The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is the story of a woman’s mental deterioration and its relation to the oppression she faces from her family and society. A creative and imaginative woman, our narrator does not want the life that has been forced upon her and is eventually driven to insanity.  

I found it interesting that her husband John treats her more like a child than his partner and how she is trapped within the nursery. When she tells him that she would rather be downstairs away from the hideous wallpaper, he refuses and calls her his “blessed little goose”. John doesn’t allow her to write or contribute to any form of work, taking away whatever small freedoms she has. When she expresses her wish to leave the house when she feels her health isn’t improving, he responds with “Bless her little heart…she shall be as sick as she pleases! But now let’s improve the shining hours by going to sleep, and talk about it in the morning!” (82). To me, the way he speaks in third person and dismisses how she feels about the situation is belittling and further alienates her from him and those around her. Though he may have seemingly good intentions, John’s continued suppression only drives her inward and away from reality. I also found the narrator’s obsession with the woman in the wallpaper to be symbolic for her own imprisonment. She sees a woman that is trapped within the patterns she hates and whose only freedom is during the daytime which is when John is at work. In the end of the story as the narrator tears the paper off of the wall to free the woman, she loses her final hold on reality, freeing herself from her confinement.

In class I would like to further discuss the peculiar relationship between the narrator and her family and her final descent into madness.

Their Eyes Were Watching God (Chapter 7-10)

While reading Chapters seven through ten, many emotions ran through my head. At the beginning of chapter seven, we see the defeat Janie feels. She eventually gives in to Jody’s cruelty and begins to lose her own spirit due to this. Just like in the past chapters Janie feels that she has two different sides of herself. One side where she takes Jody’s cruelty and is an obedient wife, and another side that holds her true emotions and thoughts.

When Jody’s health began deteriorating, I saw this as a sign of hope for Janie. For the most part, I was wrong. Jody’s poor health led more vicious and frequent verbal attacks. In my mind, this was only a ploy to mask his own insecurities, but at the end of chapter seven, Janie refuses to take this treatment any longer. My favorite part of tonight’s reading was when Janie stood up for herself and released the built up anger within her. This of course results in Jody lashing out and hitting her, but Janie feels a sense of liberation.

After this fight, Jody begins to avoid Janie at all costs. She embarrassed him and he hates her because of that. To me, it is ironic how he believes this upsets her and harms her while in reality it almost has the opposite effect. Janie’s true character continues to shine when she still wants to see him one last time. When they talk for the last time, I saw this as the second sign of liberation for her. The readers can almost feel the weight being lifted off Janie’s shoulders during their last argument. Though it is a sad argument it is necessary to Jody to feel the pain he has caused Janie.

When Jody dies, Janie is free. Another one of my favorite parts of tonight’s reading is when she lets her long hair down. This signifies the two different parts of Janie unifying and her true self being able to come back out. However, it was interesting to me how Janie still felt this sense of division within herself after the funeral. She feels free and calm inside but on the outside, she masks her emotions and has to seem sad and heartbroken. Even after Jody’s death, Janie is still masking her true emotions for him.

As time passes by Janie is seen as a wealthy single woman and men begin to approach her, but of course, with her newfound sense of freedom, Janie does not want to be imprisoned by another man. The encounter Janie has with Tea Cake is nice and refreshing, but I am afraid that this could end up like her past relationship with Jody and only be good for a short time. Some questions I have are: How do we think Janie really feels when Jody is dying? Is she sad? Happy? Or both? 

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Chapters 5 and 6

Chapters 5 and 6 of Their Eyes Were Watching God struck me as the most important ones thus far for many reasons, but above all else because Janie comes to the realization that her role as a woman and person is much more than what her husband, Jody Starks, thinks it should be. It becomes very apparent that the power of being the mayor of Eatonville has truly gone to his head, and he takes this out on his fellow neighbors and especially his wife Janie. His flaunting of wealth and power makes the townspeople resent him, but they do not even attempt to challenge his authority, which essentially enables him to continue to alienate them. The beautiful home that he and Janie resides in makes those around it look like servants' quarters, which is one of the many ways that he starts showing the difference between himself and the rest of the town. As Jody starts to build up the town of Eatonville the best that he can, he gains an increasing amount of control over the people and things in it as well.

