"Popular Mechanics"

Oh dear, this was a weird one. My group was talking about whether or not we thought the baby died and was ripped in half or not. I don't think that the baby was killed by being pulled apart, or cut in half like Solomon proposed in 1 Kings 3. I do think that the issue was decided in another way because I think that the parents would have realized it before they pulled him in half. Also, I am not sure that is even possible. I proposed that the baby's should was dislocated or something because that would result in a hospital visit. My theory might be out of the cone of meaning, but I think that the issue was decided by that because child services could remove the child or something like that could happen. I don't even know though if the means to the decision is important, rather the fact that the issue was decided. This story shows how people get this "mine" complex and have a hard time giving things up.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Plot:
The plot was interesting for this short story because instead of covering a day or a short period of time, the story took the reader through Benjamin Button's whole life... backwards. Something I noticed about this story was the generalizing of Benjamin's emotions. To me, he never seemed to have specific emotions, but an all-encompassing emotion for the period of time. Also, since the story did have to cover such a long period of time, only certain points in Benjamin's life were told and whole chunks of time were grouped together under a certain emotion or difficult situation. Finally, the most interesting part of the plot was that Benjamin aged backwards which in case people didn't know, is not normal. This affected the plot because it affected Benjamin's life and his interactions with the others around him. Also, the plot is unique from any other short story because only one person so far has ever aged backwards.

Point of View:
This short story is told in the first person at the very beginning when the author begins the story and alludes to the fact that baby Benjamin Button is very unique baby. Then the narrator begins the story of Benjamin Button is a very hard POV to classify, so I'll make up my own because this is my analysis. I shall call this POV, the STORYTELLER POV (clever, huh?). From this point of view, the readers get the whole picture of the towns feelings and thoughts, but an even closer and personal view into Benjamin's feelings and thoughts. Later in the story when more major characters make their debut, the speaker weaves more important feelings and thoughts into the story more. I like to think of this POV as a movie when you see a person sitting in a chair addressing the audience directly and then their voice and the image fades out into the actual story. I think this POV helps the audience to get an unbiased POV, but also drives them into the story without dealing with a "visible and audible" middle man all the time. The POV is good for the story because it doesn't take the side of any one character, but still requires the necessary sympathy that is due to Benjamin.
Characterization:
I think that Benjamin Button is a round and dynamic character. The fact that the audience is taken on a ride through his life shows that fact. Benjamin regresses from a wise and tired old man to a elegant gentleman, a reckless young man, a whiny child, and finally a helpless baby. These shifts in age and the decisions and thoughts he has in all of them definitely show that he is a dynamic and round character. I think that Benjamin's father, Mr. Button, is also a round character, but a slightly round one. Benjamin is so round and dynamic that he could be an orange, while Mr. Button is more like an egg. At first Mr. Button starts out trying to make his son the baby that he is supposed to be by "[declaring] that if Benjamin didn't like warm milk he could go without food altogether" (page 18). Mr. Button was quite stubborn in the fact that Benjamin should be who he should be. However, after awhile, Mr. Button seemed to realize that he has to accept his son for who her is, just not completely, therefore, making him the egg. Finally, I'll lump together two characters who are affected by Benjamin's condition for awhile, but not as long as his father had been. These two characters are his wife Hildegarde and his son Roscoe. Both these characters were subject to Benjamin's reversing age and the affect it had on their family. After years of marriage, Hildegarde, whom Benjamin was completely in love with when he was old and she was young, moves to Italy because the now young Benjamin is out on the town with other women. I do not know how to characterize Hildegarde, but she did insist that Benjamin stop this process which is entirely impossible. Likewise, Roscoe, as a man, had to take care of his childlike father and treated him not like his father but as an annoying little boy. Roscoe and Hildegarde did not take this "curious case" in stride, but interacted with him at a very primary level.
Setting:
The setting is Baltimore, MA 1860. The Button family is wealthy so they own a substantial home in a good part of town and are very current with or ahead of their time. This setting is important to the story because 1860 was quite awhile ago before many genetic disorders were discovered and before mutations were accepted as science. I think that if this happened today, the child would have a very strange and scary life, but not for the reasons that Benjamin had. This child would be wanted by all sorts of scientists and would probably not have the chance to have others treat him like Benjamin was treated by people who just gave up being scared of him. I think the time maybe saved him because while he was embarrassed, talked about, and ridiculed, he didn't have people poking at him. Also, the story describes Baltimore as a Southern city which would show the staunch and proper culture of the time. The setting is important to get the theme across.
Theme:
I think two essential themes of this short story are family loyalty, love and acceptance and the actions of the human race. I'll start out with the family stuff because it seems most obvious to me. In this story, it starts our with neglect, not the type that you can go to prison for today, but lack of true love and family commitment. Benjamin is different, is made to feel different, and is forced, at least for awhile, to act outside the nature of his age. Also, Benjamin shows this neglect to his own wife when he is the age of a young man who should just be marrying and she is 50. He does not love her and he neglects his family by doing that. Roscoe does the same thing later in Benjamin's life, as Mr. Button did earlier. Instead of embracing the difference and trying to get through it together, they blame it on Benjamin saying he can control his backwards growth and that it is his fault. There is definitely a lack of familial "everything." In addition, I think that the story is demonstrating the things that we let people do because it is the "growing-up" process or because they are young or old. I think this stands out to me because Benjamin is not growing-up and doing what you'd expect, but he is "growing-down" and everything is such a surprise. What stands out most to me is when Benjamin grows tired of his wife when he is younger than her by a lot and he leaves he alone and goes out. I think that leaving one's girlfriend is sometimes expected by restless young men because they are restless, but since Benjamin is really old it is not okay for him. Also, Benjamin was not allowed to be grumpy when her was a old man in age but a little kid in everything else. Everybody expected that since he had lived so long that he wouldn't act like that. So I think that people let certain ages act certain ways, but were shocked by Benjamin.

