Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor seemed to be a very lonely individual as the way she writes her storys or a grumy woman, she died at a very young age, I'm not sure what was the cause of her death. In the story "A good man is hard to find" I'm still a little confused on how the title related to the actual story, unless it is basing it off of the misfits being horrible men, and there seems like there isnt any good man out there that wouldnt kill a family. The children in the story were very rude and disrespectful to their grandmother and the parents. I think that the parents should take more action i discipling their children when they start to whine or treat people the way that they did. I think it's ridiculous how children can act like that and I think it is definately way out of line and something that they should have handled. The grandmother was a older type lady which she was very confused with where they were going which is what caused the accident to start with becuase she got the family lost. I think that its horrible that the misfits ended up killing her, I thought the story had a very tragic ending, although it didnt start off very pleasant to begin with.

Tillie Olsen

I can relate with Tillie in his particular story she has written. Many times I get caught up in my own world and things that need to be done without acually focusing on the things that are more important in my life. I have a two year old son and in Tillie's story the man said to the mother "you should smile more often when you look at emily". When I read that it turned back towards my son Im sure everytime I may look at him I may not always have a smile on my face as I should because he is the most precious thing in my life. I think that she should have as well paid more attention to Emily, and not send her off to that hospital. The choices that the mother made could have easily been avoided if she had chosen to take different paths when making critcal decisions concerning her daughter. If that had been done so, then her and Emily's relationship may be better off then it is at state now. I also feel like the mother and father should have gotten jobs at different times of the day rather then leaving her alone, that can be very hard on a child I believe. Overall it was a very good story.

Serena

I absolutely loved this story, when I first looked at the book I was so unsure just by the looks of the cover, but the more I got into the book the less I put it down. Serena was a very selfish woman, she only thought about herself and no one else. She seemed to have a mindset that nobody was ever going to be better than her, and that’s pretty much the way she lived her life. When she finally killed her husband her reasoning was basically he wasn’t up to her standards and he was inferior to her, but I think she more than likely had a jealousy issue with the fact that she couldn’t bore children. Serena killed not only her husband but several others including, Widow Jenkins because she couldn’t find someone, and then of course her husband because “he wasn’t good enough” as well as Harris. Serena never cared about the way she treated other people that was around her, she didn’t think about what kind of burden she placed on people’s lives either. This book told a great story of conniving people, dishonesty and sacrificing as well. I would definitely request for other people to read this story.

Randall Jarrell

Randall Jarrell was very well known for his amazing pieces of poetry, I enjoyed reading his poetry most when being compared to Sylvia Plath. Randall served in World War II, which I believe is where he came up with his imagination as well as own experiences to present his poem called “Losses” although it seems a little confusing when reading the poem because he contradicts himself several times, saying “It was not dying, Everybody died.” I found that a little hard to understand but I perceived it as the many things that he seen out in the war that it wasn’t him so much worrying about his death anymore because he was so used to being exposed to his friends deaths as well as his enemies, so when it came his time to die it was a part o the nature. Overall I think that his poems were very real when you read them it is like the characters come alive in his short stories/poems.

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath has stated herself these exact words about her poetry, "I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have, but I must say I cannot sympathize with these cries from the heart that are informed by nothing except a needle or a knife." With that being said it is very apparent that Sylvia had several issues throughout her life, shortly after her father died Sylvia begin to become depressed and even attempted suicide. She wrote down her thoughts and emotions in her poetry as you may be able to see when she wrote her poems that we have read. In her poem "Daddy" it sounds like she relates her poem to a nursery rhyme called "the old woman who lived in a shoe" because she uses the words "Blacks hoe in which I have lived like a foot." With this particular nursery rhyme the mother whips her children and sends them to bed, I think that is a relation to the kind of relationship she had with her own father because they didnt have that kind of close relationship together, which may be why she went down hill from the time her father died and later on.

Sonny's Blues

Sonny’s brother was a math teacher in their old town of Harlem. Sonny himself was a drug addict on heroin and spent a good deal of time in his drug rehab. One of Sonny’s old friends shows up to tell sonny’s brother that Sonny was sent into rehab, and it rekindled memories from the past. Of course when it deals with your siblings whether it be a younger/older sister or brother you always feel that protectiveness over one another. The two brothers hardly talked or communicated at all throughout the years but as time went out they begin to make that same connection that they once had as a young child. When it says “Blues” in the title of the story I feel like the “blues” is the emotional rollercoaster the two brothers experienced with one another, as well as the rekindling of their relationship as two brothers that have taken different paths in life. The music in the story plays a big role in their life as well, I think at this point when they were hearing the music at the Barbeque joint the brother begins to listen to Sonny and his troubles. Anyone with a drug addiction it’s extremely important for that person to have some sort of support from either a family member or friend, to have someone there to listen to you and talk with you about your sufferings. I feel that is exactly what sonny’s brother did towards the end of the story is he found a place where he could sit and listen to Sonny’s hurt and pain that he was feeling why going through this terrible addiction he had started.

Powerhouse

Powerhouse seemed to be a story comparing the differences between the blacks and whites. I think the story was probably written around the time of when being prejudice was a major issue in society at the time. In this story it focuses a lot on the music and bands playing. White folks did pay to come and see this particular musician. When everything was said and done though, the blacks had to go to their side of the streets where they had their own restaurants, stores, homes, and everything else involved. As well as the white people had their side of town. I don’t agree with this at all, I feel that everybody is equal no matter what color, race or religion they are, I guess that is the complete difference between society now and they way their outlook was back then. This was my least favorite short story that I read this week.