Do Not Go Gentle

This short story completely surprised me.  The story starts out with a man and his wife in an intensive care unit for babies.  Their son is in a coma and has been for a while.  The man explains how his wife and he are struggling to cope with what is happening just like many of the other families that are at the facility.

One day he decides that he will go out and buy a few toys for his son.  He wonders down the street and comes upon a store called "Toys in Babeland".  It seems like it would be a nice children's toy store, but when he walks in he discovers it is anything but that.  It is actually a sex toy shop.  He is caught off guard, but decides to browse their selection anyway.  He sees videos and dolls and other items as he's walking around, but when he turns around a corner he sees something he has never seen before, chocolate thunder. Chocolate thunder turns out to be a 15" vibrator.  For some reason he is amazed by this and decides to buy it.  He brings it back to the hospital.  He starts to wave it over the babies in hopes that it might do something.  He welds it like a wand.  His wife eventually takes a liking to this toy, but not the way you might think.  She puts faith into it.  She plays her drum with it and actually thinks that it has powers.  The story ends on a happy note because their son eventually recovers.

A vibrator is not what I was expecting the father to bring back to the hospital.  If I was another parent there I would probably be upset with him and would likely force him to leave.  I think it would be very disrespectful to have that in a room with sick children and to use it like he was.  He does say however that many of the other parents laughed.  So I guess it is possible that given the stress they were under it was good to add some humor to break up the sadness.

I think the main point Sherman Alexie wants to make is that people can put faith into anything.  People give objects value and worth.  Nothing inherently has value, except for maybe food and water.  Everything else in life takes on different values to different people.  Just because I may not believe in the powers of a vibrator doesn't mean someone else can't.

A Tree, a Rock, a Cloud

I thought this short story was a little creepy.  I don't consider it normal for someone to tell a stranger that they love them, especially when an older man tells a young boy that.

The old man who is drinking at the bar is an interesting guy.  He seems to have been many places and seen many things.  Most of his traveling was done trying to find his wife who apparently ran off with another man.  I thought is was really weird that a 30 year old woman would marry a 57 year old man after only knowing him three days.  They could not have had a strong relationship.  It's really not too surprising that she ran away.

The old man says he loves her, but there has to come a time where the love fades.  If she loved him too then she would have stayed.  I don't know why he wastes his time looking for her year after year.

During his search the man says that he has developed a science for loving.  He explains that he could love a ray of sunlight or a bird that is flying around.  I assume this is why the tells the boy that he loves him at the beginning of the story.  If I was the boy I would not stick around to find out what the man had to say.  I would get out of there as fast as I could.  I don't understand why Leo doesn't help the boy either.  There are several times when the boy looks over to Leo for help, but Leo just shrugs it off.  Leo doesn't seem like a nice person.

I'm really not too sure of what the main idea of the story is.  Made it's that everything can be loved.

Harrison Bergeron

This short story fell in the science fiction realm.  The general idea behind the story is what society would be like if everyone was equal.  In the story everyone isn't necessarily born equal, but instead is handicapped so that they are not more capable or prettier than the next person.  The person who controls this is set on making sure that nobody has any advantage over anybody else.  So if a person was smarter they would put a set of headphones on them that would make it hard for them to think.  If a person was athletic they would weigh them down so they could not perform as well.

In the story a young man has been taken to jail.  His parents are aware that he is in jail, but do not feel sad.  When they see him get shot on TV they do not feel any emotions either and quickly forget what has happened.  It is quite sad.

There is another event in the story that illustrates why this type of society would not be good.  The mother and father are watching a performance and the dancers that are performing keep messing up.  It does not seem to be enjoyable.

I don't think this type of society would be good at all.  Besides the fact that it suppresses people's emotions and feelings, it also limits people thoughts.  There would be no progression of society.  No new technology.  Part of what makes the world so good is that everyone is different.

After Chapter of Deliverance

The chapter of Deliverance entitled "After" basically serves to show the audience how the men have changed after they return home.  Before they get home they must talk to the authorities.  The police just want to know what their story is and how Drew drowned.  Ed, Bobby, and Lewis and rehearsed a story so that the authorities would not expect foul play.  They seem to execute their story to perfection.  The police believe them, all except for one that is.  One of the lower ranking officers comes up to Ed and asks what he did with his brother-in-laws body.  He implies that Ed killed him.  Officer Queen explains that his sister's husband went out in the woods a few days ago and has not returned home.  Queen believes that Ed, Bobby, and Lewis were the only people that could have come in contact with his brother-in-law.  The head officer does not buy the story though and the men seem to narrowly escape.  It was a close call though.

