"I Stand Here Ironing"

"I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen

This story took a while for me to get the principle or the main idea that the author was trying to express. What I got out of the story was the struggles of being a young mother and the competitiveness that siblings go through. With the mother, being that she was young, I felt that maybe she thinks she didn't raise her children right. She was having the same kinds of struggles and emotions that many single mothers have. Financial and mental difficulties plays a part on the limits that are set for a mother to raise her children properly. I noticed at the beginning of the story how the mother was saying how the baby was so beautiful and she was full of happiness. Then later on the mother had to send her baby to live with it's father's family and that caused a changed between the mother-daughter relationship. I believe that it's a crucial thing that a mother and her baby have a strong bond because it can cause setbacks between them in the future. At times while I was reading, I got confused about the ages of the daughters and at the end, I didn't really know which daughter she was refering to. In the middle part of the story, the mother was talking about how her daugher Emily had to go away to this place where they would look after her.

The mother described Emily as having low self-esteem and always downing herself and how she looked. But underneath all of that darkness lies a child who had a sense of humor and was able to make people laugh. Susan,who was the younger daughter, was the daughter who seemed to have everything going for her. When the mother started talking about how Susan had a gift and she won an award for it, I was wondering what the gift was? That confused me all the way until the last paragraph when the mother looked about on all the struggles she went through with her daughter, but I didn't know which she was talking about. The mother referred to the daughter as "she" not "Emily" or "Susan".Hmm...

"Sonny Blues"

"Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin

In the beginning of the story, I kept wondering about what he was reading in the newspaper and what it was about. Why does he feel like he should convince himself that what he was reading wasn't true. Then I was trying to figure out what he mean't by "being trapped in the darkness which roared outside"? I liked how Baldwin personified "darknes" as something that roars. As read on in the paragraphs I was shocked to find out that the algebra teacher who was reading the paper was Sonny's older brother. When I was reading the part about how he compared his brother and himself to the students at his school and how throughtout all the negative noise and cursing in th hallways, he found one student's calming whistle to drown out all the noise. The older brother talked about how limited his students where and that they are only exposed to darkness. I agree with him. Sometimes in low class neighborhoods, people are disadvantaged and aren't as exposed to as many things as they should be. This brought me back to the story as it went on talking about how Sonny reunites with his brother and his older brother is hoping that Sonny won't go back to doing drugs on the street. In families, members do feel like they have a responsibility to look out for loved ones who are in need of help. I also noticed how the older brother didn't really support Sonny's decision to become a Jazz musician. Towards the end of the story, I had a feeling that Sonny was going to die, but I was glad to find out that he had his own little family at the Village Jazz club and he was rocking that club with his piano performance.

"Rappacini's Daughter"

"Rappacini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne











Okay, I'm not going to lie...this story REALLY confused me at first.

The language and the whole tone of the story was difficult, but that's suppose to make you grow, right?

This story made me think about how father's are so protective of their daughters. It was also interesting how you could compare this story in some way to Adam and Eve in the Bible. At first I thought Rappaccini didn't want his daughter to be with anyone else. Like he wanted her all to himself. This makes me think about the "father-daughter" relationship. Sometimes I think a father may have sense of "jealousy" towards any man wanting to be with his special "flower".

I feel that a father may feel threatened by that fact that his daughter could love another man, other than himself. But the fascinating part about a father's jealousy is that it can be changed if he feels comfortable about who his daughter is going to be with.

Haunted Houses: "Bone Black"

"Bone Black" by Bell Hooks

At the beginning of the story Hooks tells the story of a controlling father. "They", I pressume, are referred to the children of the mother and father who are fighting. The first sentence says that " they have never heard their [parents]...fighting" That made me wonder if whether or not their parents where keeping that part of their relationship hidden from their kids? or Whether this was realy the very first time the parents had a fight. Then Hooks shifts the attention from the children,"they",to the daughter,"she". I was confused when I first read this section. At first I thought the "she" was referring to the mother when come to find out it was the daughter.

As I read on, It seemed that the "she" shifted from the daughter to the mother of "they". I noticed how the father seems to constantly feel angry. He comes home angry and displaces his anger on those in the family because he is hurt. He probably has alot on his shoulders and doesn't know how to cope with it. He likes to feel that he is the "Alpha-male" and it makes him feel powerful.The daughter seems to feel the mother's pain and wants to help her. The daughter, who becomes "I" as the pov shifts, can't bear to go visit her mother in the hospital, and is feeling betrayed by her siblings.

In the second part of the story, I found it interesting that the daughter felt like she should "rescue" her mother from her father's threats. I've learned that sometimes in most dysfunctional families, the children end up taking over the roles of the parents. They feel like it's "their" duty to make sure the family stays together and that the younger siblings are taken care of, robbing childhoods of the older siblings. Another part of the story that interested me was when the father was kicking the mother out of the house. The mother had some hope that her brother was going to be there and rescue her relationship and everything was going to be okay. Come to find out her brother wasn't much help at all. This reminds of how females are when it comes to their men. We can always rely on our fathers, brothers, or uncles to come support and back us up if we ever have problems with our relationship( especially if it's physical). The end of the story was in favor of the husband. The daughter is upset and angry that her mother is still under her dad's authority. One day she rebels against her mother and disclaims her. The daughter feels guilty for the pain she caused her mother and is willing to be punished because of it. I believe that alot of families have these secrets that they keep and feel like they need to hold their tongue so the family won't be looked down upon.

What 2 Do for Essay 1?

Hmm... I think that I will talk about the concepts of religion in the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find." I think that I will be able to reveal some ideas about how we as humans "claim" to have faith but aren't true believers.

The grandmother throughout the story had seemed to be a true Christian and believer of God, all though she wasn't necessarily acting christian-like. When she was but in a life threatning situation, she found that calling on Jesus wasn't going to help her and started to doubt her faith.

A Good Man, Is Hard to Find

A Good Man, Is Hard to Find

by: Flannery O'Connor

This story was very interesting. Alot of things puzzled me at the beginning, like the relationships between the family members. Why did the narrator refer to the Bailey's wife as," the children's mother", like there was no relation between them. I noticed how June and John are very disrespectful to each other and their parents. The grandmother is lonely, very paranoid, thinks highly of herself, and is very detailed oriented.

The end was very sad to me being that the Misfit killed the family and the grandmother, and she still believed that he had a good heart. Somethings that questioned me was whether the baby was a boy or a girl? What was the significance of the cat and the mother. What made the grandmother think that she was in Tennesee?

Our Hurriend Children

"Our Hurried Children"

by: David Elkind

I do agree with Elkind to some degree. Some parents are rushing their children into adulthood. Kids now days have alot more stress than earlier times because parents expect so much out of their "smart, gifted, and potiential" offspring. It feels at times like there is no room for "failure" or "mistakes"; well that's why erasers are on pencils because people DO make mistakes.

I've personally dealt with the struggle of a parent trying to shove the responsibilities of "adulthood" down my throat. It's no fun; I don't feel confident if I let them down or don't achieve what "they" wanted me to achieve. Everytime I messed up, I would get scorned constantly for it. That's enough stress right there, along with school work and preparing for college. Overall, I understood why my parent was so hard on me, they just wanted me to be extra prepared for the future. Now I can see how getting ready early has helped me now, and I have less stress. The reduction in my stress level has also came about because my parent started letting me have room for mistakes. This helped tremendously with coping with my problems. I believe when it comes to raising your child and preparing them for adulthood, you need to have the right balance.

Here's a research article on the expectations about timing of adulthood: http://www.transad.pop.upenn.edu/downloads/between.pdf