Friday, March 12, 2010

Sunday in the Park

http://itstrulyrandom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/sandbox.jpg

The story felt like typical parents at the park. Some parents don't like to discipline their children when they are doing wrong. I felt like Joe's father was completely wrong, All's he wanted to do was start a fight in front of the children, that first of all is not a good role model. Although it was a public sandbox their is no right to throw sand. Your child should be told what is wrong and its also wrong to throw sand at each other. i know boys will be boys, but their's a fine line between playing and taken advantage and getting out of hand.

Sunday in the Park- anwer questions 1-6

1. Morton and his wife took their son Larry to the park on a Sunday afternoon. Larry was kindly playing in the sandbox when another kid his age named Joe started to throw sand at Larry. Larry’s mother told the little boy not the throw sand, Joe didn’t listen and did it again. Once the mother said something again, Joe’s father said “you go right ahead, Joe…throw all you want. This is a public sandbox.” Both men stood up, and Morton thought it wasn’t worth the fight and dragged Larry and wife home. Morton wife was not too pleased!
2. I think the wife in the story isn’t named because I feel as if this fight was between two men. She is just a woman and she can’t physically fight with another man.
3. I would say that this is the “typical” parents because “like father like son” the parents should be the role models and most parents like to be superior to the rest. They don’t like other parents disciplining their children.
4. The story’s tone changes when Joe’s father is rude and allows his son to misbehave, and doesn’t discipline him for doing the wrong thing. In his eyes it’s a public sandbox and that okay to behave badly.
5. The sandbox incident is similar to many other life situations because it shows that some people try to walk all over others. A lot of people are impolite and like to start a fight or an argument for what? Absolutely nothing at all, it’s just all a show. And to prove who’s boss or superior.
6. The meaning of the last paragraph is Morton’s wife gets to his head. Morton gets very angry and wants to take it out on Larry. The wife stops him, and demonstrates she should have taken it out on that awful man at the park. Morton finally snaps but is taken it out on the wrong person! That’s what I believe the last part of the store meant.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Sentence List

  • "He comes over and says, Girls, this isn't the beach." (A&P)
  • "It is the Mother who gives the gifts; and it is she who takes away the gift." (Under the Banyan tree)
  • "let's groove tonight" (Mix Tape)
  • "Same procedures of last year Ms. soffie? Same procedures every year Georgie." (Dinner for One)
  • "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart Disease-of joy that kills" (Story of an Hour)
  • "Americans would be far more likely to step forward if only a few people were suffering or a single person were in pain." (The Problem with Human Compassion)
  • "crying Andy, Andy but that wasn't her name, she would no longer be called that." (Doe Season
  • "You're the Misfit! she said, I recognized you at once!" (A Good Man is Hard to Find)
  • "From now on you've got to live in a new world and face a few realities for a change. Buck up. he said, It won't kill you." (Everything that Rises Must Converge)
  • "the only possible outcome...would have been-what?my glasses broken, perhaps a tooth or two replaced, a couple of days' work missed- and for what? for justice? for truth?" (Sunday in the Park)
  • “then suddenly the black giant withdrew his fingers from Olaf’s neck and stepped back a pace, still grinning.” (Big Black Good Man)
  • “Gonna get you, baby,” (Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been)
  • “I’m afraid of those lights…” (Tape)
  • “I was walking through the Park.” (I Dream Before I Take the Stand)
  • “There is a genie in this thingamajig” (Beauty)
  • “Yeah as soon as they call roll, I show my plane ticket…and I’m out of here” (Nine Ten)
  • “I say you are the murderer you seek” (Oedipus The King)

Everything that rises must converge

Everything That Rises Must Converge Summary
Set in the South in the early 1960s, ‘‘Everything That Rises Must Converge’’ opens with the protagonist, a young writer named Julian, reflecting on the reasons that he must accompany his mother to her weekly weight-loss meeting. She goes to the meetings because she has high blood pressure, but considers them one of her ‘‘few pleasures.’’
However, Julian’s mother has refused to ride the bus alone since the bus system became racially integrated. Julian dreads the trips, but feels obligated to do as she wishes.
On the evening when the story takes place, Julian’s mother is indecisive about whether to wear a garish new hat. She eventually decides to wear it, commenting that the hat was worth the extra money because others won’t have the same one.
As they walk to the bus stop, Julian’s mother reviews her family legacy, which has given her a strong self-identity. She implies that it does not matter that she is poor because she comes from a well-known and once prosperous family of the pre-Civil War South.
Mentioning her family’s former plantation, Julian’s mother talks about slavery. Julian remembers the mansion, which he regards with secret longing, while his mother continues to reminisce about her nurse, an ‘‘old... » Complete Everything That Rises Must Converge Summary
http://www.enotes.com/everything-rises

