Too little Too late

Of all the characters in this novel, Tommy and Kathy were clearly the ones who were supposed to have been together all along.  They just acknowledged this fact a little too late.  I loved the recurring event that took place when Tommy had a tantrum on page 274.  It was just like the one he had had at Hailsham, and Kathy had been looking out for him then too.  Both instances were muddy, and Tommy got some one himself.  Kathy was there to comfort him both times.  This second time, however, she was able to show her love for him.  She held him until he stopped fighting himself, as she wanted to have done back at Hailsham but had stopped herself from doing so.  Kathy and Tommy, even from childhood, had always cared about the other.  In the end, Tommy puts it perfectly.  "'It's a shame, Kath, because we've loved each other all our lives'" (Ishiguro, 282).  They put this love into action too late; they were out of time.

Let's make a deal

I know I've touched upon this before, but I can't get over how callous these people are to something like sex!  I can understand it a little more when it was Kathy and some random guys at the cottages.  But she lovedTommy, and even that she made seem like it was some business transaction!  Kathy doesn't say that she and Tommy had sex because she loved him, because she was ready and she wanted to.  In her words, it was because "if our plans went along the lines Ruth had wanted, and we did find ourselves going for a deferral, it might prove a real drawback if we'd never had sex" (Ishiguro, 238).  How romantic?  It would have been an inconvenience for them to not have had sex when they approached Madame, so they might as well get it over with, right?  I just don't understand that.  Miss Emily said they used the kids' art to determine whether or not they had souls.  Maybe they should also have taken into account whether or not they had any remote feelings of reverence for sex or love for the one they were having sex with!

The tin[wo]man does have a heart

I'm not backing down from my previous statements about Ruth.  I don't like her, not then and not now. However, in her weaker, somewhat dying, days, she showed what appeared to be actually remorse for her past actions.  "'I'd like you to forgive me, but i don't expect you to.  Anyway, that's not the half of it, not even a small bit of it...The main thing is, I kept you and Tommy apart" (Ishiguro, 232).  Ruth was like a selfish older sister to Kathy for most of their lives.  Tommy was her toy.  Even if she didn't care about him much, even if she didn't want to play with him, she did NOT want Kathy having him.  For that reason, she would hold onto that toy no matter what, out of pure spite.  At least, though, in the end, Ruth acknowledges the fact that she had done wrong.  She admitted to having kept two people who clearly loved each other apart.  What I don't understand is why Tommy didn't dump her snotty butt long before that point so that he could be with Kathy instead!

Kathy can do no right

Even now that they're older, it seems that there is nothing Kathy can do that wouldn't annoy Ruth.  She makes Kathy feel guilty about the fact that she is still a carer.  Ruth HATED being a carer!  She couldn't wait to get her notice for donations, but that didn't matter.  Kathy had something that Ruth didn't, and Kathy was good at it; that's enough to make Ruth bitter towards her.  At one point, Kathy is trying to console Ruth, when Ruth retorts with "'How would you know?  How could you possibly know?  You're still a carer" (Ishiguro, 226).  It's like she can't live if she's not belittling or cutting down Kathy; it's like oxygen to her.  I think, in this instance, part of Ruth's classic hostility towards Kathy is misdirected.  I think She's scared that, when she dies, Tommy wouldn't be very much affected just as Rodney supposedly wasn't devastated by Chrissie's completion.  Either way, I think Ruth is bitter that Kathy has not yet had to shoulder the burdens of being a donor.

Cloning and such

I've been noticing more and more that Ishiguro likes to randomly drop these bombs in mid-sentence throughout his work.  We go through the first half of the book only knowing that the students are special and different in some way, but never know exactly why.  And then Ishiguro just slips into a random sentence that, oh hey, they're clones.  No big deal, right?  Is that the reason they can't have babies even if they wanted to?  For Kathy and her peers, wondering about or looking for their possibles must feel similar to an adopted child searching for his birth parents.  It must be terrifying.  On one hand, you have to be dying to know who they are, what they're like, in what ways you're like them.  But, on the other, it has to be absolutely terrifying!  They would have spent their whole lives wondering about these people and dreaming them up to be these kind of legends in their minds.  What if they, by chance, meet their model and are devastated by what they see?  "Our models were an irrelevance, a technical necessity for bringing us into the world, nothing more than that" (Ishiguro, 140).  The students try to act like they really don't care about who their models are, but deep down, they all do.