After Jody Starks buys Matt Bonner's mule for five dollars so that it can rest, the whole town considers his liberation of the mule to be a noble act. This action was even compared to Abraham Lincoln's emancipation of northern slaves. However in my eyes, this seemingly pure act does not overshadow the fact that on the inside he is still a power hunger man who will do anything to assert his dominance and nobility over others.

Janie first begins to notice Jody's controlling nature when he refuses to let her give a simple speech when he is named mayor of the town. By not allowing her to speak and taking her voice away, Jody is facilitating the loss of Janie's identity and self-worth. Another way in which Jody asserts control over Janie is when he makes her put her hair up while working in the store. His reasoning for this is in all ways selfish, as he is jealous of other men getting a glimpse of her beauty. The last straw for Janie is when she is listening to and enjoying a skit about courtship, and her husband makes her stop and do a chore for him. Not only this, but he gets angry with her for "misplacing" something in the town's store, and starts insulting her intelligence and capability to complete simple tasks. These seemingly small instances accumulate over time, and lead Janie to the realization that she is extremely unhappy in this marriage, and that she must stand up for herself unless she wants anymore verbal, emotional, and or physical abuse to come her way.

By the end of this reading, it is evident that Janie has opened her eyes and is embarking on the journey to find herself and her purpose, aside from being "Mrs. Mayor" or Stark's wife. Although she was initially attracted to Jody because of his ambition, she learns that this very characteristic hinders her from having any individuality and stops her from achieving any of her dreams. Janie's outburst at the end of chapter 6 serves as a way for her to start developing her own voice, regardless of what her husband or the town thinks.

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Chapters 1-4

After reading the first four chapter of Their Eyes Were Watching God, I felt so many different emotions. I was taken aback by Nanny's dedication to raising Janie the best way that she possibly could. Nanny made so many sacrifices to ensure that her granddaughter grew up with the best possible life without either of her parents. She scraped up as much money as she could to buy a little piece of land away from the house of the white people in order to save Janie’s pride. She even took care of Janie when her own mother left her behind. Instead of thinking of herself in her dying days, Nanny organized Janie's marriage to Logan to make sure that her granddaughter would have someone to turn to after she died. I cannot help but admire her for all that she did for her Janie.

I was also heartbroken for Janie's loss of innocence and hope when she ultimately realized that marriage does not make love. It is so hard for me to imagine being set up to marry someone that I was not able to choose. I was stunned when Janie decided to run away to marry Joe and leave Logan behind, because her decision seems very selfish to me. However, it makes me wonder if Janie is running away to be with Joe, to live a life of luxury, or simply to make a change in her unsatisfying life.

In class I would love to talk about what drove Pheoby to stand up for Janie to her friends in the first chapter. Are Pheoby and Janie old friends? Or is Pheoby simply more empathetic towards her situation? I was also curious as to where Janie's husband, Sam, was. Janie says that he is gone, but what exactly does she mean by that?

The Crucible: Act IV

This entire act felt somewhat surreal to me. Tensions felt extremely high throughout the entire chapter and I felt on edge when reading it, wondering how much misfortune would happen next. It also felt a little eerie, some may even say spooky, for several different reasons. It was unclear to me how much time had passed and when the situation escalated so out of control. The last three acts we read seemed to go perfectly in order and connect together, but this one felt out of place. I believe that adding this lost sense of time to this act added the eerie feeling to the chapter. It also is a way to not drag out scenes that happened previously and keep the readers engaged until the end of the story. If Miller had chosen to show every incident with Abigail pretending she is attacked or witches being condemned than it may have felt repetitive.