"Eveline" #6

I think that Eveline has a will not to leave Ireland, but I think most of it is that she can't. Eveline remembers her promise to her mother to keep her family together. She remembers that she has family. Finally, I think the fact that she thought, "could she still draw back now after all he had done for her?" was a good indicator of her will. Eveline had doubts about going in that line, but she wasn't going to choose to go with Frank because she loved him, but because he had done things for her. In the end, I think that she realizes this and chooses not to go, but has that blank expression because she also can't. The father's relationship with his children kept coming back into my mind and I think that was also a reason. A lot of people in abusive mental and physical situations cannot leave and Eveline couldn't. She had all those thoughts about leaving, but she came back to her old life and to the fact that she loved him, but not the type of love most think about, and chose to stay. I think Eveline decided to let her life decide for her.

"A Worn Path" #6

I, like the student, asked the question, "is the grandson dead?" I asked this question because Phoenix traveled such a long and hard path to get medicine, only to forget for a while why she actually made the trip. I think that Phoenix is becoming senile or has dementia because she does not have any hurry once she gets there until she remembers. Also, the condition that the nurse describes does not seem like it could be treated with just soothing medicine. I think the remark is really quite brilliant and can be seen as an answer because I don't think it matters if the grandson is alive or dead. I only think it matters what Phoenix is like. She makes this difficult journey every week which shows obvious love for her grandson. So, it doesn't matter if he is alive because she still makes the faithful journey, even though it is hard for an old woman, and brings back the medicine. I think the trip is a ritual for her and is necessary for her character. So since Phoenix is alive, it doesn't matter if the grandson is, because the story is not about his character and journey-- the theme she portrays-- it is about Phoenix's.

"Once Upon a Time" fairytales?

This story was really disturbing. I spent a lot of this story confused, but I think I might have gotten it in the end. The child was influence by a fairytale, a children's story, the same type that the author was asked to write. I think that this story is denouncing fantasies by showing the horror that it created. However, I do not think that it was the fantasy that caused the problems for the child. I think it was the fence in the first place. Children are inherently curious and put up a big wall and children will play on it; I probably would have. The fairytale just adds to the fact that children play and there is reasons for safely locks on cabinets and locks on doors. However, there is also some precautions that do more harm than good, like the fence. The fairytale is the means to evil thing that happened, but I do not think it was the cause. I also was wondering if the boy actually died in the story and I also wondered what would happen to the fence if he did die. Would it be destroyed? Or, would the children be WARNED to stay away from it even more?

"Miss Brill" Lonely Hearts

This story really made me sad. I could not help but feel sorry for Miss Brill who seems to be very lonely and isolated. She is an English woman living in France, so she has a nationality boundary, especially since the English and the French don't really like each other. She is also unmarried, which shows that she is also alone in that regard. The poor woman spends her weekends watching people, never apart of conversations and pretending to be an actress. I think that she tries to fit in any way possible and tries to make herself noticeable. The animal fur suggests that she is apart of a different generation, especially from the young lovers at the end. Miss Brill seems excited to wear that one item that she has always regarded as "fashionable," but in the end, her fur is made fun of and she is too. That showed that Miss Brill is even more isolated and the boy said "who wants her here at all?" Miss Brill hears this and it is the absolute form of isolation.

"Bartleby the Scrivener"

First off, I thought this was an extremely hard and strange story to read. The characters are weird and the whole story is weird, but I'll attempt to make sense of these characters. The speaker, the Lawyer, spends a lot of time telling the audience about his other scriveners and gives us details that some would never think off or would think are strange. The speaker seems to have a strange fascination with people. Bryan Cary said a brilliant thing today in our small groups that I will have to give him credit for. He noticed that the audience could tell what time of day it was by the dialogue in the story. Sometimes Turkey would be perfectly coherent, and Nippers would be crazy, and visa versa. Also, I don't know why the Lawyer would not find normal people to work for him, instead of one who suffers from indigestion half the time and one who is drunk half the time. Finally, to Bartleby. I don't know if my explanation is again, out of the cone of meaning, but I had a feeling that he was suffering from a mental issue of some kind like autism, depression, etc. The very practiced and constant answer "I would prefer not to," plus his lack of social skills and precise writing technique makes me think he was autistic. That characterization makes me sad because if I am in the ball park, Bartleby died (at least I thought he did) because nobody understood. The characterization of each of the characters pushed the story along and the quirkiness of the other employees caused Bartleby's personality to stick out even more.