When the men arrive home all of their lives change in one way or another.  Drew's family is obviously shocked and saddened.  I'm sure it will be hard for them to move on.  His wife keeps saying that the trip was "useless."

Ed describes Lewis as "He is a human being, and a good one."  He also says "He has changed, too, but not in obvious ways.  He can die now; he knows that dying is better than immortality."  The events that Lewis went through must have really affected him.  It seems like he is a much more subdued guy now and is less willing to take risks.  I'm almost positive that he will never take a trip like that again.

Bobby doesn't seem to change for the good.  He was pretty much happy with his life the way it was before the trip.  After the trip he ends up quitting his job and attempts to start a restaurant.  That fails and he moves to Hawaii.  It is apparent that his life will never be the same.  It will tough for him to live with the fact that he has been raped.

Ed has also changed a lot and for the good.  Ed says that he now sees his wife in a different light.  He went out with the model a few times, but realized that it was wrong and that his wife was the only person he wanted to be with.  Apparently their relationship is much stronger than it was before.  It seems like his "sliding" mentality is gone.  He says he enjoys work more and that Thad and him are getting along better.

It's interesting to reflect back on the novel and ask yourself if the trip was worth it.  There are three dead guys, and three guys with pretty serious injuries.  It was definitely not worth it for Drew.  He did not deserve to die like that.  I don't think the two dead attackers really matter either.  It is pretty much their fault.  The actions they took were extremely wrong.  The trip was also harmful to Bobby.  It seems like it really affected him and he may not ever be able to fully recover.  I think it worked out good for Lewis.  His wild way of living seems to have disappeared.  Maybe he will settle down and spend more time with his family.  The trip was also beneficial for Ed.  It got him out of his rut and changed his relationship with his wife for the better.

Conclusion of September 16th

I don't know if I have ever experienced a chapter as action packed as this one was.  There was page after page of action, it seemed like it would never stop.  The basic story line is that Ed shoots a man who he thinks is the second attacker.  After releasing the arrow the recoil of the bow knocks Ed out of the tree.  On his fall down his last arrow positions itself between his side and the ground and when Ed hits the ground the arrow pierces Ed's side.  This injury really affects Ed.  He is hardly able to move and must cut the arrow out.  After somewhat recovering from the arrow injury Ed must immediately decide what to do with the body.  He examines it and sees that this man has all of his teeth.  Ed thinks to himself that he might have shot the wrong person.  However, he cannot think about that right now.  He must focus on disposing of the body.  He decides to lower the body off the edge of the cliff with his rope.  After he has done that he takes hold of the rope and slides down himself.  The rope breaks when he nears the bottom and the corpse and he fall into the water.  Bobby helps Ed out and then helps Ed sink the body.  Now that the three men are united once again they proceed down the river.  They come across a large and fierce set of rapids that almost throws them out of the boat, but they make it through.  On the other side of the rapids they find Drew's body.  Ed examines it and is unsure if he was shot or if he hit his head on a rock and drowned.  Ed also decides that they will tell the authorities that that last set of rapids is where everything went wrong.  Just a few miles after the last rapids is a farm where the three men are finally able to get off the river.

Just like I said in a previous posting, I had the feeling that Ed would need to shoot at something later on.  This time he was successful.  I think the main reason he succeed was because he had to shoot the man or the man would have shot him.  It was kill or be killed.  Luckily Ed was able to hold his nerves together enough to keep the arrow steady during the release.

Ed getting impaled by his own arrow didn't really surprise me.  Every other character had had something bad happen to them, so it only made since that Ed need to get hurt too.

As I mentioned earlier, when Ed looks over the attacker's body he notices that he has all his teeth.  Ed was almost positive that the attacker at the scene was missing some teeth.  At first he is a little worried about this, but he realizes that he can't do anything about it now.  I agree with him.  What is done is done.  If he would have sat there and thought about it, he would have just gotten himself in more trouble.

