The Body-For Kahle

"The Body" written by Stephen King may be about a boy's dead body, BUT it isn't the decaying flesh that is the focal point of this story. Instead the characters mature and grow in this story, creating the theme, plot, point of view, characterization (duh) and setting of this story.

There are two huge themes in this story, the first being how a death can affect the humans surrounding it. The other theme is how the opinions of others can effect one person. Starting with the main character Gordon. Early on in the story the reader learns that Gordon had a dead older brother that many people loved. His parents don't really seem to care for him, and Gordon feels unwanted. In fact after several dinners of being ignored he says "Please pass those goodam spuds" just to see if he can get a rise out of his family, but even his small swearing doesn't affect his parents. After Dennis died, Gordon's parents really just stop caring, and the sad thing is that Gordon accepts their lack of concern for him. He's mature enough to realize that his parents won't be able to carry on for their lives for a while after the death. Another death that haunts the storyline is the death of Ray Brower. This boy got lost while picking berries with a pail, and the gang of boys hear about this death through Vern's older brother. This dead body is a sort of calling to action for the boys as they start their quest, as they walk off towards this dead body.
The other part of the theme is the affects of other opinions. This is seen when Gordon feels like "The Invisible Man" to his parents, when Chris is just another troublemaker boy in his family, and when deformed Teddy almost kills himself in a junkyard for the honor of his father.

The plot of this story branches off the journey of Gordon and his gang towards the body of Ray Brower. I was reminded of "The Princess and The Bride" when Miracle Max heals Westley from being dead to being half-dead. Westley wasn't actually dead, and could be saved. I honestly think the boys didn't realize that they were looking for a dead body until they were staring at the corpse with their own eyes. The scene (chapter 27) is the climax of the story as the boys face off the other boys over the body. In this part of the story the story shifts from a pleasant camping trip to a tiring, fright filled trip. The boys make it home but their joy is gone, and their so tired they don't plan on seeing each other until after school starts (3 days later). The work spends a lot of time building up the appearance of the body by the couple of bumps in the trips like the junk year rumble, the crossing of the tracks, the weird sounds at night and the two stories that Gordon writes. It's a typical story where the action peaks at once and the action rises and falls due to that point.

Gordon, our card shuffling hero is the narrator of this first point of view story. One interesting jump in this story is when the story "Stud City" pops in. The point of view changes from 1st person to 3rd person, and then Gordon (from the "present time") ridicules this type of story telling, explaining that its a novice college story. The narrator of the story isn't 12 year old Gordon, rather it's a Gordon from "present time" who is remembering this story. Due to this style of story telling the reader can see the points of the story that really mattered to Gordon. For example the story of crossing the tracks scared the pants off of Gordon, and the reader gets to read several paragraphs on the matter. However the strange noise in the night hardly gets half of the attention.

Characterization in this story is a strong point as it sometimes lost in all of the action. By the end of the story two of the boys (Vern and Teddy) remain pretty flat, living up to their town/family's expectations of them. Chris however surprises his world as he takes college classes (with the help of Gordon). Gordon himself also lives up to Chris' expectation of going to college however it isn't until Chris joins him in college that he really pursues writing (his lifestyle). The sad part of this story is that all of the boys die except Gordon in either accidents or freak events. These deaths add to the grief of Gordon. Also who knows where Vern or Teddy would of ended up if the oppressing opinions of the people around them hadn't of held them back. Or if Chris would of achieved higher things if everyone hadn't of discounted him just because he was part of his family.

The setting of this story is either in a series of transitions or at the tree house. The lawsuit-waiting-to-happen masterpiece that every kid dreams to have in their tree. It is in this tree that the boys learn about the dead body, and it's this house that they plan to return to after their journey and three days sleep. What the reader doesn't see as a setting is the boy's homes. Sure they're mentioned, but hardly any of the story takes place in these houses. The boys don't grow at home, they don't discover at home and they sure don't look for dead bodies at home. It's important to notice that none of the boys want to be at home, due to their family's situations. Other than the tree house the story's setting is in a sense of movement as the boys travel to the body, and the ditch thing that the body is found in is also an important setting due to the way it add's to the climax. The boys only know their tree house, dysfunctional homes, their journey and the ditch that holds a dead body. Yet this story is a great example of death and growing up.
Gotta love Stephan King

The End of Once Upon a Time

This little satire is full of great story-tale spoofs. How the mother in law is a witch, how the barbed wire is "dragon's teeth" how the parents try to entrap the child into one area (seen in Rapunzel).
I don't know what fairy tales the narrator/writer was told as child, but I never was inspired to climb through barbed wire thanks to a fairy tale. Perhaps the narrator/writer (I shall now name them Benny) should of gone back to bed. Benny obviously was traumatized by the noises that he/she heard in the night. Benny shouldn't write any children stories at night as it will terrorize children.
Also this is the third story we've read in class where the hired help is bashed. Why do people with hired help believe that they are better than those they employ? They aren't folks, they aren't
Savy?

