Paper Pills Discussion

In "Paper Pills" Doctor Reefy gets married to a dark-skinned women that dies and leaves him with a huge fortune. I believe that the woman is George Willard's mother Elizabeth Willard. The reason that Doctor Reefy's wife is Elizabeth Willard is because Doctor Reefy's wife had a hidden fortune that she left Doctor Reefy, and Elizabeth Willard had fortune left by her parents. Doctor Reefy's wife's apparent wealth is seen in the quote, " Later he married a girl who had . She had been left a large fertile farm when her father died." (Anderson 18) Elizabeth revealed the location of her massive hidden wealth to Doctor Reefy before her death. So, the wealth left behind makes it likely that Elizabeth Willard and the dark-skinned wife of Doctor Reefy are the same people. Both Elizabeth Willard and Doctor Reefy's wife visited the doctor when they were ill. Also, both Elizabeth Willard and Doctor Reefys wife died due to illness, thus further increasing the probability that they were the same person. Futhermore, Elizabeth Willard and Doctor Reefy were lovers as seen in the quote, " Be patient, lover." ( Anderson 232) Elizabeth Willard told Doctor Reefy to " Be patient, lover," which further proves that Elizabeth and Doctor Reefy's wife are the same person, because they were both in love with him and both were ill towards the end of their lives.

In "Paper Pills" apples are often mentioned throughout the short story. I believe that the apples symbolize tragedy. The apples " Are only a few gnarled apples that the pickers have rejected."(Anderson 19) The apples talked about in "Paper Pills" are the ones that get ignored, because of their appearance. These apples are rejected and thought of as waste, so whenever apples are mentioned in "Paper Pills" they represent negative connotations, thus symbolizing tragedy. The apples in "Paper Pills" "Look like the knuckles of Doctor Reefy's hands." ( Anderson 18) Doctor Reefy's hands look like the apples that people reject, symbolizing tragedy. The doctor is usually alone as loses his wife to illness, thus Doctor Reefy's life clearly shows tragedy. So, Doctor Reefy's knuckles are described as the apples, which shows that he has experienced much tragedy in his life. In " Paper Pills" the narrator mentions that " Only the few knew the sweetness of the twisted apples." ( Anderson 20) The narrator was saying that most people do not like tragedies. Most people would rather avoid seeing a tragedy just like most people would rather avoid eating twisted apples. Thus, the fact that most people would avoid the twisted apples, helps show that the apples symbolize tragedy in " Paper Pills".

 

Hairball and Where are you going? Where have you been?

Throughout Margaret Atwood's short story Hairball, the significance of power and the results that come with a lack of power are clearly seen throughout the passage. In Margaret Atwood 's short story Hairball, Kat orignally had much power over people. Kat was able to cause Gerald to change into a different person according to her desires. Also, Kat has an upper level postion in a newspaper and is in charge of many people. She manipulated Gerald into buying her expensive dinners so that she would not have to pay, and she got to decided what Gerald's name should be for him. Kat called him gerald. Essentially Kat got almost everything she had wanted. Yet, there are instances where Kat does not have much power. When Kat had gotten pregant multiple times, the men decided for her that she should get an abortion. This had caused Kat to be without children and has caused an absense in her life. When Gerald suddenly got much power, he took Kat's job away from her and she still let him kiss her. Kat lost her livelyhood and lost her affection for Gerald, because of the absense of her power or the lack of power. Atwood was trying to show how having power and control over people lets one have almost everything one desires, but when a person does not have power they will lose control over there life. When Kat regained some of her power, she gave her hairball cist to Gerald in front of his wife. She had even put it into a chocolate box. This let Kat to regain some control over her life and let her be freed of Gerald's influence. As a result, Kat felt relieved, relaxed, and content.
Throughout Joyce Carol Oates's short story Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? the significance of power and the results that come with a lack of power are clearly seen throughout the passafe. In Joyce Carol Oate's short story Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?, Connie did not have much power and suffered as a result of the absense of power. Connie had no power over her mother, so her mother kept on insulting Connie with her friends, both behind Connie's back, and right in front of Connie. This led Connie to dislike her family and not want to spend much time with them. In Where Are you Going? Where Have You Been?, Connie's lack of power led Arnold to take control of her actions and get her to do what he had wanted her to do. Arnold told Connie to drop the phone and get back outside, but even though Connie had closed the door and had a phone in her hand she still dropped the phone. Connie had a clear  opportunity to get some help for herself, but Arnold had power over her. This had caused Connie to lose her chance to save herself from Arnold. Later in the passage, Arnold told Connie to step outside and get in his car and she did. This had caused Connie never to see her family again. Joyce Carol Oate's tried to show her audience the dangers of not having enough power over others and yourself.

