Popular Mechanics / Raymond Carver

“In this manner, the issue was decided” (Carver).  What in the world wee the parents thinking.  That is a terrible way to treat a baby they should have known better.  They must have both been deranged.  The babies screaming should have made them think but apparently it did not help.  Did they rip the baby apart or did one parent finally win and run away.  The author leaves then ending up to the reader’s imagination.  Popular mechanics is a very odd title for this passage.  It implies a story involving mechanical parts but it only involves human parts which are partially mechanical.  The title implies also somewhat what happen to the baby.  This story reminds me of the story of King Solomon and how he dealt with two women trying to claim a baby.  He proposed to cut it in half and give each half but the real mother offered to give up the baby instead of have it be killed.

The Story of an Hour / Kate Chopin

This story is extremely ironic.  “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills” (Chopin).  She is first sad as she should be but then become happy when she should not be.  In the beginning of the story they allude to the ending by saying she has a heart problem.  The family tries to save her but ends up killing her. She was truly loved by her husband but she often hated him.  He tried to tell her what to do but she wanted to live her own life.  She was originally fearful of a long life.  Next she became hopeful for a long life. Then finally she dies after a very short life.  The husband does not even know he was thought died or that there was an accident as well.

The Apparition / John Donne

“When by thy scorn, O murderess, I am dead, and that thou thinkst thee free” (Donne 889).  The man blames his death on his wife.  He has not died yet though.  He is thinking of warning her but realizes it would only save her from her deserved fate.  She sounds like a cheating woman.  She is not giving him any love.  After he is dead he plans on haunting her.  He claims she will soon marry someone else after his death.  She will think she is free but she will be uneasy as she sleeps because of him.  Her uneasiness will cause her to try and find comfort with her new husband but he will thin she is annoying and ignore her so shill will feel the same discomfort as he was caused by her.

You’re Ugly, Too / Lorrie Moore

Zoë is a nut case. This story makes love sound like a hopeless cause.  Zoë is a lonely woman living in Illinois.  She teaches a history class but really does not teach her students much of anything she really just uses them as a backboard for her venting.  She is really only holding her position because the collage needs a woman teacher.  Her life is very boring she writes books and watches TV.  The closest person to her is a cab driver and she does not really notice him.  Her sister is close but she is thinking of getting married and has passed up Zoë in life and is now trying to help her along instead of being helped.  All of Zoë’s boyfriends have not been interesting enough for her.  The man her sister sets her up with is boring and does not under stand her then she tries to push him off the roof. Her miss fit life in this world is like the moons light on a lake. “If there were a lake, the moonlight would dance across it in conniptions,” (Moore 370). 

Delight in Disorder / Robert Herrick

“Do more bewitch me than when art is too precise in every part,” (Herrick 979). This last sentence connects to the first.  The two sentences are connected and could almost be one sentence if they were connected.  The middle of the poem is describing the articles that he sees that are in disorder.  The diction of the passage makes it sound like he is praising one person. He is describing what he likes about her appearance.  It could be construed that he has seen her across a room and is commenting on her to a friend.  It also sounds like he is trying to alleviate her embarrassment about her dress.  He finds the small mistakes more attractive than a perfectly dressed woman.  Every two lines rhyme.  It is a very rhythmic poem.

Bright Star / John Keats

“No—yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,” (Keats 792).  The man wants to be a star.  He wants to be eternal and everlasting.  The first half of the poem describes everything the star does.  It watches everything on the earth but it does not get to touch any of it.  There is a metaphor comparing snow on a mountain to a mask.  The second half of the poem tells what the man actually wants to do.  it is ironic how he spends over half the poem describing something he actually does not want.  The man only wants to be close to his woman forever.  He wants to be eternally hugging her and never have to leave even if it does kill him. 

Eveline / James Joyce

 “Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition,” (Joyce 222).  Eveline cannot escape her family.  She cannot escape herself either. Her childhood friends played in the fields and always were on the look out for the owner of the property.   She has a lonely life. Her one brother is died and the other works in the country all the time.  Her father I not a kind man and has violent tendencies.  The story has a disconnected tranquil tone.  Nothing actually happens.  She almost leaves but at the last moment cannot.  Her life has slowly eaten away her will.  She feels a need to stay and look after the kids but wants to leave the town and live her own life. 

How I Met My husband / Alice Munro

“I’m wondering, if you know what being intimate means. Now tell me. What you think it meant,” (Munro 144)? Edie is young and naive.  She does not actually know what she is doing and the full impact that it will have.  The narration of the story is by Edie multiple years into the future.  This narration gives a slightly detached feel to the story.  Multiple times through out the story the narrator mentions how naive she was at the time.  Chris is a flighty Pilate which has a stoker for a fiancé. He must have a somewhat boring life. He is continually running from his fiancé and having to make small talk to all the different passengers he takes on flights.  Mrs. Bird is very much like a bird.  She invites herself over a lot and trying to figure out as much as she can about what is going on in the house. It sounds like from the amount of time she spends visiting the neighbors that she would be neglecting her children.