Love- I have a lot to say on love...

Let me start by saying that while I found this story amusing, I also found it very annoying. Every two seconds I was reading this person says or that person says, even though I could tell who was speaking without all of that. It could have been written without all the redundancy. What I found amusing was the different views each character had on love. My take on previous loves is that each person has a soul mate. I am on my second marriage and while I thought I loved my ex at the time, I realize now that it wasn't real love. It wasn't this intense. My ex was abusive, like Ed. I can identify with Terri because I really believed if he didn't love me he wouldn't hit me, he would just ignore me instead. Today I know that is false. But back to soul mates. Some people go their entire lives just existing from one relationship to the next or stuck in a routine. But they never really find their soul mate and therefore never experience true, deep, intense, passionate love. Nick and Laura never comment on whether they have loved before. Mel and Terri just assume. Based on their comments and reactions to each other, I think they might have that real love. I never understood the concept of your mate being your best friend until I met Tom. I don't only love him, I really like him too. We enjoy spending time together just doing nothing. We can talk for hours about nothing at all and never get bored with each other. And basically, that's what I talk about when I talk about love. One other thing is this is a lot like the last two stories in that it links love and death, both obviously and subtly in two instances. First is the obvious- Ed. He tried to kill Mel and Terri and in the end killed himself. Second- the subtle reference is the old couple Mel saw at the hospital. The old man was sad because he couldn't see his wife and they had both almost died. Even though they didn't, it was linked because they almost died and the thought that he could have lost her and not been able to see her was a thought he could not bear and it caused him great depression and grief.

Hemingway IS just as depressing..damn

Ok so I'm not exactly pro-abortion, but let me just say--WAY better option than infantcide! The American and the girl. Right from the start Hemingway is letting us know that these are two totally different people from different walks of life. It seems that Jig is having second thoughts but wants to make everyone else happy. I like the way this was written in almost all dialogue. Rather than seeing their actions and hearing their thoughts, I felt like an observer eavesdropping or a fly on the wall. As a reader we have to infer things which are open to interrpretation. I think Jig is also in denial of sorts. She states there is nothing wrong and she is fine. She is in a state of depression. F.I.N.E. means f**cked up, insecure, neurotic, and emotional. Her boyfriend is trying to be optimistic and she is completely negative saying, "It isn't ours anymore". While it never says Jig is pregnant or having an abortion it is easy to see that is what is going on by what is said in the dialogue between them. I also found it interesting that he didn't have a name, almost like he wasn't really that important.

Jail is not good enough for these kids

When I first read this story I sat for an hour unable to move my pen on the piece of paper. It took me a lot of time to be able to comment because this story really touched me and hurt me too. Those who were in English 110 with me probably know I was incarcerated. During that incarceration I spent time at Howard Street, a minimum security drug and alcohol program.
My roommate at Howard Street was Amanda Harris, the Westfield girl who placed her infant son in a cornflakes box and threw him in a dumpster. Thankfully, Micheal survived. This little girl wasn't so lucky. As a mother this story made me sick. I became pregnant for Owen a month before my nineteenth birthday. I had options- abortion, adoption, or to raise my son and take responsibility for my actions. I chose the latter. One option I never had was to give birth and then commit murder. What really pissed me off though was that neither Jeremy nor China thought they did anything wrong. What sociopaths! They refused to accept responsibility. One December 29, 2006 I lost a son. I still struggle with the guilt and blame of this stillbirth today. I know that my addiction and alcoholism played a large part in that death and I accept responsibility for this. I realize that they were still young, but they were adult enough to engage in sexual relations. Jeremy justified his actions by saying that she told him to get rid of it. He could have dropped it off at a hospital or police station. China justified her actions by saying that she never saw the baby and thought she had a miscarriage. If she gave a damn she would ahve demanded to see the baby, even if she really thought it was dead. Even though I KNEW my baby was stillborn I still demanded to see and hold my baby. So- I guess that is enough said-the more I write the more pissed I get. Listen- I know I really shared a lot of personal stuff here and that some people might judge me for that. I needed to share all of that to get across how I feel. I made a lot of mistakes, and I totally accept responsibility for that. Ok so like I said, I'm going to stop and start on the next story- hopefully Hemingway won't be so depressing..

Bravo!!!

Bravo! That was such a bold, brave, and yet sneaky, underhanded move that Mrs. Penn pulled. I have to laugh though, because I keep thinking of when I was little. When I would run in and out of the house my mom would ask if I thought I lived in a barn. I just think it would be funny to hear Sara Penn ask Nanny or Sammy that. But for her to put her foot down and her children first was admirable. Her husband was a selfish jerk. Forty years and he let his wife live in a shack. While I was reading this I held out hope that perhaps he was building a house and was trying to surprise her. I thought MAYBE that was why he wouldn't talk about it, and even maybe Sammy was in on it. I even thought if it wasn't for Sara, maybe it was a wedding gift for Nanny. When he really built a barn I wanted to hunt him down and kick some sense into him. What a jerk!!!!! Who needs that many barns, cows, horses, etc. I think in the end though he realized the damage he had caused over the years. His crying in the end I don't think symbolized defeat but surrender. I think he realized that his wife deserved better than what he had provided all those years. He came to see that she could handle it herself and she wasn't going to settle for second or even third best anymore.

