Author Archives: sam_williams

Lying- final response

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I am glad to see that, by the end of this novel, Lauren is getting the help that she needs. After reading about her fake interview (from pgs: 172-174), I really thought she lost it, especially when she left her number, expecting people to call her.(pg: 174) When she finally checked herself in “Alcoholics Anonymous”, I thought that she was doing something right for once.

When she finally opens up to her group, not only did I see a change in Lauren but, I also managed to see a change in her mother too. This becomes more apparent when Lauren decided to visit her parents and she notices this change. This long quote provides a good explanation of said change, “Usually her stiffness hurt me, but not tonight. Maybe because of AA, or Elaine, or Amy, or my higher power, or maybe just because I was happy she was happy, a burden off my back, I didn’t mind.”(pg: 189) This shows that Lauren has become more happier and less problematic than she usually was, and that her mother isn’t as aggressive as before. Now that Lauren has seemed help from AA and has practically turned to God(pg: 194), her epilepsy seems to be occurring less and less.

Even though Lauren may have lied many times in her memoir, she claims that “Lying is a book of narrative truth”.(pg: 219) Whether we, the audience, should believe her or not, she claims that what she says is the truth. Whatever the case may be, Lauren’s memoir is sure an interesting one, full of metaphors and “truths”, and it’s uniqueness only adds to it’s mysteriousness.

Lying response: part 2 (similarities to Lolita?)

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This section of the novel that I read was surely an interesting one. In fact, some of the parts that I read reminded me of our previous book, Lolita. I’m not sure if it’s the epilepsy, but this girl, Lauren, is quite the individual. In one of these similar parts, Lauren and her mother were confronted by a couple of policemen who accused her mom of child abused. Her description of this encounter went like this, “One knelt down by me and gently blotted my lip with his handkerchief. Right then and there I fell in love.”(p 42) A little girl in love with an older man, now why does that sound so familiar.

Another instance of our novel’s similarities can be found on page 49. When lauren and her class was at the pool, she described the girls in this manor, “if they were twelve or older their nipples pushed out from beneath their suits, lilies those girls, every one. I was a lily too.”(p 49) I don’t know why but for some reason, the term “lily” that was used here reminds me of how Humbert from Lolita calls his little girls “nymphets”.

Finally, from pages 58 to 59, Lauren describes falling in a grave and climbing out and ends with “The End”(p 59) However, on the next page she starts with not quite, and explains that she didn’t fall into the grave. She confesses that “I was just using a metaphor to try to explain my mental state…and I thought about falling in.”(p 60) She acknowledges the fact that her mind is unstable and she is changing the story a bit by telling us one thing, while in reality, something else happened. Overall, what I think, Lauren is like Humbert but in Lolita’s body.

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After reading the first chapter of the book, which was merely two words, “I exaggerate”(p3), I could already tell this was going to be an interesting story. Apparently, the narrator/main character has health issues such as epilepsy. Although that isn’t even the worst of her problems was her parents quarrel with each other as well. I felt more sorry for this girl as I read through the pages.

I think the main character’s epilepsy might foreshadow something (either good or bad) thats gonna happen. It may be good, if it brings her arguing parents together. However, it could be a bad thing if this quote is any indication of whats to come, “That night, I had my first seizure”(p19). In any case, I really hope that her parents would argue less and they could help their daughter when she succumbs to her epilepsy so they could be a happy family.

Lolita part: 2 pages: 143-247

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Humbert attempts to entertain Lolita on their cross-counrty trip by taking her to various amusement parks and places. He does this in his attempt to get closer to her. However, Lolita, who is maturing into an independent young lady, sometimes disobeys. Even though I think that Humbert is just sexually in love with Lolita, he has his moments where he truly does look out for her. From pages 149 to 151, he makes a long speech on how much he truley cares for her, and that he has Lolita’s best interests at heart. He also gives her the threat that if she goes to the police, she may get arrested. Humbert is trapping her with all the potential punishments she may have to endure from the world, but, at the very least, giving Lolita her free time.

Humbert allowed Lolita to go to the beach, make a few friends and even have a party. I think this was mostly to try to bond with Lolita and trap her into liking him. With each day, I think Humbert really is getting closer to Lolita’s heart and may win her affection eventually.

Lolita response: 8

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Before reading these pages, I always thought that Lolita was the innocent one in the story. Now, after reading these pages, I was terribly wrong. Lolita wasn’t quite as pure and innocent as I thought. She completely acknowledges the fact that she and Humbert are lovers even though she also calls him “dad” (p: 114).

Though I seem to paddle back and forth between whose really the victim here. After reading about how he drugged Lolita, I thought Humbert was the bad guy all along, but then he stated that he stated that “I am not concerned with so-called “sex” at all” (p: 134). This is surprising because I thought Humbert was a mere pedophile, but all he is seeking is affection from Lolita. This all happened before Lolita found out that her mother died, which I think is or will be her breaking point.

Lolita: 1-34

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After reading these first few pages a couple times, I think I might like this book for a while. It started off by introducing to us the main character’s childhood and his past. This is good because it helps me, the reader, to get to know the character that I am following throughout the story, and I get to learn about who I’m dealing with.

