The short story "You're Ugly, Too" is difficult for me to understand. Honestly, I am horrible at fully comprehending stories dealing with sarcasm and irony. For some reason, I can't differentiate between the two, nor do I find them easy to read. I find ironic stories difficult for me to get through, which really bothers me. Zoe's character bothered me to; she was abrasive and crass in her statements and jokes. I know that this is the entire point of the story, but it really bothered me that she acted "like her opinion was more important than everybody else's." I didn't find any of her jokes to be very funny either. I guess I just felt like the themes in this short story were negative; about life, love, happiness, academics, etc. I am hoping that class discussion will allow me to understand this story a little better.
In "The Drunkard," I believe the story is not purely humorous. Even when reading it the first time, I sensed moments of pathos where the speaker is tying to connect emotionally with the reader. One of the very first moments of pathos I spotted was "mother and I knew the phases and dreaded all the dangers." To me, that sentence-along with those surrounding it- do not evoke humor; they evoke sympathy because the reader pities the mother and the son, since they must often deal with an alcoholic if they know the phases and dread the dangers. The pathos is continued when the father tells his son to "run out in the road and play." The son's emotion is revealed when he begins to think in the next lines about the effects of his father's decision and attempts to stop them because of his emotion toward his mother. A final example of pathos is the mother's reaction at the story's end when the son recalls, "Mother threw herself on me in the bed an kissed me." Obviously, this is much efficacious emotion being performed; everyone can connect with the happiness, pride, and joy that the Mother is feeling because of her son's actions.
A lottery is defined as "a contest in which tokens are distributed or sold, the winning token or tokens being secretly predetermined or ultimately selected in a random drawing" by this dictionary website. When I personally think of a lottery I think of the scratch-off cards that people (who are over 18--so not me) are always buying in front of me at gas stations, taking forever, when I'm in a huge hurry and all I really honestly need is to hand over my ten to fill up my tank. Anyway, a lottery is most often a word with a good connotation because it means that an individual has won major money, or something along those lines. Naturally, by looking at the title of this short story, I assumed the story will be about an individual winning money and the effects of this. The society in which I have matured has never used the word 'lottery' to regard anything negative, such as stoning an individual. I was really taken aback by the events that occurred in the last page; I could pretty soon into the story that something was a little off about this lottery, and my original presumption was wrong. However, I was stunned to read "but they still remembered how to use the stones," and then, a few sentences later read "a stone hit her on the side of the head." The story's title is definitely a misnomer in the sense of today's world.
"'You guys want to go see a dead body?'" (pg.299). The simple question asked by Vern Tessio, one of the main characters, to his group of friends, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and the narrator, Gordie Lachance, summarizes the plot of The Body into a single sentence. On a hot summer day in 1960, a group of four best friends decide to go on a journey to find the body of a boy who is their age. In the exposition, the narrator introduces out his story by describing each of the four main characters and their very different childhoods. The exposition continues as the boys begin their journey into the woods. Rising action begins the night that the boys must spend camping in the woods. The climax, of course, happens when the boys find the body of Ray; even though the reader knows it's coming, it's still surprising to read, " Vern began to screech triumphantly: 'THERE! THERE HE IS! RIGHT THERE! I SEE HIM!" (pg 406). The falling action occurs almost instantly when Vern and Chris' older brothers and their gang arrive; after threats, the boys never speak of the incident again. The resolution happens very quickly too; Gordie quickly tells of how Vern and Teddy separated from himself and Gordie after that year, and then in a few pages, Gordie tells how all three boys died in young adulthood.
POINT OF VIEW
The Body is told from first person point of view; the narrator is Gordie Lachance, one of the boys, who was on the adventure. Gordie is now around thirty years old and retelling his childhood adventure. As with any story told from first person, the audience does not get to read what is going on in the minds of the other characters, as well as the perception of the story's events being different than they would be from say, Chris' point of view because the situation he is growing up in greatly varies from Gordie's. Additionally, it becomes slightly confusing at times because Gordie slips in and out of the past and the present. For instance, Gordie is recalling his story: "For a moment, I was puzzled-why was he here and his tennies there? Then I realized, and the realization was like a dirty punch below the belt. My wife, my kids, my friends-they all think that having an imagination like mine must be quite nice; aside from making all this dough, I can have a little mind-movie whenever things get dull...He had been knocked spang out of his Keds" (page 408). There are a multitude of moments such as this throughout the short story; as the reader, it definitely slowed me down because I would get confused and have to reread paragraphs or pages.
Listen to Gordie's Point of View!
CHARACTERIZATION
Teddy Duchamp is one of the four main characters in The Body. Gordie uses indirect characterization to reveal the kind of person Teddy was. Teddy is the first character in the book to be described by Gordie; he "was close to being thirteen like the rest of us, but the thick glasses and the hearing aid he wore sometimes made him look like an old man" (pg 295). Gordie describes Teddy's physical appearance which we later find out happened because his father was angered at Teddy, causing him to shove Teddy's head onto to a stove making his ears look like "two lumps of warm wax" (page 296). This depicts Teddy's home life as one that no one would envy, in addition to giving the reader insight into his childhood. Gordie also reveals Teddy's values by his loyalty to his father throughout the entire story. For example, after an argument with the dump owner who calls his father a loony, Teddy becomes enraged. Gordie cannot comprehend this and "wonder[s] how Teddy could care so much for his dad when his dad had practically killed him" (pg 353). Gordie's characterization of Teddy is indirect because he uses appearance, actions, interactions, and dialogue throughout the story.
