"Barn Burning"

"Barn Burning" by William Faulkner is the story of a malevolent man (Abner) and his subjugated family, in particular his young son.  Abner forced his family to move from town to town because of his habit of burning down the barns of people against whom he had a vendetta.  Although he was never exculpated, he was treated with mercy.  He thought he could act out with impunity, but instead he was ostracized by society.  Finally, it is understood that Abner was shot during one of his escapades.  His son, who had been struggling his entire life between trying to pacify his father and preventing him from continuing this sociopathic behavior.  After his father is shot, Sarty is finally free to live without the burden of his father weighing him down.

Although at times it seemed like a herculean task to get through this story, in the end I was thankful to have read it.  At times it was difficult to comprehend the dialect of the characters, but the beauty of the style of his writing more than compensated for this.  I was transfixed by Faulkner's vivid imagery, such as his description of the trial in the grocery store.  I also admired the rhythm of the words in Faulkner's writing, for example "The fear and despair and the old grief of blood."  I could go on and on with a litany of literary elements which Faulkner used, but I'll spare you.  However difficult "Barn Burning" may have been to read, it was well worth the effort.

My kitchen

Hi Mrs. Abrams.  I know that my last few blog posts haven't been very exciting, and I'm sure after reading everyone's comments on the same five short stories, you're probably in the mood for a change.  So, instead of writing another soporific blog post, I decided to write one about the place where I spend most of my time...the kitchen.

First of all, everything in my kitchen is under 100 calories.  My mom buys 100 calorie packs like a fish needs water.  I don't know why.  I'm afraid to ask, mostly because I'm afraid of the answer.  I mean, who wants to hear their parents tell them that they need to lose a couple of pounds?

You should hear the conversation my mom and I have when I ask her to buy regular Cheez-its instead of reduced-fat.  It's like talking to a wall, because she usually ignores my pleading and buys the reduced-fat anyway.  You would think that asking for full-fat Cheez-its would be a lilliputian request, but I think it actually pains my mother to buy the regular version of a product when the low-fat, no-sugar box is right next to it on the shelf.  So when I have a craving for regular Cheez-its, I have to an extremely obsequious daughter, answering to every request and plastering a smile on my face until Saturday morning, when she goes to Shop-Rite and comes home with a box of regular Cheez-its.  

I can understand the whole "having a healthy lifestyle" thing, but I think my mom takes it a little too far.  Everytime I have friends over, no one wants to eat anything because they say it all tastes like either dog food or cardboard.  I guess my taste buds have grown immune to it :)

P.S. - I also have a really cool button on my fridge that instead of saying "water," it says "chilled water."  Some people (cough...jess...cough) find this very amusing.

"How to Become a Writer"

"How to Become a Writer" is a witty short story by Lorrie Moore with a lot of panache.  In it she discusses the journey it takes to become a successful writer.  At the beginning she describes how her mother would disapprove of her writing as a child, and as she grew up her teachers would also criticize her writing for having no plot.  I found it amusing that "How to Become a Writer" also doesn't have a plot, which shows that she didn't stray from the kind of writer she was in high school and college.  Moore was never obsequious; she was always herself around people and she told things how they were.  She describes how she used to write about real-life situations, but with a bold twist.  This story embodies this type of writing as well, which shows that she was resilient toward the negative comments of her peers and teachers and instead of giving in to what others wanted her to do she stayed true to herself.

Moore also discusses how she was never completely confident in her decision to become a professional writer.  She took sinecure jobs throughout her life to pay the bills, and she took a variety of courses in college, but she always came back to writing.  This is because writing always piqued her curiosities about life and helped her to work out any problems she confronted.  In the end, she implies that she is happy with her career choice because she is doing something different everyday.

"Cathedral"

      Although all of the short stories I have read thus far have been wonderful and compelling, I would have to say that I have a strong predilection towards "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver.  I enjoyed the fact that it was such a short and simply-written story, with such a strong message.   I also enjoyed the genuine characters of the narrator, his wife, and the blind man.

      At the beginning of the story, the narrator seems very narrow-minded about the idea of a blind man staying at his house.  He uses simple language and choppy sentences, and he doesn't even refer to the blind man by his name, he just refers to him as "the blind man."  This gives the reader the impression that he is stubborn and jejune.  However, when the blind man comes to stay at the house, the narrator is cordial, but overall blasé about his stay.

      When his wife falls asleep, the narrator and the blind man start watching television, and eventually come to a late-night show about cathedrals from across the world.  Then an ingenuous question pops into the narrator's head, "Do you have any idea what a cathedral is?  What they look like?"  This is the first moment that the narrator actually becomes curious about the blind man and opens up his mind to learning more about him.  When the blind man basically admits that he does not know what a cathedral looks like, he tells the narrator to draw one.  The narrator admits that he is not an artist, but he was so inspired by the blind man that he continued to draw a cathedral in great detail.  Then, the blind man would reconnoiter the drawing with his fingers and feel what the cathedral looked like.  He then tells the narrator to close his eyes while he drew.  In the end it is tacit that the narrator took away from the experience a lesson of understanding.