Never letting go

As I read through section two, I came across a longer quote that held a lot of meaning to me, as well as it did for Kathy.  "Because maybe, in a way, we didn't leave it behind nearly as much as we might once have thought.  Because somewhere underneath, a part of us stayed like that: fearful of the world around us, and---no matter how much we despised ourselves for it---unable quite to let each other go"  (Ishiguro, 120).  I feel like I will have the same feeling towards many of my classmates in the coming month.  Right now, there are many of them that I'll be very glad to get away from.  But, in reality, they are part of who I am.  I will never be able to let the people go, the ends that I've spent the past four years of my life with.  Like Kathy, I think we all like to think that we'll be independent.  We like Ito think that we'll be able to shake off the people of our past once we move on to the next phase of our lives.  But, like Kathy realized in this quote, they will be a part of us forever; there is no letting them go.

Two-faced Ruth

The more I read about Ruth, the more I can't stand her!  Everything about her is shallow, petty, and two-faced, and I can't understand how or why anyone would want to be friends with her.  For one thing, she is annoyingly condescending to Kathy.  "So that's it, that's what's upsetting poor little Kathy.  Ruth isn't paying enough attention to her..." (Ishiguro, 124).  She is a social climber who only treats Kathy well when she can get something out of it.  Kathy even acknowledges the fact that Ruth is a two-faced person.  "There was one Ruth who was always trying to impress the veterans, who wouldn't hesitate to ignore me, Tommy, any of the others, if she thought we'd cramp her style...But the Ruth who sat beside me in my little attic room...that was the Ruth from Hailsham" (Ishiguro, 129).  There is someone in my life that is scarily similar to Ruth's characteristics.  The difference between me and Kathy, though, is that I don't sit aside and let someone treat me like dirt.  I hope Kathy eventually goes off on Kathy for her shallowness.

Casual Sex

 Section two of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go was absolutely covered with talk of sex.  It caught me by surprise when Kathy suddenly went from childhood memories to paragraph-long rambling about nothing but sex.  There wasn't much of a transition between innocent adolescence and hormonal teenagers!  It was the casualness and nonchalance about it that really got to me.  The pre-teens at Hailsham were taught about sex as though it were a science or like a hobby, and not something deeply precious.  Kathy herself stated that, in regards to sex, "it would be just as well to practice first with a boy [she] didn't care about too much" (Ishiguro, 98).  All of the students are so casual about having sex with whoever they want.  I guess the fact that they can't get pregnant is, for many of them, all the more reason to have sex.  If they knew there would be no consequences, what's to stop them?  The only reason most of the students, including Kathy, were e en having sex was because they felt like they just needed to.  It was something that they just kind of wanted to get over with!  I personally just can't imagine being that callous about something like that.

Sorting Laundry

The first stanza of Elisavietta Ritchie's Sorting Laundry sets up the extended metaphor that continues throughout the rest of the work.  "Folding clothes,; I think of folding you; into my life" (Ritchie, 841).        Each article of cloth gone through by the speaker is full of memories and meaning that have to do with her relationship.  They don't care if their socks match, if their towels are ugly, or if their clothes have wrinkles.  These characteristics signify that the couple isn't bothered by life's little imperfections, they are proud of their own eccentricities, and they realize that their relationship may have its issues.  The speaker sort of scares herself when she thinks of the prospect of her love leaving her.  She swears that, if he did, no amount of clothing, or anything else in life, would be able to fill the void he would leave behind for her.  The couple is clearly in love, but she still fears abandonment.  The many, small stanzas of the poem symbolize all of the laundry that would never be able to take the man's place, no matter the quantity.  She momentarily ponders over a former lover, and proceeds to almost beg her current love not to leave her; she would not be able to bear it.