After Bobby pulls Ed out of the water Ed goes off on Bobby.  He yells at him for not leaving on time and numerous other things.  Ed is upset that Bobby did not follow the directions.  If Ed had not killed the attacker then Bobby and Lewis would have probably been shot and Ed's efforts would have been in vein.  It kind of works out for Ed though.  If Bobby would have left on time he would not have been there to help Ed out of the water and Ed would have had to find another way off of the river.

Ed seems very interested in looking over Drew's body.  He really wants to know how he died.  I think the main reason he wants to know is because if Drew was not shot, then Ed's murder is not really justified.  However, if the attacker did shoot Drew, then Ed will a little bit better about what he did.

Bobby says on page 219 "There's no end to it."  This is entirely true.  Bobby, Lewis, and Ed will never forget what happened on the river.  They will have to live with the events for the rest of their lives.  Even if they get the authorities to believe their story they are not really free of their guilt.  They will always have to live with what they did.

Deliverance p.139-183

After the previous events I was not surprised when Drew was shot on the river.  It made sense that he would be the first one to die.  Ed can not possibly die until the end because he is the narrator.  Bobby has already been through a lot and is hurt physically and emotionally so it makes a better story to keep him alive.  Lewis was not killed because if he would have died the other guys would lose their hope.  They would be lost without his guidance.

I found it a little shocking that Ed was so eager and willing to take on Lewis responsibilities and position.  Due to his broken leg Lewis told Ed to basically take charge of the situation and to lead the three of them to safety.  Before the trip Ed was not the kind of man to just take charge of a situation.  He preferred to sit back and just follow along.  In the situation he is in now he can not continue that same trend of behavior because if he does he will die.  He knows this and takes charge.

He plans out the groups next moves based on what he thinks the attacker will do.  When he talks to Bobby about the plans it is obvious that Bobby has no clue what is going on.  If it was up to Bobby the whole group would die.

Ed decides to leave Bobby and Lewis on the bank while he climbs the wall of the gorge to try and hunt down their attacker.  After an intense climb up the wall Ed finally makes it to solid level ground.  From there he must find a good location to stake out and wait for the attacker.  If he picks the wrong location either he could die or his friends could die.  I'm pretty sure that he will get a shot on the attacker just like I concluded from the earlier readings.

This new Ed is completely different from the Ed at the beginning of the story.  I'm not really shocked though.  I think most people have something inside of them that changes when they are put into extreme situations.  You never really know how you would react to a situation until you're in.  Ed is the same way.  It is basically fight or die.  He doesn't want to die so he must fight his way out of the woods.

The way James Dickey sets up the novel is very smart.  The long drawn out build up to the action and then the concise thrilling moments mimic that of a river.  The calm part of the rivers is the same as the character development and build up.  Then out of no where comes the action, just like a set of rapids on a river.  The action is quick and short lived just like rapids also.

When I was reading these pages I had a hard time believing that it could be true.  The first part that is hard to believe is that Ed could hang onto the bow and arrows while being tossed around in the river.  It is also remarkable that they didn't break while the canoe, paddles, and Lewis' leg did.  I also found it hard to believe that Ed could make it up such a daunting rock face.  The way Dickey describes it makes it sound nearly impossible.  Ed admitted that he wasn't in the best of shape, yet he is makes it up.  This feat is even harder to believe because 1.) Ed has been up for an extremely long time 2.) He has been canoeing all day which must take a lot of strength and 3.) He has not had anything to eat or drink.

Pages 89-139 Deliverance

Man, these pages were pretty intense.  The plot really starts to unfold during this section of the novel.  It all starts with a thick looming fog.  Ed wakes up before the other men and decides to go hunting.  He remarks that he could just go a little ways up the hill, sit and wait, and then return.  That's what he would have done before the trip.  That would be just enough to make the other guys think he actually tried.  Instead of doing nothing, however, he decides to actually make an attempt to shoot something.  He walks around for a while and finally spots a deer about 15 meters away.  He remarks how he has had plenty of practice shooting stationary targets at this range before.  Shooting a live animal in the wild is a different story though.  He lines up his shot and releases the arrow.  He misses high.  He says that he just barley lifted his front hand when he released the arrow.  I think this event will foreshadow something that happens later in the novel.  I  believe the author wanted to make it seem like Ed wasn't a good shot to build suspense.  There will probably come a time later in the novel when Ed needs to make a big shot and I think he'll do it.

