THE THINGS THEY CARRIED (1990)

What is the story saying about the theme of war? 

I didn't realize until I was about halfway done with the story that I had read The Things they Carried before. At once I remembered how it ended and how it filled me with slight melancholy, but at the same time a sense of joy was present because of Lieutenant Cross' own personal achievement.

Lieutenant Cross is a fine example of a round character. We come to explore this character's true feelings and intentions in greater depth than the others while a fundamental attitude change also occurs by the end of the story. We see here, "... yet he could not bring himself to worry about matters of security. He was beyond that. He was just a kid at war, in love. He was twenty-four years old. He couldn't help it" (347). The first thing we need to understand about Lt. Cross is that he is still but a young man in a foreign land blinded and handicapped by his naive love for a girl named Martha back in New Jersey. "He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead..." (350) Lieutenant Cross realizes that his incapacity at focusing on his responsibility as platoon leader is putting his soldiers' lives at risk. Cross had not made the ultimate commitment to his men and it all stemmed from his futile love and longing for Martha. 

To me, the transformation into maturity occurs when Lt. Cross burns Martha's letters and decides to be a better leader. "He understood. It was very sad, he thought. The things carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do" (354). Lt. Cross comes to grow and become a man, in a sense. This is the strongest theme I gathered from this story. Lt. Cross was carrying unnecessary baggage in the form of an emotional handicap. In order to continue the war and lead his troops, he had to lighten his load of the things he was carrying by tossing those emotions he had towards Martha on the road and leave it behind. In a war, mostly all of the soldiers arrive young and foolish (foolish to fall in love) and in the course of the war suffer the loss of innocence. A realization that they have to leave all their small insignificant issues back home; forget about all their childish desires and let go of those troublesome burdens that are weighing them down  because they are in unfamiliar territory where not only their lives are at risk, but also the lives of their comrades.

TO BUILD A FIRE by Jack London (1908)

Jack London gifts us with this tragic story of a man foolish enough to travel without any other human companion through a sub-zero blizzard. The protagonist has only his Husky dog to keep him company; without much use for the man as we learn at the end of the story. It is early morning when the story begins and there is no visibility of the sun that makes the day seem very gloomy. The man is traveling along a creek which has been completely frozen and covered with ice and snow. All the man can see is white snow all around him covering up every tree and bush along the creek. Although we learn from the narration that it is 9 in the morning at the beginning of the story, 12:30 when the man makes his first stop for lunch, and early afternoon when the tragic event that sentenced him to death occurs; time seems to be paused as there doesn't appear to be a change in the sky since it always looked gloomy, sunless and gray.

This image almost exactly resembles the image painted in my head of the environment around the man. "...But he knew also that there were springs that bubbled out from the hillsides and ran along under the snow and on top the ice of the creek" (109).

This image is even better than the preceding one since almost every branch of tree is covered in white snow as the story suggests. This image paints a freezing environment where one has to be careful if traveling through it.

The small snow deposits that have formed on the small creek here suggest a freezing temperature. "They hid pools of water under the snow that might be three inches deep, or three feet" (109). To me, the uncertainty of ice and snow forming on the creek is best reflected with this snowy image.

Although there is no creek visible here, this image reminds me of the story because there is a thick blanket of snow all around and makes visibility a little harder. At plain sight, I wouldn't be sure if at the end was a cabin or just more and more snow.

This image is perfect because it reminds me of the passage where the man has his first emergency fire put out by the balls of snow built up on the branches of the tree he was under of. "Now the tree under which he had done this carried a weight of snow on its boughs. No wind had blown for weeks, and each bough was fully freighted" (113).

THE LAWSUIT by Naguib Mahfouz

Who is the main character or protagonist of the story?
The protagonist of this story is the man being sued by his father's widow. The widow is demanding maintenance from the son because she has apparently become economically challenged since seemingly robbing the son and the rest of his family from their father's inheritance.

Make a quick list of the character's physical, mental, moral, or behavioral traits.Which seem especially significant to the action of the story?
To surmise the protagonist with a few quick adjectives: inquisitive, independent, neutral, reserved, observant, decent, curious, mindful. The traits that are important to the development of the story might be his curiosity, his reserved nature, his being not dependent on his father's inheritance by the quote, "I was the one least affected by the disaster, partly because of my youth and partly because I was the only one in the family who wanted to study..." (77). He maintained a level head and in the end didn't mind helping out the poor widow. He has those traits of a man who has a clear conscience and can think things out in his mind thoroughly.

Does the main character have an antagonist in the story? How do they differ? 
The antagonist of this story is the widow begging for maintenance. She differs tremendously from the protagonist because she is like a parasite; depending on others to sustain herself. The son on the other hand, is a self-focused man who achieved some success through his studies. Seemingly her bad fortune in the end seems to make both the protagonist and her similar by the lawyer saying: "... but she's as much a victim as you are. Even the fortune she made off with brought her to disaster" (79).

Does the way the protagonist speaks reveal anything about his or her personality?
Yes it does. When the son tells his lawyer, "It's as though you know something about her" (79), he is displaying his personality traits of curiosity and inquisitiveness. Throughout the story he plays personal discussions inside his mind that show that he is constantly trying to understand many issues.

