The Lesson

What a great story about different racial and social class. I believe that the setting of the story where this kids are brought up is Harlem, New York City sometime in the 50’s. They are not educated nor are their parents who are never around and seem not to care much about their kids. Miss More is a lady from that neighborhood who is educated and really tries to help the community as much as she could. She takes these kids on trips and tries to educate them on certain topics. I have to give her credit because they are not the best bunch of kids. They misbehave and are very rude. This one trip she takes them to Fifth Avenue. There they walk over to F. A. O. Schwarz where they are introduced to pricey toys. No one can believe their eyes at how much some of these toys cost. Children start to think and argue for how long they would have to save up their allowance to be able to afford something in that store. One imagines asking her parents for a toy for $35 and the response she would get. I believe that the purpose of this trip was to show this kids that there is life (and what kind of life) outside their community and that they have to strive for that. In a way she opened their eyes and showed them the other side of the world.

A & P

The story “A & P” by John Updike is about a young man named Sammy who works at a supermarket in the suburbs. His whole surrounding seems artificial. He seems trapped in a fake world, which he is not happy in. nothing seems to change day in and day out until three young girls walk in, in nothing but their bathing suits. Right away they seem to catch his eye especially one of them. To him they look real…what a person should be like. They are not trying to fake anything or follow the standards of the community. It a way I feel that he is not attracted to them physically but more visually. Being in that surround his whole life he admires the appearance of this young ladies. This does not last long as the manager of the store tells these girls that they are not dressed appropriately for the store. This is when Sammy quits. By quitting I think he rejected himself from the “norms” this society has set for him and went the opposite way. He does realize however that because he is still part of it this will be very tough journey that he will have to face on his own.

Everyday Use

The story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is about an African American family –mother and her two daughters. One of the daughters whose name is Maggie is very shy and quite. We do not know why, perhaps I believe it may have something to do with the accident she was in when the house went on fire and left her with severe burns. She lives with her mother. The second daughter Dee is perfect in the eyes of her mother (the story is being told by her). She got the looks, the personality, and the brain. The mother describes herself as more of a manly type. She has no education and does manly jobs as well. It seems like the mother likes Dee more than Maggie. Both girls are getting married soon and Dee wanted the quilts that her mother had. Unfortunately for her those quilts were promised to her sister Maggie. After a slight argument mother took the guilt’s and gave it to Maggie right after hugging her. This was the first time she had hugged her.
Why did Dee wanted the quilts so much. Was it because she has changed so much that she wanted to have something remind her of her heritage? Maggie showed a strong side of herself at the end. She wasn’t shy or scared anymore. Maybe because for the first time her mother came to her defense and showed that she is too her daughter.

A Worn Path

This short story is a about an old African American woman who is out on a journey to town. It is winter and there are many obstacles that she encounters on her way (some are nothing more but hallucinations). She does not give up and continues. On her way she is approached by a white man who helps her when she’s down but at the same time lies to her and treats her just the same way colored people were bound to be treated at that time. Her journey is to the doctor’s office to get medicine for her grandson. She takes this journey often. in a way to me it seemed as if her journey represent her constant life at that time with obstacles and people who would be kind enough to offer her help but still not treat her as equal.

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

What an IRONIC story. Family is going on a trip to Florida and the grandmother is not happy with this decision. She does not want to visit Florida but instead wants to go and visit Tennessee. When the family does not abide she tells them of a killer Misfit who is on the loose in Florida and that it is dangerous to go there at this time. They continue on with their trip and go on to Florida. All of the sudden the grandmother remembered of the house that she used to visit when she was a little girl and thinking that it’s not too far asked her son Bailey to go visit it. when the grandkids joined in with their begging to go visit the house Bailey(not being a strong character and easily influenced) gave in. only once they took a bad, dirty road the grandmother remembered that the house she has visited was not in Georgia (where they were) but in Tennessee. It was too late, their car crashed and rolled over and there was no one around them for miles except for the car coming their way. One of the passengers in the car was Misfit himself. No one survives as the entire family gets shot.
Grandma (whose character I just hate and found to be a b****) didn’t want to go to Florida so her excuse was the killer on the loose Misfit. Unfortunately Misfit had found them at a place that she had taken her family. Such irony. I also found grandma to be very selfish. It was always about her and no one else. She thought of herself higher than of anyone else. She was also more racist than other family members. I was also stunned by the fact than when her entire family was being shot around her all she cared about was her own life and tried everything in her power to save it. She turned to religious and offered Misfit money in return for her life. All she kept saying was “you wouldn't shoot a lady". During this ordeal not once she showed any care of what happened to her family especially since it was her fault that they ended up on the same “road” with Misfit

A Hunger Artist

A Hunger Artist is a short story by Franz Kafka. In this story we are introduced to an artist whose art is starvation. He starves for many days in the row and is famous because of that. There are many debates that go on whether or not he is a cheater and people spend days in days out sitting wand watching him. His record is 40 days but he wants more. With time public looses interest in him and he suffers from that. He fires his manager signs himself up for circus. That makes his career go down the drain. He dies and is replaced by a panther. People seem to have more interest in a panther than the artist. This leads me to this thought…… is it possible that we as humans are always looking for something new to get our attention? We get tired of things/performances quite too soon and often. We are constantly striving for new entertainment. This artist did something that is very rare and impossible for anyone to do. But people lost interest in him. Once he was replaced by a cat his cage was visited again. New entertainer brought new crowds.
I also think that just as the crowd can never be satisfied the performer himself is not satisfied. He has attention but starves for more. The only difference is that the audience has nothing to loose and moves on to a performer. But for a performer to achieve glory, and regain his audience is a no easy task and nearly impossible.

Young Goodman Brown

In this story young GOODman brown leaves his wife Faith and goes on a meeting with the devil. He is a young man who struggles with separating good from evil. On his way he struggles with his decision and is not sure if he should persist. But he does, and sees that many of his neighbors and even his spiritual advisor are present. When he approaches his destination he sees his wife present there as well. He joins her and as they are about to be ritualized Goodman looks in to the sky as to heaven and everything disappears. For the rest of his life he is not sure if what he saw did happen in fact or if it was just a dream. He has lost his Faith (as in his wife and faith in everyone). He spends the rest of his life in isolation from all.
Was this a dream? Why was a good man going on a meeting with the devil? If He is not sure whether it was a reality or a dream then why doesn’t he go back to his wife after that night? And why is it that he can not trust anyone? Maybe he has trust issues?.