The major event that occurs during these pages is the rape of Bobby.  Ed and Bobby had stopped to take a break when two men walk out of the woods.  One is carrying a gun.  It seems that Ed knows from the beginning that they are up to no good, and I agree.  I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen.  I really did not expect rape to be that event though.  I don't see how Bobby is going to be able to recover from this event and continue down the river.

To get out of the situation Lewis had to shoot one of the men.  Then the four guys contemplate what to do with the body.  Drew things they should keep it and turn it in to the authorities.  Lewis thinks they should get rid of it.  I have to agree with Lewis on this issue.  I don't think they have much of a shot of convincing the authorities that it was not murder if they turn in the body.  Even the best case scenario would not be good for their reputations.

42-89 Deliverance

As I read these pages I kept asking myself "why"?  Why are these men taking this canoeing trip?  I have yet to hear a good reason.  Ed himself admits several times that he doesn't want to go, and I don't blame him.  There are many, many signs that point to something going wrong.  For one Lewis is not a capable guide.  Even though he has more experience than any of the other guys, combined, he is still an amateur.  He may think he knows what to do, but deep down he doesn't.  He tells the story about him breaking his ankle twice.  Each time Ed just sits there and listens.  It should throw up a red flag that tells him to stop.  Lewis is also notorious for making dangerous decisions.  It is part of his personality.  He likes to do crazy things.  It doesn't seem like any of the other guys are into the same activities.

Another red flag would be when the locals say that they would not try to canoe down the river.  If I asked a local about something that I was about to do, and they said don't do it you better believe I would turn around and go home.  It doesn't make sense to take that risk.  Lewis goes ahead with the plan though.  It's almost as if he has something to prove to someone.

I also thought it was bad Lewis takes the wrong road going to the river.  He acted so confidently when he made the turn, but he eventually learned that he made the wrong choice.  If he makes a decision like that on the river it could cost the men their lives.

A good example of Lewis inexperience occurs when he gets turned around on the river.  He and his partner struggle to get their canoe pointed the right way.  He has boasted the whole time that he knows what he's doing, when in fact he doesn't.

It seems like there is foreshadowing on every page.  I'm ready to find out what is going to happen to these guys.

Beginning of Deliverance

Although I've only read 41 pages of this book I think I am really going to enjoy it.  One of the first things I noticed was how descriptive the author is.  He makes a point to describe everything in great detail, the reader can pretty much picture the words playing out in their head.

The beginning of the novel is really just devoted to character development.  The audience is introduced to four main character, Ed (narrator), Lewis, Bobby, and Drew.  Bobby and Drew seem to be kind of secondary characters.  They aren't discussed as much as Ed and Lewis.  We are told that Bobby is a social person that seems to have his life together, at least on the outside.  Drew is a family man who seems satisfied with his life.  The author makes a point to explain two times when both of the men got very angry.  I wonder if this is foreshadowing because it seemed out of place.

Ed is the narrator and because of that the audience learns quite a bit about him.  Ed is a complacent guy.  He is the vice president of a graphic design company, but does not like his job.  He has no motivation to reach his full potential and freely admits he could do better.  He has an "anti-friction" towards life.  He likes to find things that are easy to do and then stick with them.  He does not seem like a guy who could handle being pushed to his limits.

Ed's best friend is Lewis.  Lewis seems like a cool guy.  He is very adventurous and is always trying new things.  Ed says that "He had everything that life could give, and he couldn't make it work".  Lewis never seems satisfied.  He is constantly exploring new hobbies to keep himself busy.

All four men embark on a canoeing trip.  Lewis is the most experienced outdoorsman, but even he doesn't have much experience.  I don't understand why the rest of the guys would follow him.

I'm assuming something bad is going to happen to these guys otherwise there would not be much of a story.  I just wonder what exactly it is.

Sure Thing by David Ives

I thought this was a very strange one act play.  Maybe reading it doesn't do it justice, but I really did not enjoy reading this.  The repetition was strange.  When it was acted out in class I thought it was pretty good.  I guess it's one of those plays that needs to be acted out instead of read.

