Author: Tyler

Tyler Queylin Final Exam

Tyler Queylin

Professor Scanlan

ENG 2001

December 14, 2020    

Technology on Psychological Health

            In society there are set boundaries for morals and values that individuals consider incorrect or correct. Individuals in society however have their own sets of morals and values in their own mind and also when it comes to decision making. Society usually judges others’ actions and decision making if the individual makes it public. In this course, I’ve learned that ethics control an individuals’ decision making because those are the principles that the individual lives by. There are a few specific ethics that were covered this semester that is seen in literature when it comes to characters’ actions and morals. In the short story “The Veldt” by Ray Bradury, we see two of the specific ethics was brought up this semester, Virtue ethics and also Utilitarianism ethics.  Virtue ethics is when the individual chooses their decision or action y thinking of the consequences and “what kind of person” each decision would make them be. Virtue ethics can both be positive and negative and does not give the individual a conscience to go by. Utilitarianism ethics is when the individual uses their conscience to make the morally correct decision because doing the right thing will bring the most good energy out. Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” portrays these two specific types of ethics with his characters and what they base their decision making on throughout the story.

            The short story is about a family that has a very advanced and expensive house that has a built in system that does everything for the family. George and Lydia the parents allow the “Happy Life Home” to do chores for the children, tuck them into bed, dress them, and a lot of other necessities an individual would have to do on their own. However, the children Wendy and Peter’s favorite part of their technologically advanced home is the Nursery. The Nursery is a room in their house that allows the children to think of any place or situation and they will be able to instantly live in their desired location. George and Lydia don’t have the closest relationship to their children because their home system does all the bonding that a parent would do with their child. George and Lydia also don’t really enforce any rules to their children about the house, the children are used to doing whatever they please which makes them stubborn. As the story goes along the parents start to get worried about Wendy and Peter spending too much time in the nursery and thinking of crazy situations that can mess their young and developing minds up so they suggest that they shut down the house’s system. Of course the children are not content about the decision that their parents are making because George and Lydia always base their decision making off of what the children desire. Since the children are so stubborn and feel as the house’s system and nursery are their parent figure, the story takes a twist and the children actually end up murdering their parents in the nursery by thinking of a situation with lions trapping them and eating them at the end of the story. 

            George and Lydia decision make based on their children, they feel that they need to make decisions to make the children happy and please them. This is because the children are stubborn and are always used to getting whatever they want at any time because of how their life is ran with their technologically advanced house. Towards the beginning of the story George and Lydia talk about the special room they got for the children in the house which is the nursery and how it was expensive but if it’s for the kids they’re determined to do anything to please them. “ it had cost half as much as the rest of the house. But nothing’s too good for our children, George had said.” (Bradbury 1) This quote shows how George and Lydia aren’t typical parents and don’t have morals that parents should have, when your children are growing up, as a parent you have to teach them discipline and how to deal with the answer no sometimes. However from this quote we see the parents don’t have a conscience when it comes to their decisions as long as the kids are happy with what their parents decided. George and Lydia’s decision making represents Utilitarianism ethics because we see that they both don’t decide for themselves but they decide based on their children’s reactions and feelings. The parents must think that if they keep pleasing their children repeatedly with anything that it will produce more good for the family which is wrong and it makes the kids stubborn and messes up their young developing minds psychologically. “They walked down the hall of their soundproofed Happylife Home, them thirty thousand dollars installed, this house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang was good to them.” (Bradbury 1) This other quote from the beginning of the story shows how much money the parents have invested on their home for the children. The children cannot even do simple tasks like dress themselves or feed themselves. Peter and Wendy rely strictly on the technology in their house but their parents don’t see anything wrong with that because they believe and use Utilitarianism ethics to choose their decisions. They don’t see that relying and buying this house will not let their children develop and grow but they think they are making the correct decision because they want to bring the most pleasure to produce the most good. George and Lydia do not understand the principles and morals that you have to take as a parent when raising their children correctly which is why the story ends how it does.

