Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls"

I enjoyed this initiation story and watching the narrator grow. It was interesting the two separate ways they used the phrase "only a girl". At first she found the phrase derogatory, you can tell in the phrase, "A girl was not, as I had supposed, simply what I was; it was what I had to become. It was a definition, always touched with emphasis, with reproach and disappointment". She hated the word "girl" at this point, but at the end she found the phrase rewarding.
Throughout the whole story Munro did an amazing job using personification. The first use of personification that caught my eye was when the narrator described the outside that her and her brother were not afraid of. She says, "...when snowdrifts curled around our house like sleeping whales and the wind harassed us all night, coming up from buried fields, the frozen swamp, with its old bugbear chorus of threats and misery." This along with the imagery used kept a mental image of every moment that was being discussed during this story.
I remember playing that game of don't touch the ground. I'm sure most kids did. I always thought as long as my feet were under the blanket I was safe, that was my "rule".
The change and the rebellion this narrator goes through seems similar to John Updike's "A&P". Both this narrator and Sammy go through that same moment of change. When the narrator from "Boys and Girls" left the gate open out of nowhere and Sammy from "A&P" decided to quit. Both were impulses, and their consequences were not thought about.

John Updike's "A&P"

This was an interesting short story. This story follows Sammy, who works as a checkout in a supermarket. I laughed when I read through this story because it reminded me of myself when I was 19 and worked at Hy-vee. I never got put in the awkward situation that Lengel put Sammy in, but I remember being that awkwardly staring boy. It's comical the way Sammy talks about the customers in the store, referring to them as sheep. It's very true though, when people are in the store it's a whole different ball game. Not a lot of eye contact, a lot of thinking and moving in directions as if there are signs pointing to which way everyone moves. What was Sammy doing quitting his job? Was it Queenie and the other two girls that sparked something inside of him? I don't think Sammy quit his job just to impress those girls, I think he had a bigger reaction of growing up and not being like the "sheep", and they sparked that inner fire. He saw how they were rebelling, and he decides to rebel and quit his job. I don't think he would have quit his job if it was an 80 y/o lady wearing a two piece and got told to dress more decent. I think the story and what it means for it to be an initiation story are all in one. Sammy is a symbol of adolescence and Lengel being that of maturity. Sammy grows up within this story. Quitting his job because he didn't agree with Lengel's treatement toward them, hoping to impress the girls, and the satisfaction he is hoping to get from rebelling all teach him valuable lessons when he is walking out. The girls may not have noticed Sammy quitting, but he learned the lesson that his actions have consequences. Once he quit he knew it was too late and he couldn't go back on it. He was initiated into society and the struggles he will have to face. I think his actions are still heroic in a way. It would have been less heroic if he would have begged for his job back.

A.S. Byatt's "The Thing in the Forest"

When I first read the story, and heard the first descriptions of the "thing" I immediately thought the "thing" was what the girls were experiencing and their own way of making sense of all the questions they had. The train they were on was described as it "crawled sluggishly" and not being clean and had a "dank smell of unwashed trousers." That sounds a lot like the characteristics of the "thing."
Back to the "thing." It also makes me imagine war. When they describe the "thing" it sounds like anything that it comes in contact with gets wrapped up in it. It had wire, vegetation, meat, dishcloths, and wire wool all entangled in it. Just like war, it engulfs everyone and everything. Nothing is left unchanged after war. The struggles that families, and especially kids, go through are abundant and I'd imagine, much like Penny and Primrose, they find a way to make sense of their struggles and a way to cope with them. The "thing" is how Penny and Primrose make sense of their situation.
The narrator takes time to point out that Penny and Primrose are very different, but are very much alike. The narrator does the same with the two mothers. I'm not sure exactly why the narrator keeps pointing it out, but maybe to show that in times of distress, no one knows exactly what to do or how to cope with it.
I like all the personification that the narrator describes everything with. Giving the train characteristics to describe how it is moving really sets the scene in my head. The description of the "thing" was very well drew out to give you a good picture of what it looked like.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birth-Mark"

