The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

The lottery focused on a variety of themes including the dark side of human nature, the subjugation of woman, the danger of ritualized behavior, and the potential for cruelty when the individual submits to the tyranny of their congregation. The story is about a satanic event that people from a small village annually offered. The game consisted in families draw slips of paper from a ballot box until housewife Tessie Hutchinson receives a slip with a black mark on it. She was stoned to death by members of her village despite her protest about the unfairness of the drawing as the ritual dictates. The setting of the story is in an apparently civilized and peaceful society. Horrifying acts of violence can take place anywhere and they can be committed by the most ordinary people. The author suggested the psychology behind mass cruelty by a community whose citizens refuse to stand as individuals.

The Storm by Kate Chopin

The storm is a story that describe how human regardless of sex can be drive by their passion and eroticism. Calixta committed adultery with Alcee while her husband Bobinot and her son Bibi where shopping at Friedheirmer’s store and they get stop by the storm. This act of infidelity between Calixta and Alcee occurs during the storm that symbolize the catalyst of the literally piece. Also, there is a relation between human behavior and nature. The author meticulously uses the female character to illustrate the chauvinism of the epoch. This story was written during the Hispanic-American war. The author wanted to show that women like men are drive by their emotions and motivations. She is expressing the opposite side of the stereotypes: that males are allowed to commit adultery without being judge while adultery women are terrible censured. The storm is an indispensable element is this act of infidelity. The storm gives Calixta and Alcee the opportunity to mate while Bobinot and his son Bibi were wating for the storm to stop to get back home. When, the storm stopped they went back home and Calixta was waiting happily ever after as if nothing happened. Calixta never feel remorse or regret for her actions. She continued her life normal as men do while their cheating. This piece of literature was censured when it was publish because the author describe scene so detailed that was actually pornography for people of that period of time.

On Sharing a Husband By Ho Xuan Hu'o'ng

The author of this poem is actually the second wife or concubine of a governor of a province of Vietnam. In this poem, she expressed the miseries of being a second wife. She has to share sex and love with another woman. She was basically his maid, he come to have a good time a leave. She was relegated to be attached to him without a right to have a life for her. She was submitted to his mercy and his desire. She wanted a normal life, but at the same time she was a need to feel love. She used as object in which he satisfied his desire regardless of her feelings. Being a second wife have the disadvantage that you get what other people does not want. She in this case take a position of dishonor because all privilege and honor was for his wife. I believe that he only want her as a lover, but he did not show respect to her. Cultural differences make me think this way may be in Vietnam this is a normal things. Feelings are universal and no matter how the cultures dictates moral and values. Woman must get our place and show respect for ourself because no one would respect us, if we do not do it first. Even if we love somebody, we do not have to put our dignity over what we feel. Sharing a pattern always would have a negative connotation. At the end, everyone would suffer.

How to watch a brother die by Michael Lassell

This poem develops the topic of homosexually and the factors are associated with it. In this case, the author is implies that he has not good relation with his brother because he is homosexual. The author suffered from homophobia to a point that he avoid his brother just because he choose a different path for his life. Michael have a standard family with wife a kids while his brother has a lover that is taking care of him in the hospital. My question is: It is not that love? rewardless of standards in society. He realized that he must go where his brother is dying to spend last days of his brother’s life. The author stayed at his brother side wating to be forgiven. When he knew his brother's lover, he understood that love not only is part of opposite sex relation, but can be expressed by people of the same sex. People should love other for what they are, not for what we want them to be. The author should never have destroy the feelings between them. It is ignorance not allowed or accepted people that have sexual preferences with people of their same sex.

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

On the other hand, Flannery O’Connor wrote a short story related to the fundaments of the Christian faith. She explain how good and evil are present throughout the human soul. She used two main characters that symbolized the two aspect of the human behavior the good and the bad. She implies that the judge in Christianity contribute to evils, since salvation is possible, punishment is no longer a restraint, but is accepted as a consequences for action. The grandmother represents the old Christian faith. She talks about in moral values and how the world have turned trouble place hard to live. The Misfit played a role of offender confessing his sin to his minister. O’Connor expressed the reality that must people profess his faith during difficult times. The author suggested that the differences between good and evil can only be reached at the end of life in Christianity.

