“There once was” by Margret Atwood

This is a relative unique style of writing of a fairy tale version for Disney’s Cinderella. There are two speaker in the text. Basically, they are building up a story, which is suppose to be a fairy tale, but the second speaker is considering other options when the first speaker speaks infers on the sugar coated details needed for a fairytale. The first speaker says ,[” There was once was a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the suburbs.” That’s better. But I have to seriously query this word poor.” But she is poor! “Poor is relative. She lived in a house, didn’t she?” “Yes” Then socio-economically speaking, she was not poor”. The first speaker was to make a perfect story, while the second is contradicting by bringing up reality opposed to fantasy. The second speaker brings up the reality of what is happening in urban areas. This is the notion of what the  fairy tale should be told a story that others can relate and what the second speaker is trying to do is give insight to the truth on reality of situation and not the glamorized story .

The story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

“The Story Of an Hour”, by author Kate Chopin, is a very interesting but tragic story that depicts the theme of freedom. The story is based on a woman named Mrs. Mallard, who suffers from heart problems. Her husband Mr. Mallard is believed to have died in a car accident. The family does not know how to tell her , because they fear what might happen to her after hearing the news. Mrs. Mallard is feeling sad and hurt by the news, but there seems to be something strange happing to her. She begins to have feelings of joy and feeling free. It is from that moment that moment that the theme of freedom plays from there to the end of the story. The narrator states,[ “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath:”free, free,free!”], showing how Mrs. Mallard is not restricted and has freedom to as she pleases. The theme of freedom is also portrayed when she states, “There would be on one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself”. This shows that there was frustration and feeling of being told what do. Now she no longer had to deal with this. Her Husband was the cause of her unhappiness. It is because his death she is truly happy. Unfortunately for Mrs. Mallard her time of joy is cut short. While is alone having these thoughts of freedom and how to live the rest of her life, somebody is at her room and when she goes down the stairs and someone is opening the door, she sees her husband. Mrs. Mallard has a heart attack after seeing him alive. Her joy and freedom was only for the spur of the moment because she dies due to the heart attack.

“A Short Essay on Being” by boully

The protagonist in this story, is from Thailand, who is talking about how her culture allow people to think that they are right, when truly, they are wrong. For the most part she travels to different places like Chicago, New York and has various dealings with people who believe they know more about Thai culture, than she does. She is  conscious that they are wrong but it is rude to correct someone in Thai culture, even if the other person is incorrect. She tries to make sense of why people are now obsessed with Thai culture and its cuisine. People try to tell her about Thai food and what is authentic, but the food that is so called “Thai food” is not made with the right ingredients and right way. Instead the protagonist just accepts it however they perceive it as. She speaks of different experiences throughout her life and how they try to tell her about food, religion and the culture that she fully understand and even though she is be told false or misguided information, she just says thank you.

Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros

The story, Woman Hollering Creek, is based on a woman named Cleofilas. She is Mexican woman who gets married to Juan Pedro after falling in love and throughout the story she relates every aspect of her life to the telenovelas. Telenovelas are Spanish soap operas.  She thinks about every how she might react like the certain character from the telenovelas.This story really brings back memories, when I was young, my mother and my grandmother would watch telenovelas from mornings to evenings everyday. I understand why Cleofilas used telenovelas as a form of expression. Telenovelas paint these really nice picture image of what life should be like. Unfortunately for Cleofilas, this did not happen way she saw it on T.V. Juan Pedro ended up being abusive and struck her a few times. When he first slapped her, she taught she would cry and scream and run away and instead she stood there and took the slapping till she was bleeding from her mouth. She was looking for love and thought she would be living a good life with a good husband like in the Telenovelas. Cleofilas is unable to separate the fiction that she sees to t.v. to real life, and is always in surprise that it does work out that way. Cleofilas is able to leave her husband, Juan Pedro, who has brought her pain and unhappiness. Telenovelas played a vital role in the story and it was a form of cleofilas to escape.