Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. Perfection Learning, 2001.

This story documents the complicated reaction of Louise Mallard upon learning of her husband’s death. Set in the late nineteenth century, this story takes place in the Mallard residence. The historical setting of this story is significant to the theme regarding the oppressive status of married women. The tone of “The Story of an Hour” is ironic, people assumed that Mrs. Mallard would be sad after the passing of her husband, however, the ending of this story proved that instead she felt free. Louise Mallard shows a lot of character development when it comes to her emotions and how she feels; pathos is evident here. “She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.” Mrs. Mallard’s growing awareness of the freedom she will have without Brently Mallard, her husband, lurks until the very end of the story. A great turmoil fills Mrs.Mallard as she seems glad that her husband has died, but she still thinks of Brently’s “kind, tender hands”. 

Chopin, Kate. Desiree’s Baby . Perfection Learning, 2001.

In “Desiree’s Baby” Chopin explores southern racism and the widespread of hatred when it comes to the mixture of races. Set before the Civil War, this story is about a baby and a racial crisis between a husband and a wife. Armand is a wealthy Louisiana plantation owner, later when he’s burning Desiree’s things, he finds his mother’s letter, in which she thanks God for keeping her secret that Armand is part black. At times, the tone is ominous, hinting at the troubles that lie ahead. The author uses logos to appeal to the audience with reason, during the time of the civil war, America was fighting to abolish slavery. It makes sense that racism and xenophobia was still evident during this time, so much so that Armand’s biggest disgrace would be the showing of his black ancestry through his child. “Moreover he no longer loved her because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his name.” As a wealthy plantation owner, Armand feels the need to keep his appearance, he can’t bear to look at his own child but he isn’t aware of who’s at fault.

Henry, O. “The Skylight Room.” Short Stories and Classic Literature, americanliterature.com/author/o-henry/short-story/the-skylight-room.

Hope is important. It is the thing that allows us to feel excitement and joy. It is the thing that allows us to move beyond the present moment. A young woman in the short story, ”The Skylight Room” by O. Henry, uses hope to light up the darkness in her life. This story can be described as a modern day fairy tale, set in the heart of the authors favorite city, New York. This heartwarming tale describes the dream come true romance of Miss Leeson, a poor working girl in New York that looks towards the light in darkness. The author uses epithets to describe the characters, for example, “…gave her the incredulous, pitying, sneering, icy stare…”, the epithets are used here to intensify the way she looked at the heroine. The author uses words like “stare” instead of “look”, this shows the emotional coloring; in other words, pathos. Another example of appealing to emotions is when the author says, “…full of tender, whimsical fancies…” this is used to show us the girl’s inner world brighter. 

Jacobs, W. W. “The Monkey’s Paw.” Short Stories and Classic Literature, americanliterature.com/author/w-w-jacobs/short-story/the-monkeys-paw.

“The Monkey’s Paw” is a story about a mystical charm, a monkey’s paw that is brought into the home of the White family by Sergeant Major Morris, who has served in India.  The monkey’s paw has the ability to grant 3 wishes to 3 people. This story vividly illustrates the old saying of, “Be careful what you wish for.” It presents Mr. White, an ordinary person with a magical item and allows his own character traits (the desire to be free of debt) to destroy him. The monkey’s paw indeed grants his wishes, but they were never granted in the way he envisioned. Somewhere in England, this story takes place in the 1900’s, mainly inside and around the White family home. The author shows sympathy, with a hint of mischief towards his characters and the subject at play. Logos is used to appeal to the majority of the audience, this story vividly illustrates the old saying of, “Be careful what you wish for”, when Mr. White wishes what he does, he doesn’t think it through and this ultimately leads to more harm being done. ‘“with a look of alarm on his face, caught him by the arm. “If you must wish,” he said gruffly, “wish for something sensible.”’. The sergeant-major in a way tried to warn Mr.White by telling him to be smart and reasonable with what he’d wish for.

Maupassant, Guy de. The Necklace and Other Tales. Random House USA Inc, 2004.

In the short story “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant, it is evident that one of the central themes is appearance vs. reality. For Mathilde, one of the main characters, her necklace symbolizes wealth, beauty and eventually, shame as she goes into debt trying to replace the lost necklace. The irony in this story is that the necklace was artificial. This story takes place in Paris, France, the author uses currency in the form of francs and uses the titles monsieur and madame. The author seems detached from the characters but understanding of their situations. The tone in this story is the author’s attitude towards his subject. The use of logos is evident in this story as Maupassant tries to explain the power in being grateful, Mathilde had lived years in misery due to her wanting to live a more materialistic life. The author is trying to show the audience that we must be cautious of becoming too greedy otherwise, we may end up in a situation similar to Mathilde’s.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Black Cat. Applewood Books, 2016.

