the lesson

This short story had some very similiar characteristics of a movie called "Dangerous Minds." Michelle Pheifer plays the role of a teacher who is the only white one in the school, she works in a classroom with all hoodlums and finds a way to turn them around. I know this story was about young kids but it is still of the same idea. The main idea of this story was that not everything was learned in the classroom, by the trip the teacher took with these kids to FAO Schwartz, she tries to teach them that being yourself and working hard can take you to where you want to be, regardless of what other people think or what people expect of you. In the story the girl Mercedes and Sylvia are total opposites, Mercedes knowing that she wants to succeed, and be able to provide for a family. We can only help ourselves, and if we have it in us to succeed, and "go against the grain" anybody can make it.

everyday use

This story was interesting because you see what one quilt can represent. The representation of culture and heritage lies in this quilt also based on the characters ideas of what culture and heritage actually are. Any view can differ of something depending on any person and their way of thinking. For instance, Dee is the beautiful one with the personality and her sister Maggie is boring and shy, and they both have different outlooks on the same thing. Sometimes people that start from the same background like Dee and her family, go on to a higher education and forget where they came from. Others are stuck in the past and need to update their lives, which is the case in this story with the mother and Maggie.

a worn path

This story was interesting and almost inspirational in a way because it intertwines myth and legend. It shows us an example of how someone could be so selfless and care about someone else so much the way Phoenix did for her grandson. How a long journey full of hardships, dealing with people with no sympathy (like the man who told her that colored people love to go to town to see Santa Claus) and sometimes wanting to give up when things get rough, but sticking through it. The color of her skin, her age and physical condition are obviously working against her in this era in Mississippi. The walk she takes down this path will go on for as long as she lives, because her grandson is sick, and the way she treats him she hopes will carry on for him to do onto others in the future.

a good man is hard to find.

First of all, beyond the story, the title is a TRUE STORY. haha. Anyway, this story focuses on the grandmother's perspective, a selfish lady, who wants to live and die "like a lady." Because of her, her son Baily ends up in a ditch on this trip to Tennesee, and she and her family encounter the "misfit." They are all shot, and at her last moment, she wants to become a woman of wisdom and sincerity, and try and talk her way out of being killed, but it's too late. Only at the last moment of her life after her whole family has been killed does she want to become a good woman. My favorite part is the ending when the misfit says “she would of been a good woman . . . if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”

the hunger artist

Okay so I know the main point of this story was about the performer, but what was the underlying idea of it?? He fasts as a talent, but was this at all supposed to be religious? Fasting is supposed to be a very spiritual and religious thing. Or was it possibly plainly about a starving artist, trying to make it in the world just like every other artist out there? Perhaps it had something to do with the life of the actual artist of the story, the writer. Story wasn't very interesting but it makes you think.

the use of force

The Use of Force was a very emotional short story. This doctor seems to be sincere in the fact that he want's to help, but obviously has some issues himself. He definitely expressed his anger when he used force to open the girl's mouth because she was being difficult, but he was only trying to help her, when in fact she had diptheria. We also have to take into consideration that he didn't know this family before hand, and the parents were nervous from the start, making the child even more nervous, along with the doctor.

kate chopin blog

So this story had a twist that I wasn't expecting. In the beginning it was kind of boring and depressing and then towards the middle I was liking it just a bit more, but when the end came along I was totally taken by suprise. The irony lets you find the bittersweentess in the stories ending. Could there actually be someone in this world so unhappy to actually be happy to hear of the death of their spouse? That would definitely be a damn shame in a real person's life. Although the story was short it gave enough detail for us to focus our attention as readers and to try and get us to understand the story.