Going to Meet the Man

This story made me sick. I understand the writers purpose in showing us the way that people in that time where raised to feel and believe. I did not see it as Baldwin making an excuse it was more of here are the facts now what are we going to do with them. But the character in this story, Jesse, made me want to crack  HIS head open with a pistol. No human being should be treated the way he treats people. Including but not limited to the African American people under his "ruler ship."  I think that he pretty much did not treat anyone well, he was just a self righteous, self absorbed horrible person. From his reaction at that hanging as a child I believe that he would have turned out to be a horrible person weather or not he'd been raised by racist parents.

Sexy

When I read this all I could think was wow. At first I didn't quite understand why there was so much of the cousins story in it but it all came together nicely in the end. I still don't quite understand the emphasis on thier nationality. This was an interesting story that had me doing alot of thinking. Even though the story with the cousin is really sad and she had a D-bag for a husband. The little boys analysis  of what was going on in his parents marriage and what he felt that "sexy" really ment was eye opening for Miranda. She knew from the get go that what they were doing was wrong and from Laxmi's accounts of her cousins condition she probably should have taken stopped a long time ago. For the sake of having someone, and feeling loved she had decided to settle for much much less. I think it was after she realized what she was really allowing to happen not only to her but to Dev's wife. It made her make a difficult choice and that was to pretty much be alone.

Everyday Use

   When I read this story at first I was a bit angry. Dee was a selfish child who never really appreciated what her mother did for her or where she came from. She was that one child in every family who always seems to get their way. There was never speak of a father in this family so I assume that maybe he died when they were young. Yet her mother did all the work needed to take care of her girls and their farm. Yet Dee was nothing but ashamed of her mother and their meager simple lives. She even goes so far as to change her name. She tries to make it seem as though she changed it and became Muslim but it is evident that she hadn't at dinner. "We sat down to eat and right away he said he didn't eat collards and pork was unclean. Wangero, though, went on through the chitlins and corn bread, greens and everything else." Know several Muslims I know that there is nothing short of maybe starvation itself to persuade a Muslim to partake in pork that I am sure was not only the chitlins but also in the greens. ( And if anyone is confused the correct spelling of chitlins is chitterlings and it is pig intestine and is eating on special occasions my many southern people). So Dee left with a hatred of where she began and then came back with what she thought was an appreciation for heritage but yet still a disdain for her mother and sister. I feel that the adherence and "everyday use" that Dee's mother and Maggie had for where they came from was more then what Dee had which was just a want to show the material things off to people.

Home Burial

       This was a very sad poem to me. It looks into the struggle that couples face when they lose a child. The wife is very emotional and is still having a hard time with the lost of her child, while the husband is more indifferent and kind of hostile. She does not want him to speak of their child because it seems to her that he has no feeling on the subject which I am inclined to agree with her on. The husband does not really seem to have much feeling about the subject at all he is very nonchalant and matter of fact when talking of his child. His biggest concern is that Amy, his wife will not let him into her pain. "blind creature; and awhile he didn't see" I think refeers more to the fact that he does not understand his wifes pain or try to help her he is more of forcing his way in. The poem is not a happily ever after and ends with both of them very angry but I think it really shows the pain and emotion of people and how different people deal with grief.

Mending Wall

Frost mending wall is a great poem every time I read it. It shows this two neighbors that mend their fence every year even thought there is really no need to. The speaker is trying to convince his neighbor that its not necessary but his neighbor just keeps saying that good fences make good neighbors.

              "And on a day we meet to walk the line
                   And set the wall between us once again.
                  We keep the wall between us as we go.
                 To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

I think that the wall represents something more. It seems to describe how each neighbor has gone though things that year and the boulders have fallen on them but instead of connecting with each other they rebuild the wall between them again and move on as if nothing has happened. They want the wall to stay up or at least until "their back is turned". I think he is also trying to say that there is no reason to keep this 'wall" between them they have been neighbors for a long time and they have the opportunity to share their burdens but the only thing they share is mending the wall.

The Yellow Wallpaper

     This story is about a woman who slowly goes crazy on account of her hideous wall paper. She is actually "sick" when she comes to stay at the house with the terrible wallpaper, but it seems that her obsession with the it is what allows her to jump of the edge. It is quiet clear not to far into the story that her fixation with this wall paper is making it come alive before her very eyes, even before she says so herself.

          " There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down. I get positively angry with the impertinence of it and the everlastingness. Up and down and sideways they crawl, and those absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere There is one place where two breaths didn't match, and the eyes go all up and down the line, one a little higher than the other."

  
She begins early on in the story to describe the wallpaper with human like features. She uses such human metaphors and similes that when she actually does start to believe that the wall paper is alive it takes a second for you to catch on. When she says "the woman behind it ( the wallpaper) shakes it." its like whoa when did she actually say she thought the paper was alive! I like this story it is very descriptive and at times a mind bender but it gives a very good insight into the characters mind and kept me captivated both times I read it.