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Maxine Hong  Kingston's "White Tigers" Reflection

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Maxine Hong  Kingston's "White Tigers" Reflection

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DISCUSSION POST: "These stories have many deeper connotations and ideologies that stretch further than the narrative itself. A major point that seemed to be recurring was the concept of identity. "White Tigers" shows a protagonist who struggles with accepting her true identity and background. This character lacks the ability to stand up to those who are discriminating against her due to her race and gender identity. In a similar vein, the main protagonist in "Yellow Woman" is fearful of her parent's approval and is easily swayed by the man leading her up the mountains. She shifts and molds to his ideas and seems to lack personal opinions and a true sense of self-awareness. Both of these characters feel like they are out of control in their own life due to existential circumstances. For the most part, they are not their cultural backgrounds and fail to understand that their personal identity can never be changed, so it might as well just be accepted. To a certain extent, these stories appear to be cautionary and give a creative form of advice to readers about owning their identities and never letting the opinions of others, or dependency on another person, decide their own value as a person."

REFLECTION: “White Tigers” was mainly about a protagonist who struggles with her identity and is weak in confronting her oppressors. She faces racism and sexism, becoming ashamed of who she is. This story, like most of those we read this semester, exhibited a number of lessons that could be translated to audiences. This story made me look at my own life and understand that my identity is beautiful. There is no sense being ashamed of something that cannot be controlled. “White Tigers” was a beautiful story and served as a cautionary tale to own who we are and never let the opinions of others stop us from being ourselves. It is important to be secure with the circumstances we were dealt at birth, and this story helped me recognize that.

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Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” Reflection

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Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” Reflection

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DISCUSSION POST: "Charles Perrault’s Blue Beard and Angela Carter’s the Bloody Chamber are both retellings of the same general story. I found both of them to be entertaining and engaging. I wanted to hone in on the concept of the key that cannot be cleaned. I found this motif to be one of the most interesting aspects of the story. The key represents the pitfalls of curiosity and indulging in the forbidden. In no way am I placing blame on the female protagonists for their curiosity surrounding their lover’s forbidden rooms, but I found the key to be an innovative way to show how the human nature of inquisitiveness can be dangerous. The key that cannot be cleaned also reminded me of the Scarlett Letter and how that mark of infidelity is a stain that will never be cleared. In the Bloody Chamber, when Marquis pressed the key into the narrator’s forehead, it seemed to parallel the Scarlett Letter in obvious ways. It is a mark of curious behavior and disobedience. In both stories, the key marked forehead can also be a metaphor for trauma. The trauma will always live with these characters because there’s no erasing the memories and experiences that they endured at the hands of these men. No matter how hard you try, these marks and traumatic memories will linger forever."

REFLECTION: Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” displayed a variety of themes including ignorance, curiosity, and lust for wealth. As the story progresses, the main female character becomes too curious about her new husband’s secrets and disobeys his orders to stay out of one specific room. In doing so, she finds the dead bodies of all his previous wives. This rising action puts audiences in a unique place. While the husband is clearly an evil man, we can’t help but blame the female protagonist for disobeying his orders. Her curiosity led to her demise. I thought this was interesting way of writing and questioning our own morality. This story forced me to look inside my own ethics and ask myself what I would have done if I were in the protagonist’s shoes.

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Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" Reflection

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Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" Reflection

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DISCUSSION POST: "The main point of interest surrounding Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" is the mystery surrounding the "operation." This procedure is mentioned throughout the story and its ambiguity is the driving force of the narrative. Immediately, my mind considered the operation to be cosmetic in nature, but their diction and context surrounding the operation leads me to believe that it may have a deeper meaning. This operation could mean marriage or having children. They act like it a serious step forward in their relationship and that it is vital for lasting success. While the detailed setting and unique descriptions set "Hills Like White Elephants" apart from many short stories, it is the mystery of the operation that drew me in further than most other stories could. I found myself getting increasingly more interested in the character's relationship due to the withholding of information. This is a characteristic that produces a truly interesting short story. If Hemingway allowed readers the release of clearing up this ambiguity at the end of the story, I don't think it would be as impactful. It prompted dialogue and further thinking beyond the pages. Looking briefly at the comments under me, I love the opinions regarding the meaning of this story and its these conflicting points of view that prove the efficacy of this story."

REFLECTION: “Hills Like White Elephants” was one of the most abstract stories we read this semester. There was a lot of mystery and vagueness throughout key elements of the story that were open to the reader’s interpretation. Most short stories tend to overexplain their characters and certain plot-points so that everything is crystal clear for the audience. Hemingway kept plenty of elements of the story and the main character’s backstory vague. This allows for a discourse to be opened up across readers. In search for more clues and explanation, I reread the story multiple times. This was an interesting strategy and a unique way of writing that ultimately proved to be greatly effective.

