"Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver

When I finished reading this story I said, “Holy Crap did they just kill the baby!!??!!” I had to reread it over a couple times until I finally came to the conclusion that they killed the baby. I was completely baffled by the fact that these two parents would be so selfish to the extent that they killed the only good thing that came out of their relationship.

At first I thought that this was what Carver was trying to get at when writing this story. I thought he wanted us to realize that when parents split up it can have detrimental consciences on their children and that this was just an extreme case.  However, after our lengthy discussion on this story in class I found that while that is a message, it’s not the main point to writing this story. Carver uses intentional lack of detail to say this could be anyone. For example we never hear a single name said in this entire story. Instead of giving a name to the baby they just say “baby.” We also don’t get enough detail from the house or neighborhood to discern if this is a rich, middle class, or poor family.  Another example is that there are no quotes around any of the dialog. To me I found that this was more like a script that was meant to be improvised. What seems like dialog is just the main points that need to be stated but it’s left up to the actually people to put their own spin on it. The people in this story can be poor, rich, African American, Caucasian, Mexican, famous, or never been heard of. This could be the family who lives right next to you. Carver meant to leave out details so that we as the readers can put our own faces and names to these characters.

The question we should ask ourselves if who are these people and what cause these events to take place but how can we prevent this from happening to children of any social class?


Now I have another question for you that actually has nothing to do with what I just stated. I want to hear who actually thinks that there was a baby and who things it was just a picture. For me I thought there was a baby but I can see points to argue that it was a picture. What do you think??

Chopin Thesis Evidence

Evidence for Thesis #1:

The fact that Mr. Mallard was coming home like nothing had happened and didn't even know of the events that took place that day suggests that he was somewhere he shouldn't have been. Maybe at a mistresses house which would acounct for his lask of knowlegde of the train accent. This idea is futher supported by the clear fact that Mrs. Mallard is unhappy in her marrige due to her husbands actions. While it was acceptiable for men to have mistreses, wives often disagreed but were unable to do anything about it. Chopin puts this is the story on proupse to show the lack of equalitly among the sexes durring that time.

Evidence for Thesis #2:

While Mrs. Mallard is coming to the realivzation that she is going to have freedom in her life thanks to her husbands death she is still imprsoned in the social structures of the time. Only in the confines of her room where no one can see can she full emerise herself in her new found freedom. She can only view her new life through the window thus showing her imprisoned state. She can't tough her freedom, just look at it. The inablity to allow herself to show her freedom in public shows that she is still confined by what is considered socially acceptiable and therefor can not fully embrase her new life.

“A Rose for Emily” By William Faulkner

           My initial reaction to this story was that it was a very tragic love story. I felt sad for Emily because I felt that she was afraid of loving Homer. She had finally broken free of her father’s rule and even though she loved Homer she was afraid she would lose her independence to him. This fear of losing her independence and the actions she took to keep her independence would untimely be her demise. 

What I found most interesting was that even after she killed Homer in a way she let him control her life. She killed him in her house and because she didn't want people to discover his dead body she never left the house. I also think she never left the house because she did truly love him and she didn’t want to leave him at all. So that house became her prison. And while she was in charge in that house she couldn’t leave. I think Faulkner wanted us to see that there are always consciences for our actions.  Even though know one knew that she had killed her husband she couldn’t bring herself to leave that house. Her fear of losing her independence to marriage actually made her lose her independence to the fear of being caught. She even tried to make her self believe that she was in controle her life by refusing to to pay her taxes and by not letting the new mayor and aldermen push her into paying her taxes. Another example of this is when they saw her standing in the window looking like an idol. She made everyone else think that she was independent and in control but in reality she is locked up in a prison that she crafted herself. 

What I don’t get is why she killed him? Instead of killing him she could have just not married him. She would have kept her independence that way.  How did she not see that killing him would only make her life worse?

Me, Myself, & I

Click Click Click. Time Frozen Forever.

Welcome to my Blog. My name is Jessica Fossum. Now lets see what do you want to know about me...well I'm 21 and will be 22 in September. I've been a student at Sierra College for 3 years now. My major is Photography and after this coming fall semester I will have my associates in Photography!!! I'm super excited about that. I have a dog named Opie who will be one at the end of October. Out side of Photography my hobbies include reading, listening to music, and playing Magic. I know I'm kinda a geek but I'm totally ok with it. If I can be in my high school Marching Band for four years and be that kind of geek then i can stand being a geek for playing Magic.

Onto English related topics. English isn't my strong suit and it never has. I'm more of a math kind of person. So let me take this opportunity to say if anyone need a tutor in math let me know cus i do tutor. Any who despite my lack of English skills i do love to read, usually when i get to choose the book. Now this is going to sound super weird but all of my favorite books came from the children's section of the book store. Something about those books just speaks to my imagination. And most of the books i read are part of a series. I thing this is because i like to have another book ready and waiting as soon as i finish one book. And if they are related then it makes it that much easier to get started on the next book. Not all my favorite books came from the kids section though. Some of my favorite books have come from class mandated readings such as The Things They Carried, The Giver, and Feed.

Well I think that's enough for now. Looking forward to this class and what everyone has to say.