SSRJ #2: Mines by Susan Straight

Susan Straight's short story, Mines, reminded me of my own mother and how tough and tiring it must have been being a single Mother of two boys. Like Straight's main character, Clarette, my mother also had to work a paying job and then work some more when she got home. In Mines, Clarette narrates what she sees and thinks during a short period of a couple days. She is tired at work and even more exhausted at home. In one passage referring to doing laundry she states: "Sometimes they take so long to dry I just sit down on the floor in front of the dryer and read the paper, cause I'm too tired to go back out to the couch. If I sit down on something soft I'll fall asleep, and the jeans wil be all wrinkled in the morning" ( Straight, paragraph: 102). I can recall how my brother and I would give my Mother a hassle if she asked us, politely, to get our laundry out of the dryer and fold it. Clarette, never asks the children to do the laundry she just does it. She takes on all the challenges of her life, including watching her nephew in the Youth Authority where she works, and does not complain. She just accepts her place with a resigned, silent, cynacism.

Clarette works in the Youth Authority as a guard. She describes in cool terms the tatoo's of all the different ethnic gangs. She is very resigned to their fate, referring to them as fools. I do not think she means it in a hateful way, I think Clarette sees them as confused, a product of their enviroment, but also as individuals who need to wake up and see the reality around them. Clarette is just tired, and she just can't bring herself to get too involved but in an ironic twist she will get hurt and cut, stopping a fight at the end of the story. Immediately after this event she goes back into her monitoring station, sits down and begins looking for a Upright piano for her son. This is a perfect snapshot of Clarette, she does not dwell on what has just happened to her, or how she might have gotten hurt, she just continues working. If Clarette were like most people she probably would have quit, sought some sympathy which would certainly be reasonable, and get some rest. This is the irony of her life, she is tired, but she cannot stop.

My Mother struggled with trying to be a Mom and also trying to have her own life, more specifically, she could not find someone else to share her life with on a romantic level. Clarette's story makes me wonder if she could ever find someone to spend her life with on a personal level. Can someone like Clarette who obviously loves her children more than herself, who watches the results of failed homes on a daily basis, ever loosen her grip on her personal responsibilities and have her own life?

SSRJ#1 The Story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin (Don Wallin)

I laughed at the end of the story by Kate Chopin, not at the irony of the husband coming home alive and therefore causing the heart attack of Mrs. Mallard, but that it kind of seemed predictable. I found it predictable by two clues: first the title, The Story of an Hour, obviously tells the reader that this is a snapshot of time, especially when looking at someones life. Secondly, the details that are given about Chopin being in the room alone are a setup to the only ending the story could have: "the tops of trees were all aquiver with the new spring life", and "There were patches of blue sky showing here and there...Chopin wants us to understand that this lady finally feels alive, possibly for the first time in her life, and of course feels, "free, free, free", now that she is a widow. The story is kind of a joke, one that has a much larger setup in the beginning to get you to the punchline in the end, which is Mrs. Mallard dying on the stairs upon seeing her repressor arrive home alive. The second part of the joke being that everyone assumes she died of, "the joy that kills". The story could not end any other way than with a satirical irony.

Overall, I liked the reading. I enjoy irony especially when set in a historical setting, although we really do not know what year this takes place in, it would seem to be set in the late 1800's privledged society.

To my fellow critical thinkers: What if we had been give detail from Mr. Mallard's side? Details of his ride home on the train, possibly dreading arrival home to Mrs. Mallrd, maybe he feels just as trapped in their victorian society or marriage as Mrs. Mallard? Or what if the story had gone on and now we hear his thoughts and relief that his wife has passed on and he is "free, free, free", while everyone attempts to console him?

Hello fellow critical thinkers of English 1B O/L

Hello to all, this is my first blog so short but sweet. I love to read and write; my favorite authors are Jack Kerouac, Tom Clancy, and John Steinbeck. I am looking forward to reading Hearts of Darkness, if we are required to read it(?) and looking forward to the challenge of this class.