My Reflection, "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty

I was immediately immersed in the story.  The way Welty goes into great depth to describe the character Phoenix.  I could picture her as she walked, "along a path through the pinewoods."  Through her description I could also envision my grandmother, who used to walk through the woods and I remember thinking how brave she was.  This is how I viewed this character an old lady, small and frail, yet unafraid and determined to make her journey.   The character's name, Phoenix  made me think that the story would be about a person  who will or has encountered hardship and overcomes it.  The descriptions of the things along the path remind me of scenes from my childhood in Mississippi.  Because of these descriptions and scenery the story had more meaning for me.  The mention of trees and barbed -wire fence, snakes, and cornfields made me think of Mississippi before I knew that the scene was set in Natchez, Mississippi. 

Phoenix has made this journey before because she can almost make it with her eyes closed.   Hence, the significance of the title, A Worn Path.  There is a recurring of the theme of birds in the story.  The character's name Phoenix, the mythical bird, the solitary little bird, and the mourning bird all give meaning to the story.
Welty uses a lot of themes and symbolism throughout the story that captures the attention of the reader.  As I read the story I tried to figure out what meaning the  different characters or images add to meaning of the story.
I like Welty's style of writing and her use of dialogue.  I am happy to have been introduced to this writer.  I look forward to reading more of her work.

The Worn Path by Eudora Welty

This story is a short piece of work with a lot of detail. The old lady starts of a long journey into town, and it is not clear whether she is dreaming or not, for it is hard to believe that a woman so frail and old could walk so far  through bushes, creeks and farmland. She does have her moments of delirium but she quickly recovers. The first sign of reality comes when she meets the young white whom she interacts with briefly. An indication of the period in history is shown by the name the man calls her, and the response she gives when he asks her why she is not afraid of the gun he points at her. She finally arrives at the doctor's, where the author reveals that she is in fact taking care of her grand-son. The story is sad and touching, and it draws sympathy from the read. However, the woman is a little unreliable in the way she speaks and one is left to wonder if all the toil of walking so far in the heat was done in vain due to her old age.

Narrative voice in "The Worn Path"

Reading "The Worn Path," I found that the narrative voice is what stands out the most for me. Made up entirely of images and actions, without one single direct description of emotions, yet coupled with Phoenix talking to herself and her dialogues, this narrative voice works so well in evoking emotions in readers. On one hand, this seemingly detached narrative serves to mimic the single-minded determination of the main character. By focusing solely on her actions and what she sees along the road, with detailed descriptions of the setting and how she sees it, the narrative voice also creates a sense of suspension for the forthcoming resolution of the story. It makes readers ask questions and keep reading to find the answers: why is she making this long journey? Why does she pick up the nickel? Why is she so resolute when the journey is so difficult? Moreover, the narrative voice stands out distinctively from the voices of the characters, Phoenix, the hunter, the nurses. This contributes to the emotion-evoking nature of this story, as it highlights the dialogues and mini-monologues that characterize Phoenix as a three-dimensional character. Because of this seeming detachment from the protagonist, the narrative voice serves as the perfect unbiased background for readers to notice and understand Phoenix as a character through her actions and words, making the emotional attachment to this character the readers' own feelings, unaffected by the narrator. And for me, that's probably why the story resonates so strongly.

Several Blessings

On page 1171 the description of the house came off the page and I could imagine it when closing my eyes. From the distinct sounds and smells it painted a more intimate picture of their home. The details were so vidid as well as the emotion in Sage and Ta-nien voices when they spoke. The expert flowed and felt like I was witnessing the story unfold, not just reading it. My favorite line was when Sage said, "I knew a little about everything, but now can't claim to be an expert in anything." I read it with a sound of hope fading mixed with dissapointment. That his life is passing and who he once was did not turn out to what he thought. How memories can not only shape but later frame a person and how the world is a scary place but with the right people can feel safe. I really enjoyed the expert and felt it was not just an easy read but relatable in the sense that people change as well as friendships but some bonds never fade.

