The Country of the Pointed Firs

In the first chapter of Jewett's stories she says, "When one really knows a village like this and its surroundings, it is like becoming acquainted with a single person. The process of falling in love at first sight is as final as it is swift in such a case, but the growth of true friendship may be a lifelong affair" (1). This passage clued me in to what the people of Dunnet would be like. It made me feel as though everyone was connected in some way; everyone knows the story of everyone else. I thought it was interesting that Jewett compared this to falling in love at first sight. Maybe she was trying to imply that what you get from the people in the town is what life is really like. There are not necessarily any secrets or confusing elements to life. You are certain of your place in Dunnet, just as you are with everyone else's.

In Mrs. Todd's section of the story she gives more insight to the way people in Dunnet are: "...I have never had nobody I could so trust" (4). Here Mrs. Todd is talking to the narrator about her life. It's interesting to think that even though the people in this town all seem to have a connection, they are also very much apart too. They each have such a distinct story that separates them from the rest of the town. This could be why Jewett divides up her stories the way she does. She wants each character or each situation to have its own distinct attention brought to it. Everyone's story is important in Dunnet.

The Use of Force

William Carlos Williams' story "The Use of Force" was different from many of the other stories we read. I thought it was interesting that the story consisted primarily of dialogue but there were no quotation marks. This reminded me of Hemingway's' "Hills Like White Elephants" because it was difficult at times to follow without really knowing who was speaking. Once and a while Williams would throw in "I said" or something, but still it was confusing. The fact that the story was told in first person and made up of dialogue made it seem to me that maybe this story is not fully true. Because there are no quotation marks how is the reader to be certain that what the mother and father are saying, for example, is what they really said? I also thought it was strange the doctor had such strong urges of killing. He said, "till I wanted to kill him" in regards to the father and "I could have torn the child apart in my own fury and enjoyed it" in reference to the daughter (1171-1172). Doctors are normally looked at as wanting to save lives, not wanting to destroy them. In the same sense, though, I can see where the doctor's anger stems from. He feels this child has been neglected and he eluded to the fact he sees this frequently.

The Cask of Amontillado

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" is similar to many of Poe's stories where he convinces you that the narrator is a normal person, in the beginning. Poe's word choice and ability with talking in the first person convinces the reader to think the narrator is a good person who had been wronged. I think its brilliant that Poe uses different phrases and word choices to hint to Fortunato and the reader that the narrator's intentions were not what we initially thought. The narrator tells Fortunato the motto of where they were going was "Nemo me impune lacessit" which means "No one harms me unpunished" (937). This is so ironic and funny to put into the story as he is convincing Fortunato they are going to do something worth while. Fortunato's name in itself is ironic because fortune is the exact opposite of what Fortunato gets. One of the best parts of the story for me was the very end. The narrator says, "My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so" (939). Realistically one would assume he was sick because he just buried a man alive, but of course this is not the case. This is another way of Poe trying to fool the reader that the narrator isn't as crazy as we were lead to believe. For a split second we considered the narrator to feel guilty for what he had done, but it was the opposite.

The Rocking-Horse Winner

D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner" gives you a lot of information simply off the first paragraph. You learn a lot about the mother's character just from this paragraph. You immediately learned the tone of the story right from the first sentence: "There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck" (709). You learn what an important role luck is going to have in this story because Lawrence first described the mother by relating her to luck. I found it interesting that right away Lawrence lets the reader know that she felt her children "had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them" (709). It's rare that you hear a mother talk about her children in such a way. The fact she did not love her children is ironic because her son does so much to earn this love. He feels horrible for his mother that she has such horrible luck that he lets this desire to please her consume his life. I also thought it was interesting that we learn so little about the father. The only things we really learn about him are through his wife who claims he has high tastes, but horrible luck. She talks so negatively about him even to his own children, which I found odd. You would think in most cases you would speak highly of your husband and father of your children, but this is not the case. It seems that nothing is good enough for this woman. Even when her son has the lawyer give her money she does not act with happiness, she simply wants more. The first thing she does is ask her lawyer for all the money because they are in debt. It is clear the family wasn't in debt because the mother just bought furniture and tutors with the money. If you were in debt you would not spend your money on creating a better image for yourself, but its obvious this is one of the only things she cares about.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is an extremely ironic story. She puts in many details throughout the story that later on you realize she was trying to foreshadow and be ironic. I found it ironic that the grandmother wanted to go to Tennessee instead of Florida and the entire outcome of the story was because the grandmother gave directions to an abandoned house that was really in Tennessee. If the grandmother would have remembered the where the house was, the family would have never been killed. The grandmother is such a funny character regardless because she always has something to say. This is ironic because her talkative behavior is what in the end gets her killed. The Misfit even says, "She would have been a good woman if it had been somebody to shoot her every minute of her life" (914). The grandmother isn't a bad woman, she is just extremely opinionated and frankly annoys everyone else in her life. Her only son even ignored her and made faces when she talked. The children in this story are also funny. They say exactly what is on their mind, most of it extremely rude. This is ironic because the grandmother complains about the way the children act, but people could say similar things about her. The son's name "John Wesley" is also ironic because he was a priest in the 1700s who started the Methodist beliefs. I'm not sure if O'Connor did this on purpose, but if she did it would be ironic because he was such a holy man and this boy is a rude and blunt child. One thing I found interesting about this story was that they always referred to the mother as "the children's mother" and not by her name. Everyone else in the story had a name besides her so I found it strange she did not.

The Lottery

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is an incredibly ironic story. The title in itself is ironic. One normally considers the lottery a good thing. If you win the lottery, you win money. In this story that's not the case. If you win the lottery you get stoned to death. It's also ironic that Tessie was the one who got picked for this year's lottery. She was late to it and made jokes about it and ended up being killed in the end for something she took so lightly. Probably the most ironic part of this story and one of my favorites is the way Old Man Warner talks about the lottery. He overhears someone saying that in other villages they have stopped the lottery and is outraged. He says, "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while" (565). Warner is talking about this barbaric act as if it is a good thing. The way he talks about the lottery would make you think it had to happen or bad things would happen to the town. A first time reading of this story would make you believe that the lottery is a good thing. Warner says that nothing is good enough for the young people and they will want to "go back to living in caves." That statement in itself is extremely ironic because the act of the lottery is so barbaric, but yet he is comparing those people who recognize it as barbaric cave men.

Hills Like White Elephants

Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" is a lot different from the other stories we have read. For one, the majority of this story is told through dialogue. We also never learn the characters' names, where they are going, and especially what the "it" is they are going to do. In the very first paragraph the narrator describes the characters as "the American and the girl" (552). Clearly the girl is not American, but I wonder about her age since she is referred to as a girl. She is referred to as "the girl" throughout the entire story while the American she is with is referred to as "the man." So now we know not only is there a difference in cultural background between the two, but there is also a difference in age. I like to think the girl is younger in age because she is very imaginative. She is constantly staring off and the landscape and says the mountains and hills "looked like white elephants" (553). The man is obviously a lot more serious because he cannot see it nor can he describe what a white elephant would even look like. He is not nearly as imaginative as the girl he is with. At first I thought maybe this was a couple and the "it" they were doing was running away together. Now I think maybe this is a father and a daughter. Maybe the daughter lived in another country with her mom and he is now taking her. I do not think finding this out is a necessity, however. The dialogue between the two, regardless of their relationship, is more important than their actual relationship.