O conner

Both southern heritage and catholic religion played a part of O'Connor's short stories. She didn't base he stories particularly on these topics; she believed in creating a character and letting his or her actions make the story come to life.
Within O'Conner's many short stories, the presence of the Catholic religion is pretty much there. She always has one character in her stories that displays some religious attitude. For example, the grandmother in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," is the one character that truly shows any faith. She keeps saying "Jesus" like she is calling out to him for help. Some times it seems to me that quite a few very devout Catholics are quite pushy about their religions beliefs and about their opinions just like the grandmother. Mrs. Turpin, from "Revelation," also shows a a religious background that could be shaped by O'Conner's religious influence. Mrs. Turpin always thinks about her relationship with God and how the good things she does must have earned her a really good place. Both of these characters are very serious about how their religion should be acted upon, however, I don't think O'Conner was trying to preach to the readers about converting faiths or anything, but she wanted religion to be apart of each of the characters.
The Southern heritage influence is more put into play by the language and actions of the characters. O'Conner was from the dirty south, so naturally she related with the dirty south readers. The family is "A Good Man is Hard to Find," is a very typical portrayal of a southern family: 3 kids, 2 parents, pets, and a grandmother staying with them. The grandmother has many traditionally southern characteristics by herself. She uses intolerable and unnecessary terms for African Americans which really shows alot of southern background.

iterations

When i got finished reading "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been", and watching Smooth Talking I saw a lot of similarities. One thing about the short story is that it starts to be very repetitive and seemed to drag along in the end, Smooth Talk also did that at the end whe A. Friend was trying to get the girl. Repetitiveness is one thing that I really do not care for I just get tired of reading something that seems like it is taking forever to read. The three nonfiction stories were similar but there were certain differences within each article. You could see how different people tell the same story but in a different way. Reading the nonfiction articles of Charles Schmid gives us an idea of Arnold Friend. I really liked reading the nonfiction articles about the story because it gave the real hard truth and facts about where the real idea for "Where are you going, Where have you been". The video was way off and I didn’t really like it at all, maybe because it was a horrible depiction of what we just saw and read. The movie was the best description of the short story because you could actually see the story being played out in front of you. Writing the same story in different iterations is creative and impressive but i find it easier to understand when i see the movie first then reading the short story.

made thing

Taking a story and breaking it apart piece by piece helps the readers understand the story a little better. As we broke down the three stories in class, it helped me better understand the work and the writer. The process of ingredients, process, and the made thing can be attributed to all of our readings. “A&P”, “Rites of Passage”, and “The one Girl at the Boys’ Party” are stories that once they are broken down to where it is easier to understand, they make the reader rethink about their opinions . If you break down the stories to their smallest parts the reader can compare and contrast the stories. Even though each story is different in its plot and storyline, they share the same structure. The ingredients are the raw material for any piece of literature; The process is how the author uses the ingredients to create the made thing; The made thing is the overall message of the story or what the reader is able to take away from the story.
In the story “A&P” a cashier, Sammy, tells the story of when he worked at a grocery story and what encountered after the girls walk in. It seems like the average story of a boy trying to impress girl, but as we take it apart it we start to realize its about more then that. The ingredients in “A&P” are as such; “bathing suits”, food items, and the summer setting, but the main ones are the characters Sammy, Queenie, and Mr. Lengel. These ingredients are mixed with the setting of a grocery store, and the presence of the girls to produce a clear picture for the reader. The process of adding all of these things together helps me to understand and connect with the characters more. Breaking down shows the relationship between the Sammy and the clique of girls, but at the same time it shows the problem that they all had with Mr. Lengel. Updike gave great details to the story to help the reader put together all the ingredients into a bigger picture. This made thing is the hero does the right thing, but for the wrong reasons.
The poem “Rites of Passage” can be interpreted in many different ways. Breaking down “Rites of Passage” into three parts helped me understand the different ways it can be viewed. Many of the ingredients are ironic like children being generals, turrets as small bankers, 7 year olds killing a two year old. Sharon Olds manages to combine the carelessness of small children with the very serious world of career men. Her careful planning and writing helps guide the reader to a better understanding of the children becoming men. It is her process of combining the traits of a child with the traits of a man and putting them into a smooth flowing poem that the reader can understand once they take apart “Rites of Passage”. The made thing that Olds creates is an ironic view of boys and their parallels to full grown men.
The last poem “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party” also has ingredients, process, and a made thing. It is the story of a girl at a swimming party with all boys that was told from the view of one of her parents. Olds includes ingredients like hamburgers and fries bating suit, strip to their suits, hard body, curves of the sexes, and math in the pool. Her process is one of irony just like “Rites of Passage”, comparing a little girl to math. She describes the girl and what the girl is thinking in a way that she should have not been able to understand at her age. Olds other process shows the reader that the girl is maturing more and more from the beginning of the poem to the end. The parent’s perspective of the poem tells the reader what the “made thing” could be that your children grow up fast.
All three stories have different characters, setting and plots, but in the end they have the same composition. They all have ingredients that were usually the characters. The processes were in the descriptions and the way the stories were written. The made thing was always involving growing up and learning from your mistakes. Breaking these stories down helps the reader visualize the story thus making them understand its true meaning.

