Once Upon A Time

"Once Upon A Time" by Nadine Gordimer


This story was far more interesting than the rest I would say. At the beginning of the story the narrator talks about how she doesn't write fairytales, yet the title of the story is "Once Upon A Time". None of the characters had names to show that it was universal and could be related to anyone. I also discovered that the setting wasn't in America, but in South Africa.

The setting was also in a secluded suburban neighborhood. It was interesting how they try to keep out the african people because of fear of destruction and riot. What also caught my attention the sign the people had outside of the gate. It said you have been warned and the sign didn't have a person showing there race, but the person had a mask on.

It's amazing to see the kinds of extremes people will go to, just to prove that they are not judgemental, critical or immoral.

A & P

"A&P"
By: John Updike
This story was quite interesting to me. At the beginning I couldn't really grasp what was going on. Sammy was an interesting character, and I liked the way he described the girls. He said that the leader of the group was "The Queen" or "Queenie" and the rest of the girls was "the sheep". Another character I thought was interesting was the Chubby girl. Sammy had an odd liking to this girl saying that she had a "good tan, a sweet broad soft looking can.." I got the assumption that he may be into "chunky girls". Another question that was brought to my attention was, how old he was? Alot of things didn't seem to go together through out this story, which made me have to go over and read it twice. I was confused by the Stokesie character. It startled me when he "Oh Daddy" to Sammy. Other than that, I thought that it was very bold of Sammy to quit his job just because of the way his boss talked to the girls. I wonder what made him want to quit? He probably had premeditated about quitting and was just waiting for the right time. I found it strange the connection he had with these girls.

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Where Are you going where have you been:
by: Joyce Carol Oates

I think Connie is very self-centered. I don't think her mother is "jealous" of her, but that I probably irrates her that her daughter doesn't don thinks that are expected of her, ie: cleaning her room, cooking and being financially savvy.Maybe her mother is struggle internally at the fact that she's older and her beauty has faded. I think that Connie's family is dysfunctional; especially being that the "man of the house" isn't really involved with his family. I thought it was interesting how Connie would do things differently once she gets out of the house. I believe that alot of teens, mainly girls, try to get away with wearing certain clothes to gain attention from the opposite sex. The part of the story thatn became most interesting to me was when Arnold Friend came into the picture. He seems to be a random guy that had been stalking Connie. It really freaked me out as I was reading along. I understood what Connie meant when she said that he looked "familiar". Arnold knew how to potray the image of a young highschool teenager with the tight pants and the pullover shirts. It was like he was playing a role and Connie was confused by that. Eventhough she didn't get in the car, I'm sure she was considering it to some point. After reading the story, I started thinking about online predators and pedifiles that look for young naive girls to take advantage of. It's a scary world out there.

1st BLOG

Yea. Its me, Jovi. Just waitn here to see what Clary has in store for us this semester. Looks like it's going to be interesting