"The Several blessings of Wang Ta-nien"

The introduction of the short story was rather significant for me. Usually, in short stories, the first part was one that foreshadowed the rest of the stories. This story, on the other hand, had an introduction that was contradictory to the story, that not only did it contribute to the settings of the story, it characterized the characters as well, particularly Ta-nien. The schedule that was taped to the wall mirror was ironic. According to his schedule, he was seen as a fit man, as he planned to do push-ups twice a day. However, as characterized later in the story, he was a man with a big belly who broke a chair and fell as he laid back in his chair. Also, by referring to his schedule, he seemed to be a rather educated man, but his plans later showed that he was rather far away from one. Similar to his schedule, with an unstuck tape that hung more loosely by day, Ta-nien's rationality (and wisdom) was worn off as the days went by. Later in the story, his wife, Wen-chin mocked him on his numerous but fruitless plans. I could see that the plans got more ridiculous as time progressed. And yet, none of them came true and both Ta-nien and the Sage still remained teachers and did not become "independent".

Despite being rather silly, Ta-nien was blessed with a few things. First, he had upgraded from a single room to two due to the bonus that he received along with the certificate of merit which he proudly flagged to his wife. Even though his house was not luxurious, he was better off than the Sage. He could host the Sage to weekly dinners, but the Sage could hardly express his desire to ask them over. His hardship was further explained by Wen-chin, as she asked him to save money for a new suit as his was worn with time. To add to the irony (and somewhat absurdity) of the story, the Sage wanted to treat them to delicacy such as Peking duck, whereas Ta-nien merely served pork ribs and wine to his guest, despite his hardships. Wen-chin's advice showed that she was the most rational of all the characters. She was the other blessing that Ta-nien had. The Sage's flashback to their younger days showed that she also had great looks. Again, the irony of this story was that she chose to marry Ta-nien who seemed rather unwise as compared to her. Their marriage budded off to a family, which was still expanding. Last, but not least, Ta-nien was blessed with people around him - his wife, his children and his friend, the Sage. His wife remained beside him, and even continued to bear children for him although she was perpetually angry at him in which I found rather hard not to, as he was rather absurd in aforementioned ways. His child, Little Oak, was happy for him, even though he did not know what was happening. He was happy to see his father happy. The Sage was willing to lose his job for Ta-nien's plan (which might not even happen). His willingness showed that people around Ta-nien were really blessings to him. However, as irony as this story was, it might also be because he was not very wise himself (despite both of them being teachers, and the one who proposed The Plan was one who was recognized for outstanding service) as Wen-chin said, "I can't say that between you two, I had a wide choice."

Response to A Worn Path by Eudora Welty

Phoenix Jackson, the heroine of this story, is seen walking to the city called Natchez, like many other times in the past in order to get medicine for her grandson.

This journey has many fairytale-like qualities, meaning that the heroine is going through many situations that hinder her progress. Many of these obstacles are nature related. The way the narration develops I came to understand that it is not the physical aspect of her journey that makes it hard, but the fact that these physical endeavor symbolizes her internal struggles. This became apparent on account of as nature reflecting Phoenix's internal psychological struggles. She is having a hard time with her age and grandson's situation that nature itself manifests these struggles through bushes, trees and others. It is a very fascinating take of her story.

When Phoenix get to the Hospital and interacts with the nurses my eyes water. I seriously can't stop thinking that her grandson is actually long gone. Dead. She is lost in her mind, she forgets but keeps going to get his medicine out of deep love. It is a heartbreaking story. It is incredible how much emotion an implicated fact can cause. If the nurses hadn't ask whether her grandson was dead I don't think that I would have thought about it. It seems that this was intended. It makes her journey purposeful and justifies her internal struggles that as it happens they derive from eternal love and bonding to her grandson. 

A Worn Path

I was curious about this character from the start – not sure if I was supposed to like her to begin with, with her headwear dismissed as a rag, her walk described as ‘balanced’ but the description still coming off as awkward, her unusual smell, her ‘grave and persistent’ tapping down on the earth between steps with unlaced shoes – is she trying to annoy me? 

I started to enjoy her more as she reacted to the things she encountered along her path, how she talks to or questions or scolds the animals or states the virtues of water or weeds without deigning to praise: she is ‘bound to go on her way’ and everything is what it is. I felt very much that I was viewing her from above, from up in the trees that shadowed her, and seeing behaviour I wasn’t necessarily supposed to – I wondered if the character would talk in the same way if she knew she was being observed. 