To answer Caroline’s blog post from act one, we do not like Abigail. Abigail has caused complete damage to the town of Salem and broken families and friends apart. Parris expresses great concern in this act as he tells Danforth how Abigail has disappeared and taken all his money. Parris is obviously broken in this chapter and is terrified. He has found daggers falling from his door and it petrified that he has a death wish from the townspeople, which he most likely does. Again the lack of a sense of time comes into play as Hale is brought back into the story. It is interesting to watch how when Danforth first sees Hale is welcoming and exclaims,” We are gladdened to see you return to your great work!” (Miller 119) Yet as soon as Hale asks Danforth to pardon their souls because they will not confess, he immediately gets angry again and uses the “law of god” as a rebuttal. I found this extremely ironic that he continues to use Christianity as an argument because one of the biggest lessons Christians learn is forgiveness.

Hale can not make proctor confess so he ask Elizabeth’s help. As Elizabeth helps Proctor to decide if he should confess, we hear a story about a man who would not confess, Giles. I found this story chilling to even think for a moment about the pain he was enduring. Giles was tortured to confess to the court about his parking in witchcraft. Giles refused to answer and therefore had large stones put on him. He continued to have stones piled till the weight crushed him. His last words were,” More Weight.” It was petrifying to even think about this happening to someone and made me chest ache to even think about dying in such a painful way. Hearing this story, and speaking with Elizabeth, has finally convinced him to come forward and confess.

Finally, I want to discuss the final scene where proctor is asked to confess and sign his name. I found this scene very intense and while I wanted Proctor to fight for what was a right, there was apart of me while reading this that wanted him so comply in order to save his life. I do not know that if I was put in this situation I would have to the bravery to not confess and be hung. Watching Proctor go through this scene, it almost felt like you were in his position. Proctor finally confesses but is asked to give names. He refuses which makes Danforth irritated. Danforth finally asks Proctor to sign his name. It was inspiring to watch as Proctor comes to a final realization that signing his name is betraying himself. He exclaims,”Because it is my name! Because I can not have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies!” While readers at this moment feel a sense of pride for Proctor reading this and somewhat heartbroken because they know his fate, Danforth is furious. We watch as hysteria rises as he is marched out. Rebecca cries out and so does Parris and Hale. I imagine each screaming voice adds to the chaos of this moment. Reading the final drums and moments of the scene in the last line italicized help me envision how much tension there would have been watching this moment play out in the real play.

In class i would like to discuss the epilogue for those who have read it. Now that we finished the book, I would also like to make discuss how and why this book was perceived negatively during red scare and also find specific moments in the book that reminded us of the red scare. I would also like to talk about the lack of a sense a time I mentioned several times.

The Crucible: Act II

In reading Act II of The Crucible, I began to finally see the true consequences of denying allegations of witchcraft versus confessing. The connection drawn to McCarthyism throughout the 50’s is very present throughout Act II. This witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts has the town desperate to save their own lives at the exchange of condemning others. This entirely parallels McCarthyism because those who were given subpoenas knew that if they did not confess and name other involved parties, they would be blacklisted and would be thought of as American traitors. In The Crucible, Goody Osburn refused to confess and will be hanged, but on the other hand, Sarah Good confessed and will only sit in jail for some time.

Something I specifically noticed that intrigued me while reading Act II was Mary Warren’s “marvelous secret insight” that Goody Osburn tried to kill her (Miller 55). Mary Warren’s claim was that when Osburn came to beg for food, she mumbled as she turned around. The “hard proof” was that Goody Osburn stated that she was only saying her commandments, but when asked to recite the commandments, she could not. I was shocked that the court considered mumbling as evidence that Goody Osburn had a death wish for Mary Warren.

Another aspect from Act II that I found to be interesting was the newfound feeling of power Mary Warren evidently felt after arriving home from accusing Goody Osburn of attempting to kill her. When John Proctor insists that Mary Warren will not be allowed to go to court again, Mary Warren responds in a defiant way claiming that “it’s God’s work [they] do” and that “[she will] be gone every day for some time” (Miller 56). It is interesting to see Mary Warren’s sense of power because after only one day in court accusing Goody Osburn, she already feels like she has the power to control situations that she most likely felt she could not control before.