Batter my heart

I love how all of the poems we've done so far from John Donne have had a religious topic or theme.  In his poem Batter my heart, three-personed God, the speaker is clearly facing a struggle.  He is the epitome of humanity.  He longs to return once more to God, "but [is] betrothed unto [God's] enemy" (Donne, 840).  We are human, and are, by nature, inclined to sin and be tempted by evil.  The speaker of this poem recognizes the fact that he is apparently too weak to resist temptations and evils on his own.  He desperately wants to be one with God once more, but he needs help in doing so.  He wants God to literally force him back into His love and protection.  It seemed to me that the speaker is asking God to take away his free will, because he knows that, as a weak human, he will often choose evil over God.  Because he wants to please God and be with Him so badly, he's willing to give up the ability to choose for himself; he wants God to take the wheel.

drunk on life

Emily Dickinson's poem I taste a liquor never brewed makes me long for summer.  She makes it clear from the very start that she is not talking about alcohol as we know it.  The speaker seems to just be drunk on life and nature.  She is "Inebriate of Air" (Dickinson, 797).  She doesn't need to buzz of alcohol to make her intoxicated.  She is desperate to hold onto the the last moments of summer, which seems to be the season.  The more nature itself prepares for the ending of this time, the more she will drink it in.  While others accept the fact that it is coming to an end, she will try that much harder to absorb all of the beauty even more.  Clearly, it doesn't take much to please the speaker of this poem.  She is pleasantly overwhelmed which such simple things as air, dew, flowers; anything to do with nature, she adores.

The Convergence of the Twain

Thomas Hardy used the very format of his stanzas to emphasize his message of temporary vanity versus permanence of the fate of the Titanic.  All of his stanzas in The Convergence of the Twain are composed of two short lines followed by a longer line.  "Jewels in joy designed; To ravish the sensuous mind; Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind" (Hardy, 778).  The two shorter lines talk about the vain extravagance of the ship.  The significance of their brevity symbolizes the short-lived beauty and appreciation of the Titanic and all the work that went into it to make it so grand.  The longer lines, like the one from the above excerpt, relay the reality of the situation now; all of the beauty and vanity lies on the bottom of the ocean.  The speaker supplies vivid snapshots of specific images aboard the ship.  He goes down to the last, vain and petty detail.  He makes it clear that, in his opinion, the beauty and elegance of the ship was useless the moment it hit the ocean floor.  The vanity of the objects and designers of the ship were oblivious to the tragic end that was drawing nearer.

Barbie Doll

I thought Marcy Piercy's poem Barbie Doll was really depressing.  Maybe the saddest part is that the poem reflects the reality for many girls today.  Girls, from the start of life, are trained to be beautiful.  They are presented with all shades of pink objects, to show them what color they are to like.  They are given Barbie dolls and kitchen toys, to give them an example of what they are to look and act like.  Girls are expected to fit a certain stereotype, and, if they fail to do so, they are ridiculed and mocked by their peers.  "She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile, and wheedle" (Piercy, 836).  I think this poem shows the unrealistic standards that society sets for girls/women.  This poor girl in the poem, because she did not fit into the mold set for her by society and her peers, was tormented throughout her life because she was different.  She probably didn't think there was anything wrong with her until one of her classmates pointed out her every flaw.  Many girls are not given the opportunity to discover who they are, because they are constantly being told who they ought to be.

To His Coy Mistress

I thought that the speaker of Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress was the one who was really being coy!  He kind of makes fun of his mistress for holding out on him, for keeping her virginity.  To him, her chastity is equivalent to her being "coy".  He spends most of his time on the cheerful topic of death, and how we are all destined to grow old and die.  He makes his mistress feel great about herself when he basically says she'll just get uglier as time goes on.  He summarizes, however, that "while the youthful hue sits on [her] skin like morning dew" (Marvell, 804), they should just have sex now.  The speaker doesn't want to wait, because time is ticking, and he wants to 'experience' his mistress now!  A modern-day summary of this poem could be "YOLO: you only live once".  That's the message the speaker is sending to the woman.  He's kind of a pig!  The way he sees it, they're not getting any younger, so she might as well stop playing hard-to-get, and do it with him that moment!

