Analysis of "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa"

Plot:
The story is sprinkled with the narrator looking back on the life of Joe Jackson as it relates to him. It is also flashbacks of how he came to be a young Iowa farmer. Throughout the story, it alternates between flashbacks and present day. The rising action of this story is building the field for Shoeless Joe. It is the anticipation and waiting of the narrator. The voices he hears reassure him that his dream will eventually come true; "if you build it, he will come." The story then continues to the climax. His wife discovers a man on the lawn, the man, of course, is Shoeless Joe Jackson. The story progresses to the falling action of the narrator watching the game. He is thrilled that his hard work is paying off. Finally, the narrator agrees to expand the field for other players to come."If you were to finish the infield, why, old Chick Gandil could play first base, and we'd have the Swede at shortstop and Buck Weaver at third." (521) This resolution shows how the narrators dream has come true.

Point of View:
The point of view of this story comes from a middle aged farmer who raises his family in Iowa. He has grown up with baseball his entire life. The audience is never given a name of the man telling the story. The narrator has the point of view of a handy man. His "do it yourself" attitude is apparent. " A three hour lecture or a five-hundred-page guidebook could not have given me clearer directions: dimensions of ballparks jumped over and around me like fleas, cost figures for light standards and floodlights whirled around my head like the moths that dusted against the porch light above me." (511) He works hard to maintain his farm, builds a gigantic baseball field, and doesn't rest until it is perfect. This hardworking attitude eventually rewards him.

Characterization:
The narrator is described through indirect characterization. He is described when he elaborates on his love of baseball, his family, and his land. "I count the loves in my life: Annie, Karin, Iowa, and Baseball. The great god Baseball." He puts his family before his land and baseball, but he goes on to compare baseball with a god. The narrator is a man with dreams. We see this also through indirect characterization as he dedicates his money and time to build a baseball field on his own. The narrators wife, Annie, is described directly. "...that slip of a girl with hair the color of cayenne pepper and at least a million freckles on her face and arms, that girl who lives in blue jeans and T-shirts and at twenty-four could pass for sixteen." She is then described as a great mother and wife. This direct characterization shows that the story is focused on figuring out the narrator, and not so much the wife or the daughter.

Setting:
The story takes place on an farm in Iowa around the year 1970. It takes place many years after Shoeless Joe Jackson was suspended from baseball and had passed away. I think that an argument can be made that this story could also take place in heaven. The dreams of the narrator and Shoeless Joe both come true. The narrator builds a beautiful baseball field for his idol and Shoeless Joe returns to his beloved game. They are both at peace and appreciative of each other. "'God what an outfield,' he says. 'What a left field.' He looks up at me and I look down at him. 'This must be heaven,' he says.""I think you're right, Joe," I say, but softly enough not to disturb his concentration." (522) They are both at such peace with they're surroundings.

Theme:
The theme of this story is that if you work hard for your dream, it will come true. The motif of "if you build it, he will come", is a message that is repeated over and over again in the narrators head. As a result, he puts a tremendous amount of effort into building the baseball field that will bring in his ultimate goal. He makes sure everything is perfect for his arrival, and one night, his dream comes true. "'How does it play?' I holler down. 'The ball bounces true,' he replies. 'I know.' I am smiling with pride and my heart thumps mightily against my ribs." It can be inferred that narrator is not a many of money or possessions and that, in the end, is the reason he works so hard for the simple things.

Once Upon a Time

I think this story is really sad. The ending when the little boy dies completely ruined it for me. The family is so concerned about protecting their house from the outside world. They put so many alarms on, make their wall higher, and put a contraption of blades around the house. It seems that they are over protective and they should have just lived without being in fear. In the end, their paranoidity (if thats a word) killed there son. They could protect the house from the outside world but they could not protect the family from the house. I like how this story is a frame story. The author starts off talking about writing a childrens story. Then she gets sidetracked by the noises she hears in the house. Finally, she tells herself a story so that she can get her mind off the noises and go to sleep. This story would have made me even more scared.

