“Lethal” by Joyce Carol Oates: The Sinister Element 

"Lethal" by J.C. Oates could potentially be very upsetting to some audiences, this is due to the sinister element created by the implied violence in this piece. 

We had to read this piece it terms of it being a monologue and look into it for effective or not techniques that build a unique voice and essentially characterize the person that the monologue belongs to. 

Reading this piece I decided to look into this sinister quality of the man that is created through the repetition. This repetition of "a little" in the the first half of the monologue and the emphasis on that is placed on it at the end of almost every sentence creates a sense of a romantic scene between a man and a woman. It'd could be interpreted as a man talking softly to his parter. 

Later, as soon as the first demand comes through the use "Don't" one begins to understand that the woman may not exactly enjoy the situation and the sinister elements comes about slightly, it is not until he says "I won't hurt if you don't scream" and blaming her for "exaggerating". This is when the reader understands that this could potentially develop to a rape scene really fast. This is when the sinister element intensifies and the repetitive use of "a little" takes a very sinister like meaning. 

At this point we can really see this character through his words.We can see him believing in all the accusations and remarks that he's making about the woman he's talking to. He's blaming her and becomes aggressive really fast. There's a contrast creating to the calmer and more implied sinister quality of the first part through the diminishing of his actions by the expression "a little" but at this point he gets aggravate and the sinister elements because very evident and dangerous. 

He's repeating  "you're" followed by a blame, he makes it look as if it's the woman's fault. 

This shift in temper and personality is really effective in creating this real like feel of this man. He's very realistic and  you can see his delusion that it's her fault and that she wants to "castrate him" escalate making the implication of the crime that's about to follow very vivid.

It's a very effective monologue and it encapsulates this three-dimensional character. 

The student's wife by Raymond Carver

I loved this prose because of the detailed description of mundane events such as Nan trying to fall asleep, that created a beautiful image for me. I also liked that it was a bit ambiguous, it left me wondering when I was done reading it. Like why was Nan crying, is it because she couldn't fall asleep or because she is not satisfied with her life and there is a lot more she wants or she wishes she could have. When she saw the sunrise and it was a disappointing sunrise for her, I thought that maybe that symbolized life for her. That the sunrise was one of the many things that disappointed her. I also thought about why she couldn't fall asleep and why she was scared of being awake by herself. And trying to imagine and figure out Nan and her feelings while reading this was really interesting.

Frying Trout While Drunk by Lynn Emanuel

This poem is a reflection of how women can be abuse themselves due to the influence of alcohol. The mother of the author is constantly drunk, and is in an abusive relationship, and after it ends she drowns herself in alcohol in an effort to forget this seemingly futile affair. The author is not only sexually abused as a youngster when she observes sexual acts between her mother and the man, but she also picks up her mother's drinking habits. The author uses vivid adjectives- the man's 'lechery' behavior and how the 'dark slung across the porch' indicating not only the literal darkness but the hopelessness in her life and surroundings.

Frying Trout While Drunk

I found the poem to be touching in the way that only a narrative can.  I was able to visualize the scenes because of the way the writer described each character.  The characters didn't feel like fictional characters because of their relatable issues. I liked the title of the poem and the imagery used to go along with it.  The story left me wanting more.  I wanted to know more about the characters, I wanted to know what happened to them.   I realized that I was concerned about them.  I think the poem was well written and the characters were well developed. 
 

Casualty

Casualty

In the first few lines, Heaney shares a lot of information about his character in simple terms. He barely has to say anything and I can see the man, who I know is a regular in this pub or bar as he only needs to gesture ‘toward the high shelf’ with his ‘weathered thumb’ to make his order understood. The ‘discrete dumb-show’ was both easy to visualise and almost sad – it made me think of someone resigned to his position, but not wanting to admit the truth out loud. This sadness deepens when we learn he, as a ‘dole-kept breadwinner’, both likely has a family to support and is unemployed. The language is swishy and delicious – ‘showery dark’, ‘sidling tact/turned observant back’, ‘sure-footed but too sly’ and the half-rhymes shifting about from the A lines to the B lines add to the sense that something is going to upset this scene. When we get to the graffiti – ‘PARAS THIRTEEN, BOGSIDE NIL’ is a chilling detail of lives treated as a game, but ‘at home by his own crowd’ makes the character himself feel caught up in this metaphor.