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Doris Lessing’s "To Room Nineteen" Reflection

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Doris Lessing’s "To Room Nineteen" Reflection

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DISCUSSION POST: "For this discussion, I wanted to focus-in on Doris Lessing’s To Room Nineteen. In the story, one of the main characters, Susan, deals with an unusual form of depression and conflict. In many ways, her life is too good. The majority of people find sadness in not having enough, but this story addresses the mental struggles of seemingly having it all and still not feeling happy. I found it interesting that this story touched on this sort of niche issue. I’ve found that a lot of people have a form of this anxiety when things in their lives are going well. This feeling is almost awaiting the impending downfall of their psyche. Susan has a loving family life, but it still has its own disfunctions in her mind. She is playing mental games with herself to justify her life and convince herself of happiness. She allows for affairs and an open relationship but seems to secretly hate the life she has built for herself. I found her depressive state and life anxiety interesting to analyze. Is she truly happy with the open relationship and family she has built? Or is it beginning to slowly wear and tear at her psyche as she keeps trying to convince herself that she’s happy?"

REFLECTION: Doris Lessing’s “To Room Nineteen” addressed an unusual, and mostly under-represented, form of depression. The main character Susan finds sadness in the fact that her life appears too good. The conventional ideology surrounding depression involves someone feeling helpless and stripped of all positive emotions. Susan, on the other hand, finds anxiety in how well her life is going. Her loving family is what many people dream of obtaining, but she sees the negatives and disfunctions within it. I love how this story tackled this issue and detailed a unique emotion and mentality that most of us have never felt, or even knew existed in the first place.

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This semester, I became far more educated on the power that stories can have over audiences. Each short story we read in this class offered us with a new perspective and worldview. These stories taught lessons, served as cautionary tales, and opened my mind as a writer to new techniques. I feel like these stories enhanced who I am as a writer, but also allowed me to grow as a person. For instance, “White Tiger” helped me become more secure about how I am and my identity as I learned from the main protagonist’s experience.

Perspectives on the Short Story provided me with a collaborative and shared experience with my classmates. Each of the discussion boards were an opportunity to see each story from a new perspective. I wrote my ideas on the stories and what they meant to me, but the true value on these discussion boards came from reading my classmates’ responses. They made me think outside of my own box and understand these stories from fresh ideologies.

Despite the volume of reading that this class required, I found each of these stories to be interesting in their own way. Not once throughout the semester did I feel that these stories were becoming stale or that my interest in the class was wavering. I’ve always been passionate about writing and composing longer novels. This class helped me understand the proper techniques in creating a short and to-the-point story that engages audiences. These techniques can be translated easily into longer novels and allowed me to recognize an effective story structure that makes sense to readers. Studying plot and structure is helpful in all areas of writing, and shorter stories tend to focus on that dimension of storytelling.

I really enjoyed the collaborative project that we had to present at the end of class. This semester was far more challenging and difficult to assemble a group project together due to the global pandemic. My group partners and I were forced to think critically and find new means to communicate and collaborate without person-to-person contact. We were able to pull it together and the feeling after we presented our final presentation was incredible. I had a strong sense of accomplishment and satisfaction knowing that I was able to compose a detailed analysis in a collaborative setting.

While many of my classes involved composing stories and writing my own narratives, this class was more on the analytical side. At first, I thought this would not lead to any growth in my storytelling. But I quickly understood that critically analyzing stories was just as effective in becoming a better writer as actually writing.

In all, I enjoyed my experience in this class and it ultimately helped me grow as a reader and a writer. The environment of this class was very open and allowed me to communicate my ideas in a clear manner. I feel like our discussions in class, and online, helped me open my mind to a new means of thinking and analyzing stories. This class allowed me to look at stories far more in-depth than the surface level plot and themes.

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DISCUSSION POST: "Gilman Charlotte Perkin's The Yellow Paper and Hurston Zora Neale's Sweat both deal with similar themes of abuse and trauma. The Yellow Paper was far more abstract and confusing initially than Sweat. It deals more with emotional and mental abuse, detailing the patterns of manipulation from the main protagonist's husband. There is a lot of questioning and it left me unsure of the true reality of the plot. Sweat details the more physical, and "conventional," form of abuse. The main character, Delia, is enduring a painful struggle with her angry husband Sykes. He is quick to fight with Delia and the dynamic of this relationship is clearly male dominant. She eventually is able to stand up to her oppressor and is able to break the proverbial chains of the relationship. Both of these stories touch on abuse and the systematic nature of it brainwashes the victim into accepting this as their reality. The fact that both protagonists have endured this level of abuse for so long makes you wonder why they allowed it to happen. The power dynamic of toxic relationships is tough to rebalance and I liked how both of these stories depicted this."

REFLECTION: “Sweat” was a thought-provoking short story that detailed the nature of physical and mental abuse in a relationship. The main character, Delia, endures a painful struggle with her angry husband Sykes. The two are always butting heads until Delia stands up to her oppressor and breaks the chains of this abusive cycle. It makes you wonder why Delia endured this abuse for so long, and makes you think about the psychological dependency that an abusive relationship forces upon the abused. It is a systematic and brainwashed ideology that keeps these people coming back to their abusers. ”Sweat” detailed all of these themes and issues in a coherent and interesting narrative.