I think that the point of this story was to demonstrate the way in which children view the world, how innocent they really are. One of the best quotes in this short story was " childhood was a garden... without ends or limits without borders and fences". Here, I think that the author is trying to express how as children we have a much better imagination than adults do. To children everything is an opportunity to create something magical, where as to adults that very same thing could be viewed as plain and impractical.
Also, I think that throughout the short story, the narrator grew and matured. By having the child age while telling the story allows the reader to see the changes that most children go through from childhoodto adolescents and then adolscence into adulthood. In the beginning of the story, the child was fascinated by what was kept in his uncles room. " Will you show us the room". this statement expresses the childs anxiety in discovering and exploring new things however once he grew up and finally did see the room- we are able to see the disappointment due to the lack of something exciting." So thats it? thats what enchanted us? All of this second hand rubbish, these chipped painted night tables, these tacky oil paintings... these cheap beads".
For kids, these things probably would have provided hours of entertainment however for an adult its just a bunch of stuff thats taking up to much room. The quote "surfacing from the magical bottom of childhood, we open our chilled fist in the cold wind but what have we brought up with us besides cold sand" reinstates this point. For young minds, the possibilities are endless yet for adults we are searching for something magical but bring up nothing but a fistful of cold sand and let downs.
I also noticed a difference in the childs attitude towards his uncle as he grew. I think the same can be said for everyone, that once we hit a certain age, we were to busy and wanted to spend the smallest amount of time possible at home. Of course we all had much better things to do. As a child the narrator seems to be eager to be with his uncle and learning things from him, but towards the end he says " Well, alright I have five minutes for you.Its been so long since I have been here..."(572) This quote is showing his impatientness and how he wants to make a hasty exit to move onto the much more important things of the day.
I cant decide if the author at the end of the story was a full grown adult, or in the teenage years. What do you think his age is, and how it reflects his actions throughout the story.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Golden Porch
I had to read this short story twice because i was confused the first time i read it, and to be honest i didn't really get any more out of it the second time. I think that it is written or told from the mind of a child, a very young child. It was very "enchanting" in the description of things, I loved the imagery it gave me, and I'm sure the imagery is different for every person that reads it. I find that amazing, there is so much imagination in the way it was written it seems like it was actually written by a child. Although it was internally beautiful it lacked an overall plot, the only thing that i was positive about was when the uncle dies. It was very traumatic for the little girl because her uncle is who showed her "Alladins cave" which i believe to be the attic full of junk. To adults its crap but treasures to children. I don't really have much more to add I didn't really underatand the material.
On the Golden Porch
I think the authors point was not to show how a girl fears death, but more to show how children view the world, compared to the way adults see things. I think she develops this by using poetry and lyricism to engage the reader into the mind of a child.
I think the wonderment and imagination, and creativity of children is just as she described it. The contrast between when their uncle showed them "Aladdin's Cave" when they are children and when they are adults was great. They thought it was a magical place, all of those things were so foreign to them, things they had never seen before were fantastical. When they were adults it was just a bunch of junk oil paintings, cheap beads, and chipped painted night tables and they didn't have time for their tradition of when the clock strikes and the goblet hits the table, Uncle Pasha plays the midnight sonata. When they were children they begged him to play and were in awe of his power to enchant them... They used to "be grateful" and as adults they didn't even have time. "No. Excuse me, Uncle Pasha. I have to go."
I also found the plot to be a little confusing, but that might have been lost in translation. Or maybe it was meant to keep us guessing, keep us imagining. Do you think Uncle Pasha's death might have not been his death but rather the death of their enchantment with him? That maybe Uncle Pasha's ashes were actually his things, his livelihood?
I think the wonderment and imagination, and creativity of children is just as she described it. The contrast between when their uncle showed them "Aladdin's Cave" when they are children and when they are adults was great. They thought it was a magical place, all of those things were so foreign to them, things they had never seen before were fantastical. When they were adults it was just a bunch of junk oil paintings, cheap beads, and chipped painted night tables and they didn't have time for their tradition of when the clock strikes and the goblet hits the table, Uncle Pasha plays the midnight sonata. When they were children they begged him to play and were in awe of his power to enchant them... They used to "be grateful" and as adults they didn't even have time. "No. Excuse me, Uncle Pasha. I have to go."
I also found the plot to be a little confusing, but that might have been lost in translation. Or maybe it was meant to keep us guessing, keep us imagining. Do you think Uncle Pasha's death might have not been his death but rather the death of their enchantment with him? That maybe Uncle Pasha's ashes were actually his things, his livelihood?