            Throughout the story and towards the ending we see more representation of Virtue ethics, the biggest one is when the children make the decision that they are going to rebel against their parents from turning off the technology in the house. The children are very stubborn and are used to always having their way so when George says he is going to turn off the house they do everything they can to stop their parents, eventually killing them. “Daddy, Mommy, come quick! They went downstairs in the air flue and ran down the hall. The children were nowhere in sight. Wendy? Peter! The door slammed…. Why, they’ve locked it from the outside!” (Bradury 8) This is when Wendy and Peter trick their parents into running into the nursery and they lock them inside. We can see Virtue ethics being portrayed here because Wendy and Peter are selfish and will do anything to get their way, they have no morals or principles and have no problems doing this to their parents as long as they get what they want which is their Happylife Home. “The lions on three sides of them, in the yellow veldt grass, padding through the dry straw, rumbling and roaring in their throats. The lions. Mr. Hadley looked at his wife and they turned and looked back at the beasts edging slowly forward crouching, tails stiff. Mr. and Mrs. Hadley screamed. And suddenly they realized why those other screams bad sounded familiar.”(Bradbury 8) This quote is when George and Lydia get murdered by the lions that their children had produced with their imagination with the nursery. The screams that George and Lydia heard earlier in the story were actually their own screams because Wendy and Peter had actually already thought about murdering their parents and finally executed it when something didn’t go their way. Virtue ethics is more about self-centered decisions and these ethics don’t provide any morals or guidance which can be seen when Wendy and Peter make a cruel and selfish decision to their parents.

            There is a moment in the story that represents both Utilitarianism ethics and Virtue ethics. When Lydia talks about how the house is more of a mother than her and she feels depressed and miserable because she feels like she isn’t there and important to her children. George decides to step in and he tells the children later at dinner that he will turn off the technology in the whole house for a while. “”I wouldn’t want the nursery locked up,” said Peter coldly. “Ever.” “Matter of fact, we’re thinking of turning the whole house off for about a month.” (Bradury 6) This is when George breaks the important news of what he is deciding to do to the house for a month to the children. However, I’m sure this represents Utilitarianism ethics because he is basing this decision off of his wife and how she feels useless because she doesn’t have a role as a mother due to the house being there for her kids more than her. He is doing this for Lydia but also at the same time we can say that this decision of shutting the house down is a Virtue ethic because he does not consider what his children feel and saying. George is doing this for himself as a parent also which can be considered a selfish decision and more of a choice for himself.

            In conclusion, the short story “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury is a perfect story that represents both Virtue and Utilitarianism ethics. Bradbury portrays this through the plot and most importantly through the actions and decisions of the characters. Peter and Wendy are two stubborn and undisciplined children whose minds were messed up due to relying on technology and always getting their way which is why they make such crazy self -centered decisions like murdering their parents as long as they get what they want. George and Lydia are parents without any principles and do anything for their children as long as it pleases them because they think it is going to bring out more positive and good for their family however in the story it’s the complete opposite and it actually gets them killed at the end. Bradbury does an amazing job with the characters explaining how they make their decisions and why they make their decisions by developing the characters throughout the plot. The Veldt is a short story that portrays the two ethics throughout the characters’ morals and principles.

Work Cited

Scanlan, S. (2020) Five types of Ethics https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/profscanlan-english2001-fiction-f2020/files/2020/11/Five-types-of-Ethics-fall-2020.docx 