In the short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe, love and hate are the two key themes. The narrator is very fond of his pets and wife until he grows irritable of them leading him to kill his black cat. Eventually, he finds another black cat which he also tried to kill but, instead he accidentally killed his wife. The narrator tries to hide the truth by walling up his wife’s body but, the voice of the black cat (trapped in the wall) helps bring him to justice. The event in this tale takes place at the narrator’s home, however, the recounting of these events takes place on a single day in the narrator’s prison cell. At times, this story is unwittingly ironic and irrelevant, at others, it is dark and mocking; the tone is variable. The use of pathos is evident all throughout the story, “with these I spent most of my time, and never was so happy when it came to feeding or caressing them” (Poe, 12). The narrator is a textbook definition of a psychopath, he offers insight on what the inner workings of a psychopath are. There are many emotions at play here especially when you take into account that the narrator writes his story before being hung for the murder of his wife.  

Elijah Thomas

Remember growing up and reading books that only had 12 pages and filled with a lot of pictures. Remember going to  see plays and films based off of these stories, such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping beauty. What all of these stories have together is that they are all Short Stories. Short stories provide a message or meaning that is indirectly given to the audience, whether it is about morals, or lessons that should be taught. There are multiple short stories that provide messages that are indirectly given to the audience such as, “Little Red Riding Hood” by Charles Perrault, “One Day At Horrorland” by R.L.Stine, “Sirens” from the Odyssey which was created by Homer, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” by Aesop, “Lotus Eaters,” and “Charybdis and Scylla” which are both from The Odyssey.

Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Other Classic Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault. New York: Penguin Books, 2008. Print.

In the short story, “Little Red Riding Hood” Little Red Riding hood was sent by her mother to give some goodies to her grandmother and on her way to her grandmother’s house, she stopped to take a rest. While she was resting a wolf came disguised as a dog and asked where she was going. She told the wolf she was going to her grandmother’s house and on her way to the house the wolf beat her there and tried to personate as the grandma so that he can eat Little Red Riding Hood. Charles implemented this short story with a message behind it that children and women should be wary for their surroundings and not talk to strangers.

R.L Stine, One Day at HorrorLand , R.L Stine, February 1994.

In the short story “One Day at Horror land” while lost The Morris family and clay found an amusement park called horror land and once they parked their car and go out, the car exploded and they were stuck at the amusement park which had monsters, ghouls and zombies. The family thought it was just a scary amusement park but then later realized that this park was the real deal. R.L.Stine used horror to convey to his audience and used a lot of imagery to create the message of understanding your surroundings to notice when something isn’t going in the right direction.

Homer,  and Robert Fitzgerald. The Odyssey. New York: Vintage Books, 1990. Print.

In the short story “Sirens” Odysseus (The main character from The Odyssey) sailed through a sea full of monsters to reach Ithaca and the first set of monsters the crew had to come across was the Sirens. The sirens would sing to the men to make them jump overboard so they could eat them. Odysseus wanted to listen to the sirens so he had his crew tie him up while they sailed with wax in their ears. The sirens represented desires that men cant have, desires that will make them go crazy and not think before acting. Homer wanted to persuade people that even though this is Greek mythology, that “Sirens” can be related in the real world and one example of this is Money, because people’s actions change and don’t think when money is on the line.

Aesop, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. 1867. 

Barnett, Carol. The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Lincolnwood, Ill.: Passport Books, 1990.

In the short story “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” the shepherd boy lies about seeing a wolf to gain the attention of the villagers, after tricking the villagers multiple times the villagers stop coming out because he called out a wolf. But this one time a wolf actually came and he called out no one came. Aesop uses this to create a message that the more you mess up your credibility the less people trust you which in the end matters.

Homer,  and Robert Fitzgerald. The Odyssey. New York: Vintage Books, 1990. Print.

In the short story, “Lotus Eaters” while Odysseus sailed through the sea to reach Ithaca, Zeus sends a storm that sweeps them for 9 days before it brings them to the island of  the lotus eaters. On this island the natives went to Odysseus’s men and tricked them into eating the lotus which as soon as they ate the lotus they lost all memory and thoughts of going home. The only thought process in their brain is to stay on the island and eat more lotus fruits. The men who ate the lotus fruit were then tied on the boat so that they wouldn’t stay on the island and eat lotus. Homer creates a message of “curiosity killed the cat,” by introducing the men to lotus flowers and since they were so curious on what it was they ended up being tricked to stay on the island and ultimately forgetting on going home.

