In the literary piece “There Was Once” by Marget Atwood, Atwood describes a dialogue between a storyteller and a reader (second speaker). As the storyteller was telling the story of Cinderella the “reader” demands to make changes to the first line of the story.The speaker questions the story tellers motive and expailns how such a simple sentence can effect and influence many people. Atwood sugests that the storyteller is a male in the literary piece it states “midde ages men are like –, Hey ,just a minute I’m a middle aged–” This plays a segnificate role in how the story is told. Being that the storyteller is male it changes the meaning of some words what does he mean by beautiful, as the speaker discussed in this piece is Cinderella short ,fat ,black,white red?I Since this story is told in a males point of view words like evil, and beautiful may be different from a women definition of evil and beautiful. I think what the speaker is trying to explain in this piece is that in a story such as Cinderella everything will be over analyzed but its readers. I’m not a Psychcolgy major but I have took any corusres on the subject. In one of the cousres we discuss how the story of Cinderella molds the mind of children and or readers. This story paints a picture for the child/reader and generalized women and stepmothers. That is what I think the speaker was trying to explain to the story teller .
[pyoor-i-tan-i-kuhl]
Query– (Noun)
Definition: A question or a request for information about something
Source: Query http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/query
Found in: “There Was Once” by Margaret Atwood. (The fourth quote on the first page)
Quote: “That’s better. But I have to seriously query this word poor.”
When the second speaker said that she has to query this word “poor”, she meant that she has to question the way the storyteller used the word poor because she felt that the girl wasn’t homeless or starving.
The text “There Was Once” by Margaret Atwood, certainly reminded me of our regular folktale Cinderella. But, was quickly intervened with the second speaker who had a lot of thoughts and opinions to share. The story began with the repetitive line “There Was Once” and soon got interrupted by the second speaker. The first speaker was beginning to tell a story similar to our Cinderella tale by stating that there was once a girl who was beautiful and poor, whom also had a wicked stepmother. But the second speaker quickly disagreed by saying if she was poor then how do they have a house and fireplace. Which I agreed upon, because if someone was poor I consider them to have absolutely nothing. The storyteller took into consideration of what the speaker said and changed her story by saying “There was once a middle-class girl”. As the speaker began to continue the rest of the story, the second speaker proceeded to cut in and give constructive criticism in my eyes. The second speaker was basically trying to break the formal story of Cinderella by it always being a white, beautiful, and poor girl. But rather be more realistic in a sense. Instead of keeping up with the regular story of her being “beautiful” why not cut that out and make the character more average and less intimidating. So once again, the first speaker decided to change it up and be more truthful by saying “There was once a girl who was a little overweight and whose front teeth stuck out” but the second speaker didn’t mean for the first speaker to change the story into making fun of someone. The second speaker continued to interrupt by asking what color is the girl? And that she’s tired of this continuous dominant culture. I conclude that the author Margaret Atwood was trying to imply that we should all try to change up the story sometimes. That not every folktale or story should always be based on the “normal” or “expected” way people believe it should be. Furthermore, that it’s not always about beauty, looks, ethnicity, and financial status. And that we should encourage our kids, teens and other women to uplift and inspire each other, rather than to degrade and humiliate each other.
While reading “The Story of an Hour” I noticed a numerous amount of emotions and patterns going on. In the beginning it was clear to see that Mrs. Mallard didn’t need much of an explanation about her husbands death. She just felt it coming and simply went to her room by herself with immense grief inside. I felt as if she was carrying a lot of baggage and stress on her shoulders as Kate Chopin said “Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul”. As I continued to read Kate Chopin described “the tops of the trees that were all quiver with the new spring life and the delicious breath of rain was in the air” which I felt described a final sense of relief and a brand new chapter. Mrs. Mallard then said over and over under her breath “free, free, free!” I believe Mrs. Mallard went through a lot of tough times over the years dealing with Mr. Mallard. I feel as if they had a lot of ups and downs and she was finally feeling a sense of calmness and peace although she was grieving at the same time. She now said that she’d only be living for herself and there’d be no one to live for her during those coming years. I think Kate Chopin made a strong point when she said “And yet she had loved him- sometimes. Often she had not” which she may have meant that she wasn’t always there for him. But didn’t really seem to care because she was finally free as if she was always locked in. She took some deep breaths, said a prayer while taking in everything happening so sudden when the front door opened and saw her husband standing there. After that, she had past way of heart disease. I feel the only reason Mrs. Mallard past so sudden was because of her age and heartache dealing with so many deep and strong emotions all at the same time. And while seeing her husband again and alive whom she finally processed in her head that was dead was just too much of a shock to handle. This was an extremely short story but had so many patterns of emotions going back and forth from sadness, relief, grief, happiness, and death.