Today in class I would like to discuss the new details that have been brought up in Act II regarding Elizabeth and John Proctor’s relationship. This is the first encounter the audience has had with Elizabeth and John together and I feel it is important to discuss the dynamic of the relationship. I think that it is especially important that we discuss John’s feeling of walking into a courthouse that is his own home each day and Elizabeth’s inability to see the good in John for the past seven months. I also want to discuss the importance of John’s hatred of hypocrisy in relation to his inability to remember the last commandment that “thou shalt not commit adultery.” I am curious if he actually forgot it or if he truly could not say it out loud.

The Crucible - Act I

While reading The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, I was constantly reminded of the fact that this play was written during the 1950's while the Red Scare was a huge part of American life. I was easily able to connect aspects of the fictional townspeople to the major themes of the fear during the Cold War, like how quickly rumors and accusations were able to spread to the entire town. When Betty first wakes up long enough to enlighten the reader on what happened in the woods, she mentions something about drinking blood to curse an apparent enemy of Abigail's. Although strange to read, since witchcraft is not a normal thing in our current way of life, the idea of a young girl trying to push out a man's wife is not something extremely foreign. I found the exchange between Abby and John to be very interesting, since it was almost like something out of a current-day movie or tv show, with the cliche girl and guy with their forbidden love. 

Due to this thought, I kinda saw the rest of the play in a semi-comedic way, which when I now think about it, relates back to what Miller said in his article about the fear of Communism in the US. What happened then, and what is happening in the play now, is so horrible and unbelievable that it starts to become slightly funny. Dark humor seemed to emanate throughout the first act, which was another thing I liked, but it still could create a more serious feeling at times as well. I couldn't help but notice the ridiculousness of the townspeople coming up to the room to see Betty passed out on a bed, the priest caring more about his own reputation than about people's lives, the interaction between all the girls involved in the "dancing" (which, also, is hilarious to me for some reason), and, at the end of act 1, everyone screaming that everyone in the town is a witch. 

There was a sense of organized chaos, with everyone having hidden motives and reasons behind their actions, and I think it will be interesting to see how the rest of the play unfolds, but I would like to talk about Tituba and her role in the play. Lastly I want to make sure to talk about Abigail's character, do I like her or hate her? 

Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

In "Self-Reliance", Ralph Waldo Emerson argues that to truly be a man, one must be a nonconformist. He explains that all humans, as products of society and perception, are only reflections of each other, and it takes a man to disregard societal pressure to be self-dependent and live in truth. Nature and life must be accepted and valued in their purest forms, and his argument of why man only accepts others in their "full forms" instead of imperfect forms is something I found captivating during my reading.

Mankind dismisses the value of its own beliefs in shame and fear of how other will receive them; however, mankind swoons over the beauty of a rose: a raw, simple flower. Emerson states, "Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike" (52), describing how the past and future do not disturb the rose, it lives as life comes. This contrasts mankind, as humans look far into the past and future, neglecting the present. Emerson explains that when the mind exists in another time, it will never find truth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson evokes his readers to follow his lead in nonconformity to be in touch with their authentic soul. He states that to be happy, one must strip themselves of societal desire and focus only on what they value themselves. He encourages honesty between people, and states that safety and comfort can only be found when man finds the bravery to act on what they truly believe. When man is honest with itself, it will then be truly self-reliant. 

I hope to discuss Emerson's argument of how "society is a wave"(57) in our class discussion. 

Letter from Birmingham Jail (Zora)

While reading a "Letter from Birmingham Jail" I found a different insight to the civil rights movement. From the reading, it is easy to tell that Dr. King is responding to white church men who criticize his efforts against segregation. Dr. King's detailed descriptions of how protests and sit-ins were planned, his constant use of the rhetorical devices, and his denouncing of the white moderates and church are a few of the things about this letter that I found the most enticing.

     Before reading a "Letter from Birmingham Jail", I had not known of the amount of planning and organizing that went into protests and "direct action". Dr. King describes the four basic steps of campaign involvement: collecting facts, negotiating, self-purification, and direct action. He makes note that the white clergymen believe that he and the other black people are not being patient, are breaking laws, and are causing civic disruption. He describes the importance of negotiating and that in recent times, it has always failed. Therefore, they move on to direct action.