It was interesting to have the scene descriptions in part vocalised by the character – up through pines/down through oaks/sun so high, and it didn’t come over awkward because it seemed natural for her to self narrate, all alone with with her failing eyesight. And I was as tricked as Phoenix by the boy with the marble-cake – even though I’d felt we were alone I accepted his sudden presence (maybe since beyond the swirled appearance, ‘marble’ just feels solid and imposing) but had him quickly dashed away. I enjoyed the rhythm of chopped back narrative phrases – ‘she took it for a man’, ‘a pattern all its own’ and how they mirrored her pared down speech – “come running my direction”, “I too old”. My favourite contact between her speech and the narration was the description the quail walking ‘seeming all dainty and unseen” and her remark and reflection on that, “Walk pretty. This is the easy place.”.

Subtilty in "Hills Like White Elephants"

I really enjoyed "Hills Like White Elephants" for 2 reasons: 1. I enjoyed the subtile way in which the two characters talked about an abortion, without ever mentioning the word abortion, and 2. I enjoyed the way in which the author characterized these two characters through their speech. The majority of the piece does not explicitly say who is speaking, but as a reader it is very easy to tell because these two characters are so different. They both want different things, the man wants the woman to have an abortion, but he does not want to force her into it. He wants her to want to have one. The woman on the other hand does not want to think about it at all, instead she just wishes that she never got pregnant in the first place. The author is able to show us this simply through dialogue. I personally often struggle writing dialogue and I found that this piece was a great example of dialogue done well. It not only helps move the plot forward, but it also helps to characterize the characters, in this case it is pretty much the only thing in the story that is characterizing the characters.

In Response to "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty

From the beginning, I was very invested in the outcome of this story.  I think that not knowing where the story was going, but knowing that it was going somewhere made me curious and kept my attention.  I was also very worried about what would happen to Phoenix.  Welty does a good job of making her seem like a tough old lady who can make this journey through her monologue addressed at the wildlife around her.  However, the description of Phoenix gave me the impression that she was very fragile and vulnerable compared to the abundant wildlife she is journeying through.  She has the air of a person who was not to be messed with when she was younger, and still has that mentality, but not the physicality to match it.  This is the reason I was particularly worried about here as a reader, because it seemed as if she had taken on a little more than she could handle with this trip into town.    Her character changes dramatically in the presence of the nurse and the attendant.  She becomes much less fierce and apparently loses her memory for a little bit.  This new softer persona is enhanced by the knowledge that she made her long journey to get medicine for her grandson.  This scene gives a completely new dimension to her character.  Throughout the story, Phoenix's fierce spirit seems to decline as she approaches civilization.  Starting with her encounter with the hunter, she begins to appear less and less dignified and tough, and by the end, she is being treated with  condescension and almost seems like a crazy old lady.  Dialogue and encounters with other characters had a huge influence on how I viewed Phoenix as a character.

Weathers of the Memory and Present Day--Nieh's Several Blessings

In Nieh's short story Several Blessings I deeply appreciated the numerous locations that were mentioned. In some stories with one setting heavily described I find the line line being crossed; the symbolism is too overdone, too emphasized, too plain. I found Nieh's to be in complete equilibrium. 

It's wonderful the way the different stages of life are alluded to through weather and nature. I'm enamored by Sage when he recalls the picture-perfect mise-en-scene of his stroll down Lovebird Road with his friend's wife who we discover is the one who got away. His adoration of her astounding beauty combined with her many emotional lightings highlighted by the two willow trees at different times of day is a very interesting juxtaposition. Nieh then breaks from that cyclical day comparison and leads the reader to many other nature representations through the different periods of one's life. 

Later in the short story Nieh writes in more gloomy weather for the unknown (and probably tumultuous) future of Ta-nien and Sage. In stark contrast to the springtime or summer memory of Sage, this windy weather's emphasis is blatantly shown in the last paragraph: "And turning into his own house, Ta-nien pretended to feel afraid of nothing in the whole wide windy world". Now that the character is back in the present day, the uncertainty and mercurial nature arise and frankly make us really, really scared. (I know, using my big girl words.) We're safe in our memories where we know what to expect. But then again, risk and living only happen in the present. 