Homer,  and Robert Fitzgerald. The Odyssey. New York: Vintage Books, 1990. Print.

In the short story, “Charybdis and Scylla” after passing the siren island, Odysseus ended up confronting another pair of monster(s) which went by the name of Charybdis and Scylla. Scylla is a six headed monster who eats one sailor for each head, and Charybdis is a massive whirlpool that can potentially swallow a whole ship killing everyone on the ship. Odysseus listens to Circe’s instructions on how to pass Charybdis and Scylla by holding course tight against the cliffs of Scylla’s lair but avoiding Charybdis. While doing this Scylla ended up swallowing 6 sailors. Homer implemented this story to create a message of “choosing the lesser of two evils.” Which means when one is represented with two horrible choices but goes with the one which would have a lesser of a consequence than the other choice.

Almost every short story created was made with a purpose which is to create a message or meaning that can be indirectly or directly given to the audience/readers. Majority of the well known short stories were created a long time ago which are still used to this day because they message was meaningful and can be related to. Short stories can also be a place that expresses imagination like none other, but in general short stories are known for their messages.

Arlyn Perez

English 1101

Hauck, Grace. “4 Homeless Men Were Beaten to Death in Manhattan While They Were Sleeping, Police Say.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 5 Oct. 2019

In this article, Grace Hauck argues that the homeless deserve the righteousness and protection that a home assures. “All five victims were men who suffered trauma to the head, police said. They appeared to have been sleeping when the attack happened just before 2 a.m. in the Chinatown area.” The victims were not harming or bothering anyone, they were simply doing what every other person does, resting for the night but were targeted at random. This shows that people, who are not homeless, do not care to consider the safety of homeless people and what could possibly happen to them. “Researchers say homelessness in the city has increased in recent years, driven primarily by the lack of affordable housing.” People have assumptions and judgments about homeless people throwing their life away and not caring about themselves but there’s also more to the story. In this detail it points out that people aren’t able to afford a home and as a result become homeless. Hauck wants to emphasize that homeless people need safety as well because a crime was committed for no reason.

Holcombe, Madeline, and Joe Sutton. “A 7-Year-Old Is in Critical Condition after Being Shot While Trick-or-Treating with Her Family.” CNN, Cable News Network, 1 Nov. 2019

In this case, a little girl who was only seven years old had been shot on Halloween evening and is now left in critical condition. The authors, Madeline Holcombe and Joe Sutton argue that you should take extra precautions when celebrating any type of holiday. “This is unacceptable. It’s a 7-year-old girl that’s trick-or-treating with her family out here and happens to get shot because a group of guys want to shoot at another male while there is a street full of kids trick-or-treating,” Alioto said.”Despite the fact that the little girl and her family were having a fun outing to celebrate Halloween, it is important to be aware of the surroundings and check to see if the neighborhood is safe for children at night. No one expected this to occur when it was a family outing to go trick-or-treating but many strange or horrendous things could happen during a holiday. In previous instances, Halloween candy had been rigged with drugs so it became important for parents to check any candy that looked suspicious in their kids candy pile.

Karanth, Sanjana. “Officers Arrest Texas Student For Bringing a Loaded Gun To Middle School.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 10 Oct. 2019

In this article, Sanjana Karanth argues that the incident at a San Antonio middle school demonstrates the state’s youth gun violence problem. “Almost 200,000 children in Texas live in homes with unlocked, loaded guns, the Brady Campaign reported.” This is a very serious problem because kids have access to these guns and are capable of doing anything once they possess it. They could accidentally fire at themselves or anyone around them and could seriously get hurt, any kids with suicidal problems find their easy escape or kids dealing with issues could potentially go on a shooting rampage. “Data from gun violence prevention group Everytown for Gun Safety shows that Texas had 25 unintentional shootings involving children who found a loaded firearm last year.” Sanjana makes a point by providing the data to show this is a serious issue and should not be pushed to the side. She wants to put it out there that any child who has access to these unloaded guns in their homes could carry out a horrendous crime putting themselves and others in danger. It needs to be stopped and become more stricter. 

