I Am the Grass Extra Credit

1. Since Dinh’s thumb did not take I am sure he feels a sense of loss as he lost another part of his body, but he wanted to risk it as he trusted the physician.  If I was to rewrite the ending from Dinh’s point of view I would have Dinh meet with the narrator at the flight to see if another procedure can be arranged in the states.  I would have the narrator promise Dinh that they keep in touch and get the surgery going with more resource.  I believe this ending will have meaning of closure for both past soldiers of war.

Roselily extra credit

1. Creative response paragraph: He looks at his bride and sees the distant look in her face as though she was not hearing the words being said to them.  At this time he thought about the responsibilities that he has to face with three kids, and how his life will change from responsibilities of a job to a full time provider for four additional people.  He thought about doing the right thing, and keeping his promise to her and changing her life for the better.

Chopin

By contrasting images of life with those of death throughout “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin highlights the struggle of a person imprisoned by societal pressures and thereby kept from fully being alive.  The author made us aware of life and death as Mrs. Mallard sat in the room alone after hearing her husband’s death alive in her senses “seeing the open square”, “new spring life”, hearing distant song notes reaching her faintly, “patches of blue sky” creeping out of the sky.  Then the author highlighted the struggle of transforming from Mrs. Mallard to Louise when she said she is “free” with the “look of terror followed it” but her “pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” allowing herself to make peace with her conflict and live her life.  Furthermore, Chopin also referred to the marriage as “bitter moment”, and there “would be no powerful will bending hers” referring to the imprisonment of marriage due to societal pressure that kept her from fully being alive.           

SSRJ #2 Colette

Initial personal reaction:

I initially thought that the young woman married a man that may have murdered his wife.  The hand was physically described as big as her face, squeezed the sheet like a strangler, plus the fact that he was recently widowed, and the reference to the knife and slicing the bread at the end.  Then thought my imagination was running too wild since it’s really late at night when I read this story.

Literary Element/Thematic Analysis:

Colette’s use of symbols of realization of time and change in “The Hand” reminds us to not rush into the unknown without fully assessing the situation.  The “hand” represented the hands of time with its changing features that the wife did not notice what she got herself into until she really gave it a closer look as reality setting in.  The story started with the “hand emerging” “far away” meant to me that the young bride could not wait to grow up like most young people do.  It has only been a month since the young blond man was widowed then went off to marry an adolescent girl solidifies the fact that young people do not allow themselves time to think before rushing into another situation.  The young woman lavished the newness of her situation in the “half-lit room” until she “looked at the hand lying there next to her” meaning she has this moment to think since time has finally crept up with her.  She also wanted to turn the “light” off as she may not have been ready to really look into her situation but had to.  The closer look with the light on allowed her to see details that was symbolized by the nail “whose ridges the nail buffer hand not smoothed out, gleamed, coated with pink varnish” since we do not see the real situation when emotions clouds our thinking.  Reality sets in when the “sound of a passing car pierced the silence with a shrillness that seemed luminous” with the hand in its full ugly description.  At this time, there was no turning back the hands of time as reality had finally set it.

Questions:

Since reality/consequences eventually sets in, should parents go overboard in sheltering teens from what they know will be a potential bad situation or allow them to make mistakes to learn from?