A Worn Path

Today my group and I debated on whether or not the detail of the grandson being alive or dead was important to the general message of the story. I think it is very important. If the grandson is alive, then the story is about a sweet old grandmother who takes care of her grandson. If he is dead, then the story is about a grandmother who cannot let go of her grandson's death. It's like a Rose for Emily. Tragic and sad. This detail, to me, makes a huge difference in the story. However, a student was given the chance to ask the author if the grandson was dead or alive. The author responded, "Phoenix is alive". This shows that the author made this story about the grandmother and not about the grandson. The detail does not change how caring the grandmother is. I found it ironic when the hunter says he would give her a dime if he had any money. Phoenix has all his money (:

Eveline

I really wanted her to leave with her lover. I felt bad for Eveline because her life seemed very repetitive and sad. She is obviously afraid of taking risks. She is so close to moving on but hesitates and decides against it. She is extremely indecisive. She goes back to live in her status quo life. I think that the author is making a generalization about all of Dublin and that they all just live by the status quo. My group struggled today on the meaning behind her giving her father the money she earned at work. She seemed to treat him like a bank. She would give him all her wages and then she would have to beg to get any back. She didn't like her job and she was just unhappy generally. It's sad that she didn't run away with her lover because I think that this character needs to escape from her miserable life. In truth, all she saw in him was a way out. She didn't really love him.

Miss Brill

This lady seems extremely lonely. It's pretty cool how she makes it out to be a play in her mind. I dont understand the part where she tells the man she's an actress. Sometimes I watch people, too. Especially in the airport haha. It's actually really entertaining so I don't blame her. At the end, a couple notices her staring at them. They talk about her like she's the creepy lady who watches people really sunday. She lives through other people. It very subtly mentions that she is an English teacher. This could show how she lives in a different world. She also treats her fur like its alive (personification). Also, at the end when she puts it away she says that she thought she heard crying. I think that she is really discovering her own sad and lonely emotions but rejecting them.

Male Bonding

In the story, Hunters in the Snow, we see a lot of testosterone. Frank, Tub, and Kenny go on a manly hunt in the great outdoors in the freezing cold. After Tub shoots Kenny, they rough him around and take their sweet old time getting him to the hospital. They are basically telling him to be a man and get over the pain. At the diner, Frank and Tub spill their darkest secrets to each other. They both tell things that they have been hiding. Through these secrets, they become closer and better friends. It's kind of adorable. They both have terrible secrets but they accept them because they are friends now. The characters Frank and Tub go through a major change in that they become close friends and admit their secrets.

Barttleby the Scrivener

This story is told completely by the point of view of the narrator. This limits the readers' knowledge because we don't know what any of the other characters are thinking or why they do what they do. My favorite part of this story was the names. Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger nut. Adorable. I really wish that I could find out what Barttleby is thinking throughout this entire story. I want to know why he was so happy doing his job and then one day just "preferred not to". The narrator attempts to send him away and fire him but Barttleby never leaves. Why does he not leave? Why does he not eat? We will never know because of the point of view of the story. I don't understand why the narrator identifies and relates with Barttleby so much. He gives him money and visits him in prison. Also, he pays the cook to feed him. The narrator is selfless in trying to help Barttleby but in the end, he killed himself.

Hunters in the Snow by Tobias Wolff

Tub is a character that the readers are meant to feel sorry for. He is teased by his friends his whole life. When they go on the hunting trip, Tub is left way behind the others. He simply cannot keep up. I felt really bad for Tub when I read the part about how he kept catching up and then falling back from his friends. It's sad to see his character struggling so much. His friends treat him horribly, too. This story later unfolds to the characters spilling their darkest secrets. Tub tells about his problem with eating and says that it has nothing to do with his glands. Frank then confides about the affair he is having with the babysitter. This secret was really weird. He is married and has children and he is considering leaving all of that for a babysitter. Really creepy. Speaking of creepy, the ending. Kenny keeps chanting that they are going to the hospital and the story responds that they are actually not. They had taken a wrong turn somewhere. It makes the reader ponder all the possibilities that could happen to the characters as a result of that wrong turn.

