Favorite and Least Favorite

Lets start out with my least favorite story of the summer . . .

I think it would have to be "Everything that Rises Must Converge". I just did not enjoy this story. It went on for too long without anything happening. Not enough twists and turns for me. Also the language was dry. So thats my least favorite!

Now for my favorite . . .

I would have to say either "The Veldt" or "Hills like White Elephants", its a toss up! I enjoyed "The Veldt" because 1. I enjoy Bradbury's writing and 2. because it was so interesting and far fetched! The story kept me interested the entire time and that is very important to me! I also enjoyed "Hills like White Elephants" because of the author. Hemmingway is wonderful and keeps the reader engaged the entire time. So I don't think I could pick an absolute favorite!

"The Conscience of the Court"

I liked Laura Lee's loyality to Miz' Celestine is nice. It shows that even though Celestine is her owner, Laura Lee thinks that they have a special bond and that they have respect and trust for one another. I do believe it is deserved despite that fact that Laura Lee is a slave. You can tell that they had an atypical relationship during that time period. Celestine does not want Laura Lee to leave because she feels they have a special bond. Even though I believe that they have a special bond, I feel as though Laura Lee should have taken the opportunity to leave Celestine when she could have. The best time would have been when Celestine was younger, so the relationship could not have developed as far as it did.

I think the ultimate decision after the trial is the right one. Throughout reading the story, you hope that the jury will find Laura Lee not guilty because she is the most sympathetic and round character in the story. So I think the verdict is hopeful. It may have not been realistic, but it was hopeful!

"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"

I enjoyed that Granny was the narrator for the story. I believe the story would be much different if Cornelia or someone else were narrating. With Granny as the narrator we can almost see what it is like to be laying on your death bed. I pictured her with her eyes closed almost the entire time and she was only imagining most of the story. Her thoughts are very jumbled, which can make the story a tad bit confusing when reading it for the first time. When I went back through it a second time I really enjoyed it. I think her point of view is what makes the story unique.

At the very end of the story, Father Connolly shows up to Granny's bedside to give her her last rights. Receiving your last rights is very important in the Catholic Faith. Her faith impacts the story because we also see it in her flashbacks. When she is left alone at the altar, she is left with the Priest, just as she is approaching death, alone with a Priest. I think it shows that she has stayed strong in her faith throughout all these years.

"The Lady with the Dog"

In "The Lady with the Dog" by Anton Chekhov, we see an evolving character with Anna. At the beginning of the story she is sort of removed. She does not show her emotions and she is very reserved. However, when Dmitry arrives in St. Petersburg we see a change in Anna. She has many more emotions and she expresses her feelings openly with Dmitry. The reader sees her upset about the relationship she wants with Dmitry, but knows she cannot have because they each have spouses'. Her emotions become much more real at the end (example: her crying for a long period of time, etc..). I also think that Dmitry changes throughout the story. The author gives us more depth into his character. We know what he is thinking about everything, whereas we do not with Anna. From the very beginning we have insight to Dmitry and his development.

I think the fact about the author liking people watching has something to do with this short story. I also think its funny. I love to people watch. I can see how he wrote this story because he enjoys to watch people. After all, Dmitry fell in love and started an affair with Anna by watching her everyday at the Resort.

"The Girls in Their Summer Dresses"

I think that there are three main conflicts in this story. Man vs. Man (Michael vs. Frances), Man vs. Self (Michael vs Michael) and Man vs. Self (Frances vs. Frances). The conflict between Michael and Frances is obvious. They are having an argument over Michael looking at other women. Frances is jealous of this and doesn't understand why. Michael tries to explain but he cannot fully explain why he does what he does. In the first man vs. self Michael has conflict when trying to explain himself as stated above. He also faces a conflict within, when he looks at other women. I feel as though he knows it is wrong but he continues to do it anyways. I would have like to seen more conflict within Michael's character. The other conflict I understood was with Frances. It may have not been stated, but I feel as though she was debating on whether or not to bring up the subject at all. One can see at the end of the story that she might have regretted bringing up Michael looking at other women. Overall I really enjoyed this story and thought it to be one of the best we have read.

