Journal 3

You have read a few stories and scholarly articles at this point. How do you feel so far about what you have read? What was enjoyable? What was difficult? Has anything in your reading process changed yet? Are you noticing new things as you read (either in the reading, in yourself, or in the world around you)? Have you made connections between the reading and your life or the world around you?
So far, everything we have read in class has come off pretty weird, but everything has had a pretty deep theme. Cathedral was awkward because the narrator was obsessed with how he was “anti-blind people”; In A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother was beyond obnoxiously annoying; and in A Rose for Emily, Miss Emily was just flat out strange. I really like A Rose for Emily and Cathedral, but not so much A Good Man is Hard to Find. I think I enjoyed those two stories so much because I made more connections with the symbolism in the stories. I also liked the characters more. The grandmother in A Good Man is Hard to Find was just severely annoying to me. She talked so much and because of her, her family was extremely self-absorbed and they had no true value for life outside or their own. I don’t think any of them changed as a result of what happened in their story. However, in the other two stories, I feel like they were much more dynamic. Robert and the narrator in Cathedral communicated with each other which led the narrator to reach a sort of epiphany about his own life. In A Rose for Emily, Emily was changed by the way she was isolated from mainstream society by her father and her town. The most difficult story to read would have to A Rose for Emily. There was so much that could be read into and interpreted, however it was still pretty enjoyable. The other stories were a little more direct about their symbols and themes which made them a little easier to comprehend. Since reading and discussing the stories in class, I have begun to look even more closely into the smaller details from stories. I also pay more attention to who the narrator and auditor may be. I never realized how much simple things like that had on the tone of the story. I never really paid much attention to how significant knowing the setting and tone was when you actually analyze a story. After paying more attention to smaller details in the story rather than the big picture and the plot, it’s easier for me to pick up on the deeper meanings and symbols that are in some of the stories that we read. Noticing these details allows me to relate to the readings on a more personal level. Like in A Rose for Emily, knowing the setting and identifying the auditor and narrator made making connections a lot easier. At first it was really difficult trying to make a claim about why the author chose to tell that story, but after considering the history, the way it was told, who it was told by and then actually dissecting the words in the text, it became much clearer. I also have made connections with the world around me as a result of the stories. Looking at the issues that the characters go through, it encourages me to be more mindful of how I treat life and how much value I put on it.