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.

The Purloined Letter

"The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allan Poe is one of series of three detective stories about Dupin, an amateur Parisian detective. Published in 1844 this story is one of the first in the genre. It predates Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Chesterson's Father Brown and Simenon's Maigret who all borrowed from and built on Poe's legacy.
In this installment Poe explores the idea that a brilliant criminal is necessary to show the full extent of the detective's insight. He hints at the similarities in the cognitive processes of the criminal and the detective and creates a worthy adversary for Dupin in the Minister. He also points out the differences between logic and imagination and explains why both are necessary for a successful criminal, as well as a successful detective.
The story withholds important information from the reader, namely the location of the letter and the method by which Dupin found it until the very end. This technique is used by Poe to build up tension and later becomes the trademark of the detective mystery genre. Mnay parallels can be made between this story and the Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle written a couple of decades later. One of these is the use of the third person narrator, who has little to contribute to the solving of the mystery, but is heavily relied upon to showcase the brilliance of the detective.

"The Use of Force" by William Carlos Williams is a short story written from the point of view of a physician that encounters a child, who is unwilling to have her throat examined. What starts out as a routine examination quickly turns extremely violent. The girl strikes the first blow by knocking the doctor's glasses off and closes her mouth firmly. As the struggle ensues the doctor becomes more and more fired up. He seems to be truly enjoying the violence, though he never fully looses control of himself and is still able to address the parents in a professional manner. The terms in which the struggle is described are reminiscent of a rape, with the completion of the examination - an allegory for the orgasm. The story uses very sexual language to describe the struggle, the doctor even describes himself as "longing for muscular release" at one point. In the end his guilt of enjoying the process of inflicting pain on the child is subdued when he finds that the girl is truly sick and in danger. This story was written in 1933 when the field of psychology was quickly gaining popularity with Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic approach that is heavily rooted in sexual and violent themes at different stages of development . This story begs for a Freudian analysis of the characters and their interaction.

Hills Like White Elephants

"Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway is a story with no plot. The reader is dropped into the middle of a conversation that seems to have been going on for some time. The two main characters, Jig and the American are discussing abortion without ever mentioning the word itself. It is a conversation that must have taken place between a man and a woman countless times throughout history. The selfishness of the man, the quiet denial and the underlying pain of the woman are expressed through the use of the imagery surrounding the characters. The barrenness of the landscape represents the emptiness of their lives, their biggest concern trying a new alcoholic beverage. Other then the abortion, they have nothing else to talk about, except drinking. They can't even sustain a conversation about the landscape. This is the road they will continue on, should Jig follow through with the procedure. There is no resolution to this conflict, the readers are left to draw their own conclusions. Will the American convince Jig to have the procedure? Will they then continue on with their useless existence? Or will she choose life on the other side of the tracks? Will he follow her if she does?

The Yellow Wallpaper

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story of a woman who is battling depression. Her husband, a caring physician, takes what he considers to be every measure to help her. They go on vacation where she is depraved of all stimuli and forced into bed. This is a story of a treatment that is killing it's patient. She just wants to escape from that room and studying the patterns on the wallpaper takes up a lot of her time, as she lays in bed. As time passes her conditions worsens, reality and fantasy blur and she believes that she is trapped in the wallpaper pattern itself. The story culminates with her escape; escape from the reality she refuses to live in into a world of madness.
The story is very autobiographical for Gilman. As she battled with post-partum depression she was forced by her husband to see a doctor. At the time psychology was in it's infancy and she was given the diagnosis of neurasthenia, very common in middle class women of that time. Much like her character she was forced into bed, relieved of all her responsibilities and prescribed rest. Her biggest problem with the treatment, which the character also had to endure was the doctor's insistance that she stop writing. She believed that writing was the only thing that could carry her through the agony of those difficult times.
Of course today's techniques of dealing with depression are very different. Patrients are encouraged to participate in their normal daily activities as much as possible and writing is considered a therapeutic tool. Charlotte Perkins Gilman had to discover that on her own while being forced to take a stance against her doctor and overprotective husband. She fought on to become an important figure in the women's movement, shining light on the problems of the "happy housewife" and advocating against the "Rest Treatment" for neurasthenia described in this story.

Story of an Hour

I think Kate Chopin's “Story of an Hour” has two major themes that become evident as the story unfolds. The first is selfishness. Mrs. Mallard gives us no indication that she is not happy with her husband. He is not a bad man. She even says that sometimes she loves him. And yet she feels a tingling, selfish joy at the idea of him being dead. She thinks of all the days to come that she will now be able to spend as she wants, with no one to care for and no one to answer to.
At the same time, she feels guilty for being so selfish. That is the story's second major theme. She gives in to that ugly little creature, living in the back of her head, screaming: "Me, me, me!!!!!" and allows herself to feel the joy that her new freedom will bring her. The guilt caused by allowing herself to feel that way is what finally kills her.
I think we all have that little creature living in us. I remember standing at my grandmother's funeral at the tender age of seven and the only thoughts running through my mind were that it's hot, that my feet hurt, and a vague, yet persistent excitement caused by the fact that I was now going to get her room. I knew that it was wrong to think that way and felt some shame and discomfort, but could not help it. Years later I told my Mom about it and she admitted to me that she felt a glimpse of it too. You see, my grandmother was bedridden for many years. She lived with us and my Mom took care of her. I mean she TOOK CARE OF HER - fed her, washed her, gave her medication and all this while listening to rants about what a horrible person she is and how my father should have never married her. So a sense of relief was definitely mixed in with my mother's grief. This presents a clear moral dilemma. Does feeling this way make one a bad person? I guess Mrs Mallard just couldn't live with her own answer to that question...