  Early in the letter, he states "Injustice anywhere is a threat to a justice everywhere (1)".  One of the other interesting themes expressed in the letter was the racism that triumphs Alabama and specifically the city of Birmingham. Being from the South, I think it is safe to say that we have grown up knowing that Alabama was one of the racist, if not the most racist, states in our country. But every time I learn about it, I am still shocked. Dr. King writes about the Negroes not being registered to vote, the lynchings of his black brothers and sisters, and the racism that infiltrates their justice system. He then uses pathos to engage the reader by writing about having to explain to his children why whites don't like blacks and why they are not allowed to go to amusement parks due to the color of their skin.

  The white clergyman exclaimed that the protesters were causing civic disruption and therefore should be labeled extremists. Dr. King refutes this by speaking on behalf of the non-violent protests and then writing "Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?". He uses historical examples such as Jesus, Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson to convey his point. This idea of being an extremist for love provided me with a different outlook on all types of protests as I am sure it did for the white men who were reading this at the time.

   Lastly, Dr. King's criticism of both the white moderates and the church provided me with a clearer view of the civil rights era. He expresses anger with the white moderates who agree that segregation is wrong but think that "now" is the wrong "time". He writes, "who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season" (4)". As it did to Dr. King, the white moderates also angered me more than the direct racists. He later expresses how the church has not helped in there efforts to obtain freedom from segregation.

I hope to discuss more about the church's poor effort in fighting for the rights of blacks, the racism in Birmingham, the white moderates,  and the aftermaths and effects of the "Letter from Birmingham Jail".

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

The excerpt we read from “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs was very thought provoking and disturbing. The story starts out with the slave girl, walking across town to her grandmother’s house where she is to be hidden in a small shed. The space where she lived was only nine feet long, seven feet wide, and the highest part was 3 feet high. I was astounded by her living conditions, she lived in a small space above a house with no light, very little air, and she could not even sit up. She was forced to sleep with rats and mice running over her body and deal with extreme heat as well as extreme cold. One thing that caused me to look deeper within the story was her dynamic with her master, Dr. Flint, because I found it very interesting and confusing. Dr. Flint and his family repeatedly tried to bribe the girl’s children by offering them “bright little silver pieces and gay handkerchiefs.” Dr. Flint offered a reward to a woman in New York for any information on her, and he even traveled to New York. Why was he trying so hard to find her? Why did he care that much about her? Was it because she “belonged” to him and he did not want to lose property, or was it because she was held some kind of value more than just being a slave to him?

One thing I wondered about was if the man who she passes at the beginning and described as “the father of my children.” I believe it is someone who does not know her well, because they are not able to recognize her dressed differently and with charcoal on her face, even when they touch her. She does not have any emotional attachment to this person when she is describing him. Is it another slave who she was forced to breed with, or is it a white man who took advantage of her? It seems like it is a white man, because he does not seem to care about his children because they are mixed, and he is not able to identify someone who he was intimate with. His ability to walk around town freely is also not something that many slaves would have the pleasure of doing.

Some things I was confused about, was why she was hiding in the attic instead of escaping to the North to be free. I wondered why she would leave her children, who she seems to care for deeply, behind. If Dr. Flint was so bad, why did she chose to leave her children with such a horrid man?  Was Dr. Flint’s treatment of her so much worse than the others? If so why? I was also confused about what her end goal was, where is she going to go after living in the tiny space above the roof, and how long does she end up staying in there for?  

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

We’ve learned about slavery almost every year since seventh grade, but the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” was nothing like I’ve read before. While reading this autobiographical account, I found myself having to take breaks to digest the information.

Frederick Douglass describes his life from birth, to working as a slave, to eventually freedom. He tells stories from his childhood and family, life living under his masters, his work, his education, and his journey to escape. Just within the first two pages of chapter one, I felt so much emotion when he described his mother—never being able to see her, and not even remembering her when she died. As I am writing this blog post, I cannot put into words how I felt while reading about his life and experience working as a slave: food and clothing allowance, being naked in the cold months of winter, witnessing whippings of fellow slaves, punishment, and planning to escape – these things are unimaginable to me.

