The Metamorphosis

Within the story The Metamorphosis, Gregor transforms into a giant cockroach and when this happens, he tries to hide within his room, and the one who seems the most sincere in caring about him is his sister. She warns him of when the head clerk arrives, talks in a concerned tone, and seems genuinely to want to be there for and with him. The family eventually sends for a doctor and a locksmith, and this leads to the family finding out about Gregor’s condition. This gives us even further insight into how the relationship between brother and sister really is. Grete is the one who takes care of him, beginning with her just kindly taking a bowl of his favorite drink, milk, mixed with some bread for him to eat. Sadly, this doesn’t work, because in his current form he is repulsed by the milk. As the days go by, she brings him other food, after finding out he likes rotting and decaying foods. She also comes into his room and cleans up, opens the window, and things like that. Unfortunately, the one time he is outside of his hiding hole, she sees him and runs from the room, locking the door. This gives us an aspect of how she, I believe, did not truly care. She was doing this out of an obligation because he was her brother, and that is all. Gregor, on the other hand, truly cared for his family, especially his sister. It spoke of how he was working so she didn’t have to, and he was also planning on paying her way through a university so that she can have a good life. Due to his transformation and illness, the roles of them swapped. Instead of him taking care of her and the family, she is now the one taking care of him, thus swapping both of the roles right around. The showing of their care to each other is evident at the beginning, but as the story goes along, things deteriorate. While they used to be all ready to do anything for the other, she wants nothing to do with him. In fact, after the episode with the tenants, she is the one who is very for them getting rid of Gregor. She doesn’t  give much attention when feeding him anymore, just shoves it in and then sweeps it out later. He still does all he can, such as hiding when she comes around, and holding no true ill will to the family. Gregor does stop eating though, and that kind of shows that he isn’t as much caring, for he used to eat so they knew he was trying to stay alive, but now he doesn’t care. This all highlights the theme by showing us that is something tragic, life-changing happens to a family member, or someone close to us, then their comes a point when the family won’t care and will just check to see how they can get rid of them. There is a breaking point for everyone, even the most caring, and eventually everyone will move on to caring specifically for whoever is next in line. This novella does very well at showing the changing attitudes of the whole family, while focusing on the issue at hand, the metamorphosis of Gregor, and how that affects everyone within the household.

“The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket” Questions

1. The narrator is the author. I get this belief from it speaking in the first person, and it tells of something that sounds like a memory. The use of exact details gives me the insight to the thought process I have. The author also seems to put his own thoughts into what is said, especially there at the end. This is why the narrator is the author.
2. The grasshopper stands for those men/women that are not really as true and special as they first seem. The bell cricket is the creature standing for the special person, the rare ones, that only show up occasionally, and this makes it all the more special. They are the ones that you go for, while the grasshoppers just mess with you, the jump away.
3. The final three paragraphs completely sum up the theme of this story. The themes in this story are thus: look and wait for the special ones, don’t be lured into falling for someone wrong, and remember the good times, for they may be more than they seem. The main one would be the wait for the special ones, that way you won’t pass them up on accident later.

“Love Medicine” Questions

1. As the story goes along, Lipsha changes in some slightly noticeable ways. Beginning as sympathetic to his grandma, he begins to change that opinion. He begins to realise he doesn’t need the love medicine, for people should love him for him, not because the “medicine” does it for him. The story shows us that we need to rely upon ourselves to have someone fall in love with us, not some retarded medicine like that.
2. Love medicine is consistent throughout the story, the meaning and symbol. It just shows that relying upon something artificial such as that medicine, isn’t right. Though it may seem to work, it doesn’t really, and this leads artificial feelings, and a reliance upon such things. The medicine somewhat destroys human emotions, and obliterates the meaning of being yourself.
3. The stories are completely off-subject, and the point of them is vague. They just give insight into what Lipshaw is thinking and how he views different situations in his life. The theme is helped because they lend you a look into Lipshaw’s self, and it shows you to be yourself, somebody will love you, no matter what. That is the point of the stories, I believe.

