The story The Things they Carried is a very upsetting yet informative story about Tim O’Brien who is a Vietnam war veteran. He tells us about his personal experience in the war and how he dreamt of a life with this girl he was obsessed with. O’Brien also talks about how the war left emotional and physical scars that will haunt him for the rest of their days. O’Brien used intangible objects to show how each character in the story is different. The character that I wondered about is Lieutenant Jimmy Cross because to me it seemed that Cross had an odd obsession with this girl he knew from back home. His obsession with this girl named Martha made me feel uncomfortable and disturbed because of the things he said he wish he had done to this girl. Cross obsessed some much over this girl that he fantasized whether or not if she is a virgin or not and he fantasized about the time he touched her knee which kind of disturbed me. I got a perverted vibe of his character and that made me question what the hell am I reading.
Author: Raymond Osoria
The blessed house was an interesting interpretation of how two completely different people get married and try to adapt to their new lives. Sanjeev and Twinkle are two completely different people who meet each other one day and then in a short time span they get married barely knowing one another. Now this marriage is very complicated because Sanjeev and Twinkle are both Indian; however, Sanjeev is old school meanwhile Twinkle isn’t into old school marriage. For example, Sanjeev believes that a wife is supposed to be this person who stays home and cooks and cleans and does whatever she is told; however that’s not the case. Twinkle is quite the opposite of what Sanjeev expected a wife to be, she’s outgoing she doesn’t care about what others think about her. Sanjeev believed that moving to America getting married and buying a new house would give him this perception of the “American Dream”, but the American Dream is really a myth and by him trying to control Twinkles actions to impress others he failed to see that being yourself is what it means to be American. Sanjeev was just too stubborn to see things Twinkles way and that was his issue with the marriage.
The Yellow Wallpaper has intrigued me; with the way the marriage between the main character, and her husband was portrayed. The husband in the story was portrayed as controlling and stubborn, because he never took the time to try and listen to his wife when she had complaints about certain things. One pattern I noticed while reading The Yellow Wallpaper is how the husband is always neglecting the wife by prolonging her thoughts and ideas by telling her save it for tomorrow or by telling her to go to her room. The husband also infantilizes her by calling her little girl or little goose instead of calling her a woman. While the husband is very controlling and some what abusive the wife is very patient and she tries to understand that he does for her is for her own good but to my eyes it looks like he doesn’t want to deal with her so he neglects her. This marriage is truly messed up because of lack of communication and understanding, the husband chooses not to communicate with the wife and he refuses to understand her so he forces her to go to her room.
