Short Stories

     The three short stories I read were The Sniper, Girls in Their Summer Dresses, and The Return. My favorite story was The paths we walk. The strongest literacy elements were characterization and social setting. It is about a man who is falsely accused of a crime and is sent to a camp, after returning he finds out that everyone thought he was dead. This wouldn't have had a great affect on the overall plot if it wasn't for his wife leaving in result of this lie. The dynamic protagonist realizes that he was not the only person that changed and was having hardships, the townspeople's lives carried on even without him. When I finished the story I thought "Well what did he expect? Of course their lives continued." Then it hit me, if I was to leave my family and friends for many years I wouldn't be able to even consider that they would soon have to just go on with their lives. However this was what the main character encountered when he arrived home. That is why The Return is my favorite story that I read because it made me look at something with a new perspective.
   My second favorite was The Sniper, it was short action packed with a plot twist at the end. When he killed his brother at the end I was shocked and it tied together the whole story. My least favorite was Girls in Their Summer Dresses, I am still not even sure if I really understand it. What I understood was that the wife did not appreciate her husband always checking out other women while he was with her. However, he continued and this sparked a huge argument. In the end the husband admitted that he wanted the other girls and his wife, and did not change his ways. To me (and maybe I am missing something) this story had no purpose and the only dynamic character was the wife who realized how set her husband was in his ways.
  When we start developing our thesis statements I will probably use The Return and it will be somewhere along the lines of the main character coming to the realization of everyones lives going on without him.


Reading Times:
The Sniper: 25 min
The Return: 35 min
The Match: 100min
Total: 160 min

Short Story Literary Element

     In Harrison Bergeron the most important literary element was setting,the United States in 2081. It is the most important literary element because the story was about a family who had to wear handicaps and since that type of situation had to be in the future the story would have made no sense otherwise. Also, with the story towards the ends of our lives and in the USA it impresses to us what our generation is capable of, and how much we could mess up.

Quarter Evaluation

        I think that this first quarter at Episcopal has been great overall for me. In English class I have done most of my homework and studied for most of the W.W quizzes. Surprisingly, I have been bringing all of my materials to class and I hope to continue that through the second quarter. Towards the end of the quarter I started to get more sloppy and forgetful, I was also talking more during class. My weak spot is slacking off at the end of quarters, so I want to work hard throughout the second quarter through mid-terms. More english class related, I have a hard time with punctuation so I want to continue improving on that also.

Reading Times:

10/8: Dry September 30 min
10/9: And of Clay we are Created 45 min
10/10: Harrison Bergeron 20 min
10/11: Waltz of the Fat Man: 25 min
10/13: The Bone Finder : 35 min
 Total: 155 min

Reading Times

To Build a Fire: 65 min
To Duh-Da: 35 min
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: 20 min
A&P: 15 min
The Bone Finder: 30 min
Total: 165 min