“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury http://hthcvfolks.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/3/6/13360453/the-veldt-ray-bradbury-pdf_1.pdf

final essay

Tyler Queylin

Professor Scanlan

ENG 2001 O525

December 14, 2020    

Technology on Psychological Health

            In society there are set boundaries for morals and values that individuals consider incorrect or correct. Individuals in society however have their own sets of morals and values in their own mind and also when it comes to decision making. Society usually judges others’ actions and decision making if the individual makes it public. In this course, I’ve learned that ethics control an individuals’ decision making because those are the principles that the individual lives by. There are a few specific ethics that were covered this semester that is seen in literature when it comes to characters’ actions and morals. In the short story “The Veldt” by Ray Bradury, we see two of the specific ethics was brought up this semester, Virtue ethics and also Utilitarianism ethics.  Virtue ethics is when the individual chooses their decision or action y thinking of the consequences and “what kind of person” each decision would make them be. Virtue ethics can both be positive and negative and does not give the individual a conscience to go by. Utilitarianism ethics is when the individual uses their conscience to make the morally correct decision because doing the right thing will bring the most good energy out. Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” portrays these two specific types of ethics with his characters and what they base their decision making on throughout the story.

            The short story is about a family that has a very advanced and expensive house that has a built in system that does everything for the family. George and Lydia the parents allow the “Happy Life Home” to do chores for the children, tuck them into bed, dress them, and a lot of other necessities an individual would have to do on their own. However, the children Wendy and Peter’s favorite part of their technologically advanced home is the Nursery. The Nursery is a room in their house that allows the children to think of any place or situation and they will be able to instantly live in their desired location. George and Lydia don’t have the closest relationship to their children because their home system does all the bonding that a parent would do with their child. George and Lydia also don’t really enforce any rules to their children about the house, the children are used to doing whatever they please which makes them stubborn. As the story goes along the parents start to get worried about Wendy and Peter spending too much time in the nursery and thinking of crazy situations that can mess their young and developing minds up so they suggest that they shut down the house’s system. Of course the children are not content about the decision that their parents are making because George and Lydia always base their decision making off of what the children desire. Since the children are so stubborn and feel as the house’s system and nursery are their parent figure, the story takes a twist and the children actually end up murdering their parents in the nursery by thinking of a situation with lions trapping them and eating them at the end of the story.  

            George and Lydia decision make based on their children, they feel that they need to make decisions to make the children happy and please them. This is because the children are stubborn and are always used to getting whatever they want at any time because of how their life is ran with their technologically advanced house. Towards the beginning of the story George and Lydia talk about the special room they got for the children in the house which is the nursery and how it was expensive but if it’s for the kids they’re determined to do anything to please them. “ it had cost half as much as the rest of the house. But nothing’s too good for our children, George had said.” (Bradbury 1) This quote shows how George and Lydia aren’t typical parents and don’t have morals that parents should have, when your children are growing up, as a parent you have to teach them discipline and how to deal with the answer no sometimes. However from this quote we see the parents don’t have a conscience when it comes to their decisions as long as the kids are happy with what their parents decided. George and Lydia’s decision making represents Utilitarianism ethics because we see that they both don’t decide for themselves but they decide based on their children’s reactions and feelings. The parents must think that if they keep pleasing their children repeatedly with anything that it will produce more good for the family which is wrong and it makes the kids stubborn and messes up their young developing minds psychologically. “They walked down the hall of their soundproofed Happylife Home, them thirty thousand dollars installed, this house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang was good to them.” (Bradbury 1) This other quote from the beginning of the story shows how much money the parents have invested on their home for the children. The children cannot even do simple tasks like dress themselves or feed themselves. Peter and Wendy rely strictly on the technology in their house but their parents don’t see anything wrong with that because they believe and use Utilitarianism ethics to choose their decisions. They don’t see that relying and buying this house will not let their children develop and grow but they think they are making the correct decision because they want to bring the most pleasure to produce the most good. George and Lydia do not understand the principles and morals that you have to take as a parent when raising their children correctly which is why the story ends how it does.

