The Lame shall enter First

This story was very sad just like the other O'Connor story we have read. In both stories we have read, the author ends them with saddness and guilt. In comparison to "Everything must Converge" when the mother dies and Julien, the son, is left to feeling some guilt for his whole life for what he said before she dies relates to "The Lame Shall enter First" because the father spent so much time on another boy when he failed to realize his own son needed him. When he finally realizes he needs to tell his own boy, Norton, how much he means to him he finds him dead.
I can't say I like this story because the ending was kind of morbid and nobody came out happy. But like the first story we read of O'Connors, we learn a lesson. You dont know what you have till its gone and it teaches you to not take things for granted. Life is too short. And sure the father was trying to help another boy butyou have to make sure your okay and the people around you are as well before you can go on helping others.

Everything that Rises must Converge

I kind of had a feeling what was going to happen at the end of this short sotry before reading it. I think that it is really sad how the boy treated his mother throught out the whole book. I understand that she was from a different generation creating tension between blacks and whites. This causes the son to get very irritated because his generation is starting to accept blacks as people and not slaves. Its heart breaking to hear the mother say things about blacks. I thought it was un called for when she reached in her purse to give the boy a penny. It is kind of a like a slap in the face, although its how she grew up. I feel like by her giving the boy a penny gave her a sense of her still having power over blacks. Its almost like she felt like they would need that penny and she was doing them a favor. But the black mother took it as an insult.
In the end, the mother starts stomping down the street and you hear her talk of getting his grandfather to come pick her up. This already hints that she is towards the end of her time. The son is going to live with a ton of guilt because he was yelling at her "I told you not to do that and you got what you deserved". That is an awful way to say goodbye.

A Pair of Tickets

Going into this story, I was unsure of how it was going to be. It starts off with a really strong introduction that gets right to the point. It talks of a train leaving for Hong Kong so we know the narrator is going on a trip. However, I was trying to paint a picture in my head but the story fails to mention in the beginning whether its a boy or girl as the narrator. I assumed that it was a girl because of the way the author portrayed the realtionship between the narrator and the mother.
I really liked this story because it tells a story of how a girl finds out where she is really from and what it means to feel that she is chinese. Also, I liked how the author ended the story with " Together we look like out mother. Her same etes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long cherished wish" which was for her daughters to meet and for her one daughter to know what it feels like to be chinese. I also liked how the author made the narrator and her father have a closer relationship. Overall, I enjoyed reading this story.

Three short stories

Gabriel Marquezs story " A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" is taken place at a obviously unweathly families home when a old man with wings is stuck in the mud outside. I found myself getting sad in this story because they treated this creature like it was a monster and locked it up. And on top of it, they began to show the creature and make money off of their showcase. Some people believed it was an angel but in the end the creature showed no amazing talents that would indicate that. I feel that this story leaves you hanging because you never find out actually what the old man with wings was doing there nor what he actually was.
The story "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid was very interesting. I feel the other was trying to convey what it was like to be a girl. Girls are constantly following guidelines of what its like to be lady like. Their also taught chores and task of being a woman. I find it interesting how at the end of the story when it says "this is how you catch a fish and this is how you throw back a fish you dont like" because I always think of fishing as a manly task. Thats when the story really throws me for a loop.
I was very unsure of the story " The grasshopper and the Bell Cricket". Im not sure if I like this story. I feel like the author did a great job with talking about the kids venturing into the forest after creating laterns. I think its funny how the little girl in the story knew what the bug was and the boy didnt. At the end it gets a little confusing. I had to re-read it several times.

How much land does a man need?

I enjoyed this short story mainly because of its objective towards the reader. I feel that the authors main point of this story is very direct. Pahom constantly wants more land in his life and while chasing this land he loses sight of the important things in life such as love and family. He forgets that money does not create happiness and eventually he learns this the hard way. I think that it is ironic that the younger sister talks about how peasants dont need much and how her elder sister is surrounded by evils throughout her days and yet her husband is the one that falls into this evil chase of money.
In the book Pahom quotes, "An hour to suffer, a life time to live" not realizing that he has drove himself so hard for the land that he wishes to make him money resulting in his death. No land was ever enough for him.

The Loon's

I felt like this short story spent alot of time describing the lake house and then quickly and briefly jumped through to the end when the narrator went to college and piquette got married then died. Im still trying to grasp the whole idea of the ending when it says, "Piquette might have been the only one, after all, who had heard the crying of the loons." Im not sure if it is a negative connotation or just a way to finish off the story. I feel like the short story just leaves us hanging.
This story was very sad. I put myself in the shoes of the narrator. I couldn't imagine having a lake house that I shared time with my family and then losing someone I loved that created some of my fondest memories. The whole story is just an emotional let down. Two people die and it doesn't have the least bit of a happy ending. I have never understood if a house was on fire, why people can't get out but I guess it goes back to being educated. You learn those basics in school. And I've never been in that situation so its hard to tell. In some way however, this short story teaches you to cherish what you have because you never know when it could be gone.

Sonny's Blues

This story felt like forever. I feel like it drug on. However, I feel like the overall plot of the story has a great point. I feel that the author was trying to get the point across that family means everything. When the story starts talking about the dad dying and the mother telling her son about his dads brother dying it really starts to put together a concept that family is forever and that they should be there for you and you should be there for them at all times no matter what because you never know what could happen. In the story I find it weird that the narrators name is never mentioned so I can't really fit a face to a name. I feel a sense of frustration for the narrator because his brother was a drug user. It must be really hard to be able to get through that.
I also find it interesting when the article talks about the things that were going on around them. It helps to put together a image of the characters and settings we are dealing with. For example when the mother is talking to her son about his dads brothers death she says, "The car was full of white men. They were all drunk, and when they seen your father's brother they let out a great whoop and holler and they aimed the car straight at him" and as it continues it states " till the day he died he weren't sure but that every white man he saw was the white man that killed his brother". To me, this labeling of the white race may indicate that the story is of a black family. It also signifies the times of hardship blacks were dealing with especially since it seems as if the boys did it on purpose. And after doing so, they never stopped or turned themselves in.

An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge

Personally, I really enjoyed reading this short story. It definitely caught my attention from the beginning because I started getting excited when it said that he was reluctant to break free. In this short story, it gives so much detail about how things uused to be done. For example, in today's generation we no longer hang people. I also found it interesting when Bierce included in this story what fire arms were like back then. He included in his story how he could time a bullet and try to dodge it because the gun smoke would let him know when the bullet was released. I know that this was all a hopeful wish in Farquhar's mind but it helpfully relates to what times were like back then.
By having an understanding of Ambrosse Bierce and the time this story was written helps me understand greater detail of it. What really stuck out to me was during Farquhar's fascinated escape, he points out in one sentence that he had finally reached the banks of the south and was now "free". This shows that not only did he talk in this story about old weapons that were used or that hanging men was on going but that the Civil War was still fresh and he chose to write a story that included the south and north.