“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” questions

1. It seems like an apt description because the story tells a moral lesson, plus it all happens because of a child. The angel would not have showed up had it not been for the child being sick, and thus this led to the entire story happening, giving the subtitle extra power.
2. The different characters give the winged man entirely different meanings. To the tourists and pilgrims, he was an angel from heaven, and a curiosity; a quick, fun way for entertainment. To Pelayo and Elisenda, he was an easy way to get lots of money. To Father Gonzaga, he was an oddity, possibly a demon. The arrival of their interpretations arise from their point-of-view: for the viewers, he was a way to be entertained, to the house owners, people would pay to see him, so they charged and got money, and to Father Gonzaga, he was just aware of what could be. Their interpretaions reveal what they really care about in this world. People look to their own selfish goals almost all of the time, and this leads to others thinking that way, and keeps all moving towards selfishness. Very few look out for others, like Father Gonzaga did.
3. They flocked to see him at the beginning because he was an oddity, and some believed he was an angel and could heal them. They moved on because something else just as strange came along, and it was new. Also, the angel was boring and seemingly passionless, where as the spider thing was a creature of sorrow and loss. Elisenda was relieved when he flew away because now that he was making them nothing, he was just a burden. They were annoyed by him, and this led to the happiness when the winged man left. Humans obviously just want what is good for them and when something gets boring, they swap to something else. Humans look out for number one only, and nobody else really matters; they just toss away anything they don’t like.

“The Birth Mark” questions

1. I honestly believe that it would have made little difference, beyond the dreams he has. Since it looks like a hand, he thinks of it grabbing her heart and his and destroying them. The mark is more noticeable when she is just herself, not blushing. It seems more visible because it is crimson, and she has to be embarrassed to have it hide behind her blush, for when she is crimson, the mark disappears, being the same color. It is a symbol the even though she is considered to be perfect, she is not really, she is no angel, just a human. It shows that nobody is perfect, and blemishes can cause problems.
2. It enhances the meaning of the story because it is showing something greater than bringing a statue to life. It gives more power to what is being said, because it shows that Aylmer was more unhappy than a man who was in love with a statue. The imperfection is that bad to him, that he will be so pleased that he will be in more ecstasy than Pygmalion when his statue love came alive. The irony is that he used an idea of bringing to life, when he just gave death.
3. The different patterns show how things could affect throughout the story. It was darker in the labs, making it more somber. All of them were dark towards the end, showing the more somber moods. The allegorical reading is enhanced by it showing that even when you are trying to make someone perfect, nothing can truly succeed when done by human hands. The setting shows this by letting you know of all his knowledge and power, and all the room he had and all his potions, yet he failed.

“The Lady With the Dog” questions

1. The author waits until an opportune moment. With the two already met, a new attitude begins within the story, the true attitude of the story. By describing the warmth and beauty of the sea, plus a slight strangeness, it shows how the two feel, at that moment, and throughout the entire story. While there is warmth and pleasure, plus some beauty, it also adds in the sense of something odd with the entire deal. He waits to help set the setting for real, giving the reader a better sense of everything.
2. As the story progresses, the seasons and time change. He first meets the lady in a warm time, when everything begins, they are able to walk around together. As it gets colder, they drift apart, the lady leaving and the man staying. As the seasons begin to change, the man realises his true feelings for the woman, and begins to seek her out. He finds her in the warm time again, at a theater, and they both realize, and seek eachother out for the rest of their lives.
3. At the beginning of the affair, Gurov thinks of her as annoying honestly. She is blaming herself, saying it is wrong and her husband and things like that. He is annoyed by it, but keeps going anyway. Anna feels guilty at the outset. She feels she is cheating on her husband, which she is. It makes her upset, even though she says her husband is a flunkee. Both of them are slightly surprised when they keep seeing eachother, and it clearly states that Gurov is shocked when he feels an emptiness when she is gone. She is at the theater, and she is surprised and sad to see him, thus rendering us to see that she didn’t take it well either. They are unprepared because the change is abrupt from what they felt at the beginning.

“Barn Burning” Questions

1. Abner Snopes is a serial arsonist. He burns property when he is angry at someone, not caring what happens. His desire is to get back at whoever “wronged” him. He believes it is his duty to, thus he feels justified by his actions. It seems, by the sound of the story, that he had this instilled in him by a traumatic childhood. Snopes truly believes in family and the ties it brings, which is good up to a point, except that it causes him to carry it over to his children, and he beats the idea into them, which is abhorrent. The point of view gives you the idea of how he is absolutely nuts and crazy he is, by showing all his planning and how he treats his youngest son.
2. Sarty is characterized as the youngest child of a terrible father and a neutral rest of family. He is the reasoning one within the family, who thinks of his future throughout the story, and what his father expects of him. The protagonist of the story, he is focused on the most. Flashforwards are throughout the story, giving further insight into the character’s mind. For a young boy, only ten, his thoughts are quite complex. He thinks of his future, how his whole life will be about doing whatever his father says, how he could run away and never have to do it again. The future is bleak for him, moving place to place, having to lie for his father about the burnings, and then probably living the same way after it has been pounded into him enough. Over the course of the story, Sarty’s thoughts change dramatically. He goes from being intensely loyal, to doubting his father and family’s ways. The thoughts go from support family always, blood is stronger than anything, to Sarty wanting to get away from the family. He changes because he begins to look forward to his future, and also he has a conscience about what he is doing.
3. The minor characters show you the different aspects of how the people react to the father. The eldest son is just going with the flow of his father’s decisions, not really caring either way. The sisters are slovenly cows, and never do anything other than unload the cart, showing that they don’t care and will do nothing to stop anything. The mother and aunt are weaker characters, and thus fail to stop Snopes, even though the mother tries. The land owners are just side characters who are victims, though De Spain probably killed Snopes at the end.