protecting their own

Susan Glaspell's A Jury of Her Peers is by far my favorite short story we've covered so far this year.  From the beginning of the story, the reader assumes that Minnie Foster killed her husband, and yet, Glaspell is still able to fill the story with suspense and mystery.  I loved how the two women were able to relate to Mrs. Wright.  They knew the loneliness that came with being isolated in a house, and the feelings of inferiority thrust upon them by all men in their lives.  They were the only ones who knew without doubt that Minnie had, in fact, killed her husband, and they were the only ones who knew why.  They protected her, even though they knew she would probably be convicted anyway.  I was struck by the simile of Minnie being like her canary.  Mrs. Hale reflected that Minnie had been like a caged bird as well.  "'She...was kind of like a bird herself.  Real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid...'" (Glaspell, 421).  Martha stated that Mr. Wright "'wouldn't like the bird...a thing that sang.  She used to sing.  He killed that too'" (Glaspell, 423).  When he killed the bird, which had been like a child to his lonely wife, he killed the remains of Minnie's spirit as well.

the three stooges

The stupidity of a few of the characters in Tobias Wolff's short story Hunters in the Snow made it almost painful to read!  However, the story's plot and events are driven by the characterization of Tub, Kenny, and Frank.  Frank, while often accused of not bothering to pay attention to anything, is the most down to earth and wise character in the story.  He is the only realistic/reasonable character of the three!  "'You can't hurry nature.  If we're meant to get that deer, we'll get it.  If we're not, we won't'" (Wolff, 190).  He is calm and accepting of whatever may happen to him.  Kenny, who at one point accuses Frank of being a hippie, is the wild, unpredictable one.  He hides whatever real feelings he has about something by being cruel to Tub, making jokes, or doing something outrageous.  When the farmer's dog was barking at the three men, "Kenny got down on all fours and snarled and barked back at him..." (Wolff, 191).  Throughout the course of the short story, Kenny almost ran over Tub, verbally abused him, went on a random shooting spree, and got himself shot.  Tub is the victim for the majority of the tale.  He is constantly laughed at and looked down upon by his so-called "friends".

Reversed Roles

By the end of William Shakespeare's Othello, the three main men (Othello, Iago, Cassio) find themselves in circumstances they never could have predicted.  Othello started out in full power and grace, with a beautiful new wife whom he adored.  He expected to live happily with Desdemona while faithfully serving the Venetian army.  He never would have thought that, in the near future, he would have murdered his wife, been stripped of his "power and [his] command" (V. ii. 330), and end up committing suicide.  Meanwhile, Iago, the mastermind of the plot, fully expected all the pieces of his twisted puzzle to fall into place.  Never would he have foreseen that his obedient wife would betray him.  He was expecting to rise in ranks of the army through his lies and deception, not end up a slave that would soon be tortured to death.  He always treated Roderigo like a moron, and never would have thought he'd be smart enough to write a letter accusing Iago of his lies.  Cassio was perfectly content with his position in the army, and was blissfully ignorant throughout most of the play of the plots being set against him.  He ended up with the job of his superior, and in charge of the torture and death of his right-hand man, Iago.

Evolution of Emilia

Possibly my favorite character in William Shakespeare's Othello is Emilia.  In this entry, I want to reflect on how Emilia drastically changed from the beginning of the play to the end.  At the beginning of the play, Emilia is literally Iago's doormat.  He talked openly about how stupid she was right in front of her.  Emilia started out too timid to ever stand up for herself or refute anything her husband said.  She really was never given the opportunity to have an opinion about anything.  This is why I wanted to give her a giant, metaphorical, hug in the final act of the play, because she finally stood up against her wicked husband.  She refuses to be intimidated or threatened into silence once more after she knew of Iago's hand in the murder of her Lady.  "No, i will speak as liberal as the north.  Let Heaven and men and devils, let them all, all, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak" (V. ii. 219-221).  She was going to make sure that whoever was involved in the killing of an innocent woman was made known to all, no matter the consequences of her disobedience to her husband.  Even her last words before her death showed her new-found rebellion.  "So speaking as I think, I die, I die" (V. ii. 250).  She died in the act of doing what she had never before been brave enough to do: speak her mind.

