"I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed"

This poem is about the narrator who is describing her relationship with her lover. I thought the narrator was sort of depressed and not at all happy with the situation she was in. As the poem progresses the relationship between the two seems to end. She seems to get ride of the man because she does not feel that anything more or special will come from the relationship. She also describes that she no longer is happy with the relationship and that she will not think of the relationship in a good way or through the good times that the couple had.

"The Raven"

I took the raven very literally. I thought that it was about a guy who was trying to forget about his lover who has recently died. He is trying to for get her by reading forgoten lore. but he hears noise when he goes to investigate a raven enters whos only response to the mans questions is nevermore. the man gets angry and tells the raven to leave. he asks if he will ever be reunited with his love. but like all the other responses from the raven all he hears is nevermore. he then assums that his soul is trapped under the raven's shadow and that his soul shall not rise again.

"The Sick Rose"

This is a very depressing poem. I am not sure exactly what it is about. But it is obviously about death. The poem starts with saying the rose is sick. Also the line "crimson joy" which has been interpreted as a link to human death. or literally it means a rich deep color inclining to purple. Which may be expressing something dieing. This is because as a rose dies its rich read color disappears and becomes a purple color. This poem could also be referring to something sexual. As a rose is often used to express something that is beautiful and is often associated with love. But even though there is the reference to the rose words like dark, howling storm, sick and destroy tell us that it is not a happy poem.

"To His Coy Mistress"

This poem is about a man and a woman. The man is obviously in love with the woman but she does not know how she feels about him. This poem is his response to her hesitance. There seems to be a limited amount of time that she has to decide as the man says "time's winged chariot".

"Death, Be Not Poud"

in this poem i feel that the author is making fun of death. It seems as though he is facing death and is telling it that he is not scared of it that it is fate. He calls it mighty and dreadful as to give it respect but it seems that he does not respect death. He says that it can not kill him and he kind of compares to rest and sleep saying it brings him much pleasures.

"My Papa's Waltz"

I like this short poem. I thought it was about a young boy and has father who were just spending time together. I thought that the young boy in this story was Theodore Roethke, i thought that he was recalling some of his childhood. I thought that this seemed to be a "happy" poem. Since it starts of being kindof comical. there was a time when i thought that his father was being abusive but after reading it a second time i knew that this was a joyful memory that a boy had with his father.

"A Streetcar Named Desire"

this is a story about a woman named Blanche, who goes to visit her sister. her sisters husband is very suspicious of Blanche wondering why she has to come live with them and has all those expensive items in her suitcase but can not afford to get a hotel room. she tell them that she is broke and has no money and that she has lost the family home. also it is clear that she has many problems one being she seems to be an alcoholic. This is obvious by how they she acts when she is drinking with Stella. she says that she should stop before she cant "control herself". Also she seems to know how to get her way with men and she tries to get Mitch, Stella's friend to marry her. but this falls through when Mitch hears about her past. It is also obvious that during this time is was considered ok for a man to beat his wife. Stella's husband repeatedly beat and hit his wife throughout the play.

"In The Lake Of The Woods"

This was an interesting book. I thought that it was well written. I especially like the ending of the story. how you didn't know what exactly happened. I thought that he was the one who killed his wife in his flash back. Also the night that his wife disappeared was very strange. I thought that it was weird that he pored scolding water on plants and i thought that he might have done the same to his wife. I thought that the setting of the book was very important to the story. A secluded area. I thought that this made it possible for the story to be more mysterious, and to help in understanding the mental state the the character is in.

"Young Goodman Brown"

Too me this story represents good and evil. In the story good is his wife Faith. At the begining of the story the author say "And Faith, as the wife was aptly named,". And in the story Goodman Brown represented Evil. I thought this because woodman was going to go to a witch meeting and his wife was trying to stop him from going. Looking back on the story i thought of an angle and the devil on the shoulder of Goodman.

"A Hunger Artist"

I thought that this was a very strange and depressing story. The symbolism that i found in this story was "hunger". Not because that author did not eat, and fasted. But because the hunger could represent his will to fast longer than he has done before, and to keep stretching his limits. Also his hunger could represent how he is never satisfied with how famous he becomes. This is for at least in the beginning, but by the end people don't really pay attention to him. Also his "hunger" could mean that he is never satisfied; when someone asked him why he didn't eat he said, "because I couldn't find the food I liked".

"The Jewelry"

I thought that this was a good story that did not turn out the way that i had expected it to. First of all i thought that it was strange that his wife liked fake jewelry. And also that she was the one that spoiled her husband. The narrator said "It would be impossible to conceive of any attentions, tendernesses, playful caresses which she did not lavish upon her husband." I also thought that it was interesting how the story was progressing and then out of the blue his wife dies. Also when the narrator told about the man going to see how much he could get for the jewelry i thought that he would have got turned down, and also i thought that he would have been arrested, and accused of a thief. Also the last line "she made his life very miserable", just shows that great wealth does not make a persons life happy.