            Throughout the story and towards the ending we see more representation of Virtue ethics, the biggest one is when the children make the decision that they are going to rebel against their parents from turning off the technology in the house. The children are very stubborn and are used to always having their way so when George says he is going to turn off the house they do everything they can to stop their parents, eventually killing them. “Daddy, Mommy, come quick! They went downstairs in the air flue and ran down the hall. The children were nowhere in sight. Wendy? Peter! The door slammed…. Why, they’ve locked it from the outside!” (Bradury 8) This is when Wendy and Peter trick their parents into running into the nursery and they lock them inside. We can see Virtue ethics being portrayed here because Wendy and Peter are selfish and will do anything to get their way, they have no morals or principles and have no problems doing this to their parents as long as they get what they want which is their Happylife Home. “The lions on three sides of them, in the yellow veldt grass, padding through the dry straw, rumbling and roaring in their throats. The lions. Mr. Hadley looked at his wife and they turned and looked back at the beasts edging slowly forward crouching, tails stiff. Mr. and Mrs. Hadley screamed. And suddenly they realized why those other screams bad sounded familiar.”(Bradbury 8) This quote is when George and Lydia get murdered by the lions that their children had produced with their imagination with the nursery. The screams that George and Lydia heard earlier in the story were actually their own screams because Wendy and Peter had actually already thought about murdering their parents and finally executed it when something didn’t go their way. Virtue ethics is more about self-centered decisions and these ethics don’t provide any morals or guidance which can be seen when Wendy and Peter make a cruel and selfish decision to their parents.

            There is a moment in the story that represents both Utilitarianism ethics and Virtue ethics. When Lydia talks about how the house is more of a mother than her and she feels depressed and miserable because she feels like she isn’t there and important to her children. George decides to step in and he tells the children later at dinner that he will turn off the technology in the whole house for a while. “”I wouldn’t want the nursery locked up,” said Peter coldly. “Ever.” “Matter of fact, we’re thinking of turning the whole house off for about a month.” (Bradury 6) This is when George breaks the important news of what he is deciding to do to the house for a month to the children. However, I’m sure this represents Utilitarianism ethics because he is basing this decision off of his wife and how she feels useless because she doesn’t have a role as a mother due to the house being there for her kids more than her. He is doing this for Lydia but also at the same time we can say that this decision of shutting the house down is a Virtue ethic because he does not consider what his children feel and saying. George is doing this for himself as a parent also which can be considered a selfish decision and more of a choice for himself.

            In conclusion, the short story “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury is a perfect story that represents both Virtue and Utilitarianism ethics. Bradbury portrays this through the plot and most importantly through the actions and decisions of the characters. Peter and Wendy are two stubborn and undisciplined children whose minds were messed up due to relying on technology and always getting their way which is why they make such crazy self -centered decisions like murdering their parents as long as they get what they want. George and Lydia are parents without any principles and do anything for their children as long as it pleases them because they think it is going to bring out more positive and good for their family however in the story it’s the complete opposite and it actually gets them killed at the end. Bradbury does an amazing job with the characters explaining how they make their decisions and why they make their decisions by developing the characters throughout the plot. The Veldt is a short story that portrays the two ethics throughout the characters’ morals and principles.

Work Cited

Scanlan, S. (2020) Five types of Ethics https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/profscanlan-english2001-fiction-f2020/files/2020/11/Five-types-of-Ethics-fall-2020.docx 

“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury http://hthcvfolks.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/3/6/13360453/the-veldt-ray-bradbury-pdf_1.pdf

Tyler Queylin midterm

Tyler Queylin

Midterm Essay, English 2001

October 26, 2020                                           

                                                The Lottery and a Rose for Emily

            The two short stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “A Rose for Emily” by Faulkner are stories that require deep understanding of the plot and characters. “The Lottery” is about a town of people who have an annual ritual of having a lottery, however throughout the story the audience sees that the lottery is not a regular lottery where you celebrate when you win but the person who gets picked for it dies. The town continues this ritual because of their superstition that if they don’t sacrifice an individual annually that the crops will not grow out good. “A Rose for Emily” is about a mysterious and misunderstood lady who had just died and in the beginning of the story it takes place at her funeral, she lived in a town with many other individuals who really knew nothing about her and just assumed about her but they find out the truth throughout the story when they go to her house for the first time after her funeral. Emily is shown as a very misunderstood character throughout the story after her father dies. However, the authors use the main characters to portray the social hierarchy in the setting/time period and gender dominance.