Foreshadow of the Sheets

William Shakespeare's Othello uses the literary technique of foreshadowing all throughout the play.  Desdemona not only alludes to her soon approaching death, but also to the setting in which she would die.  "If I do die before thee, prithee shroud me in one of those same sheets" (IV. iii. 23-24).  She is referring to her wedding sheets that she had previously asked Emilia to put on her bed.  It is lucky timing on Desdemona's part that she verbalized this wish just hours before she would, in fact, be killed.  After having read the rest of the play, I realized that this statement from Desdemona actually foreshadows three things.  It links to the fact that Desdemona's life was not only ended, but that it was ended on the very wedding sheets she wanted around her when she was dead.  It also, in a way, foreshadows Emilia's death.  Desdemona predicted she would die BEFORE Emilia, but Emilia soon followed her to the afterlife.  I found it ironic that both women were slain by their husbands, but both for very different reasons.

conflicted feelings

In William Shakespeare's Othello, the mode of the characters in almost tangible.  I can feel Othello's conflicting emotions when he finally and completely believes Desdemona's unfaithfulness.  He keeps trying to convince himself that she is evil, because that would make it easier for him to hate her.  However, throughout his conversation with Iago, the more Othello attempts to speak badly of Desdemona, the more he calls to mind all of the things he loves about his wife.  "Hang her!  I do but say what she is, so delicate with her needle, an admirable musician-- oh, she will sing the savageness out of a bear..." (IV. i. 174-176).  It is heartbreaking for the reader to see how Iago is corrupting "the Moor".  Othello is so clearly in love with Desdemona, that he cannot say himself or hear anyone else say bad things about her.  He becomes livid when he thinks Cassio is speaking ill of Desdemona.  This really shows how much he loves her.  Even though he thought his wife was cheating on him, he still could not bear to hear her name dragged through the mud.  Othello thought the world of his beautiful Desdemona, but their love story would soon come to an end.

Til death do them apart.

William Shakespeare's Othello portrays two contrasting relationships between man and wife.  The first is Iago and Emilia, the second being Othello and Desdemona.  Iago is chauvinistic and unbearably arrogant.  He belittles his wife Emilia and makes her feel like nothing more than a foolish burden.  Even though he rarely gives Emilia the chance to talk, Iago insists to Cassio that "would she give you so much her lips as of her tongue she oft bestows on me, you'd have enough" (II. i. 100-102).  He even shamelessly admits to Desdemona later in the act that his definition of the ideal woman would do nothing more than have babies and take care of the house.  To Iago, his wife is nothing more than another body he can use as his tool in manipulating others to get what he wants.  Othello's actions towards Desdemona could not be more different.  With every interaction in the beginning of the play, Othello's adoration for his wife is almost tangible.  Just upon seeing Desdemona after his long journey, Othello states that he "cannot speak enough of this content.  It stops me here, it is too much of joy" (II. i. 191-192).  Othello openly professes that he would do anything for his wife.  He values and adores her, and would never treat or talk to her in the way that Iago does with Emilia.

Shakespearian racism

William Shakespeare uses clever diction and imagery to portray the clear racism in the play Othello, the Moor of Venice.  It would appear that, even back in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, that fair-skinned people were racist and prejudice against black/dark-skinned people.  In one page of dialogue alone, Iago equivolates Othello with a "black ram" and the "Devil".  On looking at the footnote, I was able to see how the devil reference was also a bash at Othello's race.  In old pictures and carvings of the devil, he was represented as being black, as Othello is.  Even the Duke, who loves and admires Othello, comments on his race as a way to consol Brabantio.  "If virtue no delighted beauty lack, your son-in-law is far more fair than black" (I. iii. 286-287).  He is basically saying that, even though Othello is black, Brabantio should consider himself lucky that his son-in-law is so refined and sophisticated for his race.  Iago constantly shows his supposed superiority over Othello by only refering to him as "the Moor".  Iago, along with more people of the time I'm sure, saw Othello as being closer to an animal than a respectable man.

Iago's chess pieces

I'd just like to outline Iago's methods of manipulation with several of the other characters in William Shakespeare's Othello. 
1) Brabantio:  Iago swayed this father that his daughter had been shamefully swiped from his possession, and that her honor was being defiled by a black man.  He somehow got Brabantio to forget the fact that he had for a long while LIKED Othello, and convinced him to hate the man who stole his Desdemona.
2) Cassio:  Iago is using false friendship to sway Cassio his way.  As far as Cassio is concerned, he "never knew a Florentine more kind and honest" (III. 1. 38-39).  Cassio doesn't realize that the only reason he got drunk, was fired, and is now loathed by Othello is because of the workings of Iago! 
3) Roderigo:  He is basically Iago's worthless henchman.  Iago cares not for him, but controls his money and knows he can get Roderigo to do anything if he spins it into a scheme on how to gain the love of Desdemona.
4) Othello:  Iago has cleverly managed to create the makings of Othello's ruin, while still staying in his good graces.  Othello, along with everyone else, believes Iago to be honest and pure.  Every time Iago is backed into a corner, he uses words and subtle hints to make everyone see the situation in the way that he wishes him or her to.

