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The Durwan's Tale

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Everything about “A Real Durwan” by Jhumpa Lahiri struck me as resembling a childhood tale with a moral to the story. The protagonist of the story, Boori Ma, is somewhat legend-like in that her life is this inexplicable tale of previous grandeur. No one is actually sure about her past because everything she says seems to either be a blatant lie or extremely exaggerated. Additionally, she is a classic misfit character in a fairytale. She is different from everyone else but they still keep her around because she’s useful in some way or adds something to her environment. The story follows a very simple plot arc as well. All is well until something or someone new is introduced. In this case, it is the introduction of the sink that brings doom upon this little apartment building utopia. People become obsessed with this new object until it is begins eating away at their previous personalities. To put it in dramatic terms, it corrupts them, manifesting as the story progresses until the e
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Light of Dawn

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At first, I did not find “Aurora” romantic. Though Lucero clearly had strong feelings for Aurora, I was not convinced that those feelings qualified as love. Throughout the story, Lucero casually talks about the abuse that occurs in a nonchalant way so that the reader gets the impression that this behavior is a regular occurance. This disturbing aspect of their relationship makes it very difficult for me to label the nature of their relationship as one of love. It can be argued that the story is about an abusive relationship but that the characters still love one another, however, I do not believe that people who truly cared for one another would beat or scar one another, even when they are angry. Lucero and Aurora’s relationship also seems based on a dependency for one another rather than affection. At many points many points in the story, the nature of their relationship is compared to a drug addiction. Lucero even describes Aurora’s personality as “addictive”. The relationship i
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Sympathy

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For me, the most emotional part of reading “How” was the fact that I found both characters to be extremely sympathetic. It is relatively easy to see why someone may find “you” or the main protagonist to be hard to relate to or sympathize with. Afterall, she seems to be treating this man rather poorly, especially given how obviously dedicated he is in the relationship. She is cold and emotionless, maybe even cynical at times, in the way that she not just behaves, but thinks about him. However, it is clear from the beginning of the story that she was eased into the situation she ended up in. She fell for him and when things began to go south she made “attempts at a less restrictive arrangement” (55) only to “watch them sputter and deflate like balloons” (55). And it’s not all bad. She still has moments when she knows she loves him, when she feels genuine emotion for him and sees him as a refuge in her life. As the story progresses the reader can see the bad starting to build and begin o
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Black With Love

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Johnnie changes drastically in both behavior and emotions from the beginning to the end of “The Outing”. These shifts in his character seem to revolve around his emerging feelings for his close friend David. At the beginning of the journey Johnnie is extremely excited to see his close friend David. It is clear the two boys have a close relationship and are very comfortable around one another. However, the intimate moment in which David asks, “Who do you love?...Who’s your boy?” to which Johnnie responds, “you, I love you” (43) seems to indicate something more than just platonic love between the two boys. After this scene there are small, seemingly insignificant instances in which Johnnie’s feelings seem to blossom. Though they are not indicative of anything in particular on their own, the accumulation of such sentiments begin to collect as the story continues. They become more frequent and more prominent, the most emotional of the moments being when Johnnie looks over at David during
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Sisters

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The characters of Leala and Sonya in Rebecca Curtis’ short story “The Toast” are extremely complex and realistic individuals who the reader can both sympathize with and find difficult to favor. Leala is introduced to the reader in her conversation with Sonya about her wedding in which she seems like a typical older sister. She clearly differs from Sonya in many ways (or rather, Sonya differs from everyone else) but in general she just seems like all she wants is for her sister to attend her wedding. However, soon Sonya begins talking about Leala’s relationship with Matty. She references so many instances in which Leala seemed to dictate Matty’s life in a seemingly controlling and inconsiderate way. This skewed my perception of her to be negative and I began to envision her as the uptight conceited older sibling that seems to be described according to www.firstborns.com. This first section also highlights the difference between the sisters’ wealth. Right off the bat, it is established
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Billy Joel

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I was in the car one night while Billy Joel was playing on the radio and part way through the second verse I realized that the song evoked very similar emotions as many of the short stories we have read this semester. For anyone who has not heard his popular “Piano Man,” go listen to it. Not only will you understand this blog post better, but you will also get to enjoy the work of a very talented musician. I use this piece to introduce my point because it so perfectly captures the nostalgia and loneliness that can be seen in so many of the stories we have read this semester. The song itself is about Billy Joel himself and his typical night performing at a bar. It starts, “It’s nine o’clock on a Saturday/The regular crowd shuffles in”. While most people would be out and about on a Saturday night, this group of people frequents this bar, reflecting the monotonous routine of life that is portrayed in Antrim’s “Another Manhattan,” as the characters go through the motions of life withi
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Courage

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Tim O’Brien grapples with his emotions and his desires as he faces the difficult decision of whether or not he should go fight in a war for a cause he does not believe in. As he is sitting in the boat, he realizes that his escape to Canada is attainable. The weight of the decision he is about to make causes him to freeze. He confesses, “What embarasses me much more, and always will, is the paralysis that took my heart. A moral freeze: I couldn’t decide, I couldn’t act, I couldn’t comfort myself with even a pretense of modest human dignity” (pg. 54). This admission is so striking because the reaction he had was natural and human. One may even say it was the rational response for someone in his situation. After all, this is a decision that will ultimately decide the course of his life. However, O’Brien looks back on this moment with shame for not knowing exactly what he wanted, as if his lack of bravery to do the nearly impossible was to blame for the moment. It speaks to this idea that
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