"Desiree's Baby"

I really enjoyed this story.  The twists and turns made it much more enjoyable to read.  I have to admit I did not see anything like that coming.  I guess I should have assumed something like that could happen given the time period this was written, but I did not expect Desiree to be bi-racial.  I also did not expect Armand to react the way he did.  In the story it states that he fell in love with her when he saw her and for him to make such a harsh decision when he knew the baby was his was in my mind, a bit out of control.  I was not a fan of him in this story.  Even at the very end when it is revealed that his mother is in face bi-racial as well.  If he had known this information I think he should have reacted differently to Desiree.  I think that this was the only point in the story that I had sympathy for him.  

"Good Country People"

I think Flannery O'Connor uses the phrase "Good Country People" over and over again to get her point across that there are not many left in the world.  This can especially be seen with the Bible salesman.  Mrs. Hopewell first sees him as "good country people" as does Joy, but at the end of the story, he is nothing but trash.  I believe that this irony makes this a good story.  I think O'Connor gets her point across by repeating the phrase because the whole time you are thinking of good country people, but really she is setting you up, because not many are good country people.  I enjoyed this story, although it was slow to start, the twist at the end really caught my attention.  

"A Spinster's Tale"

Our group chose "A Spinster's Tale" over "Blackberry Winter" because we felt that it would be a better decision. There are more round characters in the tale which gives us more to work from. Especially because the brother and father in the story are drunks. We think that we can use that wisely in our social networking assignment. Most of the story is also in first person, which makes it easy for us to take the characters and put them into Twitter or Facebook. Hopefully this will go well for us!

"Conversion of the Jews"

I can understand how Roth has been criticized for his portrait of the Jewish characters in his short story, "Conversion of the Jews". He portrays them as if they are only concerned with one thing, and completely ignorant to the New Testament. I agree with the critics on some of the characters, example: Rabbi Binder. However, I particularly liked Ozzie. He had such a sense of humor, and all he wanted was for everyone to believe in the same God. The God that Jews and Protestants believe in. Personally, I know a few Jewish people and they do not believe in Jesus Christ the same way Protestants do, however they still respect the beliefs of the New Testament. I think that Rabbi Binder in this story does not respect the Protestants in the same way and Ozzie opens his eyes in a way the Rabbi has not done before. Overall I thought this was a good story with a great message and a a good sense of humor.

Author's Note

My paper, Lessons Learned is in the second and final draft. This morning, I went back through and completed some thoughts I had not expanded on enough for the idea to get through t0 the audience. I like this piece because I truly think it could be a good movie. Although the story is a little short, I believe there are ways that the story can be extended to make it a full-length feature film. My favorite part of the film adaptation is the irony I have created in the story. I also enjoy the story line created. However, I do have my concerns with this piece as well. I am a bit nervous that it doesn't follow the story enough. On the other side, I like where I took the story. I enjoyed making the lessons into a life. I hope that I have developed this enough, as it was not an easy thing to do. I would just like to know how I could develop my writing a little bit further. Even though I studied abroad, it has been a while since I have written a paper. I would really just like to know how to get back into writing I know I can succeed at.

Thanks!!

Paul's Case

In the opening two paragraphs of the story, Cather uses vidid words to create images. You can get a picture of Paul in your mind with her descriptions. She describes everything about him, the way he dresses and the way he acts. "His clothes were a trifle outgrown . . ." I think this statement sets us up to learn about Paul perfectly. He is simple, and little things make him happy in life. She also sets the setting clearly at the beginning with stating that they are in Pittsburgh and at his high school where he has been suspended. With close reading these two paragraphs, Cather makes it easy to put yourself in the story.

Paul's job at Carnegie Hall is one of the only things in Pittsburgh that brings him joy. When Paul is at school or home he does not have joy in his life. But when Cather is describing him at work, he is a new person. His job as an usher makes him feel important. He does the best he can while working at Carnegie, and that cannot be said for his time at school. I think being an usher takes Paul to a different world. It is glamourous and everything he wants it to be. It gives him a sense of importance and ". . . nothing was too much trouble for him;" When I was reading the story, I found myself smiling because Paul was so happy and the way Cather describes it gives it vivid joy.