Unrelated: There's this memory, this thought that keeps coming up when I think about the many settings of Ta-nien and Sage. Whenever I think of my 5th grade year, I do not instantly recall social dalliances or other run-of-the-mill memories. Instead, I picture in my mind the view of my classroom from out in the hall. This glance, without any of any classmate or faculty member, speaks to me. I can't describe what it makes me feel, but I do know that it is my visual label of that year. It's a still of that period of time that lends itself to be repeated. This is the only thing that comes to mind when Sage's mind brings up the willow tree walk. 
I haven't explained this fully, or to any degree of quality really, but I'll try to mull this thought over in the hope of sharing it later. 

Reflection on “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty

 It is not every day that I am drawn to a character as quickly as I was drawn to Phoenix Jackson. Perhaps it was the immediate contrast between “Phoenix,” reminding me of a mythical bird that rises from the ashes, and “Jackson,” a very ordinary name that captured by attention? She is described to us as a “very old and small” woman carrying a “thin, small cane made from an umbrella.” Yet despite her obvious physical weaknesses, there is a level of respect and admiration as ironically, while fragile, she emanates strength through her perseverance and determination. Even before we find out the purpose of her trip, her conviction as she “looked straight ahead” is intriguing. Her unthreatening presence as she continues on her journey creates tension as to the reader she is not only vulnerable because of her age, but also exposed to the harshness of the elements. This tension escalates with her encounter with the hunter. Even as I re-read this story I can feel a strong sense of nervousness as it is unsure whether she will reach her destination. This tension builds even more as she has a lapse in memory at a crucial moment.  Welt’s masterful use of imagery creates an almost magical place where the sun makes the “pine needles almost too bright to look at” and where “cones dropped as light as feathers.” But what I also realised is how through the description of the life around Phoenix, for example the “chirping of a solitary little bird” or the “mourning dove” we are given glimpses into who Phoenix is. However what really struck me was the moment where Phoenix says, “We is the only two left in the world…. He going to last.” On one hand there is sadness as to the reader Phoenix’s age will soon prevent her from going to get her grandson's medicine, but on the other hand there is beauty as through her obliviousness to both her and her grandson's mortality, she continues to live life with untainted hope.

Characterization in "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty

     I found that the character of Phoenix Jackson really began to come alive after she had someone else to converse with.  This is despite the fact that she had already been conversing with herself throughout her journey into town.  It might be a strategy to keep herself entertained and motivated as she goes along and it is very much something one would expect from an old person who doesn't care about the judgements of others anymore.  It doesn't really pull me in though.  I can't really see her until another living character comes into play so that I see her through their eyes.  How she interacts with the man she meets along the way and the two women in the clinic really help me to see her more clearly.  It also puts her into context within the community.  The first woman in the clinic doesn't treat her with much respect.  She speaks to her rudely and it's clear that she sees her as a bother.  The second woman to talk to her in the clinic knows her and knows that she's been there before and helps to expose to the reader her relationship with her grandchild by reminding her why she came.  The fact that she forgot such an important thing serves to show where she is mentally and that she's lost it a bit.  It's only after she talks to the second woman that she remembers the whole purpose of her journey and what is probably the most important thing in her life right now, caring for her grandson.