"The Cask of Amontillado"

I found this story much more interesting than any of the other stories that we have read in class. It was ironic that Fortunato's name meant fortunate considering the ending of the story and the way in which he died. I also liked how the author described the bones on the walls of the family, thins allowed you to predict that something bad was going to happen. It was also ironic how this horrible event occurred during a carnival because this is supposed to be a time of joy and social gathering but instead Montresor condemns Fortunato. I also thought that it was interesting how Fortunato thought that Montresor was joking which being dressed up in costumes and the time of the carnival i would have thought the same thing.

"Racitatif" & "Araby"

I thought that "Racitatif" was a great story. The story stated off with the characters being young and living at an orphanage, and as the story progresses the characters grow up. I thought that it was interesting how once they grew up they both had different recollections of what they thought had happened to the deaf mute girl. And this became an issue of black and white. As the characters grew up their views of controversial issues had changed greatly and they basically became enemies, but at the end the kind of make amends. i like how at the end it doesn't tell you what happened to maggie.
I did not find the story Araby interesting, i thought that it was boring and dull. this was reflected in the characters. Compared to the story Racitatif the characters did not come alive and as the story went on the characters did not develop they stayed the same as they were before.

"A Rose for Emily" By:William Faulkner

I thought this was an interesting story. The setting in this story was the old women, Emily's house. I felt as if the towns people were inside of her house thinking about what the old lady had went through. The narrator then described the last 10 years of her life. At first when the narrator was talking about the smell coming from the house i thought that it was because she had died. But latter the narrator tells about how some towns people open a room in which their is a dead man laying on the bed. The narrator also tells about the pillow next to the body that had the indention of a head and a long piece of grey hair was found on it.

"The Lady with the Dog" By: Anton Chekhov

This story took place in a couple different locations. First of all the story took place in what i imagined to be a vacation spot, some where tropical. This is where Dmitri first saw the lady with the dog. but then he also went to her hometown witch the narrator of the story did not say where. Also the story takes place in Moscow. I thought that the story was interesting, how the characters in the story wanted something more or better than what they had. In the story she says " I have been tormented by curiosity; I wanted something better".

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" By: Ambrose Bierce

I found this story to be interesting. The author used a lot of detail to describe what was going on. For example in the beginning of the story he describes the bridge and where all the men are located, and also the process of hanging; how they men would step off of the boards. I thought that there was a good plot in the story. The man who was being hung in the story was trying to escape from the noose. Which he did once. I thought that it was interesting how he accepted the fact that he was going to die. They only reason he tried to escape was the thought of his family. He did not try to escape for his satisfaction but for his families. Another plot in the story was to kill the man. The army tried this first by hanging but the rope broke, and then they tried to shoot him in the water as he swam away. They ended up succeeding by catching him at his home, and they ended up hanging him from the bridge.

"Girl" By: Jamaica Kincaid

This did not seem like a short story to me.  It was more of a list of what it is that a women is "supposed" to do to be a good wife.  I felt like it was being told to a girl by her mother or a teacher.  Stating what they are supposed to do but in the "teachers" heart they know that this is not what they are going to want to do.  I could tell this by the "... to prevent yourself from looking like the slut you are so bent on becoming;..."  I almost feel like the word "slut" is not referred to in the same manner as we use it today, but for a person who lets go and doesn't do what they are socially "supposed" to do. 

"Hills Like White Elephants" & "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

When i first read the hills like white elephants i didn't know exactly what was going on. i just thought it was two people drinking and talking waiting for a train. i knew that there was some sort of disagreement going on but i didn't understand what they were arguing about. i couldn't figure out what the story was really about. what i found out later was that it was about abortion. this made thing clearer. i then read it again and i realized that they were deciding on if she was going to get an abortion. i still didn't see how the story was about an abortion but i could tell that the man had more say in what was going to happen. i could tell this when she said "Then ill do it because i don't care about me", i felt that she was saying that it doesn't matter what she thinks because he is going to get his way in the end. she also said "I don't feel any way" "I just know things" i felt like she was saying that it didn't matter what she wants. she also gave up during the story, i believe that she gave up because at this point in history the man had all the authority in the relationship. she said "I realize" "cant we maybe stop talking.

A Good man is hard to find

i thought that this was a good story. i think almost everyone can relate to taking a road trip. or have parents or loved one who are paranoid about something. in this case running into the misfit. many people would consider the chances of running into the misfit and then continue on their way but the grandmother tell them to cancel their trip because of the misfit. and ironically they run into him and he kill the whole family. I couldn't really find any underling meaning in the story. i just thought that it was interesting how her grandmother tried to find "a good man" through out the story and she search ends up getting her killed. i think the author is saying that almost everyone has some bad in them leaving them short of being "a good man". i thought that the grandmother was the good in the story until the misfit started to kill off her family, and she sat their only concerned about her own life. the misfit put it best. "She would of been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." he was saying that she was trying to convince the misfit that she was a good person only to save her life and that she would have acted differently if she didn't feel her life was threatend.