If the story is told in the first person, what is revealed about how the protagonist views his or her surroundings?
This story is in fact told in first person. A lot is revealed on how the protagonist views his environment by the narration. Throughout the story the prevailing notion I get is that the protagonist is level-headed and does not readily show his emotions or true feelings about his family's misfortune due to being of a reserved nature. We can infer this conclusion from this quote: "I shared his fears but affected outwardly what I did not feel inwardly" (77).

What is the character's primary motivation? Does this motivation seem reasonable to you?
The son's primary motivation at first is to defy the widow and not help her out in her time of need due to her causing a lot of distress to his family before. He does not want to be taken by a fool. "This woman robbed us and deprived us of our legal rights" (76), he claims. This type of motivation is reasonable to me for the son to be curious to see how the widow has changed and confront her.

Does the protagonist fully understand his or her motivations?
Yes he does. It seems to me, at least. The protagonist is portrayed as a mentally developed character who knows fully well that the widow has cheated his family before. He is appalled at the fact that the widow is throwing a lawsuit at him and is determined not to give her a single cent.

In what ways is the protagonist changed or tested by the events of the story?
The protagonist (the son) has a change of heart at the end of the story. "I forgot what I wanted to say. In fact words failed me, and I felt an inner peace" (80). He was determined not to help out the widow because of the wound she left him and his family. But he was still remembering the young, beautiful image he had of the widow. He thought to himself maybe that with her beauty and persuasion she can get along fine without him. Once he saw the fat, old lady that once was his father's bride he saw all the classic traits of a fragile woman that has suffered terribly at the hands of time. She couldn't rely on her looks anymore and she never knew how to work for her living, so she could only fall back upon the son who sees this and doesn't mind helping her out.   

A ROSE FOR EMILY by William Faulkner

William Faulkner implements an objective point of view for this sad story of a lonely woman. The information given by the narrator throughout the story is straightforward and with very limited interpretation of the characters' feelings. After reading the story a few times I believe Faulkner is basing the narrator on a member of the town; a neighbor of Emily Grierson. This can be inferred from these passages: "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral..." (33) and "At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said..." (37). I believe it's some non-participant, observant neighbor that is just in the know about the affairs in this small town.

I believe Faulkner chose to base the point of view on some neighbor in the background to try and invoke a sense of sympathy from the reader just as a person from Emily's neighborhood would. "When we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray" (39). Even though Miss Emily chose to isolate herself from the town, the people were still somewhat preoccupied about what would be happening to her.It seems to me that Faulkner had limited choice when selecting the point of view since in this story Miss Emily was a very lonely woman for the latter part of her life. Who else but an observant, non-participant neighbor?

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND by Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor produces a superb story about a Southern family and it left me in a small state of shock when I find the Misfit kills the Grandmother. What strikes me the most is O'Connor's remarkable use of foreshadowing throughout the story. Throughout the story O'Connor builds up the Grandmother's character in a negative light as if to convince the reader not to like her too much... as if she talked a little more than she has to.

The plot does surprise me a little bit just by the way the story comes to a close. Like I mentioned, the foreshadowing is O'Connor's strongest technique in the story. Right from the start the exposition sets up the Grandmother's selfish nature. "The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida." (356) The Grandmother's character is that of a self-absorbed woman that needs to be recognized by others as a classy lady as if she herself doesn't believe to be. The decision to take the cat with the family, her mistake at thinking the old house was in Georgia instead of Tennessee, her recognizing the Misfit; they all were her actions that one by one led to the whole family being murdered.

As the sequence of events unfold, I found myself thinking that of course the family would eventually meet the Misfit and have a little trouble with him but I never thought that he would kill the whole family. At first the family seemed it would get robbed on the highway since they were going on a trip to Florida. When the family passes the six graves in thew cotton field is when I first entertained the notion of the whole family being murdered but I didn't believe that would happen; I was expecting a twist. However, O'Connor lets you know what is going to happen but the dramatic build-up to the end makes what you already know all that more surprising.

I have seen the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men and I have to say I see the influence of O'Connor in the film. A game of cat and mouse is played throughout the film with a man hunting down another all over the South. The values of the movie and this short story are similar. What can we expect from person's values in these times? Both the film and O'Connor's story reflect on the changing times and how the traditional profile of a good man is slowly being lost.

Introduction to Bryan Najera

Oi there. I'm Bryan Najera and I am a full-time PCC student. I am studying for my English and Film majors. I enjoy playing and watching real football (soccer), playing guitar & bass, and eating. I REALLY enjoy eating.

I am about to be 21 years old and I have lived in Los Angeles my whole life. I don't like to be involved with politics but if you were to describe me; I am very liberal.

One of the things I MUST do before the end of my life is to take a road trip through all of the Americas from North to South, back and forth.

My ultimate goal in life is to be involved in the wonderful art of filmmaking particularly as a screenwriter. I have collaborated with some close friends in small, scattered projects but nothing too serious. Hopefully soon we will have our own little production company going up and running.

I hope this English 1B course will introduce me to a lot of undiscovered literature and will help me on my quest to become a skilled writer.

Now for lunch.