Character Questions

1. The protagonist would have to be the narrator. The only true character in the story, they have to be the protagonist. There are no other contendees for the title of protagonist. Supporting characters are the characters excerpts from other stories. All of them are minor characters within this essay.
2. The protagonist’s main traits are that he is informative and is the only character in this literary essay. They are very distinctive in their outlook on characters and how they are within a story, and speak directly to the reader. The motivation is to inform the reader of what character stands for. The passage states how there could be multiple ways to look at how it can be defined, creating conflict.
3. The whole essay speaks on the character’s person, how they stand and what their goal is. There is no surprise, for it just speaks on character and what it means. I just have to assume the narrator is right in what they say.
4. They provide examples of what a character can be. None of the characters are antagonists, for they all assist the main character, not hinder. They make the narrator more real to the reader, all of them do, so all are foils. If these characters were to disappear, it would take away from the story for they provide examples into the narrator’s thoughts. He is showing examples of characters and describing what they can look like.
5. When it shows a character to describe antagonist, you want to feel dislike. For protagonist, you want to like it. For any of the other types, the story gives you the option of whether you sympathize or not really. The narrator doesn’t try to influence you specifically one way or another.
6. No, my view doesn’t change on any of the characters throughout. None of the characters change change throughout the story actually, so I couldn’t really  change my opinion.
7. Characterization is more indirect, for the protagonist isn’t actually spoken about directly to give a specific characterization. They give you ideas about the characters continuously, at least the protagonist. The side characters are more dispersed throughout the literary work. It gives you the info in spurts when talking about side characters, and all throughout the work when talking about the main character.

Narration and Point of View Questions

1.  Third Person point of view.
2.  Present. Of course the verb tense changes how you would read it; if it were past tense, then it would be read as such, whereas it is in the present tense, and we realize it is speaking to us now, not a from a long time ago.
3.  I believe the author uses a more educated vocabulary, bigger words and more eccentric meanings. The tone is just informative, kind of bland, doing nothing but telling you what is going on. The style is just chronological sequence of information.
4.  The narrator is not necessarily a character, just a disembodied voice speaking to the reader.
5. Yes, the narrator speaks to the audience directly by stating the word “you” and they do so while asking questions.
6. There are not really that many characters within this story, other than references to other stories and it usually explains what the character is thinking.
7. I believe it stays the same all throughout, not changing from the beginning to the end of the literary work.
8. There are differences within the narrator and characters, just because the characters are of a different type than the narrator, thus giving them different levels of understanding. An example is that the narrator knows all that is happening, where as the characters do not necessarily.

Syllabus Questions v.1

1) For the exposition, it introduced M. Lantin and the girl of his dreams, how they worked and what type of job and environment there was. For rising action, it told of her going to plays and of her collecting jewelry, which is thought to be fake. Then she dies, and he decides to sell the jewelry. climax the jewelry is real and he is going to be rich. Falling action-he goes out and celebrates as he is rich. Conclusion-gets married to a temperamental woman and has a miserable life.

2) Well, earlier in the story, it told how she had any suitors, so she may have been getting the jewels from them. Also, she would say they looked real when she put them in the firelight and twirled them.

3) I was not expecting the guy to get rich, but that may have been expected. Him getting married again really shocked me, especially to some uppity woman like he did. You would think he would just stay with the memory of his first wife, who gave him that wealth. This leads you to think that at the beginning, he was a content just because he said that was his lot in life, and he could live with it. Though he was very upset over his first wife’s death, the money really got him over that very fast. As soon as the money came in, it took no time at all for him to move on, thus leading me to believe that is first love was not as important as was said.