SETTING
There are many settings involved in The Body because it is the story of a journey. However, the one that best encapsulates the story is the "treehouse in a big elm which overhung a vacant lot in Castle Rock" (pg 293). The treehouse symbolizes the boys' childhood; it was the place for them to go to be young boys. The boys thought of it as a "kind of social club, although it had no name" (pg 293). The description of the club: "the sides of the treehouse were planks scavenged...the roof was a corrugated tin sheet...the screen door was rusty" (pg 294) reminded me a lot of other stories and movies about a group of boys. The setting caused me immediately to think of movies like The Little Rascals and The Sandlot, which are also about groups of very different young boys and a very distinct memory from childhood. The setting in The Body added to the story because it shows that these are outdoors boys; they are adventurous and think that they don't need anyone else besides each other. The boys clubhouse adds to the message of the story because it is physical evidence of their loyalty for one another.
THEME
One of the major themes I picked up from The Body is friendship. I personally saw Gordie (or maybe King, since this story is supposed to be pretty autobiographical) as being deeply conflicted about friendship. There are moments in the story in which he places a great amount of weight and value and importance on friendship. There are two lines regarding friendship in this novel that contradict each other. At first, Gordie reflects on his friendship: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, did you?" (pg 341). At the end of the story, Gordie says, "It happens. Friends come in and out of your life like busboys in a restaurant, did you ever notice that?" (pg 432). Since both of these aphorisms end in a question, Gordie clearly wants his readers to reflect on the paradox of friendship; he wants us to understand that childhood friendships are exactly that- friendships that may not be able to withstand the changes and different paths everyone takes, which lead to his second question. Friends can easily disappear and reappear in one's life depending on a variety of things; life moves on, just like people do. The theme of friendship in The Body definitely causes the reader to pause momentarily and reflect upon the points brought up by Gordie Lachance.
In this short story, the fur piece used by Miss Brill first serves as a cherished possession of hers. She treats in a manner as one would a child or pet saying "dear little thing." Miss Brill then allows the fur to personify itself, most likely because she is a lonely, elderly woman without a child to truly care for. As the story continues, the fur piece has morphed into symbolizing Miss Brill; it too has a few things wrong with it because of its age and the wear and tear of objects. By the end of the story, the reality of this fur is called out by two teenagers. They claim her "fur is so funny...it's exactly like a fried whiting" and wonder loudly, "why doesn't she keep her silly old mug at home?" This moment causes Miss Brill great distress; we know this is a result of the stole becoming such as important piece of her. The crying in the final sentence of this story is the ruining of Miss Brill's fantasy world; she is seen in the story as a kind, elderly lady who does not have a mean bone in her body. The crying sound she heard is actually Miss Brill's disheartened self.
The author believes there are two possible causes for the sound he/she hears. The first is the idea that a person is in his/her home is "moving from room to room coming up the passage--to my door." The second was that the "creaking was a buckling, an epicenter of stress." The cause for her fear proves to be the first option. The author provides details such as "my heart was fleeing" and "staring at the door, making it out in my mind rather than proving it" and of course, "I have the same fears as people who take precautions." These ideas create an emotional background for the children's story because it is an explanation of the reasoning behind fears; the author tells the story because everyone in the world is petrified that something awful could happen to their family. However, his/her story proves that over-protection can be the end (death) of individuals. The prelude to the bedtime story ties the emotions of worry, fear, regret, anxiety, distress, and uneasiness much as the second part of the story does. The second part of the story is the author proving to himself/herself that over-the-top precautions destroy people, so he/she is perfectly fine in his/her home.
Okay, I have to admit, when I read the ending of this short story, I thought Phoenix's grandson had died too, just as the student who wrote to Welty did. The first thing that lead me to this belief was Phoenix's complete separation from the world; such as when she imagines "a little boy bringing her a plate with a slice of marble-cake on it" or when she states "I'm an old woman without an education. It was my memory fail me," I began to think that she possibly has Alzheimer's and does not remember her grandson's death. Then I began to think about how she would leave him alone for the long stretches of time to go to the hospital; this to me does not seem like normal grandmotherly behavior. She acts as if she has left him all alone, while normally, sick kids are left with someone watching them. The final piece for me was "I not going to forget him again, no, the whole enduring time...he going to last." This statement made me think that Phoenix wasn't going to allow herself to forget the memory of her grandson, as compared to forgetting his actual living, breathing existence. The author's response makes me think this is in the cone of reason (or is it meaning?) because she doesn't really say anything about the student being wrong. I believe her response means that Phoenix's perseverance and determination make the little boy seem alive, which makes her alive.