This short story is about Alymer, a genius scientist, and his wife Georgiana. Georgiana was born with a birth-mark on her cheek that resembled a hand. I was left curious to why he waited until after they were together and proposed marriage to bring up his trouble with the birth-mark. You'd think if it is that obvious he would have said something sooner. Was he able to separate science and the love of his life from each other for a little while, but the scientist in him linked them back up? In the beginning the birth-mark was described as this tiny, little imperfection, but as I kept reading it seemed as if the birth-mark was growing and I imagined it covering her whole cheek. That's like any imperfection we see now, especially with ourselves, the more we focus on it, the larger it gets. It always seems to stick out more with the added attention we give that "little" imperfection. I was a big boy, and I mean big, all through high school. I eventually lost 85 pounds because I was sick of the imperfection of being another overweight person. Life was great for a little while, but then you notice the next imperfection that was never on the radar before, and then the next. I think there are always going to be things we want to change, superficial or not, but more times than not we have to learn to accept the things we cannot change.
In the beginning, Georgiana believed the birth-mark to be a charm, or at least that is what she told herself to accept having the mark on her face. By the end, Alymer convinced Georgiana that it is the most hideous thing, and neither life nor death should stop them from removing it. It's neat to read stories with timeless life lessons like this. These are issues we read about all the time. Models being airbrushed to cover any imperfections for ads, because anything less than perfect is not acceptable. Bullies convincing other kids that their glasses make them a geek. It's a valuable lesson that no one is perfect, no matter how close someone may come to perfection, everyone has their "birth-mark."

Amy Tan's "A Pair of Tickets"

Throughout the first five paragraphs the narrator uses the settings of riding on the train leaving Hong Kong, taking us to a past argument she had with her mother about being Chinese, and reminiscing about her mother and the "Chinese" things she did. I liked the last line of the 5th par. where she says she says "My mother is dead and I am on a train, carrying with me her drams of coming home. I am going to China." In that sentence you can tell she is still struggling with the idea of her being Chinese. To her Mom, China was home, but to her China is China. She isn't ready to accept or doesn't understand what her mother was trying to tell her. China, in a way, is her home, are her roots.
I'm not sure why she was so reluctant. Is she embarrassed of what being Chinese is? Maybe she fears how people look at the Chinese, and doesn't want to be on the inside looking back. Throughout the whole story she is constantly seeing things that are just like America.She compares getting off the train to getting on the "number 30 Stockton bus in San Francisco. Looking for the similarities to confirm being in China won't make her Chinese." I've had those kind of discussions with myself about other things. Growing up I never wanted to be different than anyone. I think most kids think that way though. If you're on the outside looking in life was easier.
In the end June May see's what her mother was talking about. That just because June May didn't look Chinese, like her mom, doesn't mean that there isn't a different connection inside of her.

Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies”

This is an interesting story with the setting being a intricate part. The setting is in India where Mr. and Mrs. Das are touring. Their tour guide is Mr. Kapasi. Mr. and Mrs. Das are Indians touring India and Mr. Kapasi is their tour guide, and from India. I find it interesting how right away in the story Mr. Kapasi notices that Mr. and Mrs. Das are, in fact, Indian, but dress like tourist. It's very true though, you can always tell a tourist from a local, like Mr. Das with the camera around their neck, pamphlets in hand, and reciting facts that sound like they are straight out of the pamphlet. Though they had their differences in one being from India and Mr. and Mrs. Das being from America, they had similar cultural struggles. Mr. Kapasi was in an unhappy marriage that was set up, much like Mrs. Das describing how her and Mr. Das were set up by their parents. Now unhappy with where her life is, and feeling trapped Mrs. Das keeps it all to herself. In this way Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi have a lot in common.
Mr. Kapasi is an interpreter for a doctor, and Mrs. Das finds this "romantic." I'm not sure how she found it romantic, but I could understand how it is an important job. By the end of the story, I thought maybe she found it romantic as in he is the man people go to to get their problems solved. Mrs. Das, struggling to cope with her life, might see Mr. Kapasi as a man that can translate her feelings of anger and guilt, understand her inner thoughts and feelings better than her, and have him interpret it to make sense to her. That could be romantic. Who doesn't want that? Mr. Kapasi was initially flattered at this remark of his occupation being romantic, but why? I think Mr. Kapasi is feeling that same strain of being with someone, but not emotionally being with someone. Now here is a 28 year old Indian-American woman saying nice things to him, and paying attention to his stories.
I thought the ending was pretty neat. The last words Mr. Kapasi said to Mrs. Das were, "Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt?" With that Mrs. Das angrily leaves the vehicle, eating the puffed rice, leaving trails for the monkeys to gather. He previously warned the family that if you feed the monkeys, then they may be bothersome, and sure enough they bothered little Bobby. It's significant because much like the pain, or probably guilt, Mrs. Das is feeling towards her family, she is unable to fathom the idea that it is her fault. That is the same case with the monkeys attacking Bobby. She immediately says it's the places fault for her son getting attacked, when in fact it is hers.