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
I totally agree with you about The Girls in Their Summer Dresses. As I finished the story, I wanted to rip the pages apart. There was no point to the story, and in the end the wife doesn't even bother to threaten him or attempt to see how much he loves her, instead of listening to him assuring her that he "loves" her.
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