The Tell-Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart is a short story written in first person narrative. The main character of this story is the narrator who suffers from paranoiac hallucinations caused by the guilty from the murdering of an old man. The story begins when the narrator who is taking care of an old man feel irrational fear of the weird clouded eye. He gets so annoyed by the eye of that man that he decided to kill the old man. The narrator was so meticulous about murdering his victim that took eight nights to find the perfect moment to strike. He spent one hour every night just to open the door of the old man’s room. The old man walked up because of the sound of the narrator watches, so he decided to kill the old man in his own mattress. The narrator cut the body in pieces and hidden them under the floorboards. He cleaned the crime scene to cover any evidence while a neighbor who heard noise called the police. The narrator was confident about the fact that the police will not find any evidence until he began to ear the sound of heartbeat. He gets so paranoid because of the constant beating of the heart that he losses control and plead guilty of the crime. He showed the police the body hidden under the floorboards. Edgar Allan Poe is this story play with human mental process, consciousness, remorse feelings and obsessive behavior of the main character the killer. The author is more concerned with what is going on in one people mind.

Homage to my hips by Lucille Clifton

Lucille Clifton in this poem express that her hips are an important part of her body. She is proud of her hips and she uses it as a tool to enchanted men figures. She is so confident to the way her hips are form that she is writing a poem as homage to it. She is describing her hips as if they were not part of her body. She is adopting an observer point of view to describe her hips. She said that her hips need space; they cannot fit in little space. She admires how her hips are structures, so feel really good about it.

Notes from the Delivery Room by Linda Pastan

The author of this poem is describing the effort that she is making to give birth. She implies that the process of giving birth should be like plants. They just have their crops without pain she explaining how painful it is to bring a life to this world. The pain that she feel was so deep that she even aware of where she was giving birth. Giving birth have ambiguous connotation in one hand you are bring to life a creature that was conceive by love. At the same time, the pain so horrible that does not have simile. Women have to make an extraordinary effort of labor to bring a child into this world. On the other hand, women that are medicated at the moment of labor do not experience the same pain level.

Rapture by Galway Kinnell

In this poem, the author is admiring his pattern beauty. He mentioned her sweetness and virginal appearance. He feel a deep love that unable him to describe her. He does not have word to express how beautiful she is. He gives us clues that the poem is about them making love. In his eyes, she is an angel that has coming to earth to save him. He describes every part of her body. When, you read this poem you get the idea that this lady is very sensual and she have turned him crazy with her enhancement. She is really charm that he is totally in love with her.

The House of Asterion

In this story, Jorge Luis Borges expressed his point of view about the legend of the Cretan Minotaur. He wrote the House of Asterion as a monogue in which Asterion is the main character. Asterion is in Greek mythology the Bull of Minos. When Minos became king, he asked Poseidon for a sign. Poseidon sends him a white bull, but the condition was that when he got the bull; he will kill it as a gift to the Gods. Minos disobey Poseidon’s condition because he though that the bull was so beautiful to be dead. Minos, the king of Crete sacrifices other bull instead. Poseidon out of spite caused that Pasiphae, Minos’ wife fell in love with the bull. They have intimate relationship from that union and Asterion is born half man and half beast. Consequently, Minos constructs a labyrinth in which he can hold the beast. At the end of the story, Borges tells us clues that Asterion is the Cretan Bull who was defeated by Theseus. In the last sentence, “Would you believe it, Ariadne?” said Theseus.” The Minotaur scarcely defended himself.” Theseus was one of the seven men destine to died in the labyrinth of Asterion. On the contrary, Theseus kills the bull of Minos because Ariadne, the daughter of Pasiphae and Minos king of Crete, give him the power of the sword to protect Theseus from the beast. She was in love with him; she actually was Asterion sister.Thesus represent the weapon and the justice that stopped the abuse to the commoners was summit by the king Minos who is the intellectual author of the sacrifices.

Tone of Voice by Charles Harper Webb

The tone of voice that we used when we speak gives a different connotation to the conversation. The attitude implied by the way statements are said. Word choice and syntax can give member understanding of what the speaker is saying. We can used as many tones as our vocal apparatus can express such as criticism, irony, affection, respect, intimidation, affection an so many others. Conversation to be effective most carried a specific tone of voice. According to the message that we are trying to communicate placed an attitude to emphasize what we are saying. To make a clear understanding; we implements method that will enforced the meaning of our conversation. The author is basically supporting the idea that when we speak we used specific tone to make sure that our listeners get the idea of what we want to communicate.