Frederick Douglass was very smart. He started to learn how to read from Mrs. Auld, but was quickly shut down by Mr. Auld because “it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read” (20). After he successfully learned how to read and write from living in Master Hugh’s family, he started to push his knowledge. He heard of the word “abolitionists” and knew that he wanted to know what that meant, because it was associated with slavery. I thought it was funny when he kind of tricked boys into teaching him new words while he was at the ship-yard (pg 26).

One thing I was confused about was the different masters (Colonel Lloyd, Mr. and Mrs. Auld, Mr. Thomas Hamilton, Master Hugh, etc.) and how Frederick Douglass moved around.

I would like to talk more about his experience as a slave and his journey to freedom in our class discussion.

I found William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," confusing, disturbing, but very thought-provoking. The bulk of the story was eerie,but in a strange way innocent, until the end. We get a glimpse into the strange life of Emily Grierson through a narrator who appears to be a member of the village, as he uses "we" when discussing the village people's actions. Through the thoughts of the narrator and other villagers, we find out quickly that Emily is a very high-class woman who is rich, from an important family, and, as a result, untouchable. Faulkner uses words like "impervious" as well as the description that her taxes are remitted to express the sense that Emily was above-human. In addition, the villagers describe Emily in nouns such as "a fallen monument," (58), an "idol" (60),  and resembling an angel (61) to further show that Emily was so untouchable that she was almost Godly. The villagers are so invested in her life and care about everything she does, as they are always gossiping and whispering about her, yet it is obvious that they don't care about her well being and just want to see her fall. This jealousy is seen when they say, "'She will kill herself'; and we said it would be the best thing" (Faulkner 61). The irrational way the villagers perceive Emily reminds me of how our culture views celebrities, and how we put them on a pedestal as almost God-like. We put so much of our energy into their lives, and subconsciously want them to fall so that we can feel better about ourselves. Through the story, we see that Emily does finally struggle, after her father dies. The people of the village are pleased, as "at last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized. Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less" (60). Struggles humanized Emily and brought her down from her high seat above everyone else. Now with her father gone and no husband, she finally was going through the pain that normal people go through, and the people of her village were happy that they could finally put themselves above Miss Emily by pitying her.
On a different note, I found Emily's relationship with her father very disturbing, as if he controlled her and guarded her from the rest of the world. I think that her father was to blame for her complete lack of friends. There are many other disturbing aspects of the story, as Emily acts very strange and scary at times, as if she could control and manipulate people, in addition to the fact that she never leaves her house for forty years. The rotten scent that comes from her house makes sense by the end of the story, with the eerie scene of the village finding the dead Homer Barron, with a "profound and fleshless grin" (64). I was confused with this scene, which describes in addition to the dead body of Homer, an "indentation of a head" (64) on the pillow next to him, and how they found her iron-gray hair in its nostril. This shows that Emily killed Homer, but was there another body as well?
I believe that Emily killed Homer because she wanted to create a perfect idea in her mind where she was finally married, and since Homer was gay, she could only accomplish this by killing him so that this fantasy could exist in her mind forever. Miss Emily was so lonely from a complete lack of friends, as well as a lack of love in her life, that she became a murderer.

