The Story of an Hour

This story was only two pages long, but it evoked such strong emotion from me! When Chopin describes the emotions felt by Mrs. Mallard, I couldn't help but get upset. "There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul" (Chopin 267). This imagery is so precise I could see the old woman exhausted in the chair. I could see the physical and emotional exhaustion's toll on the poor old woman. Losing a loved one is one of the hardest things to deal with, especially a significant other. This reminds me of when my grandfather passed away. My grandmother was so exhausted from the news my father had to carry her to bed because she could not move. One thing in the story that confused me was Chopin's description of Mrs. Mallard's love for her husband. She said said, "And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not" (268). Why did she only love him sometimes? What happened that affected her love for her husband? I wonder if Chopin is just making a statement about marriage. Marriage is something you have to work at and it may not always be great all the time. Or maybe Chopin is literally hinting at a problem in the Mallard's marriage. I was also taken back by the statement "life might be long" (268). This statement got me so upset. The woman realizes now that life without her husband will seem a lot longer than she anticipated.

Second Life/Avitars

In Second Life I chose my avatars name to be StephKate Akina. My first name was simply the nickname of my first name and my middle name combined. I really couldn't tell you why I picked Akina for my last name besides I thought it was such a beautiful name! It was one of the first one's I saw and I had to have it. Its kind of strange to be a "default" shape. It makes me want to question why does the default of a woman look like this? Why is she a brunette? Why does she have a fit body? I guess I cannot complain about having such a perfect body, but I wouldn't even mind looking the complete opposite. I'm actually at a point in my life where I'm somewhat ok with my body so taking on whatever the default shape is really isn't that big of a deal I guess. The only thing I would really want to change is the hair color to blond because I am a blond!! Now I think maybe it would have been cool to make my avatar a man. I always joke that I would love to be a man for a day and I could have lived this desire through my avatar. The only good thing about Second Life is you don't know who the person is behind the avatar so you really can't (well shouldn't) judge the person based on what their avatar looks like. They could look like some demon, but have the most intelligent things to say. I don't really care if anyone knows who I am in Second Life. I haven't told anyone my avitar's name, but to me it doesn't matter either way. Maybe with the avatar I will have conversations with people I never would have before and maybe I won't think twice about saying certain things. This can be a great thing about Second Life. You can hide behind this avatar in a way. By using the avatar you can explore different ideas that you would normally be nervous doing so in "the real world."

Paul's Case

I cannot believe the ending of this story!!!!! The entire time I was reading this story I had a weird feeling in my stomach about Paul. I really thought that at the end of the story Paul was going to wake up and everything he went through would have been a dream. I found it so strange that he was perfectly content living this fake life. When the narrator said, "He was not in the least abashed or lonely. He had no especial desire to meet or to know any of these people; all he demanded was the right to look on and to conjecture, to watch the pageant" (Cather 211). I can't figure out how he was so satisfied living a life completely detached from the world around him. The people around him only mattered so he had something to watch. When Paul went to New York I couldn't get over how no one noticed or even cared that he was gone. This is part of the reason why I thought maybe it was a dream. Maybe he was just imagining a life apart from the world he used to know to get away from it. I also thought maybe he was telling the story from a mental institution like in "Catcher in the Rye" but once again I was wrong. I just cannot seem to figure Paul out. I guess the unhappiness he has in life and the lack of understanding from everyone in his life has forced Paul to block out the world in a way. He only needs to view the lives of others to create happiness in his life. This must have not been enough happiness however if he decided to take his own life at the end of the story.

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

One of the things I loved about this story was the dialect. The first three paragraphs sound intelligent and formal and then all the sudden it breaks into this southern dialect. Each part where Simon Wheeler was speaking was hilarious to me. I could actually hear some southern man telling me this story and I could even envision the story he was telling. Right before Wheeler begins his story the narrator says "I let him go on his own way, and never interrupted him once" (Clemens 273). I found this line to be ironic. It was as if the narrator was saying the story you are about to hear really means nothing at all. I also didn't know if that line was supposed to show that maybe this story could be slightly fabricated. Its as if the narrator knew Wheeler was a story teller and this story could be slightly exaggerated. I feel this notion of fabrication and exaggeration is what Clemens' story and the Borges' story has in common. You are never really sure if what you are reading is the complete truth or a fabrication of the story teller's imagination. I also find it funny that both stories give you the impression that what you are about to read really does not matter at all. I like that about both these stories because once I came to this conclusion I just tried to enjoy the story. Its such an ironic statement to put into a story, but it makes each story that much more interesting. Why even create a story if there is no point to it and it doesn't even matter? The only answer I can come up with is why not!

The Other Duel

I found "The Other Duel" to be a strange story. I found it funny the narrator made it clear this story may not be as exact as it could be by saying things like "in my memory" (140) and "I have no way of knowing whether the events I am about to narrate are effects or causes" (141). Maybe Borges did not mean for the story to seem not exact because the story sounds like it is, but comments like that made me thing that maybe the narrator was supposed to exaggerate the story slightly. In the very first paragraph the narrator says, "...and its tragic end still calls up the medicinal fragrance of the eucalyptus trees and the singing of the birds" (140). I found this sentence to be very ironic. He refers to the event as tragic but yet ends his sentence with a pleasing image. If the event was so tragic then why would he mention the birds singing. I took this to mean that maybe the event that occurred was not looked at as a negative thing by everyone. I found it interesting that Silveira named his dog Thirty-three. I circled it as I was reading thinking the dog's name held some significance, but I did not find any. I may be over analyzing the dog's name, but I feel its weird he named his dog a number and why thirty-three? Another ironic thing about the story was the way the two men died. First, Cardoso asked to be able to kill someone by slitting their throat for pleasure because he had never done it before. Ironically this is how he died. Their deaths were also ironic because Cardoso was going to take pleasure out of slitting a man's throat and all the prisoners took pleasure out of watching him die. They even bet on who would die first!

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Even though I have ready Bierce's "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" many times, it still amazes me how he can convince the reader that Farquhar is still alive. Each time I seem to pick up on more details that hint to you he is really dead and I noticed even more as we discussed them in class. On page 138 Bierce details, "The wood on either side was full of singular noises, among which-once, twice, and again, he distinctly heard whispers in an unknown tongue." At this part in the story I feel Farquhar is getting extremely close to his realization with death. He is lost in the woods that should be familiar to him. He cannot even recognize the sounds of the woods that surround his own home. Its as if now he is too distant from his home, he will never be able to familiarize himself with the sounds of his own home again because it is no longer his home. The "singular noises" Bierce describes convinces me more of Farquhar's death because now he is alone. When everyone travels to the after life I feel as though their journey is now an independent one. Maybe all the "singular noises" Farquhar hears are the noises of other deceased people making their way to the after life. They all realize there is something going on around them, but they cannot grasp it nor get into contact with it. The "unknown tongue" that is described seems to me to be the voice Farquhar is subconsciously moving too. These voices are unknown to him (maybe the voice of the after life or death.) If this voice really was death it would make sense it was unfamiliar because Farquhar clearly has never experienced that until now.