My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

This poem is based on the suspicious death of the young wife of Alfonso II Duke of Ferrara in sixteenth century Italy. The Duke is to talking to his future father in law about the portrait of his ex-wife. He was arranging his future wedding, but at the same time he was warning his future wife by telling her and her family the story of her ex-wife. He is advising her that she must take a good posture according to what he wants her to be. He said that his wife was always smiling to everyone. He was a jealous and sarcastic. For that reason, he does not want her to smile at everyone. He interprets her smile as flirting. Duke might kill his wife because there is not other explanation to that premature death. The author of this poem implies that the Duke of Ferrara might be involved in his ex-wife death.

Go look by Christopher Graybill

Kath and Danny were in the forest; they hear a noise. They do not know what is making that noise they belief that that noise comes from a bear, or some kind of animal. The point of this ten minutes play is beyond the source of the noise. The author wants to let us know about social issues which are female and male roles and stereotypes. For example, males are capable of fighting beast because they are strong while women are fragile according to stereotypes. Kath and Danny are voices in this problematic and they are give us a message that we women and men are the same we both have strengths and weakness. The author used a simple vocabulary and funny tone because he wants to assure that we all get the message. Women are not the only feeling fear men will feel it too. Women are capable of having bad feeling. For example, Kath said something referring to her mother “she said something. I don’t remember what. Not very nasty, not for her. Something about my shoes. It was nothing, really. But for an instant I felt like letting go. Just letting go and watching gravity work. I imagined chair rolling down the slope, over the edge, and bouncing down the back steps. All the way to the garage. And when the police and ambulance would come, I’d be crying and sobbing and explaining. But inside I’d be dancing.” Feeling and thoughts are universal; people can experience them beside their sex.

A & P by John Uplike

This story talks about morale view from different perspective. In this story, Mr. Lengel a boss in A & P supermarket and Sammy a cashier. They represented different point of views according to their generations. Each generation established their own rules and values that may be are right for them, but not necessarily be right for others' generation. What is wrong for our parents today may be is right for us? What was right for our parents may not be right for our grandparents? In the way, we judge people has to do with the way in which we were raised and values that we learn along our life. Sammy shocked when his boss lectured the three girls in swimming suit at the store. He thinks that Mr. Lengel was wrong in the way he approach the girls. The boss must talk to the three girls at the moment they come into the store not when they were about to pay the snacks. From Sammy’s point of view, there is nothing wrong to enter the store wearing a swimming suit because it was just in and out. Mr. Lengel position was overreacting because the girls explain to him why they were dressed like that. Even though, he was right about the store policy; he should consider and take the time to hear the explanation. Sammy was mad at his boss’s reaction, but he knows that he cannot surpass his boss authority by contradicting what Mr. Lengel was saying. Sammy’s quit his job as a way of protest. He though that by him quitting will change the course of his life and give his boss a lesson. We have to obeyed rules and policies, but we has to make exception based on the event we are experience. What we want to avoid is made an unfair decision.

Lying in Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota by James Wright

Lying in Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota by James Wright
In this poem, what I see is a person defines a self in relation to natural world. He is lying in a hammock in a farm; he is comparing nature to his life. He is not satisfied with his accomplishment in life; he could do more than what he has done. He is definitely someone who has wonderful of experience. As he is getting older, he feels lost because the meaning of it live has change. He is evaluating his life from a neutral point where he can observe to opposite side: one represents his past and the other stand for his present and future. He mentioned the horses which are strong animal and active. He said “The droppings of last year’s horses blaze up into golden stones” which means that he active life and full of excitement has left behind as great memories from the past. In the other hand, he referred to cows that follow the same path over and over. This is an image of passive behavior that he takes in his present. He must find interesting projects according with this stage of it life to avoiding negative feeling. Every stage in live comes with special features and he must be used to it. Never past time should be better than the present, even if, it bring good memories. He must value the present and plan new goal to accomplish.

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

In this reading the author is expressing his point of view in the evolution of human being and society. Evolution is a beautiful process that makes everyday life exciting, but comes along with negative features. What makes evolution a reality is actually human dreams and desires. Nothing of what we have today would be possible without the intention and pursue of our antecessors. Unfortunately, those dreams become ambitions and those ambitions become devils that can be stoped. People forget their beginnings in which their predecessors live in communities and share goods. Now, as society growth people who have reached a high economic standard of live. Most of the times, they refuse to extend a hand to those in worth condition. Within the same city, different social classes have aroused; they built their house separate from each others. They do not want to step in other people shoes; they avoid the reality. Evolution has transformed the way we used to think and act. People who reach the climb of the mountain loss the ability of put their feet in earth. People sometimes cannot see more than what their eyes want it to see. People ambitions has taken their soul.