Response to "The Student's Wife" by Raymond Carver

     The first thing that caught my attention in the short story "The Student's Wife", by Raymond Carver, was how real the scene felt to me.  However, it was real to me in a more emotional way than a physical way; I could feel the annoyance of the husband and the desperation of the wife more than I could visualize what they looked like.   Perhaps it was because I read this piece while I was very sleepy, but it was easy for me to sympathize with Mike while he keeps drifting off and Nan keeps trying to wake him up.  I was very annoyed by the timing of her nagging, and how just when Mike was drifting off, Nan would have another request to keep him from his much desired sleep.  Then, there was a turning point on page 205 where Mike stays asleep and the point of view shifts to Nan.  It is at this point when I started to feel even more uncomfortable, because the excruciating detail and abruptness with which Carver expresses her thoughts so perfectly captured the feeling of insomnia.  Enumerating all the little tasks Nan runs around doing, trying to get to sleep and the restless nature with  which she does them made me feel almost panicky and frantic for this woman to get to sleep, because I could relate to the feeling so much.  The most compelling detail for me was the repeated crying that Nan does, because it seemed like such a helpless action at that point, and made her seem so alone.  By the end of this story, though it was only a few pages, I felt like I had been up all night with this woman, and I wanted to go to bed so badly!
     However, I think this story was more about unhappiness than exhaustion, and the first hint of this is when Nan starts listing all the things she "would like" as opposed to the things she already "likes" (204), and this emotion is built upon and culminates with her prayer for help at the end of the story (206).  The exhaustion only helps accentuate the feeling of helplessness and unhappiness that Nan feels.  It is the kind of desperation that keeps her up all night and makes her feel totally alone even when she is so physically close to others.  

Aunt Sue's Stories

In "Aunt Sue's Stories" Langston Hughes tells a story about a woman who tells stories. I find this idea in itself to be very interesting. The narrator talks about how powerful these stories are; these stories that he knows come from real life. I have noticed that in my own writing the most powerful stories are those that come from my own experiences. There is something captivating about a story that has real emotion behind it, and real life stories always have emotion in them. Even though Hughes's poem is very short you can still feel the emotion in it. The verbs he uses work very well to tell his story: working, walking, singing, listening. His adjectives are also very effective too: hot, dewey, mighty, softly. The verbs and the adjectives work together to bring the emotion to the poem. When I read it I can feel the emotion in Aunt Sue's stories, the physical exertion and at the same time the bond between the slaves. I can also feel the emotion of the narrator, his complete captivation in these stories. He could listen to them all night without losing interest.

 "The Student's Wife" by Raymond Carver

What really draw my attention in this story is the shift from the wife's needy requests to her trying to get to sleep. 

I could strongly identify with her struggle and how she spent time on her bed thinking and then how she gave up and got off the bed and spent the entire night moving around the house, doing random things. 

I feel that this was a turning point in the story, especially in terms of characterization. 

Initially I thought that the couple was happily married, then that the wife is really needy (to the extent that she may be sick, that's why she has all these requests) but then I realized that the wife is just really concerned and scared of the future. Her concerns keep her awake, as if they hunt her.

This turning point provided a fuller sense of the context, by implying that this is a struggling family. You realize that they have bills to pay and that they are parents with many responsibilities. They are not just a couple reading poetry on their bed while carelessly smoking cigarets. There's a clear contrast between the expectations that the reader has in the beginning of the story than the expectations further down the story. 