Miss Brill? your mink is on line one

Isolated in France, the reader finds Miss Brill (the English teacher) in a park on a lovely Sunday afternoon. She's pulled all the stops out for this Sunday, allowing her furry friend to accompany her. As she sat and observed her surroundings (as Facebook wasn't invented yet) the reader can see that she very much alone. The overall theme of this story seems to be lonely-ness as Miss Brill is scoffed at by the young lovers. For pete's sake the women doesn't talk to anyone but her fur, which was the very thing that the young girl made fun of her for.
Oh Miss Brill, you deserve to be that actress, as the author makes me feel bad for you. How can you live your life Sunday to Sunday without any company? What's really sad is that you don't see this lonely-ness, but rather you pack your mink in a box and weep to yourself. Please hook up with Eveline (seen in another short story) and LIVE HAPPIER LIVES.

Can she go the distance?

Quite honestly throughout this story I was just waiting for little crazy granny to fall in a ditch and pass out (which I guess she kind of does). She's just a random character that steals money from other people, talks to her self (and all of her woodland creature friends) and makes up grandchildren. This path that she's walking is over worn. She's just a wee bit crazy and she walks this long journey for no reason at all. The grandchild that she walks for is dead (or not with her anymore). She just doesn't seem to have that mental capacity to be housing a child, and I mean that in the nicest way. This doesn't make her a terrible person, but when she's telling the thorn bush off for snaring her, or when she tells the gators to blow their bubbles, one can easily assume that there is some crazy going on.

Dear Frank, ... so this is awkward Love Eveline

This short story is one to play with the readers emotions. Throughout the storyline the slightly abused, overworked Eveline spills her life story. With this confession the reader builds all sorts of sympathy for Eveline, and I honestly felt worst by the end of the story. She just was such a textbook case of a person in a abusive relationship. She can't leave her father even though her living conditions are anything but stellar. Margret bought up a great point in our "small" group (although I don't think half of the class constitutes as a small group) that Eveline was using Frank as a means of an escape. I think she did love him, just not in a marrying sense. She loved the way she made him feel and the escape he provided. But in the end she just couldn't take that leap of fate. She was stuck in her life, and no amount of love from Frank would get her body and soul out of that relationship with her father (or dead mother). Enjoy dusting Eveline, because you're going to be there a long time.

Hunters vs. Gathers

In two of these stories we have a hunter (Tub) and a Gather (Dee). Now as many people know in prehistoric times (and for a while after) men where given the job of hunting and women the job of gathering. In both stories though this instinctual trait is the down fall of the character. Tub is constantly hunting for food and tries to hide it as well. He can't stop eating and it doesn't seem in his character that he will ever stop. Dee is similar in that she tries to gather what she wants in life. By taking control of her sister and mother and always taking the good things for herself, she creates a terrible relationship with them. This hurts her later as her mother stops her from gathering the quilts from Maggie. So perhaps instead of genders be separated by job, the should share? If Tub stopped eating or Dee stopped taking these characters would of had a happier ending.

This story is full of dead letters

The office in this story sounds awesome, the boss does not care about his employees habits, everyone gets a cool nickname and if one is really lucky they can sleep at the office with a blank wall to look at! Starting with the initial employees it seems to me that the narrator doesn't rally keep them for their production value, rather he's fascinated by their human nature not to work (or how they work). I think this fascination trickles into the relationship between the narrator and Bartleby. For example he can't fire the man even though he never does anything! He even goes as far as to invite the man to live at his house, and I don't think this was out of concern for Bartleby but rather it was the Narrator's unwilling-ness to stop watching him.
Batleby also is interesting and reminds me of a couple of people I know with depression (when they're at their worst stages). Perhaps he should of stayed with the dead letters after he got fired. Maybe then e would of moved on instead of feeling so rejected.

Dee Dee Get out of my laboratory!