Blog Response to “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty

I read this story several years ago in an English class and admired it then. However, reading it again has greatly expanded my appreciation of Welty’s writing.  Though much of the story affected me as I was reading it, creating a tension of whether or Phoenix would make it to her destination, of the strange contrast of help and danger the hunter seemed to represent, it was the end that created the deepest response in me. As I’m sure Welty intended, the moment we find out Phoenix’s motivation for walking to town, her drive to get the medicine for her grandson, the story is altered. Welty instilled deep feelings of helplessness, determination, and fear in me by combining three fairly subtle revelations at the end. The first being that when Phoenix reaches the doctor’s office, having worked so hard to overcome the difficulty of the trip, she has a moment of memory loss, of dementia, an instant that more than all her physical trials, illustrates the vulnerability of her age and position. “My grandson,” Phoenix finally says after several moments of unresponsiveness, “It was my memory had left me. Then I sat and forgot why I made my long trip” (Welty 1549). Even the love for her grandson, that has driven her so far, is something that Phoenix can lose and forget. Secondly, Welty has Phoenix describe the degree of severity of her grandson’s illness saying that at times he’s “not able to swallow. He not get his breath. He not able to help himself” (1549). This illustrates the reason for Phoenix’s determination, and makes you feel the gravity of the situation, how desperate both she and her grandson are for her to succeed in making her journey there and back. Lastly, to complete the emotion that this scene creates, Welty has the nurse states that “The doctor said as long as you came to get it, you could have it” (1549). In this moment we realize that there is no other option. Not only do we now see how damaging the grandson’s illness can be, but we see that there is no other way for him to acquire the medicine he needs. Everything depends on his grandmother being able to make the trip. Everything depends upon a woman who is aging, who has moments that she cannot remember her own life. It is so powerful a combination of clues. Reading it, I felt the sense of the inevitable that hangs over both their futures, that at a certain moment Phoenix will no longer be able to achieve this feat, and when that moment comes the worst may happen for them both.

No one is a mystery by Elizabeth Tallent

I really like this story because it reveals conflict through  dialogue. It is a story of a man who is cheating on his wife with a very young girl (18 years, but their r/n began when she was 16).  When the characters talk about Jack's ex wife and their future together is when we learn about his age and his relationship with the mistress, and we get a sense that there is something wrong and maybe missing in his relationships. And, we also learn about what kind of man. He makes fun of his mistress for being a child, so I assume that he know that there is something wrong with his actions. But, we can see that he doesn't really love his wife based on the comments he makes during their conversation. Jack seems to have a clear understanding of the future, he claims that "he knows" that he will not be with his mistress in a year. But, his mistress is hopeful about their future and wants to start a family with him. In this story it is really easy to get a clear sense of who is speaking because the characters have distinct voices. Most of the time, it is not really mentioned who is speaking, but we are able to follow the conversation. I like this story, because I am actually able to imagine their relationship and learn about each character based on their dialogue.

No one's a Mystery by Elizabeth Tallent

This story is part of a dialogue between a married man cheating on his wife with a very very young girl. The speakers are always evident, but the problems they both have are slowly revealed. The married man clearly doesn't love his wife anymore since small habits irritate him- small habits that his wife has had probably since the beginning of their marriage. The wife honks back at him, a wordless signal that shows she is oblivious to her husband's displeasure. The married man is also insecure about the future of his relationship with the young girl since he predicts a break-up in the next year or two. He knows he can not leave his wife, and the reader is left with a feeling of sympathy when the girl stubbornly expresses her optimism at eventually being married to him.

Response to "No One's a Mystery," Elizabeth Tallent

Response to “No One’s a Mystery, Elizabeth Tallent

I enjoyed reading “No One’s a Mystery.”  I liked the characters and how well they were developed within the story.   The two characters, one a young optimist and the other an old pessimist having an illicit affair.  The characters talked in a somewhat romantic and playful tone.  It was not hard to imagine these two characters.  The writer did a good job of telling a story with a minimum of words.  She supplied a lot of detail and set the tone for the development of the conflict.

The characters seem to be talking about what will be written in the diary but they are really discussing the conflict in the relationship. Their conflict is there differing views of the future.  She wants more than their predictable casual relationship and she hopes for a future that includes marriage and children.   Jack on the other hand is revealing that he would like to think there could be more but knows that the relationship must come to an end and he considers it bittersweet. 

No One's a Mystery: A Response

As I read through this short story, Jack's condescending voice led me to a host of questions. How old was this man with an 18 year old mistress? How long had he and his wife been married? Was this is only mistress? The author's description of him led me to believe that he is older, established per se, and perfectly content in his dirty laundry of a truck. Tallent did an excellent job at invoking a emotional response after Jack finally lets the girl back into the seat. The parental tone that Jack initially takes in their conversation provided a level of frustration and sorrow for the young girl, who is wasting her first love on a man who is in no position to reciprocate her feelings. It also further aided in my belief that Jack was much older. I also found it very intriguing that out of all of the names mentioned his mistress was never named. That added an additional element of mystery that I would like to incorporate into my own writing.