Monday, October 8, 2007
On the Golden Porch
I think this story was almost like a poem, it was all made of metaphors and lyricism. “Childhood was a garden. Without end or limit, without borders and fences, in noises and rustling, golden in the sun, pale green in the shade, a thousand layers thick”. I really liked that side of the story because the reader is able to imagine the place and characters. I think the author’s goal was to make the reader dream. The story uses the lexical field of nature and freedom, which gives us a sense of peace: “pines”, “white roses”, “raspberry patch”, “life is eternal”. The beginning of the story made me think about a genesis, how the world started according to some religions, with a beautiful paradise and a naked man.
However, I think the story lacks of details in telling what is happening. I really like the descriptions but it was very difficult for me to understand the plot. I think the story was a bit confusing, there are too many characters and it focuses too much on describing the visual part of it, instead of telling us what is happening. I like the fact that there is some dialogue, but sometimes it was difficult to figure out who was talking.
At the beginning of the story, after some description, the dialogue begins without any introduction: “They say that early in the morning they saw a completely naked man at the lake. Honest. Don’t tell Mother. Do you know who it was? – It can’t be. – Honest, it was.” We don’t know who is talking or who Honest is. Later in the story, we understand that two girls are the narrators, “a red-and-green rooster cocks his head and looks at us: what do you want, girls? We’d like some strawberries”. Then there is the description of Uncle Pasha, but we don’t know what happened to the girls “Aargh! Let’s get out of here, run, it’s horrible – an icy horror – shed, damp, death…”. After that we learn that Uncle Pasha sold and egg to mother, but what does an egg have anything to do here? I think that the author wanted to capture the point of view of two very young girls. It seems that reality is mixed with dream and imagination. Everything is unclear and mysterious.
Personally, I prefer to have lyricism in poems, where there’s no need to have a plot, but in a short story, it makes it kind of confusing. I think that it is until the end that we actually understand it better, although it’s still kind of mysterious. After the girls leave: “Eight, nine, ten. No. Excuse me, Uncle Pasha, I have to go”, suddenly, Uncle Pasha appears death in the scene: “… Uncle Pasha froze to death on the porch.” I think that by making the story lyrical and abstract, we lose the active part of it.
Was the author's goal to show how a little girl fears the death of an uncle? Is there any meaning in the story that we can find beyond the lyricism?
However, I think the story lacks of details in telling what is happening. I really like the descriptions but it was very difficult for me to understand the plot. I think the story was a bit confusing, there are too many characters and it focuses too much on describing the visual part of it, instead of telling us what is happening. I like the fact that there is some dialogue, but sometimes it was difficult to figure out who was talking.
At the beginning of the story, after some description, the dialogue begins without any introduction: “They say that early in the morning they saw a completely naked man at the lake. Honest. Don’t tell Mother. Do you know who it was? – It can’t be. – Honest, it was.” We don’t know who is talking or who Honest is. Later in the story, we understand that two girls are the narrators, “a red-and-green rooster cocks his head and looks at us: what do you want, girls? We’d like some strawberries”. Then there is the description of Uncle Pasha, but we don’t know what happened to the girls “Aargh! Let’s get out of here, run, it’s horrible – an icy horror – shed, damp, death…”. After that we learn that Uncle Pasha sold and egg to mother, but what does an egg have anything to do here? I think that the author wanted to capture the point of view of two very young girls. It seems that reality is mixed with dream and imagination. Everything is unclear and mysterious.
Personally, I prefer to have lyricism in poems, where there’s no need to have a plot, but in a short story, it makes it kind of confusing. I think that it is until the end that we actually understand it better, although it’s still kind of mysterious. After the girls leave: “Eight, nine, ten. No. Excuse me, Uncle Pasha, I have to go”, suddenly, Uncle Pasha appears death in the scene: “… Uncle Pasha froze to death on the porch.” I think that by making the story lyrical and abstract, we lose the active part of it.
Was the author's goal to show how a little girl fears the death of an uncle? Is there any meaning in the story that we can find beyond the lyricism?
Saturday, October 6, 2007
On the Golden Porch
This kind of story is strange on the first read. It's the literary equivalent of an abstract painting. You know there has to be some point, but it just looks like random shapes and colors. There are a lot of great images; for example, "a caravan of camels passed with spectral tread through your house and dropped its Baghdad wares in the summer twilight" (pg. 570). I think the writer has to be able to paint those vivid images because the story doesn't work otherwise. There's no conventional plot for it to fall back on. The enjoyment in this kind of story is the imagery. It's like watching a movie with great special effects. The writer draws you away from plot and details and characters, and you enjoy the words and images for themselves. I don't think this would work as an ordinary style, because most stories need plot and structure. But it can be interesting as something different.
