Fences

Fences
The play “Fences” is about a poor African American family and all of the trials and tribulations they go through as a family. Each character has their own set of problems that end up being mixed in with another’s set of problems. While I did like most of the characters in the story, I did not like the main character Troy. The lesson and story within this play is something that I cannot just pin down on one thing.
The first character that I like and had a slew of problems was Cory. He spent his entire life trying to get out of his Father’s shadow and he just wanted to play sports. But when Troy took that away from him he became even angrier and thus caused him not to want to go to his father’s funeral at the end of the play. It’s ironic though, because without Troy interfering with Cory’s football ambitions he would have never became a Marine and would have never met the girl of his dreams. In a way, Troy was helping him have a better life.
I also really like Rose. She was so sweet and yet very independent. She tried to step in where necessary when Troy would start in on someone but she never put her marriage in jeopardy. Even though Troy had an affair and cheated on her, he still helped her in the long run. By cheating on her he ended up with a little baby girl. Rose states that she wanted more babies and this is what she got from Troy. And I liked how she kept the baby but told Troy to forget about her. This showed me that she was intelligent and still kept her dignity when dealing with him.
Overall it was an interesting story to see how everyone turned out and what they did with their lives. The matrix of a family can be so complex sometimes and it always makes members cross each other’s lives in different points.

Girl

Girl
This was such a strange short story. The way it was written was so harsh and unforgiving. When the reader is going through the first thing they notice is that there aren’t any real, complete sentences. Everything is chopped up and makes it a lot harsher then it should be. What the reader seems to be looking at are instructions for a young girl and how to live her life, basically. The instructions include everything from ironing shirts to spitting in the air.
There are these inserts with the instructions that made me cringe. Here and there the instructor refers to the girl as a slut. Like she doesn’t have a choice, that fate has chosen this attribute for her personality. It really isn’t fair to assume that this girl will already be a slut. The way it comes across make me want to beat the living snot out of whoever is saying it. The confidence within each instruction is so snobbish and unrelenting it turns the whole passage to a negative connotation instead of a positive one.
As the reader reads through the instructions it is so strange to see each of the comments about the girl being a slut wired in like it’s no big deal. The girl has her own comments back to the instructor a couple different times in the passage. What is odd for the reader is that the girl doesn’t say anything about being called a slut. She only makes comments about singing benna on Sunday’s in church and about feeling the bread from the baker. And even the instructor makes a rude comment to the girl about the baker letting her feel the bread. It was very short to read and I honestly had to read it twice to get the whole instruction characteristic down and then I started to see the harshness associated with the whole passage.

Shiloh

Shiloh
This was an interesting story to me. The plot was unexpected towards the end because it seemed as if there wasn’t anything in particular to cause Norma Jean to leave Leroy. When it comes down to it I think there were several different reasons why she felt the need to leave Leroy. When someone is away from the home for a good portion of time then the others do get used to not having them around. When Leroy has to stay home because he can’t drive his truck anymore, this causes tension within the marriage. Norma Jean is used to having her freedom from Leroy and now she doesn’t have that anymore. Then when her Mama caught her smoking it felt like even more freedom was stripped away from her. In response to feeling trapped Norma Jean decided she wanted her freedom back.
I had a general liking towards Leroy. He was innocently blinded by what was going on around him. There were signs that foreshadowed Norma Jean leaving him (her school, her not being around, etc). He was just ignorant to what was in front of his face. I think he wanted to believe that he could make her happy again and build her dream home. I find it ironic that the death of their child did not tear up their marriage, yet Leroy having to stay home does.
I believe that Norma Jean’s Mama realized what was going on before either of them knew. She kept pushing Shiloh on them hoping it would spark their marriage again. And she desperately wanted to go see it once again but declined when they offered for her to go. This was her subtle way of saying that they needed some time to work on their marriage and try to fix things.

Half and Half

Half and Half
What a sad story this was to read. I understand the way she related her inactiveness for Bing to her marriage. When she let Bing fall off of the cliff, in a way it was foreshadowing the demise of her own marriage. She is more of a calm person who doesn’t really have a strong opinion on what she wants. Making a decision is not that important to her.
It is relatable to what the mother does when Bing is swept into the Sea. As a mother myself, I would try anything I could think of to save my own child. And it was different to see how her mother reacted to Bing’s death with her Chinese culture infused into what she was doing. She let the American culture take precedent and the search and rescue commenced for Bing. But when that failed she decided to try Chinese traditions to save Bing.
As for the mother not believing in God anymore I don’t think she wanted to, but still did. I think she is angry with him more than anything else, because she still kept her Bible in plain view. If she completely disbelieved in God, she would have destroyed the Bible.
It is expected that the narrator take her experience with ted and relate it back to the tragedy in her family. Something like a divorce can take someone by surprise and knock them on their face. This is what happened to the family (especially her mother) when Bing died. Her mother still wants her to fight for her marriage though and I believe that relates back to her regret for not watching Bing better and fighting for him.
Overall it was an interesting part of The Joy Luck Club. Maybe someday I would be able to actually read the entire story, and not just excerpts

