How I met My Husband

This story was kind of cute and annoying at the same time. I really disliked the authors organization/structure in this story. This story jumped around way too much. At every new paragraph i felt completely thrown off. Line 80 for example starts with "The yard and borders didn't get trampled, it wasn't as bad as that." This line really comes out of nowhere and doesn't even seem like a complete thought to me. I had to do a double take the first time I read this to stop and think "okay, we are shifting thoughts now". I felt like I was doing that a lot throughout the story which is weird because unlike "A Rose for Emily" the whole story is in chronological order. Another thing that I disliked about this story was the syntax. Some sentences (like the one previously mentioned) didn't seem like complete thoughts to me. On the other hand, a great number of the sentences seemed like run-ons.. for example at the bottom of page 146 "So I said yes, and I went out with him for two years and he asked me to marry him, and we were engaged a year more while I got my things together and then we did marry." Not only is this sentence really long, but it has a lot of information in it. I just think it is weird that the speaker spends the whole story talking about the few encounters she has with this one man but then only dedicates a paragraph to her husband- most of which is summed up in this one sentence. Personally, if I were her husband I would be rather insulted.

Interpreter of Maladies

At the end of this story question #5 really stuck out to me "How do the characters' views of one another differ from the way the reader is encouraged to view them?" I think this question stuck out to me because I thought it was really weird the way the characters interacted with one another. First of all, it was odd how Mr. Das referred to Mrs. Das as Mina when talking to their daughter. Sometimes my brother calls my mom Karen and I honestly don't think there is something in the world that upsets her more so I really found it strange that the father actually set an example to call the mother by her first name. Next there is Mrs. Das who obviously does not care about her family quite as much as she does Mr. Kapasi. The way she talks to him about his job being romantic is really odd. I think there was much more dialogue (or mention thereof) between Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi than there is between Mr. and Mrs. Das. Mrs. Das seems very cold and distant the way she wore her glasses almost throughout the story. Also, I didn't really like the way in which she ignored her children (like when her daughter was asking her to paint her nails). Finally Mr. Das seemed very indifferent to everything. He never really showed any authority or concern for his children. When they were playing with the goat or making noise in the cab he simply acted as if nothing was wrong. In conclusion I thought the characters in the story made the story seem pretty far-fetched or unrealistic (not to mention the crazy monkeys jumping on the car).

A Rose For Emily

Alright, this story is right up there on the creepy factor with the poem "Edward". Also what struck me about the story was the unique structure. I felt like the story really didn't flow very well but the author did make an attempt to put it in some kind of order. The whole story is basically like a flashback or a retelling of events that happened in the past. I noticed a lot of the paragraphs started with phrases such as "the next day.." "when..." "the day after.." "So the next night.." etc. To me it seems like the author was trying to progress the story as well as give the reader a heads up that time was passing. I didn't really like that because it felt like nothing in the story really flowed or blended together.
One of the questions at the end of the unit in the book was "Compare the effectiveness of first-person in any of the following stories". I think that the use of first person is really helpful in this story because it helps the reader understand the story a little better. As I was reading the story I obviously thought the woman was crazy, but because the speaker describes the pity and sorrow the community felt for her I could understand more why no one ever really tried to bother her or question her about the smell coming from her house (although they should have since a dead body was rotting away). Over all, creepy story.

That Time of Year

So, I may be completely wrong, but i felt like the overarching theme in this poem was love. The speaker in this poem describes the changes outside as the seasons change as well as the changes outside when night comes. I felt that these two things symbolized distance or separation. I got this impression after I read the poem through once and read the final lines "This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long". To me this meant that- like in the changing of the seasons and daytime- we miss what we had before. The desire and appreciation of something always seems stronger once you have to go without it. To me it's like when the summer fades to fall and fall fades to winter all I can think about is summer and how much I miss it. It's from that separation that my appreciation of summer is strengthened. I feel like the whole meaning of the poem is summed up in those last couple lines. I could be really off, but that's just how I interpreted it.

Edward

Well, I don't really even know what to say about this poem. I was really confused a lot of the time. First of all I really disliked the repetition. That stupid "O, Mother, Edward, Mother, O" crap was driving me nuts and keeping me from concentrating. In addition to the repetition (haha that rhymed) I was completely thrown off by the mention of the hawk and the steed. After I read through the poem once I felt like I had a grasp of the main idea: This Edward fellow killed his father and his mother knows about it and possibly convinced him to do so. That much I understood; however, I really didn't see the significance of the first two and a half stanzas. And although I feel like I understand what actually happened/ took place within the poem, I feel like I'm missing a lot of background information. If the author had implied why Edward chose to kill his father than I missed that completely- and I feel like that is something that should be mentioned. I thought the overall tone of the poem was creepy and sinister. The mention of blood several times was creepy- but I also thought the mother seemed really creepy too. I don't know if she influenced Edward to kill his father, but she seemed pretty content with the fact that he did it.

Elegy For My Father Who Is Not Dead

This poem reminded me of "Crossing the Bar". Rather than the speaker being optimistic and ready for death in this poem, it is the speakers father who is waiting to die. In this poem the speaker is hesitant and somewhat fearful about the "world after this world". The first question that came with the poem asked "Why does the speaker eligize his father if he is not dead?" I thought about this question the moment I read the title before I even read the poem. Automatically I assumed that the father was probably mentally unstable or changed in someway that his family did not recognize his personality. This came to my mind first, I think, because one of my friends grandpa had Alzheimer's. My friend hasn't visited him since he was diagnosed with the illness because he is afraid to see what he is like. My friend always says that his grandpa is dead to him. Now, this may be far from the cone of reason, but it's really the only explanation I could really think of to explain why someone would eligize another person who isn't actually dead. Basically, I feel like the speaker wrote this poem to express his fear of death in contrast to his father's calmness.

Delight in Disorder

When I read this I really thought that Shakespeare would enjoy this poem. In a way it sort of reminded me of "My mistress' eyes" because it didn't falsely compare women to flowers or the sun. This poem seems to point out all the flaws in the way this woman is put together (not so much her physical characteristics, but her clothes). The speaker does point out negative things; however it seemed to me that they were sort of mentioned in a more positive light. This poem reminded me of the song "Best I Ever Had" by Drizzy Drake . In the song Drake says: "Chillin' with no make-up on that's when you look the best." I felt like this sort of summed up the speakers thoughts in this poem. ALthough the speaker uses words such as disorder, thrown, here and there, confusedly, and careless when describing the woman, he always pairs these words with more positive ones. Such words include: sweet, fine, enthralls, and deserving. This use of diction helps convey the real tone of the poem- which is that he loves the woman although she isn't perfect. I really liked how the final lines sort of tied the whole poem together- "Do more bewitch me than when art Is too precise in every part". Basically the speaker is saying that yes, sometimes she looks like a mess, but he is more attracted to her when she looks sloppy than when she is all put together.