Marriage is a Private Affair: Achebe

I found it confusing at first that this man Nnaemeka didn't want to tell his fater of his marriage. Nene his fiancee, wants him to tell him as soon as possible, but Nnaemeka has reservations about it because Nene is not from the same tribe. His father then sends him a letter stating that he has found a bride for him and that he doesn't have to be in love with this woman to marry her. I don't agree with how arranged marriages because love is the one thing that we look for in a person before we marry them. I also noticed that this story was as dark as the rest and i liked the change of pace. :)

The Lottery: Jackson

First off let me say that I would never want to live in a town like this. Where if you want to leave you can't come back and if you do you will be stoned to death?! What kind of people are they if do this to everyone. And the reason to kill someone because the crops are bad belongs in the 1800's not the 1950's. We may not have felt it in the text but in the movie the children who were killing their mother looked like they were enjoying it. That is so sad. I just feel that everyone in this town is evil.

A Rose for Emily: Faulkner

The thing that interested me about this story was that emily is so sheltered. she never leaves the house for any reasom. She had a strange relationship with her dad before he died, where he was very protective over her and wouldn't let her see anyone. she never found love for anyone but him and when she did, and the man wanted to leave she killed him and kept him there. she just seemed like a weird old lady who didn't have any money and lived off the charity of others. This story like the others was very dark and somebody died just like in the rest.

The Cask of Amontillado

This story grabbed me by how violent it was. The tale is dark and a good example of Montresor feeling like he is the judge, jury and executioner to Fortunato. He is angry at him and deceives him with wine and the thought that he has a rare kind in the catacombs of his house. My first thought about Fortunato actually going down in the cellar with Montresor was that the costume he was wearing was kind of ironic. He was dressed as a jester and now he was falling for the evil plan. But why Montresor is so hurt just by a simple insult i'm still confused why he would go so far as to kill the poor guy.

Young Goodman Brown

I guess by the end of this story I felt a little confused because I have no clue what Brown set off to do and that he leaves his wife without being completely honest with her. I would have stressed to him that I wanted to come and that danger could be in his future. The devil in disguise with the black snake should have been a warning to go home and that way he would have never learned that his father and grandfather had experience with the devil as well. I like the twist at the end of him thinking he was dreaming about his journey. I feel as if at church in the dream he was ashamed of what he had done the night before and that is the reason we feel he may have had to go kill someone. It was a sad story.

Desiree's Baby: Kate Chopin

What an interesting turn this story took at the end. I didn't expect to find out that he or she was a half blood. It also hurt me to read that the father didn't want to take ownership of his first born son. Everyone seemed so devastated about the fact that the baby didn't look like the mother or father and drove the mother mad. She just ended up walking off and never looking back. I still wonder how the father really felt after he read that he was the one who wasn't full white, and that he was half black. If I was in his shoes I don't think I would have let her leave. I would have tried to understand why this had happened and not put all the blame on her. It just sadden me to think she just took the baby and walked into the swamp and never returned. She ended both her life and her baby's that way she wouldn't have to be ashamed.

The Flowers:Alice Walker

When I first read this story I thought that maybe I was reading about a Chinese or Japanese girl playing in a field by herself. But I came to find out that maybe I had misread the story and missed a few parts that were key in letting the reader know that this story is about a sharecroppers daughter. It bothered me how the story started off so happy and joyful then went to dark and sad. We talked about the colors we saw in the story. They were bright then dark. The imagery in this story painted a picture in my mind about the man she came across. I could literally see the rose growing out of the skull she stepped on. How shocking it must have been at such a young age to have to witness this