            The two well known and popular short stories share the same element of the two authors bringing up sex and gender roles/codes. Allan Lloyd-Smith explains American Gothic Fiction talking about how the genre in these types of stories bring up societal problems and “wrongdoing movement”. In Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery” the main focus is the Hutchinson family which includes Mr. Bill Hutchinson, Mrs. Tess Hutchinson, and the Hutchinson children but especially little Davy Hutchinson who is mentioned a lot in the story. Tess Hutchinson is the prime example of gender roles and how women are treated unequally to men in the the story. “Mr. Summers, who had been waiting, said cheerfully, thought we were going to have to get on without you, Tessie. Mrs. Hutchinson said, grinning, Wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe? And soft laughter ran through the crowd as the people stirred back into position after Mrs. Hutchinson’s arrival.” (Jackson 2) This quote shows the gender roles that the town has, we see that the men are held higher and have more power than the women and they make jokes about women only doing house work. They also didn’t bother to say that they were going to wait for her, since she is a woman they didn’t mind if she was at the drawing of the Lottery or not because they could have started early without her. Later on in the story Tessie is the one that is picked for the drawing of the Lottery and she starts to complain saying that it wasn’t fair for her. The audience comes to figure that the lottery is something negative and Tessie is stoned to death at the end. Tessie is a woman and she is speaking up to the lottery saying it isn’t fair and she is confident doing so, by them killing her this could show that Jackson was trying to imply that since she was speaking against the lottery and getting out of her place in her societal/gender role in the town that it was her faith that she was the one who is picked in the lottery and stoned to death. The gothic element of questioning sex and gender roles is also shown in Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily”, throughout the story we learn about Emily’s childhood and how she has a father who likes to be in complete dominance over her life and decisions. Emily’s father continuously lives her life for her through making decisions for her and saying that no individual male would ever be enough for her and good enough.  â€śNone of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such.” (Faulkner 3) Her father didn’t allow anyone else to accompany her but himself and would prevent any male individual from being with Emily. The only company that she had and was used to during her childhood was her father’s. This shows the gender/sex role in the story of male dominance and women always being lower than men, her father has such superiority over her that she couldn’t live her life until he died later on in the story and even then she didn’t know anyone else’s company but his which is why when he died she denied his death and didn’t want anyone to take his body away because she would be alone. Later on her life Emily falls in love with a man named Homer Barron and wants to be with him for eternity but the town and she knows that he is not the “marrying type of man”. One day Emily goes to the pharmacy and asks for Arsenic which is poison and the pharmacist asks her what she needs it for and she never tells him. She purchases the poison and the town assumes that it is to kill herself with the poison because she is depressed that she cannot marry Homer. “SO THE NEXT day we all said, “She will kill herself”; and we said it would be the best thing. When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron….” (Faulkner 5) However Emily uses the poison to kill Homer so that she can be with him forever physically by keeping his body in the house forever until she died. The gender roles in this scenario was the town’s perspective and assumption of how they thought Emily wanted the arsenic to kill herself, they thought since she knew Homer wasn’t going to marry her and stay with her forever that she was going to kill herself. The town thought Emily was depressed enough to kill herself because she would be alone and she had to rely on the company of a male, in this case Homer but she overcame the societal gender stereotype and made a very bold decision instead using the poison for him.

Shirley Jackson’s story is less rebellious than Faulkner’s story however because even though Tessie speaks out of her place about how the tradition of the town isn’t fair she still is executed by stones. Emily has more of an impact showing she is not dependent on another male which is what the town thought but were shocked and surprised when they found out Emily had used poison to kill Homer. Both stories show the gender dominance of males and social change which leads the audience back to reality about how female inequality and society’s views and beliefs on what stereotypes are true and if gender plays a role in dominance or power.