Hi everyone, my name is Emily Sawh. I was born and raised in Queens, NY. I am 19 years old. My ethnicity is Guyanese. Although I’ve never been to Guyana, I do know a lot about my culture and one day hope to visit. I have two older brothers, which love to spoil me since I happen to be the youngest and the only girl. This is my fourth semester at City Tech and I am majoring in Human Services. Over the past few years I’ve had a little of difficulty and some confusion trying to decide what I wanted to major in. As I started to take some Human Services classes I decided that I loved this field. I started to become more and more interested in my classes and work as time went on. I even looked forward to going to those classes the most. I love helping others which led me to this major. I do hope to get my bachelors degree in HUE one day. I am a very social person but there are times where I just feel like being by myself. I love listening to music and zoning out into my own little world. I have an obsession for penguins! I have no clue why but I love them. I have penguin socks, penguin stuffed animals, penguin earrings.. You name it, I have it. I would like to travel the world one day, sadly I’ve only went to Texas, Florida, and New Jersey. I also have an obsession with puppies. I wish I could own one someday but for now my mom says I’m too busy to take care of it. On my free time, I like to hang out with my family and just be silly. They always seem to make everything better. I live with both of my parents that I love with all of my heart. They’re both the best support system any kid could ask for. As a kid, I always loved English. Whenever we were assigned to write our short stories, I would go on and on. I am definitely looking forward to this class and learning new things. It was a pleasure meeting my classmates and Ms. Rosen. I hope to achieve all of my goals along the way.
This story by Kate Choppin ” The Story of an Hour” is really interesting. I admit I was becoming bored in the beginning but the story really picked up. It begins when Mrs. Mallard receives horrific news from her sister Josephine. She tells her in broken words because she doesn’t know how to break it to her sister. After all the grieving time spent with her sister and Richards, husbands friend, she made her way into her room alone. She “sank” in her chair staring out the window. Sank is a perfect word because that describes exactly what she’s feeling, emotionless and emptiness. This is where the story gets interesting. All of a sudden a “physical exhaustion” haunts her body and reaches to her soul. Her lips whisper ” free,free,free”.
Surprisingly her conscious is happy with the death of her husband because now she feels free. She sat in front of the window with her arms wide open, letting the world know she is ready to start a new life. She then whispers ” free! Body and soul free!” After she makes a quick prayer that life may be long, she opens the door, with the acceptance of a new life. The look on her face expresses joy and triumph. This is where the twist begins. As she walks down the stairs, the front door starts to open and it’s her husband who everyone thought was dead. When the wife sees her husband, she ironically dies. Doctors later confirm the cause of death was a heart disease. The real question is what caused the heart disease? Was it extreme joy seeing her husband is alive after all? Was it disappointment of seeing her husband alive after she already had moved on? Or was it the guilt she couldn’t deal with after she moved on so quickly?
“There Was Once” by Margaret Atwood is a retelling of a classic tale, without actually getting to the story. In the short story, the first speaker is reading the beginning of Cinderella, but not too much later is interrupted by the second speaker. The second speaker challenges the statements, such as economic status, culture, beauty, and even age of the girl. The second speaker introduces reality into the fairy tale. For example, the second speaker states that the setting is wrong, and an urban setting would be more fitting for societies image. Then argues if the girl was “poor” as the story is often portrayed her to be, it wouldn’t be anything to compared to the actual poor of the homeless that live in the subway stations. The first speaker complies and adds in the changes from the second speakers objections. When the second speaker criticizes the word beautiful to describe the girl, the first speaker responds by saying the girl is “a little overweight and whose front teeth stuck out” which makes the second speaker respond that it wasn’t nice to make fun. I believe this points out that the idea of the fairytale princess being anything else but beautiful is bizarre; if she isn’t, she must be overweight or have bad teeth. The second speaker states “description oppresses” and to omit it. This is important since beauty is relative to the individual and projects the notion that the image of the girl is what defines beauty, and if girls don’t look like that, they aren’t beautiful. I believe this short story serves to teach a lesson by constantly changing the defining characteristics of the story as often told. Atwood again uses the second speaker to protest the the description of the girl that feeds into “negative female images”. Finally she states that she doesn’t want to hear about the past and wants to talk about now. Atwood clearly challenges many of the notions that are commonly told in fairy tales by adding in a truthful depiction of her own, and that now is the time rather than the past.
If you’re having trouble getting started on the OpenLab, or you want to learn more about using the OpenLab, please consider coming to a workshop on Wednesday from 1:00 to 2:00 in G604 (that’s in the General Building, on the 6th floor. It’s a classroom off the main computer area).
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