Let's take a moment to focus on Dee shall we (as if you have any choice in the mater). Dee leaves for college, glad that their house is burned down so she doesn't have to live in it (at the expense of her sister), claiming that her family's life was not good enough for her. Then she comes back in this LOUD dress trying to claim that hertiage that she had sworn off. She even went as far as trying to take the quilts she had sworn away a few years ago. Dee is a flat and annoying character, and is also a foil to Maggie in every way. While Dee is loud persistent and always gets what she wants, Maggie hides and goes with the flow. The reader takes a certain appeal to Maggie as Dee (or that weird 2nd name she took) flaunts herself around and tries to get what she wants. Maggie was hurt in many ways by Dee and I was so glad her mother gave her the quilts instead of Dee. The mother also takes another step out of her character as she tells Dee no to the quilts, something that I think would become a regular thing if the mom was a real person. Once the mother starts to stop Dee, Dee is left without a leg to stand on.

Perhaps Hunting wasn't such a great idea

This story s filled with situational irony. First off when Tub shot Kenny at the beginning I was in full support of Tub, and actually angry at Frank who was just going on and on about how Tub had "really done it this time". First off Kenny had threatened Tub and 2nd Kenny had been mean to Tub the whole time calling him fat and whiny. The situational irony did get me though as it turns out that Kenny was suppose to shoot the dog. Then by the end of the story I felt kind of bad as Tub and Frank are having a little heart to heart and Kenny is slowing getting worse from a gun shot wound. What I don't understand is that Tub tells Frank that he will be a good friend through and through, but her leaves Kenny in the back with a gun shot wound. I mean what the heck? I felt sorry for Tub up until that point due to all of the teasing he got, but that action really showed his true character. Nect tim TUb should just stay in the bathroom and eat his Oreos.

I Made it Thorugh the Wilderness- these last 3 stories

Due to the fact that we have to write a 4th blog post when we only have 3 stories to read I decided to wrtie about the sexual content in all of these stories (and their purpose). Although English class actually has a lot of dirty material (cough Sidartha cough) these stories still took me back. In "How I Met My Husband" Edie's entire life is changed by a few steamy moments in a tent. If it weren't for that scene of the story, Edie would of never met her husband. In "Interpreter of Maladies" it is the love life of Mrs. Dias that causes the climax in the story, and the strange love life of Kapasi that causes chracter devolpment. Finally in "A Rose for Emily" the final scene in the bedroom, the sexual connotations just makes Emily creepy. Case Closed

Um how do you say "my son is being beaten by a monkey with a stick" in Indian?

One random note before this blog runs like the wind I would like to point out page 151 when Mr. Kapasi notices that one of the boys "was slightly paler than the other children" (when he's shifting gears in the car), I didn't catch this little line the first time through but I found it very amusing. Okay so this entire story is centered on the lonely Mr. Kapasi, who is so starved fro love that he lusts after Mrs. Dias, who really just gives him an hour of her life where she would of been bored anyways. I mean I've spent many small-talk converstations asking quesstions just so that there isn't any awkward pauses. I honestly just felt sad for Kapasi throughout this story, and am almost glad Mrs. Dias loses his address just so he can move on with his life.

How I Meet Your Mother...erm Husband

First and foremost, if you are not aware of the tv show "How I Meet Your Mother" I would strongly suggest it as it is my favorite show. The twisted ending on this story (caused by the situational irony that caused the reader to think that Edie was going to marry Chris) seems to be the central technique used in this story. This story is full of quirky characters from Mrs. Bird (who was not invited to dinner) to Alice the fiance (who was not invited to the wedding). Alice really served as a catalyst for the Chris and Edie relationship. She causes him to run away by plane and to have "intimate" relations with girls in tents. I doubt Chris would of continued his advances on Edie if he hadn't of felt so pressured by Alice. But one doesn't know about Alice or the tent party until it happens (more situational irony). Clever I must say. The one part of the story that really tickles me pink is the point when Edie is caught with the dress on, how she just progresses from trying the dress on to drinking ginger ale in the kitchen.

Because every rose has it's thorn- A Rose for Emily

This story's beginning mirrored Metamorphosis (and I'm sure all of my classmates want to revisit that wonderful story.) Similar to Gregor's story, this short story begins with Emily dying. It isn't really a big deal, in fact her town can't wait to stick their noses into Emily's stuff. She's just dead, it says that she's sick but that's the deepest this story goes in explaining her death. Also this story is told in parts with each different section going in chronological order with the exception of the first one about her death. The questions at the end of this story suggest a surprise ending, but my fellow readers the ending wasn't a surprise at all. The women locks herself in her house after her father dies, showing a distressed mental status. Then there's a random terrible smell, and Emily buys poison, then to top off the cake Homer goes missing. HELLO she killed him, end of story. Even the fact that the body was creepily visited by Emily wasn't a surprise. Emily was messed up and no amount of lime would erase that.