"Intervention"

The TV show on A&E called Intervention always seems to catch my attention, and I must admit some of the episodes get you "addicted" to the series. I think that is why I chose to read "Intervention".

I think that the word enabler is used in the story to describe many different things. Of course they are calling Marilyn an enabler because she lives with Sid and they are married. I think that Rusty likes to use the term because it makes him feel important, and the others follow along because he is "a professional". I think enabler could be used in other parts of the story, and not just Sid's alcoholism. I do not believe the word is referenced during Marilyn's problem, but it could easily be used there. The stress of her life was an enabler for her affair and drinking problem. I think that most of the characters in the story are an enabler in some way to one another.

Overall I really enjoyed this story. It kept me interested the whole time.

Film Adaptation

I have changed my mind and I have decided to adapt the short story "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid.

Title: "Lessons Learned"

Characters: The main characters will consist of the grandmother (Sally Field); Daughter (Jennifer Aniston); Granddaughter (Dakota Fanning); Minor roles will include Grandfather (Ron Rifkin (from Brothers and Sisters/Alias); Husband to the daughter (Patrick Dempsey)

Note that I have changed the family from African-American to White. I feel as though it will be easier for me to write, seeing as I do not have much experience in an African-American family.

Setting: Modern Day Chicago

Plot/Conflict: At first the Grandmother of the story will be telling all of these lessons through stories seen to the daughter. About halfway through, the daughter will get married and eventually have a baby. Throughout the rest of the story, the grandmother will be teaching the lessons to both her daughter and granddaughter as they go through their lives. The very end of the story will result in the grandmother's death and the coping of her offspring. The lessons in the story will also be extended and the viewer will see examples

Irony: The most ironic thing about this story is how the grandmother will be telling the lessons to her daughter/granddaughter; and many times the story playing out will be her doing the opposite thing. Hence her lessons learned

Symbolism: I am thinking about Symbols at the moment. I will come back in a bit and write about them before class in the morning!

"Everyday Use"

In "Everyday Use" I side with the mother and Maggie.  Dee (Wangero) does not seem to get the importance of family tradition.  It seems as if she wants the quits just for the aesthetics.  Maggie even says she can remember her grandmother without those quilts, and I think in that part, the reader can understand that Maggie gets family traditions and her heritage whereas Dee might not.  I think the moral of this story could apply to many different families.  Families often times have arguments over who gets what when a family member died, and the importance of those objects are often forgotten.  

Minority Report - Film vs. Story; Choice for Film Adaptation

I think that the differences in the movie and the story are very effective.  The thing that stuck out most to me was how Anderton is not married in the movie and he is actually divorced.  The story would be very different if he was not married.  She helps him out in story, and in the movie we have not seen that help yet.  Another major difference we see in the movie is that Anderton has a motive to be Chief of Precrime.  His child was kidnapped and that is his motivation to find criminals before they commit the crime.  In the story we see no motivation for why he is involved with Precrime.  I think the little differences in this movie make a big difference in the overall effect.

Moving on, I think for my film adaptation I would like to choose "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker.  I remember reading this story in high school, and I remember finding it very relatable.  I think this story could be easily changed into a movie, and it would be easy to add more elements into the story.  For example, the eldest daughter could be engaged and her mother is sharing more about her family than ever.  However, I don't want to give away all my ideas . . . So I will stop there!  

Minority Report

I have never seen Minority Report.  While I was reading the story, I thought it would be very easy to make this into a movie.  Even from the beginning of the story, you know that it would be science fiction, and most likely set in the future.  After all, they are driving spaceships or flying cars (right?) and they are predicting the future with the precrime part of the government.  I think that the precogs may not even be humans.  I see them as some sort of robots.  They know everything before its going to happen.  I think a way to expand the story to make it a film, you would have to go more inside the minds of the precogs, see more of Witwer, but not too much, and perhaps extend Anderton's time with Kaplan.  I am excited to watch the movie because I enjoyed the story.  