Tyler Queylin Midterm essay draft

Tyler Queylin

Midterm Essay, English 2001

October 16, 2020                                           

Midterm Essay Draft

            The two short stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “A Rose for Emily” by Faulkner are stories that require deep understanding of the plot and characters. “The Lottery” is about a town of people who have an annual ritual of having a lottery, however throughout the story the audience sees that the lottery is not a regular lottery where you celebrate when you win but the person who gets picked for it dies. The town continues this ritual because of their superstition that if they don’t sacrifice an individual annually that the crops will not grow out good. “A Rose for Emily” is about a lady who had just died and the story takes place at her funeral, she lived in a town with many other individuals who really knew nothing about her and just assumed about her but they find out the truth throughout the story when they go to her house for the first time after her funeral. Emily is shown as a very misunderstood character throughout the story after her father dies. However, the characters that William Faulkner and Shirley Jackson use in their stories are quite similar, of course both stories have different plots but the similarities of the characters portray the use of the same gothic elements and techniques in their own stories.

            The two well known and popular short stories share the same element of the two authors bringing up sex and gender roles/codes. Allan Lloyd-Smith explains American Gothic Fiction talking about how the genre in these types of stories bring up societal problems and “wrongdoing movement”. In Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery” the main focus is the Hutchinson family which includes Mr. Bill Hutchinson, Mrs. Tess Hutchinson, and the Hutchinson children but especially little Davy Hutchinson who is mentioned a lot in the story. Tess Hutchinson is the prime example of gender roles and how women are treated unequally to men in the the story. “Mr. Summers, who had been waiting, said cheerfully, thought we were going to have to get on without you, Tessie. Mrs. Hutchinson said, grinning, Wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe? And soft laughter ran through the crowd as the people stirred back into position after Mrs. Hutchinson’s arrival.” (Jackson 2) This quote shows the gender roles that the town has, we see that the men are held higher and have more power than the women and they make jokes about women only doing house work. They also didn’t bother to say that they were going to wait for her, since she is a woman they didn’t mind if she was at the drawing of the Lottery or not because they could have started early without her. Later on in the story Tessie is the one that is picked for the drawing of the Lottery and she starts to complain saying that it wasn’t fair for her. The audience comes to figure that the lottery is something negative and Tessie is stoned to death at the end. Tessie is a woman and she is speaking up to the lottery saying it isn’t fair and she is confident doing so, by them killing her this could show that Jackson was trying to imply that since she was speaking against the lottery and getting out of her place in her societal/gender role in the town that it was her faith that she was the one who is picked in the lottery and stoned to death. The gothic element of questioning sex and gender roles is also shown in Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily”, throughout the story we learn about Emily’s childhood and how she has a father who likes to be in complete dominance over her life and decisions. Emily’s father continuously lives her life for her through making decisions for her and saying that no individual male would ever be enough for her and good enough.  â€śNone of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such.” (Faulkner 3) Her father didn’t allow anyone else to accompany her but himself and would prevent any male individual from being with Emily. The only company that she had and was used to during her childhood was her father’s. This shows the gender/sex role in the story of male dominance and women always being lower than men, her father has such superiority over her that she couldn’t live her life until he died later on in the story and even then she didn’t know anyone else’s company but his which is why when he died she denied his death and didn’t want anyone to take his body away because she would be alone. Later on her life Emily falls in love with a man named Homer Barron and wants to be with him for eternity but the town and she knows that he is not the “marrying type of man”. One day Emily goes to the pharmacy and asks for Arsenic which is poison and the pharmacist asks her what she needs it for and she never tells him. She purchases the poison and the town assumes that it is to kill herself with the poison because she is depressed that she cannot marry Homer. “SO THE NEXT day we all said, “She will kill herself”; and we said it would be the best thing. When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron….” (Faulkner 5) However Emily uses the poison to kill Homer so that she can be with him forever physically by keeping his body in the house forever until she died. The gender roles in this scenario was the town’s perspective and assumption of how they thought Emily wanted the arsenic to kill herself, they thought since she knew Homer wasn’t going to marry her and stay with her forever that she was going to kill herself. The town thought Emily was depressed enough to kill herself because she would be alone and she had to rely on the company of a male, in this case Homer but she overcame the societal gender stereotype and made a very bold decision instead using the poison for him.

