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Compare and contrast 2 short stories
Compare and contrast 2 short stories
Compare and contrast 2 short stories
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After reviewing both stories, I decided to go with the shorter version of the “So Much Water So Close to Home” story. Although the short and long versions bear some similarities, the differences between them are strong. The long versions gives specific details, which leave no room for thought. While the short passage, the writer lets the readers put their imagination to use, trying to figure out what had, has, and is going to happen in the story. In both versions, the author starts by stating an identical theme, Claire Husband was seating at the table eating. Obviously something is going on between them, because he is eating with aggressiveness, trying to avoid conversation. In cooperation her husband Stuart is very upset stating “Goddam it, why can’t people mind …show more content…
As a whole, they decided to continue their mini vacation, claiming the girl wasn’t going anywhere, and the journey to get where they were was too exhausting to go back and report her. They all agreed when the trip was over to report the body on the way home. After all they did not commit the crime. During this time the longer version gave more details of the events that were taking place during the fishing trip. Although the short version did not capture all of the details, I don’t think it was necessary information to know. I think the longer version made Stuart and his friends look inhumane, having no respect or regards for life of another individual. For example “Vern went to sleep, but the others told coarse stories and spoke of vulgar or dishonest escapades out of their past, and no one mention the girl until Gordon Johnson, who’d forgotten for a minute commented on the firmness of the trout they’d caught, and the terrible coldness of the river water.” This statement allowed the readers to believe that the men was not concerned at all, because they continued to get
The mother and daughter have a very distant relationship because her mother is ill and not capable to be there, the mother wishes she could be but is physically unable. “I only remember my mother walking one time. She walked me to kindergarten." (Fein). The daughter’s point of view of her mother changes by having a child herself. In the short story the son has a mother that is willing to be helpful and there for him, but he does not take the time to care and listen to his mother, and the mother begins to get fed up with how Alfred behaves. "Be quiet don't speak to me, you've disgraced me again and again."(Callaghan). Another difference is the maturity level the son is a teenager that left school and is a trouble maker. The daughter is an adult who is reflecting back on her childhood by the feeling of being cheated in life, but sees in the end her mother was the one who was truly being cheated. “I may never understand why some of us are cheated in life. I only know, from this perspective, that I am not the one who was.” (Fein). The differences in the essay and short story show how the children do not realize how much their mothers care and love
In conclusion, both of the stories where quite griping as they were so uniquely strange. Flannery O’Connor compared to other authors by using her unique writing style. Also, from judging from these two stories we can know that she uses the same style in most of her works. We can also know that her stories usually have a pattern in which her main characters lives are going all well and normal until some outside force usually some kind of a human being enters their life and completely disrupts it. Another remarkable writing style of her included, that her stories always had a tragic ending. The result of which was death for most part. Moreover, O’Connor made a heave use of foreshadowing and irony, which concluded to a mishap.
The story reveals how the narrator describes himself and his friends. In the story “Greasy Lake” the narrator says, “We wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed glue and ether and what somebody claimed was cocaine” (Boyle, 129). This explains the characters they portray to be but in reality are not due to the correction he gives in the end. While they are still playing out as bad characters they find themselves in a troubled situation that was supposed to be a joke. They flash the headlight to a car who they think is Tony’s. They notice immediately that it is not their friend’s car and end up picking a fight with a guy who was with his girlfriend. They narrator and his friends are taking a beating and the narrator decides to get a tire iron and smacks the man knocking him out cold on the floor. In the story “Greasy Lake” explains how they felt, “Motherfucker’, he spat, over and over, and I was aware in that instant that all four of us- Digby, Jeff, and myself included- were chanting ‘motherfucker, motherfucker, ‘as if it were a battle cry” (Boyle, 131). This describes how intimidating they feel by leaving the man in the floor but the narrator explains how terrified he actually was to do that. The girlfriend starts bashing at them and trying to hit them with
...ut something the mother is doing for herself, while the second poem is all about the sacrifices the father made for his son. Comparing them shows the mother to be the more "selfish" of the two, in that her child and husband are distractions from her revelry, and they are somewhat burdensome to her. But the father is totally self-sacrificing -- getting up in the "blueblack cold," making a fire with "cracked hands that ached." He takes no thought for his own comfort, except, possibly, when he gets angry. This makes me think if the father had spent some time relaxing like the mother, maybe he wouldn't have gotten as angry. Maybe thinking of yourself every once in awhile is a good thing, I don't know, but it is interesting to note the contrast. I think mother in the first poem is person we can relate to, but the father in the second poem is a person we admire.