Alice Walker

Alice Walker
I really liked this story. I honestly thought that at the end the quilts would have just left with Dee anyways. The change in attitude done by the mother is something that made me smile. Dee deserved what she got and would have probably taken everything they used to survive, just for decoration.
I think Dee is someone who doesn’t really know who she is underneath everything. She seems to be one of those people who goes along with whatever is popular at that time. Her wanting the next best thing suggests that she isn’t truly ever happy. Where on the other hand her mother and Maggie just live a calm, peaceful life they best way they can. There is no “next best thing” for them, only survival. Dee reminds me of the saying, “Keeping up with the Jones’”. She has this new guy (whom no one knows if she’s married to or not) that she has changed her appearance, name, and way of thinking to match his.
I really liked Maggie in this story. She was quiet and not really a big part but she held a big presence for me. Even though she was not as pretty as Dee or as confidant, she was a better person deep down. She ranked higher up for me then Dee did. When Dee wants her quilts she was just going to give them to her and I think it was out of fear of confrontation. But it also seemed at the same time that she felt as if arguing with Dee just wasn’t worth her time.
As for the mother, she was admirable. In the end she finally found her backbone and stood up to Dee. She stopped doubting herself long enough to see how much of a spoiled brat Dee was and how she was stepping all over Maggie.
The simple life led by the Mother and Maggie is pretty neat to me and I would honestly rather live simple, then complex.

Tillie Olsen

Tillie Olsen
This story seems to be about a mother who is looking back on the life of her first born and regretting a lot of things she’s done. She also seems to be talking to someone on the phone, possibly a doctor or maybe a caseworker of some sort. She did get to go home after proving that she would eat at home rather then the place she was sent to.
If only the parents were able to allow her to explore her gift of comedy and let it grow. I think that is what she needed in her life. She needed something that set her apart, that made her unique in her own mind. She was unlike the common stereotype and it made her self-conscious. She lost her childhood to be her mother’s helper. She had to help raise the other kids and this lost herself. It made her late with her schoolwork and caused to lose self-esteem there as well.
The mother is ironing clothes as the daughter tries to talk to her at points during the story and she is at the beginning. I think that the ironing in the story could be a metaphor for the daughter’s life. As the mother tries to smooth out the wrinkles in the clothes she tries (too late unfortunately) to smooth out the wrinkles in her daughters life.
It’s sad that she realizes too late the mistakes she has made with her daughter. And she tries to help her and take care of her as should towards the end yet it’s too late. I like the character of the daughter in this story. She is very strong willed to me and I feel as if she is a honorable person. She has given up her life to helping her mother and just completely devoting herself to this life and yet never really complains. She has a round about way to let the mother know she isn’t happy, yet she keeps on trucking.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

A Good Man is Hard to Find
This story seemed to have a mask of contradiction intertwined within it. The Misfit seemed to have somewhat manners and care about what was being said about his family at the end of the story, yet a psychopath wouldn’t care. He was a contradiction to the stereotypical view of a murderer.
I also liked how it was the Grandmother who got them into the trouble they ended up in. If she hadn’t insisted that the family go view the house they wouldn’t have wrecked. She fought from the very beginning to go to Tennessee because there was a misfit in Florida. And then when they wrecked because of her they ended up the clutches of the Misfit.
The father and the mother were odd in the fact that they never listened to the grandmother. They were actually negative people yet were not the cause of the accident. There is another contradiction in the story. The Grandmother, who is more of a positive person in the story, (yet still annoying) ends up doing the negative act.
From the very beginning of the story the reader gets the sense that something bad will happen. The Misfit is brought up in the very beginning of the story giving the reader the clue that the family will meet up with the Misfit at some point or another. Also, when the Grandmother dresses for the trip she dresses in her finest because there might be an accident and she wants to look her best. When they turn off the dirt road they go from a nice smooth highway to a bumpy winding snake like road. The dark forests that are in the story and the snake like road lead up to the final blow.
It was a neat story to read. The misfit made it interesting and you think that he might be willing to leave the grandmother alone.