The Lesson

Not really my kind of story, I have difficulty relating emotionally to stories about social inequality considering I am an able bodied white guy. I mean, I have sympathy for people who experience inequality, by little to no empathy. I did enjoy the story just from the viewpoint of the stubborn, foul-mouthed little girl. Throughout the story, she proves her stubbornness in refusing the incorrect social balance weighed tremendously against her. When her best friend Sugar finally gets it stating "that this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don't it?" she is infuriated that someone would so blatently say what it is that she is trying to deny to herself.

A&P

The way this story is narrated immediately triggers my memory of Catcher in the Rye. “I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not. I ring it up again and the customer starts giving me hell. She's one of these cash-register-watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows, and I knowit made her day to trip me up” The way that he had a category of people which you know he ranted about to others in the past is actually quite funny. The story really is about the conformity of the times in the 1950's and youths urge to break way from it. The 'girls' in the story are certainly a symbol of this breaking away. So when he quits and follows them out the door, it's not so much him chasing the cute girls in bathing suits, but rather him following his desire for freedom from the norm.

Everyday Use

I am usually not a fan of African American literature, but this story was written quite well. There were even point where I let out a snicker from the awkwardness of Dee's interactions. Also, each character seems to represent a specific facet of the African American culture of the time. Dee being the superficial follower of the Black Muslim movement, more concerned with the look and style rather then true heritage. Mama is the embodiment of true heritage, unducated but resilient. And Maggie seems to just represent quite, good-heartedness. Dee burned down the house, right?

A Worn Path

The entire story was very symbolic. Even the main character's name: Phoenix, is representative of her power and persistence to come back again and again, just a the mythological bird would be reborn from its ashes. Even her clothing is reminiscent of the bird, with all of the reds and yellows. Also, I don't know if I am reading to far into the story, but does it seem that its possible her grandson has already died and her trip are just the result of dementia? Dunno.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Absolutely great story. It almost gives me the feeling that if it was made into a movie, it could easily be made into a dark comedy. The grandmother's twist view on who is good colliding with the misfit's even more twisted view of the world makes for awesome conflict. At the final scene where she reaches out to touch him, claiming he is one of her sons is an epic finally. Especially when he puts the three bullets in her chest. On my second reading i realized at that exact momment he was really wearing her dead son's shirt. Symbolism? I dunno, but certainly interesting.

A Hunger Artist

There are so many different ways to interpret this story that I am sure that I will miss they key point and am weary of writing my journal for the week. Some notable points that might be good for a conversation piece would be:
How although he was under constant watch so they knew that he wasn't eating, he still had it in is head that people in the crowd believed that he was sneaking food.
How in his outbursts of rage, the impresario would apologize for the crowd, claiming it was the lack of food making him angry; when in fact, it was them stopping his fast that infuriated him.
Another weird point was how when they replaced him with the panther, they mentioned how they always fed it what it wanted to eat. I don't know how to compare this to the author other then he claims the only reason he never ate is he could never find something suitable to his pallet.
Bizarre story.

Young Goodman Brown

Definitely one of my favorite stories yet this semester. Not only was the story and actual story, (Not a bunch of text asking to be read into) but Hawthorn's style of writing is not only pleasant to read, but full of awesome imagery. The scene where he finally picks up to devil's staff and is marching through the forest was epic. Hawthorn describes all of the wickedness and evil in the forest then successfully makes the reader believe that among all of these things, he is the most wicked. "In truth, all through the haunted forest there could be nothing more frightful than the figure of Goodman Brown. On he flew among the black pines, brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures, now giving vent to an inspiration of horrid blasphemy, and now shouting forth such laughter as set all the echoes of the forest laughing like demons around him." At the end, you are left a bit up in the air, and I was wondering if there was a right answer. Was it that the people of the town are in fact in cahoots with the devil and that is why he outcasts himself from them or was it that he was forever touched by his devilish experience and the thought put in his head are what keeps him away from his loved ones for the rest of his life? I assume it's the latter, a much more 'devilish' concept.