommodated was by taking care of them. The author stated, “If you will keep house for us, and cook, make beds, wash, sew, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay with us, and you shall have everything that you want.” “So she kept house for them. Every morning they went into the mountains looking for ore and gold, and in the evening when they came back home their meal had to be ready. During the day the girl was alone.” Furthermore, this represents the role of women is to clean while the dwarfs symbolize men going out to work and coming home to food on the table. This reminds me of the story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” because Connie also represents women and where they stand in society. Women are taken advantage of and allow themselves to be manipulated.
Ismael Valerio
The story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” shows real life situations in the modern world today, such as, pedophiles hunting down children who end up being physically harmed or traumatized and get away with it. The story is about the safety of children, sexual maturity, and rape. In the text it states, “She cried out, she cried for her mother, she felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend was stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness.” (Oates). Furthermore, a girl in the story named Connie was raped after being left home alone, but she could not call for help since she was threatened with her family. In my opinion, Connie gave in to Arnold Friend knowing he was going to rape her because of body experience. “She watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewhere in the other doorway, watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited.” (Oates). Rapists get away with things, since some people are threatened or give in to them just for sexual experience.
In my opinion, the interior of the story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” presents unstable families and bad societies. There are people in the world that use violence to have things go their own way, since back then and nowadays people lack the empathy for one another. In the text it states, “Our age not only does not have a very sharp eye for the almost imperceptible intrusions of grace, it no longer has much feeling for the nature of the violences which precede and follow them.” (O’Connor 2). Furthermore, violence has been the answer for the good and bad throughout history, so it is safe to say that violence will never end if it’s now considered to be human nature. The Grandmother in the story was someone with no moral integrity, she wasn’t that much different from a serial killer known as, “The Misfit”, who ends up murdering her and her family after she told them to follow orders. There is no place without violence in this world.
In the play Oedipus the King, there are human experiences or behaviors that still occur to this day despite the story being from a very long time ago. Oedipus murdered his father in order to marry his wife. To this day, Incest has been an reoccurring human behavior and it is found in all cultures. Also, society may fear that a son in their family could possibly murder his father in order to marry his wife. Another timeless issue is that human beings tend to learn from their mistakes, however people act for the right reasons but they may fear that they are doing the wrong thing. This also relates to not having control over our lives in the real world. The fear of being manipulated by something or someone that is bigger and we cannot explain, like Oedipus with the prophets or the gods. To this day, there are people that feel or actually get controlled by their families, and their obligations at jobs. Humans manipulate each other for their own benefit and it will never end.
The King of Thebes, Oedipus is a hero amongst many men. The king’s country was thought to come to an end, since Thebes was undergoing a plague. Oedipus sends his brother-in-law, Creon to ask a prophecy for advice. When the king’s brother returns from speaking to Apollo, Creon informs Oedipus that the plague was a curse by the gods. Lauis, the former king of Thebes was murdered, as a result, the gods plagued his country for the killer. Oedipus later on starts questioning citizens, including a blind prophet, Teiresias. The current king of Thebes may be a hero among many men, but he is suspected to be the murderer of the former king while trying to solve the murder mystery himself. “I forbid that man, whoever he be, my land, my land where I hold sovereignty and throne; and I forbid any to welcome him or cry him greeting or make him a sharer in sacrifice or offering to the Gods, or give him water for his hands to wash. I command all to drive him from their homes, since he is our pollution, as the oracle of Pytho’s God proclaimed him now to me. So I stand forth a champion of the God and of the man who died. Upon the murderer I invoke this curse—whether he is one man and all unknown, or one of many—may he wear out his life in misery to miserable doom!” (255-269). Presumably, this curse by the gods is affecting Oedipus as the current king of Thebes. In my opinion, for Oedipus to get where he is now, he murdered the former king Lauis. Oedipus hides behind messengers, citizens and prophets.
In my opinion, the boy in the story “Araby” by James Joyce is benevolent, the boy is learning and mentally maturing throughout the story. Although the boy may become more aware of his surroundings, he still falls into his own delusion by chasing a girl he had a crush on. The pursue of a girl lead to the realization that the boy was only chasing a fantasy. His arrival at the bazaar was a sign of the darkness, since his high hopes for a relationship with the girl, Mangan’s sister, was just an idea and it was never going to happen. The author stated, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” Furthermore, people experience new things and the desire to find love, therefore at some point everyone feels the emotions the boy felt. The inexperienced boy learned a life lesson early.
In the story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, a group of kids are taught the harsh reality of inequality. Sylvia, a person of color, does not have the financial stability to purchase toys. Not like everyone could afford the toys at the FAO Schwarz toy store, but a wealthier kid in the group named Mercedes is often judged for having things they don’t have. Sylvia could not afford the toys she wanted, while Mercedes could buy anything. The author used their financial differences to identify the issue known as inequality. In the text it states, “So we heading down the street and she’s boring us silly about what things cost and what our parents make and how much goes for rent and how money ain’t divided up right in this country.” (Bambara 2). Furthermore, the wealth in society divides people that are rich or poor, so both groups may view each other differently and not be seemed as equal. Rich people would buy more pricey things, but the poor could make the most of anything they purchase.
In my opinion, the boy in the story “Salvation” is very honest about himself, since he knew it wasn’t his time or turn to be saved by Jesus like everyone around him. The boy changed throughout the story, because he started feeling guilty for giving into peer pressure and not telling everyone the truth. According to the text, “But I was really crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church, that I hadn’t seen Jesus, and that now I didn’t believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn’t come to help me.” (Langston Hughes). Furthermore, the boy did not want to be seemed as a disappointment to his aunt and everyone at church, since his aunt wanted him to have a bigger connection with Jesus and be “saved.” Everyone has their time and the right moment, but the boy knew it wasn’t his time so he lied to be on the same page as everyone else on Salvation. At the same time everyone else was being “saved”, there was irony involving with the boy’s saving.
In my opinion, the story “The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World” was assigned to make the readers use their critical thinking, since there is symbolism used to inspire others throughout the story. The author stated, “the ability to keep on growing after death was part of the nature of certain drowned men.” (Márquez 1). Furthermore, the villagers that found a dead man ashore created greatness within themselves, since their village is next to the sea. This dead mean ashore seemed like a message for the villagers to not give up their determination. According to Márquez, “the vegetation on him came from faraway oceans and deep water and that his clothes were in tatters, as if he had sailed through labyrinths of coral.” (Márquez 2). This shows that the dead man is a symbol for the villagers to change and not end up like another drowned man ashore, so the village will try to expand and reach for something bigger.