The short story explains the sustainability of life, how a negativity of a relationship can help one relate to the smallest symbolic things. The lesson of sustainability of life is more than just the life of the Fish. It was more upon the relationship between the parents. The owner of the fish was small and would not care for the fish, making the mother take care of it Reminiscing of her childhood fish; the mother also remembers how her father dumped her childhood fish in a Michigan river. The mother of the little boy still kept her act together even after the infidelity of her husband. She would compare it to her parent’s relationship. In a way, the negativity of both relationships made her compare her life to the fish in the tank. The mother “… felt awe at the fact that life was sustainable even under the most abhorrent conditions.” She felt that the fish was most likely going through the same stuff she was going through with her husband. After seeing Fish’s tank dirty, the little boy told his mother and assumed the fish was dead, little did he know the fish was not dead and that mother had cleaned the tank and moved it to the living room after signing the last papers of her divorce and saying farewell to her ex husband. At the end they all carried the fish “… where with a soft patter of congratulatory applause they’ll present Fish with a new home, right next to the television set.” She in a way explained Fish’s new life in a positive way ad for her life shall be the same. Overall the story compares to the human’s life and a fish’s life both very different, but in a way more similar than one can imagine. The topic of adultery is harsh, and the way individuals take it can either be calm or crazy. In my opinion she took her divorce calm and made her have a certain type of love back into her life. It is bazar to think that a fish’s situation gave the
According to Mrs. Loch’s fourth period class, there are many reasons as to why some things were wrong with Robbins Park’s water. The reasoning varies due to many different factors. Physical factors such as weather is a major issue. It’s an issue because it changes, and is not always the most credible data tests. This can affect different chemical factors of the water’s quality such as the pH and turbidity. The turbidity was 5 JTU was clear, but the DO level was 4ppm which is liveable, but very low. Also, the phosphat level was 2.75 ppm which is very high seeing as normal is below 0.03. Biological factors were also a problem because of the organisms living in the pond which were mostly pollution tolerant with limited to none pollution sensitive one. They can show the effects of the poor water quality, and if they are absent they show pollution/unsuitable conditions. The chemical factors can also affect the water quality. When leaves begin decomposing in the pond, phosphates are left behind, which can also be a reason why we found high levels of phosphate in the pond.
Imagine a world where all of our fresh water was polluted to the point where we couldn’t drink it. That is exactly where we are heading if we do not fix this epidemic that is hitting, not only America, but Iowa in particular. It is apparent that Iowa’s water is posing health concerns such as polluting the water, creating dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, and affecting the population’s drinking water.
Over the past fifty years, the U.S. population has doubled in size. During this time, total water usage per person has almost tripled. Since the end of World War II, there has been a steady increase of people moving out of rural areas and into cities. As a result, the domestic self-supplied population has greatly decreased and the need for public-water supply systems has intensified. These factors, in conjunction with certain economic trends, precipitation, and global climate changes, pose difficult challenges in the years to come.
As you can see, the two short stories both evidently share the same thesis that women are being held back by their husbands. Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Ames are those women. Unfortunately, Mrs. Mallard wasn't too successful with her goal and she has a tragic death. Mrs. Ames however, got what she had desired, a new man, new relationship, and a new start. It was more difficult for women to make a standing point or just to be heard during Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Ames times. They didn't have as much of
Both authors use figurative language to help develop sensory details. In the poem It states, “And I sunned it with my smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles.” As the author explains how the character is feeling, the reader can create a specific image in there head based on the details that is given throughout the poem. Specifically this piece of evidence shows the narrator growing more angry and having more rage. In the short story ” it states, “We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among bones.” From this piece of text evidence the reader can sense the cold dark emotion that is trying to be formed. Also this excerpt shows the conflict that is about to become and the revenge that is about to take place. By the story and the poem using sensory details, they both share many comparisons.