Throughout the pages that I have read, I have learned that the main character has had love interest in young girls, which he calls “nymphets”. In my mind I thought he was just being a pedophile, which may be true, but by the end of the reading, we found out that he was insane. I guess this can excuse his pedophile-like behavior. I also think that this is forshadowing as he does acknowledge the fact that he is insane. He said (on p:34) the “The reader will regret to learn that soon after my return to civilization I had another bout with insanity…” This makes me more interested in the story because insane characters tend to be unpredictable, and this would be able to keep my attention as the story play out with a pedophile for a main character.

Response to “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”

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“The Ones who walk away from Omelas” is one of those stories that loses my attention after the very first page but automatically regains it during the last half of the story. Basically, the narrator is talking about the happiness and prosperites of the citizens of Omelas. The people there are happy and are living life as cheerful as they can be. It is at this point where I was starting to lose interest and felt bored because of a lack of conflict. I was starting to tell myself, “where is the plot in this story?” Then as if my question was answered, I got my wish.

About half-way into the story, the middle of page 4 to be exact, I was introduced to a child who has a miserable life. After learning that this child spends it’s life in a small, dark room, never to be let out, did i felt bad. I felt more upset when I read that the people of Omelas only prospers on the child’s misery. It is so upsetting to know that many people’s pleasure come from one person’s pain, and things only get worse from there.

Apparently, some people who see the child, disappears into the night, never to be seen again. This seems more upsetting to me than the locked up child, because the narrator never actually says where those people go but end the story by quoting the title of the book, “the ones who walk away from Omelas”.

This story has managed to grab my attention greatly after losing it, which is a good thing. However, I was sort of curious as to where those that leave Omelas go to. That can leave a window of guesses and sequels for others to decide, and I think thats what the author was trying to do. To make the readers think and decide on a proper ending. I also feel sorry for the child who was mistreated like that. No one should be imprisoned so others can be happy.

Response to The Yellow Wallpaper

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This is a story whose main character seems to have some mental problems. The woman claims to be sick, but her husband, a physician, believes she is not. It is soon, after this point, that the story begins to lose me and get me again, only to lose me some more. However, I’ve managed to get attached to the near end of the story. Once I’ve read the line “It is the strangest yellow, that wallpaper!” (pg. 7), I knew something was bound to happened. The reason for this is because that line referenced the title of this story.

The story then talks about how the woman pulled off the wallpaper in her insane state of mind. By the end, she confronts her husband after doing what she did. As far as I’m concern, the narrator/ main character is a nut case and has confused me completely throughout this story. However it is that type of confusion and insanity that kept me some-what interested in this story. It has actually forced me to read it several times and, I am still slightly confused by the main characters actions and behavior.

Response to Two Kinds

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After reading the first two pages of this story, I thought that it would be about a parent trying to exploit their child, which it was, but I felt so sympathetic for it. On the third paragraph of the first page, we learn that the mother of the main character has lost some close family members and their family home in China. With a past like that, which parent wouldn’t want the best for their child?

However, the more I read the story, the less sympathetic I felt for the mother and the more i felt for the daughter. She made her daughter try to play the piano, which I don’t have a problem with, but even though she played badly in the talent show, her mother shouldn’t be disappointed. Afterwards, I found out what the title of the story meant when the daughter and her mother got into an argument about her not wanting to replay the piano. The mother claims that they are only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who are not. Even though the daughter seemed disobedient when refusing to play the piano again, I still felt sympathetic towards her and not the mother, even to the end of the story.

I personally think that it’s wrong to exploit your child to better own life. The mother of this story should’ve just let her daughter do whatever she wanted to do instead of restricting her. Overall though, I actually liked this story because of the character’s relationship with her mother and how she had to put up with her expectations.

Response to Who’s Irish?

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To be honest, I really think the title of this short story to be very accurate. “Who’s Irish?” Even though the main character’s son-in-law and his family is Irish, the story mostly talks about the elderly main character (who is a chinese immigrant) and her grand-daughter’s mischievous ways. This is excusable, as the granddaughter is a 3-year-old child, but I think that the story shouldn’t have mostly been about her.

At first glance of the title, I thought the story would have been about an Irish person or something, but I was very surprised to know that the narrator/main character is a Chinese immigrant. Afterwards, the story goes on to talk about how she had to deal with her mischievous granddaughter named Sophie. What puzzles me is why the author decided to write a paragraph, on page 616, explaining that Sophie is brown-skinned and it constantly talks about her being brown. That information was kind of misleading and pointless because I thought that meant that the main character’s daughter cheated on her husband, but nothing of that sort came up later in the story.

Afterwards, the story then goes into Sophie’s rambunctious behavior. For example, on page 617, the narrator talks about how Sophie would take off her diaper and run around naked. Also in page 619, she learns to “hit the mommies of her friends.” At this point, I was actually satisfied when the grandmother spanked Sophie for her misbehavior, even with the whole “foxhole” incident from pages 619 to 620.

The rest of the story didn’t interest me, and overall I forgot that the title of the story is called “Who’s Irish”. However, I did find the story humorous when it came to Sophie, but that’s it. The story had little to do with the Irish and mostly to do with a mixed 3-year-old’s life with her Chinese grandma.