The Open Boat

This story focuses on the many realizations that pass through men in that situation.  By very slow degrees, as readers we witness their initial hope for aid and hospitality, then the indifference nature has for their situation/existence, finally their realization that their efforts may well be futile and must accept as best as they can what comes to happen. The phrase, "If I am going to be drowned--if I am going to be drowned--if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life?" (756), encompasses the heart of this story.  It is a continual hope that every man's existence is relevant to the balance of the world.  In the end though, death looms so heavily on their minds that a sense of reconciliation is forced upon them as to their situation.  


P.S.  I am not sure I understand what the titles "correspondent" and "oiler" mean, or the dimensions of the ship.  

The Yellow Wallpaper

Ok, so I realized way too late (as in I had read the whole story by that point) there was an explanation at the beginning about the story, however, I think I will go ahead and write from my perspective.  During her first description of the situation, I believed everything she said: the nerves, her vacation, the way her husband did not take her seriously...I believed it.  What made it most believable was her description of her "nervousness" being linked to "histeria" or "histerics" which many men believed to be a "woman thing." All of this convinced me until she began to describe the bedroom.  Weirdly enough, it was not the barred windows, or the holes in the wall, the gashes in the paper, that caught my attention.  It was the bolted bed.  I can believe a nursery would have had all sorts of wounds inflicted by children and that the windows would be barred seeing as they are on the second floor, but a bolted bed? This clued me into her situation.  From then on her obsession with the wallpaper and the woman she saw in the paper all were supporting my belief that she was under someone's care and dwelt in a world mostly of her making.  The final piece of information that confirmed my suspicions was the following, "I always lock the door when I creep by daylight.  I can't do it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once."  First of all, she was telling me about the woman who creeps and now she has admitted she creeps! She is the woman, and she speaks of suspicion.  Of what? So she knows John and Jennie are watching her because she creeps. However, why did he faint in the end?  The truth is, I am not really sure what creeping looks like, but it sounded like it would have made me faint too. 

The Passing of Grandison

I found the first part of the story, the "preliminary facts" (640), to be a form of sarcasm towards Dick Owens seeing as the author points out it was, "the most remarkable thing he accomplished before he was twenty-five" (641).  At the end of the story, I was left surprised however, I did not feel like Dick Owens had accomplished something absolutely incredible. For example, did this effort change his views on slavery and would he act on them? Did he really do this for Charity or out of the mere concept that he got what he wanted because of his economical and social position? Because the author does point out, "When asked why he never did anything serious, Dick would good-naturedly reply, with a well-modulated drawl, that he didn't have to. His father was rich...Wealth or social position he did not seek, for he was born with both" (640 bottom).  Therefore, I have a hard time believing Dick Owens deserves all the credit (he does deserve some, I suppose) for the act of freeing Grandison.


 I also wished to point out some of Charity Lomax's characteristics that made her comparable to Editha.  Early in the story we find out she is in some way connected with Dick, but I was surprised to find out that he had courted her for over a year and she did not really take him seriously at all. Moreover, her demand, " 'I'll never love you, Dick Owens, until you have done something.  When that time comes, I'll think about it.' " This statement is actually said by Charity directly to Dick where Editha thought this very idea,"She had always supposed that the man who won her would have done something to win her" (372),  and did not say it directly to George even though she implied it in as many ways as he possibly could.