Nolasco, Stephanie. “Florida Man’s Former Escort Wife Tried Hiring a Hit Man: ‘I Was Praying It Wasn’t Her’.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 2 Oct. 2019

A woman named Dalia Dippolito was attempting to hire a hitman to murder her husband Mike Dippolito. When they first met everything seemed perfectly fine, Mike genuinely thought they were happy but made the mistake of getting married too fast. Mike in the past has been involved in previous crimes, pleading guilty to charges of organized fraud and unlicensed telemarketing but was already making up for it and to be on a clean slate. Stephanie Nolasco states that people cannot be vulnerable and trust the people around us all the time because occurrences like this case could happen to anyone. “According to police records, Dalia was planting drugs in Dippolito’s car in a failed attempt to get his probation revoked, the outlet shared. Then, detectives said, she tried to have Dippolito killed.” Looking at this detail in the case, demonstrated that Mike’s wife, Dalia, was attempting anything she possibly could to get her husband arrested. “Dalia wound up meeting a hitman – who actually was an undercover cop – and insisted she was “like 5,000 percent sure” she wanted Dippolito gone for good.” Regardless of who the person is in our life, we should always be aware that there’s always more to a person than what they choose to show to the world. This writer wants to emphasize that we should be aware of our surroundings.

Waxman, Olivia B. “Charles Manson’s Own Story of Why the Manson Family Killed.” Time, Time, 26 July 2019

Charles Manson was an American criminal and cult leader who led and formed a group known as the Manson family. Manson was a man who wanted things to go his way and if they didn’t, that is when the Manson family started with the murders. In this article the author Olivia B. Waxman was able to captivate the tone of the last interview Manson had, and argues that it is important to get the truth out. Manson told his side of the story that was not portrayed by the news or media in his last interview. “There’s this whole underlying story people don’t know, says Day, who, 50 years later, hopes to set the record straight…this story starts instead with a botched drug deal that took place July 1.” History tends to twist the truth as it is told from time to time. But by conducting this interview with Manson details could be revealed that will help the public understand his motivations and the big question of why?  “Manson had ordered the murders, which was also the timeline that came out in the trial, Manson’s own version was that his followers orchestrated the whole thing, and he was only involved in a passive way.” Waxman wants to emphasize that, although Manson was an evil man who committed crimes with his “family” it is important to get all sides of a story, to finally know the truth and reasonings behind things.

Yang, Allie, and Sean Dooley. “Investigators in ‘Slender Man’ Case Discuss Chilling Interviews with 12-Year-Old Attempted Murderers.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 23 Oct. 2019

Two girls from Wisconsin named Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier carried out a plan to murder one of their best friends, Payton Leutner, in the name of “Slender Man”, who is a fictional character created from a website (Creepypasta). The authors, Allie Yang and Sean Dooley, point is to ensure parents are monitoring what their kids lookup online and separating the truth from lies. These two girls had an obsession with this fictional character and truly thought that “Slender Man” would come after them if they didn’t give him a sacrifice. “Anissa said that Slender Man strangles his victims with tendrils protruding from his back and that he targets children “the most,” according to what she learned on the website.” This shows that although the story of this fictional character was made up, she believed everything because it was put up online. Both girls were terrified. “I was really scared, knowing that Slender could easily kill my whole family in three seconds, Anissa added.” These girls felt the need to carry out this murder to protect themselves and their loved ones, so out of fear they did it. But, thankfully the victim Payton Leutner survived this horrendous attack. These details reveal that parents should monitor what their children are searching for online for their own safety. No one expected two young girls to thoroughly plan this crime and actually commit it. 

Cesar cordero 

English 1101

Fairy tales 

Tatar, Maria.  The Annotated Brothers Grimm.  New York: W.W. Norton and Company,Inc, 2004.  Print

The Annotated Brothers Grimm is actually a rare example of a complete and relevant title-this work is a collection of Fairy Tales collected by the Brothers Grimm,kept in their (at least mostly) original form instead of attempting to modernize them.  For instance, in the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the girl is naïve and is eaten by the wolf, then released when the huntsman takes scissors and slices the wolf’s belly open, filling it with stones. Each of the stories has a number of annotations, numbered according to the quality of the tale, which details differences in portrayals, and potential meanings behind these variations.  An excellent start to the study of Fairy Tales, as they are the rough originals.

Klima, John.  Happily Ever After.  New York City: Night Shade Books, 2011.  Print.

Happily Ever After is a collection of retold Fairy Tales, including story form (such as My Life as  Bird by Charles de Lint, He Dies that Day, In Thirty Years by Will McCarthy, and The Rose Garden by Michelle West), and a dramatic script (in Gregory Maguire’s “The Seven Stage Comeback,” a 1 Act play with 6 Scenes).  Included before each story is a brief annotation about the authors in question, which grants minor details about prior works (such as Gregory Maguire’s work on the book Wicked, now a Broadway Musical, which details the life and times of Elphaba, better known as the Wicked Witch of the West).  A good read for fun, and an excellent record of modernized Fairy Tales.

