"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner

Point of view, at its simplest definition, is who tells a story and therefore how it gets told. In the circumstance of "A Rose for Emily", the story is told in the unusual first-person plural and is from the vantage point of the townspeople observing Emily's life through the years. Because it is told from an outsider's perspective, it makes Emily all the more mysterious as a main character. Her thoughts are never revealed and the only ways the reader can get to know her are through her limited dialogue and occasional appearances made outside her home. As the story progressed, it showed a transformation in Emily from a slender and beautiful girl to an overweight and unattractive old woman. Similarly, I got the feeling that Emily grew increasingly more creepy as the story progressed. The fact that she killed Homer Barron and kept his body upstairs was absolutely disgusting to me. Even more disturbing was the fact that she was sleeping next to his rotting body. Gross! The way the story ended also bothered me a little. I wish it would have had more of a conclusion rather than just cutting off right in the middle. Then again, maybe it's better that I didn't hear any more details of her grotesque lifestyle.

"Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

4. Discuss the significance of Mrs. Das's requesting, and then losing, Mr. Kapasi's address. Apart from its function in the plot, how does this suggest a resolution to the story?

At first, when Mrs. Das requests Mr. Kapasi's address, it gives him a sense of hope that he has not felt in quite some time. He takes her friendliness as a sign of romantic interest, and begins to fantasize about what they could become to one another in the future. She ignites this attraction when she shows an interest and speaks of the importance in Mr. Kapasi's other occupation, an interpreter for a doctor. What he does not know at the time; however, is that her interest has ulterior motives. While he sees giving her his address as an opportunity to get to know her better, Mrs. Das wants to use his talents to ask him for a remedy for her own unhappiness in life. After she reveals her secret to him that she was unfaithful to her husband, he seems sickened at the thought that she would try and ask for his advice. When he points out that she does not have an actual sickness and is instead experiencing guilt, she is equally disappointed with his diagnosis and decides to leave rather than face it. Once they discover more about each other, they realize they are much different than they first thought. Their converstion has a negative impact on their meeting, and when Mr. Kapasi's address blows away I took it as a link to his deflated fantasies. Just as his address floats away in the wind, so does his dream of getting to know Mrs. Das. He realizes that he is not going anywhere in life and will remain unhappy and unsatisfied with where he is. Similarly, Mrs. Das will remain discontent with her lifestyle as well.

"How I Met My Husband" by Alice Munro

4. Is Edie a sympathetic character? How does her status as "the hired girl" affect the way you respond to her as a reader?

I would consider Edie to be a sympathetic character in this story. Because she was young and naive, it gave her an aspect of innocence that would not have been present otherwise. Also, the fact that she had to move away from her family in order to get a job and make money caused me to sympathize with her. It must have been difficult for her to be in an entirely new environment and be surrounded by unfamiliar people. Edie's status as "the hired girl" affected the way I responded to her after her interaction with Chris Watters because I took on the attitude that she was young and didn't know any better than the way she had acted. As many people do, I justified her mistake with the fact that she was inexperienced in relationships with men. I felt further sympathy for Edie when she allowed herself to believe that he would actually write her as he promised he would. Days passed, and then months, before she came to the realization that "No letter was ever going to come" (page 146). In a way, I felt like Mr. Watters used Edie and then left her behind just as he had left Alice Kelling before her.

"Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead" by Andrew Hudgins

By definition, an elegy is a lament for the dead. I found it rather interesting how the speaker in this poem placed a strange twist on the meaning of elegy, and instead of writing an elegy for someone who was dead he wrote it for someone who was still alive. Throughout this poem, there seems to be two concepts being elaborated on. Although death will be one distance eventually separating the son from his father, meanwhile there are vast distances between them in life. While the father is ready to die and maintains a "sureness of faith", the son says bluntly that he is not ready. He even says that he "can't just say good-bye as cheerfully as if he were embarking on a trip." The tone of this poem voiced the speaker's doubt and showed that his elegy mourned both what is and what is not to be. He already fears his father's death and to some extent his own. I think this is true for many individuals who are still young. There are few who are ready to accept death while they still have much life to live, and it seems like many who are older are more at peace with the idea of dying. The speaker will probably grow to share his father's viewpoint later on in life.

"Delight in Disorder" by Robert Herrick

The overall theme of the poem "Delight in Disorder" was one of imperfections and inconsistencies. The speaker held the opinion that one's imperfections are what make her most beautiful, and went on to give examples of what types of flaws he found charming. For instance, in today's world a mole on a girl's cheek can enhance beauty and even become her trademark, like Marilyn Monroe's. And graying temples can give a man the impression of being a distinguished individual rather than having the negative connotation of aging. I also noticed that the speaker used a few oxymorons to enforce his conception. In the first line, he states that there is a "sweet disorder" in the mindless way a woman dresses. By saying this, he gives the word "disorder" a positive meaning showing that he likes the feeling of disregard or spontaneity in disorganization. Also, near the end of the poem he uses the phrase "wild civility" that does more to "bewitch [him] than when art is too precise in every part". Through this statement, the speaker reveals that he is dazzled by a lady who exudes an air of carelessness.

"Death, be not proud" by John Donne

The vibe I got from this poem was that it was a stream of arguments to prove that man's greatest fear has no power over him. By man's greatest fear I am referencing the fear of death in this instance. In the poem, the speaker is directly addressing death and almost criticizing it for having a false sense of strength over the people it affects. The speaker, however, says that anything that has such despicable causes ("and dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell") is not worthy of respect. Basically, the speaker holds that the realm of death is dishonorable and is a dimension in which no one would want to rule. On another note, it becomes clear that the speaker wove some religious undertones into the meaning of this poem. When it says "one short sleep passed, we wake eternally", the speaker is referencing Christians' belief that death is merely the beginning of eternal life. Oftentimes death is seen as a peaceful event to a faith-filled individual because it means being reunited with God. The last line of the sonnet serves as a paradoxical message involving death. It is written that "and death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die". Here the speaker is saying that because of the magnitude of Christians' faith the idea of death will die because it will no longer seem like an ending to their lives. Death will be viewed as a beginning of a new life, an eternal one.

"That time of year" by William Shakespeare

In Shakespeare's sonnet "That time of year", the speaker uses a series of metaphors to characterize the nature of what he perceives to be his old age. During the first quatrain he compares his age to autumn, referencing the yellowing leaves and barren tree limbs. Through this comparison, "upon those boughs which shake against the cold", he emphasized the harshness and coldness of old age. In the next quatrain, he made the comparison of his age to twilight; when light slowly fades to darkness it symbolizes his ever approaching death. The focus here was on a gradual fading of light from youth to a growing darkness of aging. In nature, the seasons and time of day are processes which move in cycles. In human life; however, the fading of warmth and light are not cyclical, and will not come back again. Once they are gone they are gone forever. This idea is reflected in the third quatrain. The speaker compares himself to the glowing remnants of a fire and says that on the ashes of the logs that enabled it to burn he will soon be extinguished and sink into those ashes. The connection made between the dying fire and the speaker's death is not a cyclical one. Instead, it shows that life ending is a final and irreversible event. That being said, the speaker leaves the reader with a final piece of advice. He tells the reader that they must perceive these things and allow their love to grow stronger for those they care about. He says they should do this through the knowledge that they will soon be parted from those they love when their life is extinguished by time.