The Story "The Famous Frog-Horse From the County of Calaveras" Simon Wheeler

In this story the woman is suffering from temporary nervous depression, however, she believes that she is sicker than what her husband and brother are telling her. Her husband believes the large airy room is best suited to help her heal and he tells her to rest as much as possible, and she pretty much obeys whatever he tells her. He is a well-respected physician and the woman believes in what he tells her. He is strictly performing his job to the best of his ability without trying to let his personal feelings interfere.

At some points within the story, I do feel as if he is not being fair to her and he is withholding information about her case from her, but I think he feels the less she knows the better off she will be. With that in mind, I feel as if he is only trying to protect her, not hurt her or intentionally make her suffer. After all, he is her husband and he loves her so much and is just trying to get her better one day at a time.

Truth be told, this story was very interesting but also presented some challenges reading into the context of it. Things happen in our lives that are completely out of our control and there is nothing we can do to stop within this story, the woman is dealing with an illness that she did not expect. She is having to learn how to cope with challenges and it is extremely hard to have your daily routines flipped upside down and have to start over, but at the end of the day, life happens and it is how you deal with the situation that ultimately prevails.

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She was adamant to free herself and the woman from the wallpaper, she felt trapped within herself and needed an escape. Regardless of the circumstances, her perseverance and drive to do what was going to make her happy are envied. Although some may see it as an act of craziness, I applaud her for not settling and striving to find her happiness and get what she wanted.

My Man Bovanne,

In the story My Man Bovanne, I honestly consider the approaches to the Civil Rights Movements occurring within the text to be feminism and the Black Power Movement. I think Ms. Hazel uses herself as a way to promote females, being kind inside the black community, and yet she still gets crucified for her actions, not only by her family but by the expressions and chatter of everyone around as well. The younger generations and her children took to the principles of the movement and tried to conform everyone to become like them, hence why they were so outraged with their mother because she was truer to her heritage and did not want to just be like everyone else. To me, it is significant that Ms. Hazel decides to take Bovanne home and care for him because she is still using her mothering instincts to help out when she can and prove that she is only being polite.

To me, this story had a tremendous about of depth and sincerity. During this time African Americans were not living their best life, they were constantly faced with issues just because of the color of their skin. This story subtly expresses issues being faced by blacks but also issues within generation gaps. The discussion that brings in the enormous age difference is significant in the sense of how different the generations viewed the changes that were occurring day today. The older crowd disagreed with the new influences and traditions while the youngsters embraced the change with open arms. Truthfully the circumstances you are faced with in life are not the most important, how you handle those circumstances brands your character. We fall every day but we must get back up again and realize that life is what we make it, so embrace change and quit dwelling on the past.

Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In the story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Simon Wheeler begins to tell a tale about a fella named Jim Smiley. Initially, he explains that Mr. Smiley is the sort of man who will bet on anything, and if he suggests a bet and the person doesn’t want to take it, he offers to bet on the other side. On page 134 Smiley says “Anyways I’ve got my opinion, and I’ll risk forty dollars that he can outjump any frog in Calaveras County.” He was always a betting man and it did not matter to him, who, what, when, or where, he was always up for a good bet. Gambling is a hard habit to break and unfortunately, that was Mr. Smiley’s life and that is all he ever knew, especially when the majority of the time, he always got lucky and won.

I found a lot of humor as well as life lessons to take away from this story. It is interesting to me to see how everyone’s personalities are completely different and also the way we perceive and handle certain situations. Within the text, I feel like the diction between the two narrators and how they reacted toward each other is extremely entertaining. Their conversation and the tale alone added enjoyment to the story and made it feel as if you were reading it in a lighter atmosphere instead of the story being completely serious. In terms of life lessons, I believe there is a lot to take away from just the actions that took place within the story. The one that stuck out to me the most, was when Smiley bet the stranger on Dan’l Webster and claimed his frog could jump higher than any other frog in Calaveras County. Well little did he know, while he was getting a frog for the stranger to betting on, the stranger poised Dan’l Webster with a quail shot so that the frog would not be able to jump. The moral is, that not everyone you meet has pure intentions and will take any measures needed to get what they want, regardless if they are ethical or not.

The Minister’s Black Veil

Hawthorne is generally very symbolic in the way he writes and what he writes about and I believe the black veil is a substantial symbol that encompasses the whole story. The veil can be a symbol of the ways and practices of the Puritan religion, deceiving others of the sins they have committed without truly being honest with themselves. In my opinion, I believe the reason Mr. Hooper began wearing the veil was obviously that he sinned, but specifically because of his acts of adultery. The veil began to run his whole life, it turned his friends, family, and colleagues away all because of an article of clothing that has so much meaning behind it. With that, I do not think that he ever allowed himself to be forgiven by God or even forgave himself and had to live the rest of his life in grief and depression.

Although there are several symbols and context clues in the text to aid in understanding the story itself, for me, I believe the greater message is just because you mess up or do something bad, you should not sacrifice your whole life living under one sin. Everyone has bad days, everyone makes mistakes and no one is perfect, but how we handle our bad days, our mistakes, and our imperfections is what defines us. We stand for things greater than just one mess up and weight should not limit ourselves to falling into a trap and thinking we will never be good enough again, because we are and we just need to prove that to ourselves. In this story, I feel as if Mr. Hooper just lost his internal hope and felt as if what he had done was irreplaceable and unworthy of being forgiven. To me learning to persevere when times get hard is a valuable lesson learned and unfortunately, Mr. Hooper was too late.

A Rose for Emily

The rose is a symbol within the story that you almost have to find and think about its meaning. It is never mentioned directly as a symbol, but I felt as it if was inferred to perceive people and/or things a certain way. In paragraph two, on page 155 Faulkner states “…upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table…” The color rose is becoming vividly apparent within Miss. Emily’s house. I feel the title is all based on perspective and how you interpret Miss. Emily. To me, she seems to view the world through an altered scope, along with the other members of the town who seem to have a pink tint in everything they see. The majority of the townspeople do not want to face the fact that life after the civil war is altered, change is a good thing and they cannot live the same life as they lived before. On the flip side, the title may be a tribute to Miss. Emily, pointing out the tragedy she faced, growing up and what she encountered later in her life, potentially trying to add a sense of delicacy to the story or perceive a more empathetic view towards Miss. Emily while reading.

Having read this story for the second time, it was a lot easier for me to understand what was going on, but it also made me dig a little deeper into why and what was happening. At first glance, this story can be very challenging and hard to read, but I feel if you take a step back and just think about the time frame and what Miss. Emily went through as a person you begin to understand a little more. Now, do I agree with the way Miss? Emily acted and the things she did? No, but within this story, it is up to you to determine how you perceive her, her character, and her actions. What we encounter as individuals makes us who we are and we should not judge her for her actions because we do not know the exact reason she felt the way she did, or why exactly she decided to kill her fiancé. The same goes for life, do not judge a book by its cover because you have no idea what hard days were beneath the current struggles.