This is the second story that i have read my Flannery O'Connor and I can really feel the racism that she grew up with. I thought this story was very Ironic, but humorous. I felt really bad at the end of the story, but if she just listen to her son, her blood pressure wouldn't have rose to much!

Doe Season

I can see why Andy wants to hang out with her dad. Being the only child, having no bothers or sisters around makes it tough to understand who you really are. I come from a large family so i could always look up to my sisters to see what I'm suppose to wear and what looks good or not. I also had to share a room with my sister (i was the baby girl out of the family). And my sister always got mad when we were younger because i was daddy's little girl. I was the cheerleader and my other sister was the football player although now she turned out to be a girly girl i find it pretty funny, and can relate to Andy trying to find out who Andrea really is.

I short story also mentioned the book "Gone with the Wind" I knew that book sounded so familiar it's on my "to read list" I have it at my house. Its a romance book. Made back 1939. I can't wait to read it now that it was mentioned in the Doe season.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" first appeared in the author's short story collection by the same name, which was published in 1955. Since then, it has become one of O'Connor's most highly regarded works of short fiction because it exhibits all the characteristics for which she is best known: a contrast of violent action with humorously and carefully drawn characters and a philosophy that underscores her devout Roman Catholic faith. Critics have admired the prose and the way O'Connor infuses the story with her Catholic belief about the role God's grace plays in the lives of ordinary people. The story is disturbing and humorous at the same time—a quality shared by many of O'Connor's other works, including her novels Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away.
Though the story begins innocently enough, O'Connor introduces the character of the Misfit, an escaped murderer who kills the entire family at the end of the story. Through this character, O'Connor explores the Christian concept of "grace"—that a divine pardon from God is available simply for the asking. In the story, it is the Grandmother—a petty, cantankerous, and overbearing individual—who attains grace at the moment of her death, when she reaches out to the Misfit and recognizes him as one of her own children. For O'Connor, God's grace is a force outside the character, something undeserved, an insight or moment of epiphany. Often, however, O'Connor's characters miss moments of opportunity to make some connection; their spiritual blindness keeps them from seeing truth.
"A Good Man Is Hard to Find'' is the title story of O'Connor's first short story collection, and, therefore, often serves as an introduction to the rest of her fiction. The story is enjoyable for its humorous portrayal of a family embarking on a vacation; O'Connor has been unforgiving in her portrayal of these characters—they are not likable. However, in creating characters that elicit little sympathy from readers, O'Connor has carefully set the premise for her main argument: that grace is for everyone, even those who seem loathesome.
A Good Man Is Hard to Find Summary
O'Connor's story is told by a third-person narrator, but the focus is on the Grandmother's perspective of events. Even though she complains that she would rather go to Tennessee than Florida for vacation, she packs herself (and secretly her cat, Pitty Sing) in the car with her son Bailey, his wife, and their children June Star, John Wesley, and the baby. In a comical instance of foreshadowing, she takes pains to dress properly in a dress and hat, so that if she were found dead on the highway everyone would recognize her as a lady.
When the family stops for lunch at Red Sammy Butts' barbecue place, the proprietor, a husky man, is insulted by June Star. Nevertheless, he and the Grandmother discuss the escaped murderer known as the Misfit. Noting that the world is increasingly a more dangerous and unfriendly place, Red Sammy tells the Grandmother that these days "A good man is hard to find." Back on the road, the Grandmother convinces her hen-pecked son to go out of their way so they can visit an old plantation she recalls from her childhood. The children second her suggestion when she mentions that the house contains secret passageways.... » Complete A Good Man Is Hard to Find Summary
http://www.enotes.com/good-man

I honestly can say I didn't think everyone was going to get killed in the end. I was pretty disappointed. But, I really liked the author's writing. It show's the time difference with culture and race from 1955 to now 2010. I would like to read more of her stories, because she had a terminal illness, I think her stories have a lot to do with not holding back and saying what she needs to say in her books.