ignorance is bliss

William Shakespeare's Othello has countless emotions, thoughts, and messages that anyone could relate to.  These timeless messages make it clear how Shakespeare's works have survived the ages.  In this blog, I will touch on a cliched but timeless mindset that Othello exhibits in Act 3: ignorance is bliss.  Othello rants for some time to Iago about his despair and mourning in having been told about Desdemona's alleged affair with Cassio.  "He that is robbed, not wanting what is stol'n, let him not know 't and he's not robbed at all" (III. iii. 343-344).  He insists that it is better not to know of wrongs done to you at all.  He was happy in his ignorance of her supposed unfaithfulness.  He clearly longs to return to that state of blissful joy and trust.  We, as the audience, know that there is nothing for him to be mourning.  He thinks he is cruelly no longer ignorant, when in reality, he still is.  He is now ignorant to the fact that Iago is totally playing him and turning Othello against everyone he loves!

Getting Out

Cleopatra Mathis' poem Getting Out is heart-wrenching to imagine.  Based on the comparison to being like "inmates", it appears that the couple in the poem no longer feel any bonds of love or passion between them; they are simply living under the same roof.  It recalls, from the woman's point of view, the last year of their marriage.  The first stanza reveals the painful details of the night.  Neither of them can wait for the morning light to come so that they can escape each other's company.  The second stanza tells of the day time.  They fill it with distractions and loud noises to give them an excuse to avoid their problems.  The last stanza, however, evokes the most sympathy.  The couple had obviously gotten a divorce, but it's also clear that they actually cared for the other very deeply.  "Taking hands we walked apart, until our arms stretched between us.  We held on tight, and let go" (Mathis, 896).  They still loved each other, but they were in a predicament.  They couldn't stand being together, but knew they would ache from the pain of being apart.

You're Ugly, Too

The use of characterization in Lorrie Moore's short story You're Ugly, Too permeates every page.  I fell in love with Zoe's character.  I was easily able to relate to her personality.  My family and closest friends are always commenting on my quick-wit and snarky remarks to everything.  She's a smart-alec, and I love that.  Moore clearly shows how flighty and scatter-brained Zoe is; she can't keep her mind on one thing for too long!  While in the middle of a conversation with her sister, Zoe "thought about all the papers on 'Our Constitution: How It Affects Us' she was going to have to correct.  She thought about how she was going in for ultrasound tests on Friday..." (Moore, 358).  She clearly has trouble connecting with any human besides her sister, let alone eligible men that she is set up with!  I think all of her eccentricities are merely barriers to keep anyone from getting too close to her.  She wears a mask of sarcasm and irony so as to avoid the feeling of exposure or vulnerability.  I am confused about the ending; what was the significance of her actions?

The Story of an Hour

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin starts off directly with a piece of foreshadowing.  When it spoke of how "Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble" (Chopin, 1), I knew that would play a role in some way later on in the story.  Mrs. Mallard's reaction to the news of her husband's death made sense to me at first, but then gradually shocked and surprised me.  Her initial reaction was grief; she locked herself in her room and cried in mourning.  Soon after, however, joy and elation built up inside of her.  It became clear that she had been part of a loveless marriage.  Perhaps he had abused her in some way?  She saw his death and permanent absence from her life as her own freedom.  She admitted that she had dreaded each coming day knowing that she would be with him, but now that he was dead, she could look forward to life.  There were clearly some major relationship issues here.  Her heart disease ultimately claimed her life when she received the shock and bitter disappointment that her husband was still very much alive.

