The Story of an Hour

Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour was extremely ironic to me. The entire story was full of irony. At the very beginning, there was situational irony. After hearing the news of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard fled to her room to be alone. One would think this was due to the grief of such a sudden, unexpected tragedy. However, she was full of emotions of confusion and GUILT! "...a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: 'Free, free, free!' " (Chopin, 1). This was so ironic to me! Her husband just died. Why was she expressing such joy at now not having a husband!?  She thought about how she could live single and enjoy life. She expressed how she lived her husband only "sometimes." I don't understand how a woman who just lost her husband could have these cruel thoughts pass through her mind.

Then, the irony really took over. Mr. Mallard comes home! After they that grief, confusion, and newly found emotions, her husband turned out to be alive! The shock of this discovery caused the heart attack of Mrs.Mallard. This discovery of the life of Mr.Mallard caused the death of Mrs.Mallard,

You're Ugly, Too

The way Lorrie Moore wrote her short story, You're Ugly, Too, was really interesting to me. There were interruptions on pretty much every page. These intrusions were italicized. They sounded like they were by the speaker of the short story. These intrusions into the story also made me believe that the speaker of the story was a student or a former student of Zoe Hendricks. "Professor Hendricks seems to know..." (Moore, 353). This quote shows that the speaker refers to Zoe as Professor.

There was also an allusion to the well known character Heidi. "You were supposed to be Heidi. You were supposed to lug goat milk up the hills and not think twice. Heidi did not complain" (Moore, 354). The people in New Geneva had a very different mindset than did those from Maryland. In New Geneva, one was supposed to always have a positive attitude toward things. Any but would seem horrible and rude. This is why many were intrigued with how Zoe acted. She didn't try to conform to the town and their crazy attitudes.

The Apparition

In line 15 of John Donne's poem The Apparition, the speaker proclaims that his love for the woman "is spent." The tone of the poem as a whole agrees with this. After reading this poem, it struck me as a man arguing with his wife or soon to be exwife. This man claims that when he dies, he is going to haunt this woman until she lives more of a ghostly life than he. The quote, "And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected, thou, bathed in cold quicksilver sweat, wilt lie, a verier ghost then I " (Donne, 889), shows this. The speaker does not say why he expresses such harsh terms throughout the poem. I believe that the author of this poem used the word "vestal" for a reason. That terms screams mistreatment towards sexual behaviors to me. However, in it's context, I feel that instead of this woman being threatened due to losing her virginity, I feel this woman may have cheated on the speaker during their marriage. This coule be the reason why this man feels no love towards this woman for his love was built on trust which was forever broken.

Popular Mechanics

There was much irony in the plot of Popular Mechanics by Carver. The parents were very much neglectful with their young child. While fighting for custody and possession of their baby, the parents physically harm their child to the point of death. The parents began to handle their son as an object, not as a fragile infant. They were so worried about who got to keep him, that they forgot to worry about the welfare of their son.

There was also much symbolism in this short story. From the very first paragraph, one should have noticed that the story was going to be gloomy and depressing. "...where it was getting dark. But it was getting dark on the inside too" (Carver, 1). The flowerpot had significant symbolism as well. The flowerless flowerpot represented a baby-less home. It was a little bit of foreshadowing, too, in a very symbolic way. Also, carver used the terms, "slipping out of their hands" and "going from her." These terms seem to show that the baby would eventually slip completely away from them and completely away from life.

Eveline

Eveline Hill in James Joyce's Eveline had an internal conflict. She was torn between whether to follow her own dream of moving away or staying home. If she moved away with her love, Frank, they could get married. They could start their life together. However, she was not fully sold on this idea. She felt she needed to stay loyal to her family. Before her mother died, she promised to keep the family together and keep the house upheld. I think that their father was a drunk. More specifically I think he was a mean drunk who was verbally and physically abusive. It was awfully sad to me to see that Eveline was trying to convince herself that her father was nice enough to stay with. " He would miss her. Sometimes he could be very nice. Not long before, when she had been laid up for a day, he had read her out a long ghost story and made toast for her at the fire" (Joyce, 220). She goes on to name another. She could only think of two instances when her father was nice to her and to her brothers. Yet, Eveline says, "It was hard work- a hard life- but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life" (Joyce, 220). I think Eveline was afraid of venturing out into a new life. I think she was a character who liked to remain in the same pattern and lifestyle.

How I Met My Husband

Alice Munro's  How I Met My Husband had multiple central themes. The biggest theme that I picked up from this short story was that love is blind. The narrator of this story is Edie. She is also the protagonist in this short story for she drives the action. Only being a young girl of the age of fifteen, Edie is till naive and vulnerable to the whole love scene. You can tell from the reading that she is curious and interested in falling in love and in experiencing the interactions that go along with being in a relationship. Edie's naivety was showed through her lack of full comprehension of what "intimate" meant in one of the final scenes. She also showed that she was a young innocent child still by waiting day after day for Chris to send her that letter. "It never crossed my mind for a long time that a letter might not come. I believed in it coming just like I believed the sun would rise in the morning" (Munro, 145). Edie had tossed out all possibilites that what she and Chris had wasn't actually love. She centered her whole excitement and joy solely on receiving a letter from a man who was never coming back for her.

I do not believe that Chris was a bad guy. Do I agree with all his decisions? No. But I do not believe that Chris was a character who liked to prey on little fifteen year girls. Some might argue that knew she was a young, naive girl. However, I don't think Chris had any idea how old she was. I think he just believed she was shy but was infatuated with him. I think he took advantage of the fact that she liked him and used it to make her fall even harder for him. I believe Chris could not stay in one place for too long. He was one who liked to travel alot and move around the country. Leaving his fiance was inevitable and it had nothing to do with him kissing Edie. I do not think he should have made out with her or promised her letters and a way to find him. However, if he had not promised letters, Edie would not have waited every day, day after day at the mailbox. In turn, she would not have met her husband.

Lonely Hearts

In Wendy Cope's Lonely Hearts, the poem is written in the structure of a newspaper or magazine article seeking someone for the speaker to date. I believe the speaker is lonely and in need of some change in her life. However, she doesn't want too much change. The ad she placed did not merely just state, "I am looking for anyone." The speaker has qualifications that the man must meet. The main line Cope repeats frequently throughout the poem, "Do you live in North London?" (Cope, 973), must be very important to the poem. I believe this is the biggest priority of the speaker.

I cannot tell if each tercet is a different ad that the speaker placed or if the entire poem was to be published at the same time all together. If each was printed seperately, then I believe it is the same speaker for each, still awaiting for her love. And each tercet gives even more specific details that would make the two similar to each other. I believe the speaking woman is in need of granting of her wish to make a change in her life. This change can only be met with the involvement of a new gentleman in her life. Yet, the man would still have to be like her with similar interests.

Delight in Disorder

Robert Herrick used an oxymoron as the central idea of his poem Delight in Disorder. This oxymoron is found right in the first sentence of the poem. "sweet disorder" (Herrick, 979). The words "sweet" and "disorder" seem like they wouldn't go together at all. However, the speaker of this poem is placing these words together to say that he likes disorder. Along with this, the speaker makes references to articles of clothing several times throughout the poem. I interpretted this poem to mean that the speaker prefers his women to be natural and to just be themselves. The speaker does not think that the extra clothes and extra efforts on appearance matter in terms of his love. He thinks they are just pointless. I inferred this from his phrases "ribbons to throw confusedly" (Herrick, 979) and "in the tempestuous petticoat" (Herrick, 979). He also compares a linen scarf to a distraction.