      This lesson of understanding is very ironic.  In the beginning, when the narrator was closed-minded about the blind man, he was the one who was actually blinded by ignorance.  The blind man, on the other hand, was very unbiased and he learned to deal with his setback.  It seemed that even though the man was blind, he had a broader view of the world than the narrator.  In the end the blind man is able to teach the narrator about the importance of understanding other people's situations and not to assume the worst about people.

"Everything that Rises Must Converge"

"Everything that Rises Must Converge" by Flannnery O'Connor is a very unique short story because much of the story is about the complexities of the characters.  I would guess that the story takes place in the 1960s; a decade which gave way to the civil rights movement and therefore a gap in the mindsets of teenagers and parents concerning the issue.  Julian finds his mother's feelings towards African Americans to be noisome, and when he rides the bus with her he has to block out his surroundings and find a mecca inside his mind where he can finally get away from his mother's pettiness and think about things with more clarity.  However, at the end of the book when his mother collapses, his true feelings show and he is desperate to find someone to help her.  This shows that although he thought that he was being ingenuous with himself at the beginning, he realizes at the end that he really did care about her.

Julian's mother puts up a strong facade and will not show any foibles to anyone, but on the inside she is very insecure.  She says that although there are Blacks on the bus at night, she can be gracious towards them because she knows who she is and she is confident in that.  However, there are moments where she shows weakness.  In the beginning, she is debating over whether or not she should wear a hat that she bought or if she should return it, and she needs the constant approval of Julian to make her feel secure.  Also, she knows that she is biased and would like her soon to respect her, so when she says that, "she knows who she is," she is looking for Julian to agree with her.

Photography

Photography class can be fun, but at times it can be extremely stressful.  Last year I took photography, and this year I'm in advanced photography.  By seventh period, I usually welcome photography as a hiatus from my bunkum day, but sometimes it can be just as stressful as the rest of my classes.  In photo we learn two types of photography: digital and film.  While digital photography may be the "way of the future," I have to say I much prefer film.  First of all, when using a digital camera, you do not put as much effort into every frame as you would film.  Also, digital cameras allow you to see the pictures that you have taken right away, so whoever you are photographing wants to see the picture.  More often than not they are dissatisfied with their appearance in the photo, and make you delete it.  Lastly, when using a digital camera, I feel like a neophyte.  When holding a film camera, I feel as though I have a connection to the past, and it makes me feel more professional and it gives me a greater sense of confidence in my photos.

While I enjoy taking pictures with black and white film, it can also lead to great stress.  I cannot count the amount of times I have spent days on a role of film, making sure the f-stop and the light meter are perfect on every frame, spending time on getting the tripod perfectly balanced, only to find out that the shutter speed was too high, resulting in a blank role of film.  On the contrary, when you discover that the photographs did come out, it is an extremely empowering feeling.  But having the film come out is only the first step...

Then comes the stresses of the dark room.  There are different filters to be used on different exposures, dodging, burning, toning...it's almost impossible to get a picture right on the first try.  There have been days where I would go into the darkroom at the beginning of the period and come out with nothing.  However, no matter how stressful photography may be, the benefits and the sense of pride that come along with producing a good photograph far outweigh the inevitable stresses that come along with it.

(P.S. - I took this photo in Venice over the summer)

Everyday Use

Today I read  the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker.  One theme which was prevalent throughout the story was contradiction.  Contradiction was displayed through the characters of Dee, Maggie, and the narrator.  As is learned early on in the story, the family comes from a poor, rural neighborhood.  The older sister, Dee, is "both envied and awed" by her younger sister, Maggie (43).  Dee is the first in her family to leave this neighborhood and get an education.  She is described as being, essentially, perfect.  When Dee comes to visit, she faces contradiction within herself.  A part of her is rooted in this small town, yet another part of her has a yearning to escape and become cultured.

The narrator is also contradicted.  She feels torn between her two very different daughters.  She has Dee, the august, erudite, and confident child, and Maggie, the shy, awkward, and bereft child.  Contrary to what one may think by looking in on the outside, the narrator feels a stronger connection to Maggie, probably because she has more in common with her than with Dee.  At the end, when Dee wants the family heirloom quilts to hang on her wall, the narrator confronts her internal contradictions and gives the quilts to Maggie.

The last character with contradictions is Maggie.  I think she has lived her life as second priority, always in the shadow of Dee's spotlight.  As a child, she probably had to struggle with her sister to get attention.  At this point,  she is constantly reminded of her foibles every time she looks down at her scarred arm, shattering her confidence beyond repair.  However, when her mother gives her the quilts instead of Dee, she felt the unfamiliar feeling of self-worth.  She  felt contradicted over whether or not to feel happy for her mother standing up for her or to feel guilty and to give the quilts back to her sister.