"Lethal" Response

After reading Lethal a few times I am unsure what to think. It is filled with venerability and power. The venerability shifts throughout the narrative, from the person wanting to do all of these said torturous things to then fearing that if it is done, they will then be mocked. That the power is in neither hands, but venerability is shared between the both of them. The descriptions are almost too vidid for reading comfort yet serve a purpose. It allows the reader to feel the discomfort and have a reaction to the words and situation. It provokes thought, negative or positive, and testes the boundaries of a narrative and how far one can go- or will go- in getting a variety of reads and opinions from a short piece. 

"No One's a Mystery" response

In “No One’s a Mystery,” the sound of the voices of Jack and the “other woman” had a tone that spoke off the page. A tone of Jack’s voice of being deep and sure, that he was confident in everything he said being true and would never second guess a thought, that what he said would and always did happen. On the other hand, the other woman sounded unsure. She was confident when she was physically with him it seemed, but there was still uncertainty in her voice. She was confident in making up her diary entries for the next few years on this date, that they would be together and he would have left his wife, but still when I read it imagined it would be shaky, that she wanted to be sure that her life would play out that way but could not truly know. Jack tells her that he will only be a memory of her past, an old man and they were once lovers, but she continues to tell him about the life she envisions and he listens but I wonder if he has any intention of making it come true. He controls if he will become the old man she once knew, or the father of their daughter with a horrible middle name. It’s a fate that leaves one so venerable in the future but in the moment remain safe. I really enjoyed this piece and felt it was giving a voice to those who are stuck in leaving it all up to fate- in a relationship that may only be one sided even though two people are in it. 

"Hills Like White Elephants" by Earnest Hemingway was...

When I reached the continuous dialogue in "Hills Like White Elephants" by Earnest Hemingway, I started to feel anxious.  I felt like the characters were skirting around a problem the whole time, and I just wanted to say- out with it already!  I guess this shows how realistic the dialogue is though.  In life, people usually don't get to the point right away (I think we talked about that in class...) and also, most of what people say is not poetic, it's just every day talk.  For example, phrases used in the short story such as, "It's all right" (336) and "I guess so" (336)  made the characters seem like real people to me.  Though as I said, I started reading faster and faster to see what happened because I was getting annoyed with the ambiguity of it all!

Dialogue in "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway

One of the few things that immediately attracted my attention in this piece is how the two characters' dialogue is not revealing many information. It is a casual and realistic conversation between two people with a past, a present and a future. This scene is like a glimpse of their lives. The fact that the dialogue does not reveal many contextual information regarding the tension between these characters creates a three-dimentional story that adds to the realistic feel. It is not explaining, it is showing. The reader immediately knows that there's more to the story than this scene because of the absence of any direct explanations. The narrator is not trying to tell us what is happening between these two people and why but the narrator chooses to show us a part of this couples' life and let us judge for ourselves the situation.

We want to know what will happen and we want to know what has happened. The lack of information does not imply the lack of plot, but the presence of it. The protagonists don't need to say things that the other person knows. This makes the story believable, since the characters know each other and are in a relationship, they don't need to explain every little detail to each other. It is as if this discussion is private, not meant for an audience, that is one of the reasons why a realistic sense is reflected through this piece.  

Response to "No One's a Mystery"

The banter between a couple in Tallent's "No One's a Mystery" almost seems commonplace because of how naturally the dialogue flows. However, this banter is strategic enough for me to deeply understand the characters' personality and their relationship and their conflicts, without really paying attention to the descriptions of their appearances and actions. From their speech patterns and their topics of choice, from their speech interactions or lack thereof (when she ignores his comment on Rosanne Cash), I can clearly see the imbalance of power in their relationship. The affectionate condescension in Jack's voice, the way he almost demands her to sit down and his gloomy but surefire view of the future put Jack on a different level of maturity and reliability from the girl. The conflict did become more concrete to me because of the narration and description. However, the mood of the conversation, while seemingly playful and lighthearted, already indicated the inherent conflict - the power imbalance between the couple: Jack mature and experienced and pessimistic, the girl naive and optimistic and hopeful. 