Also - a little note about my post yesterday.  Until we got to class and discussed "The Story of an Hour"  I did not know that her husband was actually alive.  I read the story 2 times before class, but I just had in my mind she was dreaming it.  So, now the story makes much more sense, although my blog post does not!  Whoops!

"The Story of an Hour"

I think this story is mostly about love and how it affects most aspects of your life.  You can tell that she is so heartbroken by the loss of her husband that ultimately it kills her as well.  This story actually reminded me of "The Notebook" by Nicholas Sparks.  Their love was just too great to live without one another.  I think that when she is "possessed" by the creature, it is her husband saying its alright, things will be okay.  But the loss is just too much for her already sick heart.  

In both this story and "The Yellow Wallpaper" the women end up isolated in a room.  Both of these women have some sort of insanity.  In "The Story of an Hour" the loss of the love of her life drives her to insanity and ultimately death, while the woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" becomes more insane with her surroundings and isolation.  I believe that the rooms for each respective character represent a loss of a loved one.  

"A Rose for Emily" and "Hills Like White Elephants"

"A Rose for Emily"

"A Rose for Emily" is set in Jefferson, Mississippi and the town plays a big role in the story.  Another large role in the story is the timing, right after the Civil War.  If these two things were to be altered, the story would be very different than we know it to be now.  

If the time period remained the same, and the location of the story changed to the North, more modern ideas would come about.  Slavery was opposed in the North, and the colored people in the story would not have been workers for the main character(s).  Miss Emily not paying her taxes would not be tolerated in the North, since they were in much better shape (not only financially but also socially and physically).  

If the time changed to present day, and the location remained the same (Mississipi) things would also be very different.  First, Miss Emily would be in Jail for not paying taxes.  Her behavior would be scrutinized by her neighbors and the citizens of the town.  This day in age, neighbors know what is going on in your life and they want to check up on you, therefore if she stayed in her house for as long as she did without leaving, someone would have surely checked on her.  I believe this would be the same way if you changed both time and location.  This would probably be true for different cultures as well.  No matter one's culture, if something is suspicious or strange, a person usually finds out if something is wrong.  

"Hills Like White Elephants"

It does not shock me that this short story was written by a man.  When I was reading it, the emotional aspects of the reading were barely there, which makes it very believe-able that this was not written by a woman.  I think if a woman wrote about abortion, it would be very emotional and a lot of thoughts would go into this story.  However, from this third person point of view, we see almost no emotion coming from the characters.  

Hemingway stuck to his guns by letting the reader know as little as possible about the plot and conflict of the story.  However, you can tell that the story is about abortion on page 663 when the male of the story suggests "It's really not anything.  It's just to let the air in."  The woman in the story is very quiet after this.  It's almost as if you can tell she does not want this, but she knows to be with this man she must do it.  They do have a conflict and go back and forth between what is right and wrong for them.  Ultimately the woman will go through with the decision.  

A little bit about me!

Hello to all!

My name is Jamie Lasher and I am a senior Fashion Merchandising student with a minor in French here at TCU.  I love the classes that I get to take!  I find them very interesting and fun!  I am taking this course to fulfill one of my last core credits.  I picked Intro to Fiction because I enjoy fiction much more than poetry or writing.  Through this course I hope that I will be able to appreciate more types of Fiction than before I started the class.

I love to read!  I read in my free time and almost every night before I go to sleep.  I like most types of books, and I could spend an entire afternoon in Barnes and Noble or Borders just looking!  I took my freshman and sophomore comp at TCU, and took different types of English classes all 4 years during high school.  I did not mind these classes as I found them all interesting in different ways.  I hope that this class gives me a new perspective on English courses and fiction in general.

I think in order for me to learn things I need discussion.  Which is perfect that I am taking this class.  I really like to talk things out and hear what other people have to say.  Sometimes when reading more complex stories, I have a hard time finding the meaning behind the story.  So, often times for those types of stories I need some sort of hint to start me off in the right direction. 

This past semester I studied abroad in Florence, Italy and it was the BEST time of my life!  I miss it so much!  I took amazing fashion classes over there, and of course I got to shop my brains out!  It was fantastic!  

I have read, I do understand, and I agree to the syllabus!

Jamie