... motif of distance from the father. The narrators in both poems, children, focus on their fathers and consequently the distance between each of them. In “Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad”, the daughter with the fun enjoying “Dad” that swims and leads to the “Icy ocean between us” (Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad 14) to symbolize the distance between the two literally and in their relationship. In “In the Well”, the daughter goes down the deep dark well close to the water where she could “taste fear” (In the Well 4-5), which then in the end she comes back up the well and comes to the “Light” (20) and her “Daddy”(15) where she is safe and at peace. Both poems depict the clear understanding of distance and the closeness of a parent to child relationship at even the simplest of occasions.No matter how far away the child is, the parent, in this case the father, is always there for support.
Ambiguity occurs often in writing, and readers often choose to fill in the blanks with facts, which are not from the text. By filling in spaces in the story, the reader creates a plot, which fits into their understanding. In Coover's "Quenby and Ola, Swede and Carl," the plot is ambiguous. Many of these ambiguities are subtle and are easily overlooked, leading the reader to make assumptions about the text. Simple words, phrases, or the language leads the reader to a plot, which almost fits the text. As a reader, I was not satisfied that there was no definitive plot in which I could understand the story. I read the story several times and came up with three different realities; none of them agreed completely with the text. My first conclusion of the story was that the story took place over the course of a week, and that all pieces of the story occurred. My second understanding was that the two sex scenes were both fantasies and that the other pieces took place over the course of the week. Finally, the last conclusion I drew was that everything had happened, but during different years. Each of these plots, which I created out of the story's ambiguity, is invalid if you include all of the text and don't disregard some textual evidence and language. Thus the ambiguity causes the reader to fill in blanks and disregard textual discrepancies. By filling in the blanks and creating an understanding for themselves, the reader is destroying the text.
In addition to these topics, people should understand where the water that is disappearing originates. The majority of states in the Southwest region rely on the Colorado River. It provides water to seven states and over 40 million people, but parts of the river have dried up to muddy trickles. “The most immediate cause is 14 years of drought unrivaled in 1,250 years” (Weaver). It is very apparent that climate change is a chief reason for the water shortages. Some other causes of this problem comes from low snowpack at the river’s origin, high summer temperatures due to climate change, depleted reservoirs, and over demand due to overpopulation. Other experts believe that pollution and illegal pumping add to the causes for depletion of the Colorado
.... Though each story has different characters, plot, and overall conclusion, they contain many of the same aspects. Both of these short stories are written from first-point of view to help the reader understand the background of the story. The stories contain heavy drinking that clearly distorts who the characters first seemed to be. The alcohol aided the confusion of love which made it impossible to come to a conclusion about it in each story. Unlike “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, “Cathedral,” accomplished a more set conclusion, yet it was up for the reader to interpret.
Water is one of the most essential non-renewable natural resources on the Earth. Technically, an un-hydrated human being can live no more than three days. In the United States, people consume water mainly from tap water and bottle water. However, the consumption between these two sources is not even but lean to one side heavily. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, people consume from 240 to over 10000 times more per gallon for bottled water than they usually do for tap water. (NRDC) In addition, according to a survey from US National Library of Medicines, only 17% of the participants prefer to drink tap water exclusively.(US National Library) Compared to the bottled water which is shining like a superstar, tap water is like a diligent worker in the shade, unpopular but useful. The extremely unbalance of bottled water consumption implies that a commonly hold conception exists: bottle water is superior to tap water. In fact, scientific evidence proves that tap water is nothing different than bottle water. More importantly, the excessive consumption of bottled water is an irrational use of resources and creates severe environmental issues.