This style stretches the writer's imagination to create a dream atmosphere for the reader. With other kinds of story, the imagery has to be more subtle. You have to balance it with setting and character and plot and dialogue, whereas this style is more expressive. It can sharpen your ability to insert imagery with the same power into more traditional stories. She does tie it all together at the end, which is important so that there is another level beneath the imagery.
Does the author weave in clues about what the speaker is seeing and what is really there, or does the perspective only make sense at the end, when the speaker is grown up?
This style stretches the writer's imagination to create a dream atmosphere for the reader. With other kinds of story, the imagery has to be more subtle. You have to balance it with setting and character and plot and dialogue, whereas this style is more expressive. It can sharpen your ability to insert imagery with the same power into more traditional stories. She does tie it all together at the end, which is important so that there is another level beneath the imagery.
Does the author weave in clues about what the speaker is seeing and what is really there, or does the perspective only make sense at the end, when the speaker is grown up?
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Ysrael and All Because of the Mistake
I think he already is just like his brother to answer the question. He was obvoiusly more naive than his brother at the time and i think this is a classic case of boys will be boys. I didn't find Ysrael to be as shocking or upsetting as a few others had. I guess I expect that to go on between boys, ie: stealing (not paying for the bus ride), beating up a helpless disfigured boy Just Because. They found that sort of thing exciting, I can see why. It's cruel, but its honest and its real.
To comment on the structure of the two, I really didn't get the numbering... It didn't seem to have any real reason to be there.
I did enjoy All Because of the Mistake. I did love how they said YOU all of the time. It reminded me of my childhood, when your father would tell you a bedtime story that made you imagine these fantastical things, well thats how i felt about that story.. I feel like it opened up the imagination and put you in the driver's seat (no pun intended).
To comment on the structure of the two, I really didn't get the numbering... It didn't seem to have any real reason to be there.
I did enjoy All Because of the Mistake. I did love how they said YOU all of the time. It reminded me of my childhood, when your father would tell you a bedtime story that made you imagine these fantastical things, well thats how i felt about that story.. I feel like it opened up the imagination and put you in the driver's seat (no pun intended).
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Ysrael
I found this story very shocking. How can children be left alone as those two children have been, with their father only “sending them presents at Christmas” and their mother working most of the time at a chocolate factory “without having the time or energy” to take care of them? These two children have a lot of liberty and they seem that they haven’t been taught any moral values. They fight a lot, steal money and criticize others for their appearance. It is very shocking to think that this story may be based on reality, that there are girls out there who think that “they won’t get pregnant if they drank a Coca Cola afterwards”. I found there was kind of a dark humor in the story, because this sentence made me laugh, but still made me feel bad because it may be actually true. This makes me think about the inequalities between different countries, how unfair it is that there are innocent children who have to struggle because of poverty and lack of education when they don’t deserve it. I think the author’s objective was to show how difficult can be the life of a child who has to face this situation.
I liked the fact that the story was written from the nine year old child’s point of view. I think this stresses even more on the gravity of the social problems described in the story. By writing the story from an innocent child’s point of view, we can see how he is influenced by what surrounds him, and how he ends up following his brother’s bad attitude. It shows us how he is innocently led to be violent, without even knowing that he’s following a wrong path in his life. But does he have a choice?
I also found interesting the style on which the story was written. I liked that the author didn’t translate some words into English, and left them in Spanish. This makes the story more familiar and realistic, from the point of view of a child using words as “Mami” or the nickname “Rafa” to refer to his brother. I liked that this story seemed to be real; I would have thought that the author was writing about his own childhood if I didn’t know that it is a fictive story. However, even if it’s just fiction, the story deals with real social problems and therefore makes us think about reality.
Do you think that the little boy is going to end up being as his brother is?
I liked the fact that the story was written from the nine year old child’s point of view. I think this stresses even more on the gravity of the social problems described in the story. By writing the story from an innocent child’s point of view, we can see how he is influenced by what surrounds him, and how he ends up following his brother’s bad attitude. It shows us how he is innocently led to be violent, without even knowing that he’s following a wrong path in his life. But does he have a choice?
I also found interesting the style on which the story was written. I liked that the author didn’t translate some words into English, and left them in Spanish. This makes the story more familiar and realistic, from the point of view of a child using words as “Mami” or the nickname “Rafa” to refer to his brother. I liked that this story seemed to be real; I would have thought that the author was writing about his own childhood if I didn’t know that it is a fictive story. However, even if it’s just fiction, the story deals with real social problems and therefore makes us think about reality.
Do you think that the little boy is going to end up being as his brother is?
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