"No One's A Mystery" by Elizabeth Tallent

When I first read this short story, I could not figure out the protagonist's character. I initially imagined the character to be a teenage boy who worked with Jack and they were trying to hide from his wife because they were drinking. It was not until the middle of the short story that I found out that she was his mistress. Throughout the whole story, I could tell that there was a conflict. However, it was utterly clear only when I finally found out that she was his surprisingly young mistress. The subtle details that was introduced from the beginning of the story contributed to the settings and characterization.

As the two characters had very conflicting views and distinct voices, it was clear that they were different characters despite the omission of their names. Jack viewed most things negatively, whereas the narrator was presented as a curious young girl. They started their versions of diary entries with the same line, as they were now on the same stage in the relationship, but their endings were vastly different. Towards the end of their conversation about the future, Jack posed rational predictions as opposed to the narrator's teenage girl's dream. Jack was playing along with her towards the end, but he was not serious about it. He then spoilt her dream by posing the ugly truth. Similarly, I had a feeling that Jack was just playing with her and will soon leave her for the reality (his life with his wife) and the narrator would return to her teenage life. At the back of their minds, the bittersweet memory of their relationship would linger with the "bittersweet smell" of the milk.

In Response to "No One's a Mystery" by Elizabeth Tallent

This short story made me feel sad for the female character, but the meaning of it was fairly easy to follow.  Tallent does a nice job of establishing the tone of the two characters by setting the scene first, and frequently neglects to state who the speaker is during the dialogue, because it is so clear.  The female character isn't even given a name throughout the whole piece, but from her age, and her words, she is given an optimistic and naive tone that is easy to separate from the tone of depressing realism given to the male character.  The naivety of the female character's voice is compounded by the plain and unpleasant setting of the dialogue.  The fact that she is able to reflect on the future so positively while shoved under a dirty truck seat, hiding from Jack's wife makes her version of what will come seem even more fantastic and optimistic.  I was actually surprised when the female character was not more upset at Jack for contradicting her with more pessimistic ideas of what the future holds for them, and the fact that she did not seem to really pick up or read into these comments made her seem hopeful to the point of foolishness.  Even though they were together and not really fighting during this scene, the dialogue made it seem as though their relationship was coming to an end.  It was cool to see the message the setting conveyed (the female character receiving a Birthday present from Jack, suggesting a longer term relationship) and the message of the dialogue conveyed (that the relationship would not last) contradict each other so much;  in the same way that Jack's dialogue suggested a short-term future for the relationship and the female character's dialogue suggested a long-term one.

Reflection on “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway

I’ve always been in awe of Ernest Hemingway’s writing especially by how he is able to hide complexity and ambiguity behind simplicity. “Hills like White Elephants” while quite unlike anything I have ever read was no different. How is Hemingway able to say so much with so little? I love how authentic the dialogue is in terms of the way that it captures the feeling of a private conversation. It is interesting to see how the setting foreshadows the conflict between the man and the girl as the station located “between two lines of rails in the sun” reflects the “junction” they are in, as they must make a decision about whether to get an abortion or not.

Yet what struck me most in this dialogue is how despite the presentation of two very distinct characters I could not help but feel that Hemingway was playing on gender stereotypes. The American male was the voice of rationality while the girl was the voice of emotion and morality. While the man’s dialogue is grounded in concrete observations for example “The beer’s nice and cool,” the girl looks at the world with a far greater sense of imagination and subjectivity as she describes the line of hills as looking “like white elephants.” Throughout this short story the man’s voice is also the voice of stability and certainty as he says, “I’ll go with you and I’ll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it’s all perfectly natural.” The girl's voice on the other hand is far more uncertain, questioning and insecure. Yet what is interesting is that despite the girl being the voice of emotion, she ultimately seems to have the wiser voice in terms of the way she is able to see their relationship clearer. While the man believes that the abortion will solve all their problems, the girl has an awareness that there may be deeper problems between them as she questions “And you think then we’ll be all right and be happy?”