Popular Mechanics

Carver's short story entitled Popular Mechanics is heart-wrenching from beginning to end.  At the beginning, the reader feels sympathy for the mother, who is being left by the father.  Later, however, all sympathy for the parents vanishes and is felt solely for the infant in the story.  Carver did a wonderful job with setting the tone and mood for his story right from the start.  "Cars slushed by on the street outside, where it was getting dark.  But it was getting dark on the inside too" (Carver, 1).  It can immediately be ascertained that a very tense, dark, and depressing series of events is about to take place within the home.  In the end, it is implied that the parents killed their child in the physical struggle for possession of him.  This act shows how selfish the mother and father are.  They're actions were driven by greedy desires.  They weren't concerned with what was best for the baby, but what they wanted.  They killed their child while fighting over whose possession he was.

Bright Star

John Keats' poem Bright Star primarily uses personification in its descriptions of the star.  The speaker describes it as "watching, with eternal lids apart..." (Keats, 792).  Obviously, stars do not have eyes or eyelids to watch or keep apart; hence the use of personification.  I noticed that the speaker wanted to emulate some characteristics of the star, while also wanting to be different in other ways.  The speaker wants his love with another to be "steadfast" and "unchangeable", as a star is.  His love, like a bright star, would be dazzling, brilliant, heated, and lasting.  He wants a love that will last without wearing out or dulling.  He longs to be with his true love for all of eternity, or die if he cannot.  But then he mixes in statements implying that he does not want to be like a star in some ways.  He acknowledges the fact that the star is alone in the night sky.  He does not wish for solitude, because he is either deeply in love, or anticipating a great love in the future.

A Valediction

I was struck by the passion in the words of John Donne's A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.  The speaker, possibly a sailor, implores his lover to "make no noise, no tear-floods, nor sigh-tempest move..." (Donne, 802).  He tells her not to cry because, though he will be leaving for a time, he will be back.  He cannot stay away from something that is a part of him, as she was.  I loved how he ended with saying that his journey would "make [him] end, where [he had] begun" (Donne, 802).  He had no choice but to come back to her.  Their love was too strong to be severed or ended by distance or time.  He compares them to gold.  He insists that they will never be torn from each other forever, but, instead, temporarily separated.  The emotion put into each stanza is tangible.  The reader can feel the combination of grief and hope that the speaker is feeling.  He clearly does not want to leave his beloved, but, for some reason, must.  He is confident, however, that nothing will change his love for her nor hers for him, and that he will soon return to her.

How I Met My Husband

Alice Munro's How I Met My Husband left me feeling very uncomfortable at several parts throughout the short story.  I do, however, admire Munro's use of characterization.  Every character is given such a unique and clearly distinguishable identity and traits.  When describing Loretta Bird at the dreadful scene in which Edie is being accused of being "intimate" with Chris, it is stated that "She was swollen up with pleasure at being in on this scene" (Munro, 144).  This sentence alone tells the reader that Mrs. Bird is a nosy, gossipy woman.  She thrives in the drama of and rumors about others.  Throughout the majority of the story, Munro described Mrs. Peebles' character to be very snooty and stuck up.  She complained about how she was tied down with children, even though she was unemployed and had hired someone else (Edie) to WATCH her children.  She was always judging farmers of the area in which they were living, and never seemed happy with what she had.  It was, therefore, very surprising when she came to Edie's rescue at the end of the story.  She contradicted her previous, shallow characteristics, and showed great compassion and protection for Edie.

Eveline

James Joyce's short story Eveline surprised me so much.  Throughout the majority of the story, suspense is being built up as the reader waits along with Eveline to escape from her dismal life.  In this tale, symbolism is shown in the form of Frank.  "Escape!  She must escape!  Frank would save her.  He would give her life, perhaps love, too...He would save her" (Joyce, 221).  To Eveline, Frank symbolized a refuge, an escape route.  However, that was all he was to her.  She clearly did not love him.  She even said "perhaps" love would be given to her by Frank.  It was not Eveline's goal to run away with her true love and live happily ever after.  All she wanted to do was use Frank to escape to a new life.  She wanted him to give her a life without a drunken and abusive father, and countless unfair responsibilities.  I think that's why she so easily let Frank leave without her at the end of the story.  She decided that her miserable life she knew was better than the intimidating new life she was being led to.  Because she never thought of Frank as anything but a means to escape, she was able to see him off with "no sign of love or farewell or recognition" (Joyce, 222).