I found it an intriguing story as I wanted to keep reading to see what will happen. I think that the dialogue as well as the shift and the contrast were the main tools that made this a special story.

"The Students Wife"

The Student’s Wife is a piece that speaks volumes. There is vivid passion described between the couple, as he reads to her and fights through sleep to please her with a sandwich and listen to her lists of likes and dislikes. But the underlying problems they share are as clear and evident as ever. She tells him the story of when they were younger and together, what seemed like a happier time that she was searching for in that moment she was currently in with him. He, to her dismay, is there with her but only physically. Emotionally the picture that is painted is the lack of intimacy leading to fleeting love. There togetherness feels like a chore, or a routine instead of a partnership and relationship. The actions of one night are evidence of the lacking connection they share. When she hears the children make a peep she listens waiting to hear more, to feel more, such as waiting to hear from her husband. It is almost as if she is searching anywhere to find a connection she is lacking. She does not want to loose what she has and fears she already may be past that point. It is a cry for help to re-iginite the passion and life she once knew. 

Amanda Hershman 

Langston Hughes' "Aunt Sue's Stories"

Langston Hughes' "Aunt Sue's Stories" is simplistic and resonating, because of the significance that each word and each image carry. In my opinion, Hughes did not characterize Aunt Sue to be anyone specific, did not use any physical description to paint her into our minds. However, this is probably why the poem is so resonating. Aunt Sue, then, is not just one person, but has become symbolic. Most of us grew up with a family member, whether an aunt, a grandmother, or a grandfather, who carries history, and not just their own, within themselves. Aunt Sue in this poem embodies exactly that family member. She's the one standing within the flow of history, connecting her generation to the next by the stories of herself and her community. The second stanza develops this idea particularly well with specific yet encompassing descriptions: "Black slaves/ Working in the hot sun," "Walking in the dewy night," and "singing sorrow songs on the banks of a mighty river." The image of them "[mingling] [...] softly/ in the flow of old Aunt Sue's voice" is definitely resonating for me, and it further signifies Aunt Sue's important role in educating the younger generation the history that they themselves never had to go through. The fact that the kids listening to Aunt Sue's stories are described more physically and specifically: "a brown-faced child," "the dark-haired child," and "the dark-faced child" while Aunt Sue is described more vaguely and abstractly: "a head full of stories" and "a whole heart full of stories" definitely furthers the idea that Aunt Sue is a symbolic character. Langdon Hughes' characterization of Aunt Sue is resonating because his use of abstract imagery to describe a concrete person has made "Aunt Sue" symbolic and spiritual, has turned her into a character that connects the present and the past, a character to whom most of us can relate our lives.

~Huong T.

"The Student's Wife" by Carver is believable

      When I was reading "The Student's Wife" by Raymond Carver, I kept thinking about how the story is easy for me to picture taking place in real life.  Maybe this is because the dialogue is straight forward and simple, as are the actions of the characters.  For example, when the man in the story "groaned extravagantly as he rolled out of bed" to go make his wife a sandwich (202)  I could just see a tired and aggravated guy who only wanted to sleep but still felt responsible for getting his wife the sandwich she wanted.  Also, when Mike (the man) is falling asleep but the wife, Nan, wants him to listen to her talking, the fact that she keeps checking "do you remember that?" (202, 203) is sometimes the sort of repetition I'll use when I want to make sure someone gets what I'm saying.  There are also instances throughout the story of back-and-forth dialogue which is realistic to me. 
Also, I think that because the story doesn't end up all neat and problem-free, it is more like what happens in our lives.  Most of the time, our problems won't go away with one go at fixing them, and we get quite upset at feeling so helpless, just like Nan seems to do at the end of the story (in the last paragraph of 206).