Pantaloon in Black

While reading Faulkner’s short story Pantaloon in Black I was both shocked and horrified as I read the story of Rider and how the death of his wife lead to such tragic events for him. After the death of his beloved Mannie, Rider seems to have gone insane even seeing a ghost of his dead wife in his home. Crazed by grief, Rider is led to kill a white man in a drunken rage. Because he is a black man he is lynched for his crimes without ever seeing a court room. While this story was disturbing, I found the reaction of the sheriff’s deputy and especially his wife much more disturbing. While the deputy is telling his wife the story of a man who lost his love and ultimately lost his life, she doesn’t seem to care. This is very telling of the time period they are in where a black man is seen as more an animal than a human. This also seen in their blatant lack of respect for the law when it comes to punishing Rider for his crimes first throwing both him and his Aunt in jail and then turning the other way as he is killed without trial. Because they are white, this couple couldn’t care about the fate of someone they see as lesser than them. This can be seen the very most at the end of the story where the deputy’s wife tells her husband doesn't care a bit about this story, and tells him to shut up and eat. In this instance you can see the clear disdain and callous of the wife against the black man as she goes about her day regardless of his horrible fate. I found this to be more disturbing than the story of Rider himself because it is hard to imagine people being so cold-hearted than a man’s life means nothing to them. It’s also hard to comprehend than there was a time in which people were seen as equivalent to animals just because of their race and as a society we are still dealing with the effects of this belief even today. One thing I would also like to talk about in class would be what the title means because I had a hard time understanding how it tied into the story.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Similar to "Revelation", Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is another religious allegory. We have an older woman who undergoes a self-realization because of an external force. Mary Grace causes Mrs. Turpin to become aware of her hypocrisy and the Misfit exposes the grandmother for her true nature. Throughout the story, the grandmother was opinionated and self-righteous, continually using Christianity and the ''good old days'' as basis for her superiority and it was not until her encounter with the Misfit that she was no longer able to hide behind her excuses. The grandmother, in her attempted reasoning with the Misfit, comes to a strange, dreamlike resolution right before he shoots her. Once his henchmen come back from the woods, they discuss her blubbering nature and the Misfit says "She would have been a good woman,...If it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life". In this statement, he is talking about how the grandmother only wanted to atone for her sins when she knew that she would be near the end of her life. Before, she would attempt to manipulate others around her to get her own way and in the end, it was this that ultimately led to her and her family's demise. Had she been honest rather than hiding the fact that their destination was in a different state, Bailey would not have continued and the family would not have been murdered. Unlike "Revelation", the magnitude of the consequences that the central character faces is much greater, teaching us that we cannot atone for our mistakes only when we know we do not have much time left.

Revelation

Throughout Flannery O'Connor's, "Revelation", the definition of grotesque became increasingly fitting for the story as it twisted from a normal day at the doctor's office to an eye-opening coming to God experience. The main character, Ruby Turpin, has a complete 360 of how she perceives people, as she was originally a very pretentious class obsessed woman who then realized that her own vanity and feeling of superiority would be her demise. This short story made me realize that our class or status in society or in any situation is ultimately irrelevant when our life is over and is insignificant to God. Ruby Turpin spent so much time worrying about her public image and her prominence around her peers that it consumed her life in every aspect. I feel this could be related to anyone who cares deeply about their public image, which is most people out there whether it be their financial situations or their outward appearance. People will always care about how they are perceived, but to waste one's life on something that will not matter is useless in the end. "Revelation" makes this message clear as Ruby sees herself in the back of the line on the way to Heaven as she has a vision of the after-life and realizes her faults.

"Revelation" as earlier stated, has many grotesque characters and situations featured throughout the story. Many of the people in this story are grotesque as they seem to be dirty or ugly people in funny situations. The young daughter in this story has horrible acne and a scarred face, yet her mother is a beautiful, pleasant woman much unlike her. She eventually strangles Mrs. Turpin, which is kind of funny and dark, and sets Mrs. Turpin off on her "Revelation" as she ponders the event. Mrs. Turpin is very fat, which could be frowned upon back then, but she tends to think the world of herself no matter what. We think of her as an ugly person, yet she makes the story very comical as we laugh at how she lives her life and her view on the world. The family in the office is also very dirty and almost freaky, but also offers comic relief throughout the story. Claude is also a very strange character who seems to be under the complete control of Mrs. Turpin, and almost acts strangely childish in their relationship, he also has a gross ulcer on his leg, but his major injury is rather pushed aside by Mrs. Turpin's frivolous conversation with the pleasant woman.

Something I would really like to discuss is Biblical references in "Revelation" and how they connect to the characters and their behavior throughout the story. I would also like to discuss any other grotesque situations seen throughout the story.