The Lesson

Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson" is about a group of inner city, minority children who are led on a trip to FAO Schwartz by a woman, active in the community. The feeling of apprehention that the children experience as they enter the store points to the obvious class differences in American society. And though this lesson in social equality (or inequality) is designed to bring awareness to the children, the reader can't help but feel the anger that it generates in Sylvia. In the end it only reinforces her ghetto mentality, she is most concerned with the change she stole from Miss Moore.
I have a very special connection to this story. My sister and I were brought to the US by our parents when we were children. And even though we were very very poor for the first couple of years, our parents did their best to show us the world around us. I remember that feeling of apprehention on my first trip to FAO Schwartz. I remeber the tears in mother's eyes because my 5 year old sister did not even ask if she could have a toy, she knew we couldn't afford it. I was also surprised on my last trip there a few years ago to find out that the prices in that store are pretty reasonable, I even bought something for my nephew.
This whole "we need to redivide the pie" business falls on deaf ears with me because there in this country, more so then any other country in the world each of us has the ability to make something of themselves without breaking the system. And even though some have better odds then others, it does not excuse that ghetto attitude (like Sylvia's) "If I can't buy it then I'll steal it". I think the lesson here should be - You want it? Work for it!

John Updike's "A&P"

Updike wrote "A&P" in the early sixties. A time when the hippie movement was gaining in popularity and the youth rebelled against "The Establishment". That is what the three girls in the bathing suits represent; they symbolize that rebellion. They break the norm in the conservative Mid-Western town by wearing bathing suits to the supermarket and "The Establishment" is quick to react in the form of a reprise by the store manager. The protagonist, our "checkout hero" joins "the cause" and quits his job, thus rejecting the values of his parents and 1950's American society. This is "The Revolution", Milwaukee style, and like everything they do in Milwaukee - it's rather boring and quite subdued.

Everyday Use by Alice Walker

"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker explores the subject of African American heritage. When Dee comes home, she is full of concepts that are foreign to her mother. She has changed her name to an African one, her clothes, her language, everything about her is different. Her mother hardly recognizes her and has no problem calling her Wangero when Dee's behavior seems most foreign to her. Dee is strong and independent and looks down on her family's perceived backwardness. She is very much into the whole heritage movement and takes items from her mother's house, items that they use everyday. They get into an arguement over two quilts, that the mother refuses to give up because she promised it to her younger daughter, Maggie. Dee gets upset because she thinks that Magie will put them to everyday use and ruin them, while she wants to hang them up. The mother finally stands up to her daughter. She hugs Maggie, realizing that her other daughter is lost to her. Even with her rural, uneducated mind she understands that it is Maggie, who will continue her heritage.
It seems that whenever a group goes through an identity crisis, the first thing they do is attempt to destroy the old values. Dee does this with her name. She says she refuses to be named after the people that oppressed her. Her mother finds that this is disrespectful to her heritage. So is creating a curtain out of a quilt, for you see, quilts are made to put on the bed. This is something Dee does not understand, her heritage is her mother's everyday life.

A Worn Path

"A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty is a story about an old black woman, extremely hardened by the life she led. Everything about her, form her clothes to her attitude screams survival. The hardships she is forced to endure in her quest for her grandson's medicine are symbolic the things she had to deal with every day of her life life.
Old Phoenix reminds me of my own grandmother. Sometimes we forget how different the lives of that generation were. Recently my fiance and I were laughing about getting caught stealing as children. Something all kids go through. And my grandmother, who overheard the conversation, told a story of her own. How at 11 years old, during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine she got caught stealing potatoes from the field by a German soldier. He laughed at her and let her go, but a week later her next door neighbor was executed for the same offense. Experiences like these is what shaped that hardened survivalist mentality we see in old Phoenix.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is the story of an overbearing, selfish old woman who joins her family on a vacation to Florida. She manipulates her son into taking a detour and causes an accident by letting her cat escape from the bag. As the family waits for help by the side of the road, they encounter a trio of escaped convicts led by the notorious Misfit. The whole family is led into the woods and executed as the grandmother pleads with the villain.
She is trying to appeal to the good in him in a desperate attempt to save her life. As she talks of Jesus and the importance of prayer in the Misfit's life, she is in fact talking to herself. A moment before her death grace is bestowed upon her and she dies in peace, with a smile on her face. The Misfit says that she would have been a good woman if someone were there to shoot her every day of her life.
This story explores the Christian concept of grace and forgiveness by simply asking for it on one's deathbed. It poses the question whether one final moment of insight negates a lifetime of sin and asks why our potential to do good is so rarely considered until we are faced with the prospect of dying.

The Hunger Artist

"The Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka is a story of sideshow performer, who was the main attraction of the fair in the past. A the time of the narrative, however, with the interest in his craft declining, he is reduced to a pit stop on the way to the animal cages at a large circus. Forgotten by the circus staff and the public, he slowly withers away. With his dying breath he rejects his art and his own significance, attempting to convince the public that he simply fasted because he did not enjoy the taste of food.
This is a story of a misunderstood artist (hence the title). At the height of his fame, he believes that the public is what is preventing him from achieving new heights in his art. As the crowd leave him behind, however, and he is able to shatter his old records, he begins to understand that the crowd is what makes him significant. As he whispers his dying breath, he comes to terms with the fact that he will die misunderstood and gives up on the world.
The story is very autobiographical for Kafka. He too, felt misunderstood and abandoned by the public, and even left instructions to burn his unpublished work after his death. He was also suffering from tuberculosis which made eating very painful for him. The story creates a rare glimpse into the mind of an artist, struggling with the issues of his importance to art world as well as the physical aspects of fasting.

"Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story of a young man who is tempted by the Devil. Satan accompanies him on a walk through the woods late at night, away from his young wife and deeply religious Puritan community. The devil uses many deceptive techniques in the battle for Brown's soul; He attempts to convince the young man that everyone from the minister down is employed in his service. Though in the end Goodman Brown is able to resist the the Devil, it does not make his Faith any stronger. Instead he is forever haunted by the images, that the Devil showed him and continues to question the faith of everyone around him. I think this story describes a person's first run-in with dishonesty and shows how some people, having one bad experience, are never able to trust anyone again.