Bartleby the Scrivener

Before I started to read this story, I had to look up what "scrivener" meant. According to dictionary.com, scrivener simply means "a person who writes out deeds, letters, etc; copyist." Therefore, I came to the conclusion that this short story would obviously be about Bartleby who is a scribe and his adventures. Although the story is in fact about Bartleby, another narrator describes the story. The narrator is actually a lawyer who is the boss of Bartleby. He tells this story because he finds Bartleby to be the most interesting scribe who has worked for him. This story was long and a little hard to understand and stay in focus. Overall thought, I found it enjoyable.

Hunters in the Snow

Of the three principal characters, I find Tub to be the most sympathetic. At the beginning of the story, he is waiting on the sidewalk for Frank and Kenny to come pick him up and they are an hour late. Then, when they finally arrive, Kenny pulls a prank on him and tries to run him over then laughs about it. "The driver was bent against the steering wheel, slapping his knees and drumming his feet of the floorboards" (187). Throughout the story, Tub keeps getting picked on because of his weight and how he cannot keep up with the other two guys or get through the fence. Although Frank is the most level-headed of the three, he still at times treats Tub just like Kenny does. Tub never did anything to either of them so when he shoots Kenny out of self-defense, I am not surprised at all for him finally standing up for himself. It has been long overdue.

Everyday Use

The mother's refusal to let Dee have the quilts indicates a permanent change of character. Before this took place, Mother always had a dream that Dee and her would get on a talk show and come to good terms. It wasn't like they were not on good terms before, they just never talked. Mother had never done something like this before because of the dream. She loved her daughter so much that she couldn't do anything to put her in her place before this. Mother does this now because she was tired of Dee picking on Maggie and didn't like that she was denying her true heritage. "You just don't understand," was Dee's reply to the mother and Maggie. Although Dee claims that Mother and Maggie don't understand their heritage, it is really Dee who doesn't know where she really came from.

CrAzY!!

It is sage to say that this story is way weirder than the poem "Edward". Emily reminds me of some crazy cat lady who never come out of her house, minus the cats. At the beginning of the story, she seemed normal; but towards the end is where she started to seem a little crazy. First, she shuts her doors and never comes outside. No one comes to see her except to confront her about a foul smell or to collect taxes, which she does not pay. Even her Negro seems a bit odd. He never says anything to anybody so Emily's life becomes a mystery. It remains like that until the day she dies and the towns people find out how crazy she really was by the dead man still in his bed.

A Rose for Emily

An alternate title for this story should be "Rat Poison." When Emily went to the store asking for poison, one could easily tell she was not going to kill rats. For some reason, she decided to kill a man who seemed to like her a lot. Her murder of Homer Barron was not really a surprise. The speaker hinted to the fact that the townspeople believed her "[to be] crazy" (285). Also, the speaker mentions Barron entering Emily's house but never leaving it. The only think that was surprising was that she kept the body still in the bed. One can safely assume that Emily was in fact crazy.

Interpreter of Maladies

In this short story, the author provides an insight to two different aspects of life and culture. Both Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi are unsatisfied with her family life. Mrs. Das is "tired of feeling so terrile all the time" (164). These dissatisfactions lead to the central conflict of both people wanting something different in life. Although Mrs. Das confides in Mr. Kapasi about her problems and how she hates her life, the conflict is not resolved at the end of the story. An event like a child being attacked by monkeys will not change or resolve the conflicts of the story. Mrs. Das will continue to be dissatisfied with her life. Only a major change in her husband or in her life will make her happy.

How I Met My Husband

Throughout the whole short story, the speaker describes an event that eventually leads up to how she met her husband. Up until the last section of the text, readers assume Edie's future husband is Chris Watters, the plane pilot. Watters is an ex-army pilot who claims to move from the war. Really, he is just trying to avoid his less-than-pretty fiancee, Alice Kelling. After messing around with Edie, he promises to write her, then leaves for the next town without Alice knowing. Edie waits everyday by the mailbox until she realizes "no letter was ever going to come" (146). Her waiting for a man who the readers assume will be her future husband actually leads to her meeting her real future husband, Carmichael, the mailman. Instead of promising a letter, Charmichael pursues Edie and asks her on a date.