Additional thoughts about Emily..

So now that I'm over the whole 'ick' factor this story had, I can't seem to stop pondering the title. I've come up with two possible explainations, so I thought I would throw them around. One thought is it is linked to her death itself. When someone dies you usually throw a rose or some sort of flower on their casket.
Here is my other thought though. This one is much more morbid and it takes the whole 'ick' factor to a whole new level. A rose is precious. It is something that you can, and many people do, keep entombed in a book or something even after it dies. Perhaps Emily's rose was really Homer. He was precious to her, even though I'm pretty sure she killed him. She kept him even after death and entombed him in that bedroom for her joy alone.
Ok so those are my ideas on two possible explainations of the title. Any other ideas?

How sick is this??

I can truly only think of one thing to say.... EWWWW! I've heard of people not letting fo of the past, especially as they grow old, but this story took that to a WHOLE new level. I mean, she was sleeping with a dead guy. And what was up with the arsenic? So basically she killed him and then decided to stick him in bed and lay with him. I guess that puts a new meaning to never leaving someone. I think this obsession with the dead may have started with her father.
It seems like perhaps he isolated her. Upon his death she was lost and so denial set in. When they came for the body she eventually had no choice but to let the take him. Oh but what if she were to have a body no one knew about? And what better than someone not from the area who won't be missed as quickly?
It also seems that Homer wasn't her first 'victim'. How else do you explain the smell that permeated from her home. GROSS! At the same time though I can't help but feel sorry for her. It is obviously some sort of mental illness that she suffers from for her to do this. She even went as far as purchasing the arsenic from the local pharmacist and didn't even think twice that despite her sick fetish, this was murder. Seriously twisted.

Good Country People? Try Crazy people in the country...

Loneliness. Amid the people always around there is still loneliness. That is the major thing that struck me about this story. I remember when I was a teenager and I was active in school and had a lot of friends around me all the time. But even with all of that I still felt so lonely. I smiled on the outside, but was miserable on the inside.
Joy had lost her leg when she was just ten years old so she missed out on a lot of the things normal kids get to do. She grew to be cynical and she was educated so she came to think of herself as "better than".
When the bible salesman came to the house her superiority complex took hold. She thought she could get one over on him. She set out to seduce him, to play him. Funny how she ended up being the one to get played. I don't think she only lost her leg in that hay barn, but her dignity as well.
I wonder how long she was stuck up there. With her crappy attitude, did anyone even come looking for her for awhile?
As bad as it is that this guy took her leg, I have a hard time feeling bad for her. I can't help but think hey, this girl got what she deserved.
I like the title too. "Good Country People". Mrs. Hopewell liked to have faith that there were good country people out there, but in the end no one is really what they appear to be.

Admin Post- Week 5

Hey boys and girl. Your friendly admin had her life consumed by Anatomy and Physiology and so is very late delivering this prompt:
Respond to Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor, p169

A Kinky Rose for Emily sounds better

Boy, guys, the end of this one was pretty good, huh? I enjoyed this story quite a bit for several reasons. First, it reminded me of my grandmother (NO she did not sleep with dead guys, you guys are gross) in that she lived in a house somewhat like Emily's, once a beautiful home in it's rite but eventually an outcast amonsgt the inevitable growth of a town, and she also aged there (alone and stubborn to offers at buying her land) while society moved on and she didn't. Secondly, I liked that there were a few words that I had to look up (self-admitted word geek) like gilt and coquettish and august which made me happy. But mostly, I enjoyed the style and content of the story; how it kind of wound around a bendy road but kept it's thread so that it was understandable but still able to completely astonish me at the end. Only the best of authors can get away with this as stealthily. Faulkner did a great job describing everything in just the right amount of detail to keep me focused, in keeping the story always interesting and in literally turning my stomach after my first reading. I'm reading too many books right now, but eventually, I would like to read more by him. I wonder if all of his work is as elegantly presented? Just one question? Why is it called A Rose for Emily? Does she get a rose and I missed it or is Faulkner referring to the flowers for her grave or what? I must have missed something. Someone throw it at me, ok?

Extremely Loud

Would anyone like to figure out some time that we can form some type of study group for "Extremely Loud"? If so let me know. My email is kdougherty1726@hotmail.com.
Thanks! Kim D

Jonathan Safran Foer

Hi everyone! Kim D. here. Ok so I know that we haven't really started in with "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" yet, however I just have to put the comment up to say I loved this book! I am so grateful to the powers-that-be over at the DBC who chose this book. I finished it in 2 1/2 days. It is so refreshing to finally have a book that I would read in my spare time as a book that I have to study. Hands down it was so much better than the monkey book...err.. "Primates Memoir".
With that said I get to the point of why I am posting this. The first novel written by Jonathan Safran Foer is titled "Everything is Illuminated". I just recently took this book out of my local library for the sole fact that I really love his style of writing.
So my fellow Foer fans, if you like his style then I seriously suggest checking this other book out for reading in your spare time. You will not be disappointed. The style of writing, the bluntness, and the humor are well worth it. I am only about a quarter way into the book and I can't put it down, nor can I stop laughing. Happy Reading!!