The main idea behind this one act play is that it explains the actions between two people meeting for the first time in a cafe.  There is a bell that goes off whenever the conversation has become stale, or has wandered to something too personal or abstract.  So in a sense the bell acts as a "redo" button.  (If only we had one in real life)

The guy, Bill, in the play approaches the female, Betty, in a cafe.  He asks her if the seat beside her is taken and she says it is.  The bell rings.  He continues his quest, but in a different manner.  The bell rings a few more times.  Eventually he says the right things and sits down.  This shows how hard it is to initially begin a conversation with someone completely new.  It also shows how hesitant Betty is, she keeps coming up with excuses.

After he sits down they make small talk and the bell goes off occasionally.  I thought it was funny when she tells him that she just came to read.  I mean how would you respond to that?  All you can really do is just stop talking to her and leave her alone.  Of corse the bell went off after that.  I thought it was also funny when she is talking about the book she is reading and Bill says the the author of the novel in such a confident manner, but is wrong.

One important message of the play is about timing.  Bill explains that "You have to hit these things at the right moment or it's no good."  I think that is mainly referring to relationships and meeting people, but also to other times in life.

There is a strange moment when Betty completely loses it and goes off about how she knows what Bill really wants and that she isn't falling for it.  Betty has a long monologue where she describes what seems to be a true story she was involved in.  She apparently met a guy and he got her to come home with him. All he really wanted was to have sex with her and after they finished he pretty much didn't care for her.  This is the sort of personal information that is too personal for a first meeting and the bell rings after she finishes tell her story.

A few more funny moments are when Betty says she is gay so Bill will lose interest in her.  Also when Bill is describing his college and political affiliation.  He has to change his political affiliation four times till he finally comes to one that suits Betty.

The play ends with a story book ending.  They finally find topics that they completely agree on and everything seems like it's going to work out between them.  I thought the was a little off.  If the play is about the struggles of meeting someone then it doesn't really make sense for everything to be peachy at the end.  Most people don't hit it off when they first meet.  I thought the ending was a little hard to believe.

Conclusion of A Raisin in the Sun

Just as I had feared, the insurance money that Walter was in charge of leaves his possession during the end of the play.  Walter was going to go into business with one of his supposedly good friends, Willy, but Willy ends up taking his money and disappearing.  I felt bad for Walter, but he had to know that people don't all of a sudden get rich.  He should have been a little smarter about how he invested his money.

This leaves the family with a hard decision.  Do they continue the move to their new house where they will need to all work to pay the bills or do they stay in their run down apartment and continue the same style of living they've had for decades?  Mama leaves this decision up to Walter.  At first Walter wants to take the offer that the White people in the neighborhood gave to them.  They said that they would buy the house from them at a substantial increase from what they paid.  Walter feels like this would be a good deal for the family.  Mama however thinks that taking the money would be a slap in the face.  She takes their offer as a sign that they are not welcome in the neighborhood and an attack against her pride.  She goes on and on about how she and her husband grew up and that they would never sacrifice their pride.  Eventually Walter  decides to move into the house.

Although I understand why he made the decision I'm not sure I agree with him.  Granted I'm not in his shoes, but if I had just squandered $6,500 and had the opportunity to get some of it back I think I would get it back.  The money could really help the family out.  I think Mama would have been extremely upset though.  I can understand how it would be a little degrading, but why do they need to prove anything to those White people?  In this case it seems like money is worth more than their pride.  Making the decision to move in makes Walter more like his dad.  This makes Mama very happy because all along she has been wanting Walter to step up and act like his dad.

Moving into the house satisfies Mama's dream.  She will finally be able to plant her garden that she has always wanted.  At the same time moving into the house destroys Beneatha and Walter's dream.  Now that the money is gone Beneatha will more than likely not be able to go to medical school.  She will have to find some other way to get money or she will probably fall into the same routine as the rest of her family, which is sad.  Walter's dream disappears because he will almost certainly not have that kind of money to invest again.  I hope if he does choose to invest money in the future he will be a little bit smarter about it.

I really enjoyed this play overall.  I thought there were some good messages throughout the play that added a lot of depth to it.  I would have liked to have a little more information about what happens to the family though.  The ending does not have many details.