Everyday Use by Alice Walker

I really liked this story because i could relate to it. Me and my sister are very close in age and we often fight over belongings just like Dee and Maggie. I see myself sometimes playing Dee, selfish and confident, and I also see myself be Maggie, quiet and generous. The author sets Maggie up to be a character that you immediately feel sorry for. She is a burn victim, she lives at home, and she isn't very intelligent. Dee got all the "goods" of the family. Her mother raised enough money to send her off to college. She comes back with a husband and a fancy dress. Dee clearly holds herself over her family. She takes from Maggie the quilt that was already said to be Maggie's wedding gift. Also, Dee makes sure that she doesn't get the house in any of the pictures. We see that Dee had changed from the time she went off to college by the time she came back by Maggie's reaction. She is shocked by the transformation her sister has gone through. Also, Dee rejects the nickname her mother had called her her whole life.

Surprise Endings

Usually I love books with surprise endings because I am blown away by the ending that I couldn't guess. In this story, I thought the surprise ending was ridiculously obvious. The book was called "How I Met My Husband" and there were only two men in the whole story. One of them was a sleeze bag with a fiancée. My guess was that it was the mailman as soon as he came into the story. In my opinion, the ending of the story could have been taken out completely and they story would have lost no meaning at all. I know that they would have probably had to change the title but to me, the surprise ending seemed to summed up so it was less believable. If they would have dragged it out and gave more detail it would have made the story more romantic and more enjoyable.

How I Met My Husband

The whole book I knew that Chris was sleeze. He creeped me out when he watched her through the window and then told her she was beautiful. He had already been in the army and she was only 15. He must have been signifigantly older than her. Also, he had a fiance. There was a lot of dramatic irony in this story. One example is when she admits to being intimate with Chris and is bawling to all the ladies. She has no idea what it means to be intimate. After Chris and Edie are done being "intimate", he jumps off the cot and splashes water on both him and her. I think this is symbolism for him cleansing off the wrong doing that he had just done. The top of page 145 was confusing to me because Chris' fiance says that in order to prove that Edie had or had not been intimate with Chris, she was going to "examine" her. She says later that she had no idea at the time of what she had been saved from doing. Was she really going to check? That is very strange.

Interpreter of Maladies

When I first started reading the book, I didn't think the taxi driver was being that creepy. Then, I realized that he was 20 years older than Mrs. Das. I noticed some foreshadowing when Mr. Kapasi notices the difference in the skin color of his "son". It shows how his wife is unfaithful and he has no idea that the kid isn't really his son. I think this unfaithfulness is a result of their arranged marriage. I don't understand why his wife is so cold to the younger daughter. She doesn't hold her hand or paint her nails when she asks. Instead, she shakes her off and talks to her like she's an annoyance. I saw some similarities between this story and "How I Met My Husband". They both involve letters and they also both have an unrealistic idea of love. The idea of "sweeping their lover off their feet and living happily ever after". I thought it was odd how the author emphasized the dress of Mrs. Das. She showed a lot of skin and her "largely bare legs" (pg. 147) I didn't understand the purpose of her dress or why they would mention this.

A Rose For Emily

All of the flashbacks in this story confuse me. I can't tell what the chronological order of events are and where each book begins and leaves off. Book II is the most confusing. It begins 30 years before her funeral, 2 years after her father dies, and 1 year after Homer goes missing. After reading over this section several times, I finally started to understand what was happening first. Another thing I didn't really understand was the tax situation. She didn't have to pay her taxes for a long period of time. It seemed like the mayor or whatever it was felt bad for her because of the loss of her husband and her father so he didn't make her pay them. Then, all of a sudden, she had to pay them again. We see this on page 282 and it explains it in more detail, that I don't understand. Also I didn't think that the title of this story fit the tone of it at all. A Rose For Emily? how about, "Emily; A Girl Who Naps With Dead Bodies". That would have been more appropriate. I don't understand why the author decided to name this story so positive.