"The Student's Wife" by Raymond Carver

When I first read this short story, I felt that the student and his wife were a happy couple. Then, I was introduced to the demands of the wife. Even though I initially felt that her demands were a little too much, I realized that they were a stereotypical long-married couple - the wife constantly wanted more attention that the husband was too tired to give. I was engaged in her stories of her dream, of their young marriage and her desires. I felt that she was loved when her husband fixed her a sandwich despite being tired and listen (inattentively) to the story of her dream. I felt that she was neglected as she tried harder to have her husband engaged by engaging him in talking about their past. After the unsuccessful try, I felt sorry for her when she expressed her desires that seemed to be unfulfilled. Her sleepy husband's reaction amplified my empathy towards her.

In life, many a times, we could not get what we want, but we constantly tried to obtain them. We used different ways to get what we want. In the case of the wife, she utilized several ways to get her husband's attention. From her gestures and her stories, I came to know more about her life and her personalities. The short story was set up in a fluid manner as the plot was slowly laid to describe a long night.

However, the unexpected twist at the ending of the story gave the story a different flavor. I thought that I knew the wife's characteristics from her previous actions, but I was disproved towards the end of the story! It subtly reminded me that not everything (in life) could be easily predicted. After her (protective) husband fell asleep, the wife was very aware of her surrounding and she realized that this was no longer a dream. She was afraid and she began to see the reality - her problems! Her friends were inexistent, her love life was lack of pleasure, her son and her husband did not have proper suits and her family's bills were unpaid. With the rise of the sun, she began to clearly see them.

At this point, I began to see the reason behind the wife's longings and attachment to her dreams and her past memories. She was running away from the harsh real world! This story was real and relatable. Even though the main theme was subtly presented, it was presented so realistically that it continued to float at the back of my mind, even after I put the story away for a day now.

Needing and Wanting in Carver's The Student's Wife

Upon beginnging to read Raymond Carver's short story The Student's Wife I have to admit that I was annoyed. I was peeved at the constant whining of the strong husband who just wanted to sleep. He makes her a sandwich, he rubs her feet, keeps his eyes from their only desire to close...he's the guy who does "the little stuff" of whom the flashy ladies magazines dream. Then enter his wife, a disheveled and needy thing hell-bent on keeping him awake and making him suffer insomnia with her. She is a being of wants.

As the story continues I begin to identify with the husband even more. Paragraph after paragraph she chides him from sleeping and nags for a constant flow of information. I don't want to read these scenes either--there is a reason they are in bed and goddamnit she needs to let them sleep. 

It is only when she begins to cry that I realize something is amiss. And all at once I begin to feel like the husband too busy and encumbered with his own daily life to pay attention to the person he married, the mother of his children. As her crying is uninterrupted by the silent house I feel shame and guilt in not responding. How was I so careless while reading to not pick up on these signs of desperate loneliness? A whole paragraph of everyday pleasures by which she defines a happy, whole life. Her statements are really pleads for affection. I am deplorably silent at her recognition of needing, not wanting. 

Blog Response to “Aunt Sue’s Stories” by Langston Hughes

     Given our assignment on characterization for this week, I was even more aware and amazed at the ways in which Langston Hughes managed to create such a vivid character in Aunt Sue with no physical description of her, no distinct facts about her current life. We only know that she is an aunt; that she holds a child in her lap, and most importantly that like all of us she is comprised of stories. “Aunt Sue has a head full of stories./ Aunt Sue has a whole heart full of stories” (1-2). It is with these lines that Hughes first makes the aunt real, that we understand how deeply these stories resonate within her. The stories so much a part of her foundation become a part of the child’s foundation as well when she shares them. “And the dark haired child knows” Hughes writes, “that Aunt Sue’s stories are real stories” (18).  The child comes to know his aunt’s past through what she tells him, and also comes to know his own. Looking at it through the lens of our own work with writing I find it fascinating how the same way the child comes to know his aunt through his stories, I as a reader came to know her as well, not just through the stories themselves, but through the braveness of the act of telling them.