Nayar, Pramod K.  “The Sense of Horror; Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’”.  Notes on Contemporary Literature 38.1 (2008): 4.  Students Resources in Context.  Web.

This is an article written by a professor employed at the University of Hyderabad in India focusing on The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter.  This is an excellent example of academic essays written on the subject, as well as the simple scope of distance that the structure of Fairy Tales has spread, despite the “traditional stomping grounds” of Europe that claim this structure.  In these, he writes on the stimulation of horror, or fear, that is created, “not by appealing to the reader’s intellect by rather by stimulating bodily sensations in terms of colour, temperature, and haptic (sense of touch) conditions.” It is an examination in detail of that horror, and of the exact effects upon the reader.  This is an excellent source when searching for the direct form of influence between reader and book in modern Fairy Tales.

Talor, Patricia R.  “Criminal Appropriations of Shakespeare in Jasper Fforde’s Something Rotten.”  College Literature 37.4 (fall 2010): pg 23.  Print.

This is a critical essay written on the subject of a book written by Jasper Fforde entitled Something Rotten, which is a parody of Shakespeare’s work.  Fforde writes many parodies, with examples listed in the text (including The Eyre Affairin 2001, Lost in a Good Book in 2002, The Well of Lost Plots in 2003, Something Rotten in 2004, and First Among Sequels in 2007); these books employ many of Shakespeare’s characters in appropriation in ‘displays of destructive power; for example police incarcerate actors for poorly performing Twelfth Night…’  This essay argues that violent appropriations can be constructive rather than oppressive.  A reliable source for the journal in which it appears, which is the triennially published College Literature Journal, though this essay can also serve in the act of examining differences of perspectives regarding venerable Shakespeare, and the comedic side of Fairy Tales in remembering one thing-many such tales were written as counterpoints to major or venerated subjects.

Hume, Kathryn.  “Voice in Kathy Acker’s Fiction” Contemporary Literature.  Volume 42 issue 3 (2001) pages 485-513.  Print.

This is an article describing the use of voice in the fiction of Kathy Acker, voice being defined as “a combination of verbal flavor, attitude, and subject matter designed to display the attitude and encourage it in readers.  Voice in this sense resembles the orchestration and preferred tonalities that lets one identify a couple measures of Tchaikovsky from the Russian intervals…The voice in Acker’s fiction is similarly individual to her, and paying attention to it helps uncover her assumptions about character and understanding what she is reacting against.”  This article is meticulously detailed, and as such is a solid source for the identification of individual styles, an integral part of understanding Fairy Tales and fiction, which Kathy Acker writes. Cashdan, Sheldon.                                                                                                            

The Witch Must Die:  The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales.  New York City: BasicBooks, 2000.  Print.

This book was written by a professional psychologist, as an in-depth examination of the “classic” mentality of the most prominent audience of fairy tales- children.  As such, it has many parts that have reference to the psychology of children, and the application of these stories to those children. It is worth noting, though, that Cashdan did commit one failure-the assumption that these tales were always meant for children, which did not happen until roughly the Victorian Age, several hundred years after their creation.  The originals were folk and morality tales enhanced by the upper class and collected by scholars for that upper class, and as such one must remember this pitfall. That aside, it is a good look at the formulaic mindset behind their examination- apply story X to child Y for condition Z and the child is fixed, which has some merits, though it is not the be-all and end-all of the stories.

Tatar, Maria.  The Grimm Reader: The Classic Tales of the Brothers Grimm.  New York: W.W. Norton and Company,Inc, 2004.  Print

This is a book written by the chair of the Program in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University, and as such is as close to a scholastic source as you will get to the ideals.  This book has in it annotations and a preface to provide readers with the historical and cultural context to understand what these stores meant and their contemporary resonance. The book includes some of the more famous stories in world literature, such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and other stories less known, such as The Seven Ravens

Maguire,Gregory.  Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.  New York City: Harper Collins, 1995.  Print.

Wicked, written by Gregory Maguire, is a good example of another phenomenon regarding Fairy Tales.  Normally, Fairy Tales are read as short bedtime stories, ending in less than 10 pages, but since the books have become popular and public libraries almost common in cities, the tales have been lengthened to become true novels.  Wicked focuses on the life of Elphaba, known to the world at large as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (which by itself is a wonderfully structured Fairy Tale), and in particular it is an examination of that society through the eyes of a cynic, providing the views of realism to such a story.  For example, in the beginning of the book, when Elphaba is born, people react with revulsion and shock to her skin color, despite the relative oddity (to the reader in the real world) of having talking animals.  A good look at the effects of reality in Fairy Tales, and the lengthening of those stories.