 

Teenage Wasteland discussion

In the Anne Tyler's short story Teenage Wasteland Donny gets kicked out of his high school and runs away from home. Some people think that it is his mother Daisy's fault that her son Donny gets kicked out of his school and runs away from their home.  I personally do not think that Daisy is entirely to blame for Donny's bad behavior; I think that its a combination of Daisy, Donny, and Cal's faults that contributed to Donny's reckless actions. Daisy is partly at fault because she tried to help change Donny a little too late. Donny was already doing very poorly at school with low grades when his mother Daisy tried to help him. Also, when the teacher called Daisy to tell her that Donny was doing poorly, Daisy did nothing and pinned her hopes on Cal to change Donny, which did not have the desired effect that she had hoped for. But Daisy did try to change her son's bad behavior and even succedded in improving his grades quite a bit and got him counceling to help with his mental well being. Cal is also partly at fault for his encouragment Donny's bad behavior. Cal let Donny do whatever he wanted to do, which resulted in Donny's grades dropping and his susequent expulsion from school. While Donny's grades were getting worse, Cal told Daisy to let him talk to the teachers and Cal let Donny start failing his classes. This led Donny to worse and worse behavior that eventually led him to be expelled from school. But Cal did try to raise Donny's self esteem and Donny did have alot of fun with Cal, which resulted in Donny's self esteem going up. As a result, it was not entirely Cal's fault that Donny behaved so poorly. Donny was also to blame for his own bad behavior including: drinking, skipping school, getting bad grades, getting kicked out of his high school, and his running away from his home. He took advantage of the fact that Cal did not care about what Donny does at school so he started skipping classes, getting bad grades, and drinking alcohol. These bad behaviors led to his subsequent expulsion and his running away from home. In Anne Tyler's short story Teenage Wasteland Donny did not even leave a note or anything before he left, and has caused his mother Daisy much grief. Donny is the one most at fault for his own behavior, even though Cal and Daisy helped contribute to Donny's problems, but it is Donny who is in control of his own actions. Although Donny was inproving at the begining of teenage wasteland, Donny's poor choices led him away from the path his mother Daisy had wanted for him, and Daisy persumbly never saw Donny again after his decision to run away from home.

 

Mrs.Clinch my group won the competition during the literary allusion, so I will only be writing four hundred words.
Some people may think that Winesburg Ohio is a collection of short stories, but I do not agree with that statement. I think that the stories of Winesburg Ohio are connected to one another and make up one big story. The stories of the minister Curtis Hartman's chapter Strength of God, the teacher Kate Swift's chapter, and George Willard's chapter are all connected to one another. The minister Curtis Hartman succumbs to his sinful desires of the school teacher Kate Swift and tells George Willard about Kate's holiness. This occurs after George Willard's talk with Kate and made him really confused. This shows that the stories are connected, because the minister had his own problems in the Strength of God chapter and George Williard had his own issues with Kate in a different chapter, yet both Curtis and George were affected by the same women during the same time period. Although some may think of Winesburg Ohio as a collection of short stories, the stories are infact connected together, as seen during the minster Curtis Hartman's talk with George Willard about the teacher Kate Swift's holiness, because the stories were occuring during the same time. George Willard's chapters and Doctor Reefy's chapters are connected to each other as well. The doctor had his own chapter that affected him and he explained some of the effects of those experiences to a George Willard in a different chapter. The doctor lost his imaginary friends after he told a women he loved to leave in one chapter, but told George Willard about the experience in a different chapter. Doctor Reefy's stories to George Willard  are significant, because they help prove that the stories in Winesburg Ohio are not just short stories, but part of one big whole story. I think the author of Winesburg Ohio intentially made the different chapters focus on the lives of different people from chapter to chapter so that the reader can make up their own thoughts as to whether Winesburg Ohio is one big and connected plot or a series of short stories. Both sides can be argued fairly, but by making it hard to tell if the Winesburg Ohio is one big sotry or not, it makes the reader think.