coffeehouse 3

The story “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner is a very odd story with a plot twist to it at the end of the story. The main character Emily is a misunderstood individual who was always being controlled by her father. Emily died at the age of 74 and was supposed to marry a man named Homer but we come to find out at the end that she poisons him and leaves his dead body in a room. This is found out when the townspeople go into her house for the first time after she passes away. The paradox in the story was when Emily went to the pharmacy to buy Arsenic, everyone in the town knew that she had problems in her life and they thought that she was going to commit suicide using the poison on herself but however the audience sees that the poison was really used to kill the man she was supposed to marry (Homer). Earlier in the story it said “Homer was not the marrying type” which I think was why she poisoned him because she wanted to be with him forever but knew he was not going to marry her so she killed him so that they could be together forever in the afterlife. Emily had a lot of act of redemption in the story when killing her lover, Homer. She wanted to stay with Homer for the rest of her life but knew it wasn’t going to happen this way so she murdered him so they could be together literally for eternity because they are together now after death.

The story “Bartleby, The Scrivener” by Herman Melville is less of an odd and chilling story however was more confusing to find out the meaning of the story. A lawyer hires Bartleby who is a “copyist” and is very good at one part of his work but as time goes on he refuses to do office work and we find out he actually lives in the office where he works. At the end he is arrested and put in prison, when he is prison he does not eat and stares at the wall which causes his death. The redemption in this story is the actions of Bartleby and how he acts. He is very strong in his morals and what he believes in and he can be seen as an action of redemption when he refuses to do anything against what he believes like at the end of the story he starves himself to stay strong to his morals and what he believes.

virtual coffeehouse #2

In both stories “The House of Asterion” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” we see both authors use gothic elements. They share the gothic element in both stories of suspicious and mysterious characters. We see both important characters in the stories are kind of misunderstood and as the audience we aren’t fully sure about what/who they are. For example, the audience finds out that Asterion is a Minotaur which is a supernatural creature, half bull half human body. The place where the audience thinks Asterion is trapped is a castle but the story says that the doors were unlocked which made this mysterious for readers. At the end we find out Asterion is a Minotaur leaving the audience with questions which is why he is a mysterious character. In the other story when the Old Man comes to where Pelayo is and they think he is an angel here to help Pelayo’s child. However the audience never knows if this Old Man is an angel or not, showing we are unsure of what his intentions are and who he is.

There is also gothic element use in the settings of both stories. In “The House of Asterion” we see that Asterion is actually living in a castle, it is described as having no furniture in it and oddly all the doors are unlocked but he is trapped inside of there. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” there is more of a weather setting, it is a stormy and rainy climate where Pelayo and his family lives.

The gothic elements of plot points in the two stories is death, nine people are sent to Asterion every nine years and we see those nine individuals die. The people in the village are scared that if they don’t sacrifice people to Asterion that he will attack them. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” death is shown when he comes to where Pelayo’s family is living and they think he is an angel who is going to help his sick son. It can also be seen when they describe the appearence of the Old Man and how he looks like he is suffering and is hurt, his wings and feathers are all messed up showing near death.

virtual coffeehouse 1

Something interesting or that I was surprised I did this summer was actually playing a lot of basketball, during the start of quarantine COVID got to a bad point and it was a very rapid rate in New York. I wasn’t expecting to be able to go exercise as much as I did this summer which kept me in shape and good health. Also now the gyms are back open which is even better.

My favorite story out of the three was definitely The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, I actually read the story before about 2 years ago for another English class I took and I thought the short story was one of the most interesting ones I have ever read. The story is very ironic and has a huge plot twist that makes it such a interesting short story that you can analyze. When reading The Lottery in the beginning you would think everything is going to be okay in the story starting off with how nice the flowers are and how nice of a day this June 27th is but as the story goes on the plot twist has the readers surprised and confused.