A worn path

In “A Worn Path”, The story and the movie seem to have a lot of comparisons to it. Not a lot changes between the story and the movie. There is a lot more descripition of the main character, Phoneix Jackson, in the story that is in text but that’s usually a given. There was also a lot more said by Phoneix Jackson in the text version than in the movie. A lot of the situations in the text version were not at tents as some of the ones in the movie. Like when she was walking across the log that went to the other side of the creek. When I read it, that part did not seem to stand out to me that much but when I saw it on the movie, I really thought she might have fallen off even though I already knew that she was not going to. Also, after she crossed the bridge she seen a little boy bring her a slice of cake. So when I ready this part of the story it seemed a little weird and out of place to me but when I accually saw the boy put the cake in her face on the movie then that’s when I really started asking questions about the story. Like; Who is that boy?; Why does he just randomly appear?; Why does he bring her cake out of all the things in the World?
But the part that really stood out to me was the fact that the written story told Phoneix Jackson’s name at the very beginning and on the movie it is not mentioned till she ends her long journey at the colored clinic. I do not know if they did that on puropose or what, but that did catch my attention.

My Thoughts on Where are you going

Connie posses the main character title because of the role she plays in the story. She is in every scene and a majority of the other characters actually make an appearance just to associate with her. Also, all the other characters lines play off the actions that she makes. Arnold Friend just plays the so called villain of the story. On top of that the only people that even make contact with him are Connie and Ellie.

I actually like his name. It does not match his real personality but it still seems like a good fit. It sort of seems like an oxymoron to me because of the fact that his name is A. Friend but he has no kind of friend traits. Plus, his car, his clothes, and his language plays in with the name a little with regards on Connie because she is use to hanging with people that dress and talk like him. I think that with him presenting himself to her in a way that she is comfortable with, it drew her in a little.

Since I have a problem with child rapists, this is what I like to think happened: Arnold drove her over to the next county so nobody would know who they were and drove into the field. There they laid in the field where he presented himself to her and when she saw it she started laughing. A. Friend did not like that and attempted to choke her and before he could a sheriff pulled into the field and told them to leave. That’s why she was laughing when her sister came home because she was thinking about his small reproductive organ.

The setting I think played a role a big role in the story because it is a town that is really spread out so there is a lot of private areas where people can go and not be seen. In the movie, there were a couple of scenes where there was nobody around so there were many possibilities for something bad to happen. This left for a lot of added suspense to the story. Like when they were in the vacant garage, or when she was walking home in the middle of the night by herself.

A. Friend Indeed

Alot of stories come from a true life experience, whether it involved the writer or not. Sometimes it is portrayed in a different context or the story is changed a little such as new character names or settings. But even with all of that you can still see the similarities in the new story.
Like in this true life event where a man named Charles Schimd killed 3 teenage girls in Tuscon, Arizona and buried them in the desert. Charles Schimd was older then these girls but that did not stop him from luring them in. Now in the story "Where are going, Where have you been?" and the movie "Smooth Talk", there are 3 girls, Connie, Laura, and Jill. In the story, these girls are infatuated with meeting and trying to hook up with guys, and the succeeded to do that to a certain extent. Until one day, Connie is at home by herself when this guy named Arnold Friend drives into her driveway with his friend Ellie. It was easy to see that Arnold friend was a depiction of Charles Schimd because he was an older guy and you could tell that just by looking at him. Also, the girls represented the teenage girls in a way. In the story and the movie they none of them were killed but in the movie Laura ends up getting pregnant and Arnold Friend ends up raping Connie.
The way i see how these stories are played out is, in the true life event and in the stories you have young girls that have to have this urge to have older companionship. These urges end up being very bad choices in the end. So I believe that the message of the story Joyce Oates made is be careful in the choices that you make because you never know what my happen in the end.

All stories have a unique or hidden way of displaying a message in a reader’s mind, and not every message is the same. However, if you look hard enough at any story, anyone can find a common theme between any stories. In “A&P”, “Rites of Passage”, and “The only girl at the boy’s party” we discussed the themes “Hero” and “Sheep” and broke them down a bit. But as I thought about these stories I found my own sort of them that I could place as a common theme between these stories. The theme that I came up with is…. “Growing Up”. I chose growing up because in each story, I realized that the characters were getting older or being pictured as getting old in some sense or another.
In “A&P”, Sammy, the main character is a cashier and while at work one day he sees three girls in bathing suits walking around in the store. Later in the story, his manager tells the girls to leave because he does not like the way they are dressed while they’re walking in his store and he does not think it is appropriate. After Sammy see’s this, he decides to impress the girls by quitting his job but they do not see him do it and his plan backfires. So after reading this, why do I think that this story has something to do with growing up? Well while he is outside he realizes and says to himself “…and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” This is the feeling everyone gets when the realize that they are in a whole new chapter of their life, and that is time to put down all their childish things are really start trying to work towards something. That’s when you realize that you have to start being more of any adult, like when you first enter into college by yourself. I guess you can call it ‘that grown up feeling’.
“The only girl at the boy’s party” is about a girl at an all boys’ party but when you’re reading it you can’t tell how old she is. When you first start reading it, the girl seems to be young like around 3 or 4 maybe except as the story goes on you realize that the narrator or the girl’s mom or dad starts to describe the girls’ experience in a more PG-13 sort of way. This is likewise in "Rites of Passage" where the story starts off about a little boy at a party but evolves into a story more about a group of young men or soldiers and the narrator keeps depicting.