     The stanza in which Hughes relates the aunt’s stories is beautiful, poignant in its repetition and in the simplistic yet intense images that fill the aunt’s mind. “Black slaves/ Working in the hot sun,/ And black slaves/ Walking in the dewy night,/ And black slaves/ Singing sorrow songs on the banks of a mighty river/ Mingle themselves softly/ In the flow of Aunt Sue’s voice,” (6-13). The figures of Aunt Sue’s past comes alive in these images, and so too does Aunt Sue herself.  I see the ghosts she carries within her and her power as she brings them back to life.

     I love this poem because though it is made up of so little, it carries the weight of so much. The character that Hughes creates in Aunt Sue holds within her a multitude of other characters and lives. I loved her because Hughes allowed me to see into her, to see her strength in her ability to share a painful past, to give it to the future.  Hughes creates an instant of reality, an exchange between two people, in which they both become known, in which their stories make them anew and bring them to life. For it is not only Aunt Sue we come to know through her stories, but the child through his. The narrator has taken up the burden and the blessing, telling a story of his own that allows us to come to know him as well. This poem contains stories within stories, characters within characters, and I love finding new depth each time I look at it.

Reflection on "Aunt Sue's Stories" by Langston Hughes

As I read this poem I could not help but hear the voice of my own “Aunt Sue” telling me stories as I was a child. To me the beauty in this poem came from the universality of the character of “Aunt Sue.” While she is presented as an individual with distinct characteristics, the vagueness of such descriptions allow the reader to transpose her existence and presence into their own lives.

While, at a first glance it may appear to be a simple poem, when I looked deeper I found simple language expressing some of the most profound and integral human emotions—affection, admiration and love. But aside from the love the narrator shows for his Aunt, Hughes also presents storytelling itself as an expression of love. I was surprised to find such love and beauty in this poem that speaks about slavery. There is beauty in these stories of "black slaves/Singing sorrow songs on the banks of a mighty river" and of "black slaves/ working in the hot sun," thus stories of pain and suffering, because these stories are shared through Aunt Sue's love for the "dark-faced child" she "cuddles."  There is a beauty in the simplicity of this poem, that despite its minimalism this poem is able to capture the transcending art that story telling is and the pure emotions that play a part in the act of sharing stories.

Repetition in "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

I thoroughly enjoyed the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes, but I could not figure out what it was about the poem that drew me in. I read it and re-read it over and over trying to figure out what it was about this poem when finally it clicked with me. In this short poem Hughes repeats what he says at the beginning of the poem at the end and for me this use of repetition works very well to emphasize his point and tie the whole poem together. Also when I read the poem I noticed that it has a certain flow to it. The words come out of my mouth in a rhythm that reminds me of the flow of water in a river. I was also drawn in by how strongly such a short poem could affect me. Each word in the poem has a meaning and a purpose. There is not a single unnecessary word in it. After reading this poem I now want to read more of his works. In my own work I often have unnecessary words and sentences, and I think that I could learn a bit about the importance of each word in a story from Hughes.

Minor Miracle by Marilyn Nelson

Marilyn Nelson's style of writing is what excited me the most about her poem, "Minor Miracle."  In the first line of the poem I liked how she described her memory "another knock-on-wood memory."  This description prepared me for a story that would have some danger and a narrow escape.  I hung on to each word of the prose as if I was watching scenes from a movie.  The suspense was building and the use of the racial slur sparked fear in me for the friends who were out minding their business taking in the sights.  The two bikers did not appear to be surprised at the truck drivers blatant racism.  However, I felt several different emotions.  I liked that the poem made me feel.  I felt fear and sadness for the two friends and I felt contempt for the truck driver.  I was anxious to know what happened, convinced that there would not be a positive ending to the story. 
The scenes continued to roll and the writers use of description and the repeating of the racial slur created tension.  The writers word choices helped to build suspense for a tragic ending, or at least I was prepared for an outcome nothing like the one the writer chose.  I was shocked and breathed a sigh of relief.  That was when I realized that I had been holding my breath.