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.