Updike (hahahahahahahahaha) Interview

After seeing the interview with John Updike, my view about the story has not changed much. But, It is good to hear where the ideas for all the characters, the setting, and the plot came from. Like how he got the idea of the for the stores name came from the name of a store in his town called A&P. Also, how the idea for Queenie came from seeing a girl in the A&P store wearing a bathing suit. Another thing that impressed me was that he said the thoughts of Sammy were his thoughts if he were to be in the same setting as Sammy. So after I heard that, I understood why all of the cashiers thought were in such great detail. Updike also brought up how Sammy was trying to impress the girls; he said that Sammy was more trying to impress just Queenie rather then trying to impress all of the girls. And he told about how the manager's name came from the name of his mother's old boss. He said when he was thinking up names for the character all he could remember was his mother coming in and talking non-stop about her day and work and how she kept saying her boss's name over and over.
But the thing that caught me is how he said that the story really did not end with him just thinking outside the story. But really ending with him going to go look for the girls at the beach, but he never does find them. This stood out to me the most because I use to be kind of upset because he quit his job and did not even get to see the girls afterwards which made me think that he pretty much did just quit his job for no reason. But after hearing that ending I could breath a sigh of relief knowing that he did try to make an attempt to go find them.

HERO

I looked up a lot of definitions for the word hero and in a biblical sense a majority of them all pretty much said the same thing. For instance; A person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal. I believe and understand what this definition is saying but I think there is more to it. My definition for the word hero is; Someone that shows great courage when faced with adversity, whether physical or mental. The first definition deals more with people that has probably saved a life or made a great change to the way people live there life. People like, Hercules, Barack Obama, Superman, or Martin Luther King Jr., that have had a lot of attention for the work that they have done. I do believe that all these people are heroes but I feel like other people should be put into the hero category along with these other heroes. The people that I am talking about are people like the little kids at St. Jude's that fight for there lives everyday, these kids are heroes to me. With me working a little bit with Up til' Dawn last year and me being a Moral Captain this year, I've seen a some of this first hand. These kids go through tons of surgeries and other things like that all the time and when they are finished you see them smiling and playing like there is nothing wrong with them. There are adults that could not handle half of the stuff some of these kids go through on a daily bases and because of the courage that they show, they are all heroes to me. They are the people that fit my definition of the word hero.

So in the John Updike story "A&P", the bag boy/ cashier, Sammy, quits his job because he sees his manager, who happens to be a male chauvinistic pig, make "Queenie" and her clique leave the store because of the way they are dressed after leaving the beach. He makes an argument that the manager embarrassed them and that was not the right thing to do. Does this make him a hero? Well, if he did it for the right reasons then yes maybe he would be considered as a hero but he did it just to impress those girls so that makes it kind of a selfish act more then a heroic one. Also, he felt bad after he did it and regretted his decision to quit his job since the outcome that he wanted did not happen. After a real heroic effort your to feel like you accomplished something whether the outcome wasn't what you wanted, and you are not going to regret doing a good thing for somebody else's cause. So Sam really is not a hero if you compare him with the the heroes and the definitions in the first paragraph.

Chapter 1 Questions

Pg. 6

1. The North Wind is very aggressive and sort of a showboat, While the Sun is Very Patient and thinks about his strategy.

2. The North Wind's idea did not work, It just made the person hold to there coat tighter.

3. The Sun just waited and waited until the travler got hot and removed his coat.

4. The Travler was the genei pig for their contest.

5. The moral of the story is that is easier to persuae someone rather then to force them to do something.

Pg. 8

1. The exposition of the story is where Chuang Tzu was fishing and was approached by the officials. He only uses one sentence to set up the situation.

2. He mentions the tortoise to show that he did not want to be put in a place where he does not want to be like the tortoise is. He does not answer because he most have put alot of thought into the situation already. He makes them anwser just to show how obvious it was that he did not want to go.

3. It shows that he is very smart and also that he likes to be independent.

Pg. 19

1. Some details are true to life like; Like the over reacting manager, and the head girl in the clique, and the very extreme details make easier to picture everything.

2. We get to know alot about Sammy because the story is in his point of view, so we can see everything that he's thinging.

3. The exposition happens in the first few paragraphs while there explaining the character and the setting.

4. No, Sammy's feelings do not change.

5. The dramatic conflict starts when the manager confronts the girls on there clothing and continues until the end of the story.

6. He quits because he thinks the girls will notice and he'll get some nookie later on in the sequel.

7. I think the whole story shows it because you knew sooner or later he was going to try to say something to them or gain there attention somehow.

8. He regrets his decision that he quit his job.

9. That the supermarket life sucks, and that people that work there aren't really going anywhere in life.