CCTWQ#11 Hemingway

I have never been away from my native home for a long enough time to ever feel alienated from it. I have although visited other areas to which the culture and way of life is different from what I am accustom to. Being within this atmosphere, you don’t know exactly how to act. You almost have this overcome desire to try and fit in and so take part within the customs and behavior of those around you.
Our surroundings and relationships are what make us who we are. So being around others and their cultures causes a person to relate and adapt in order to fit in which in turn causes us to become alienated our native home.
Within Hemingway’s story “Soldier’s Home”, Krebs underwent this very change. He because accustom to his surroundings in Germany and so became an alien to his native home in Kansas. Not ever experiencing this myself, it was very easy to say that Krebs simply needed to move on. I know that everything was different for him, but it was as though he didn’t very hard to fit back into his native life style.

CCTWQ#8 Walker

I would place the below paragraph within paragraphs 24 and 25, directly after the groom kisses his bride.

This is it, the rush of relief and victory fills his body like a title wave as he turns to face the crowd embracing his new wife’s hand. Finally, after all the promises and re-assurance of love, she is mine, my wife. As they slowly move into the crowd, he lets go of her hand, getting swallowed into the crowd of people. He feels the eyes of her family piercing through his very being, judging and questioning why he is not more like them. He wants to go, leaving them behind so he can start his life with his new family, and not have the pressures of her family burdening his choices of life style and beliefs. It’s time to go home

SSRJ#4 Carver

The story “Popular Mechanics” made me feel both angry at the main characters and sad for the child caught in the middle of the fight. Both characters within the story were very selfish individuals who obviously cared only of themselves. This story made me think of King Solomon in I Kings, except in this story you are provided with two selfish characters and a sad ending.
Through the story we see how selfishness and spite cause the two characters to end-up hurting the one thing that they both love the most. Through the argument described in paragraph 6 through 9, we see that both the man and woman care for the baby. Unfortunately, they let their anger and spitefulness get in the way as they physically fight over the child, both in denial that either could be hurting the baby. This shows a good form of dramatic irony as both characters are in denial as to what is actually occurring.
Near the end, the author describes the woman holding onto the baby’s wrist and leaned back as the man, feeling the baby slipping from him, tugs back the opposite direction very hard. Although the author never specifies how the issue was resolved, when I read this I automatically assumed that the child was killed through the fighting, leaving neither with their much wanted reward. Considering the actions of both the man and the woman, how do you feel the issue was resolved? Do you think that this fight could have been avoided had the woman let he man take the photograph within paragraph 6?

SSRJ#3 D.Walker

I was very intrigued by this story, I absolutely loved it.  From the beginning I was pulled into the characters life and feelings.  I could imagine how he was feeling landing in Vietnam and being surrounded by all of the images that consistently haunted his thoughts.  Then the man, who was trying to get away from these memories, finally comes to peace with his past even after having a very important surgery fail.

One of the main literary devices used through out this story is setting.  The main character began with tormenting memories to which he may have never gotten over if he hadn’t gone to Vietnam to help the children there.  Through the setting the author was able to make the theme of the story, to keep moving forward, really stand out.  The author was trying to show that no matter how hard you try you can not fix the past and dwelling on it will not do you any good.  But we can learn and grow by it.  I believe the saying, tomorrow is another day, says it best.  The grass is a great example; it covers the past with new life and new scenery which helps us to forget the past. 

I feel as though it was hard to place Dinh within this story.  Obviously, he was a stern, tuff person who seemed to be admiring of the narrator.  Considering that Dinh is a professional surgeon, or was, how do you think he felt when the wrapping was removed from his dead thumb?  He had to know the chances of this happening, and the risk in conducting such a surgery within the facility, so why take the risk?

SSJ#2_ Hemingway

I found this story to be very interesting.  Initially, I felt sorry for the soldier because he didn’t receive the recognition to which he deserved.  It was as though everyone in his town had already welcomed the majority of the soldier’s home and really didn’t care to pay him any time or attention that he needed. By the middle of the story I was starting to feel as though he had given-up and everyone around him allowed it.  But by the end I was glad to see him go and watch his sister play indoor baseball.  I think this showed that Krebs was willing to start a new life, but only a step at a time.  This story made me remember my grandfather whom I was very close to.  He served in the military for several years, as did my uncle.  Thankfully neither of them had to go to war.

            The literary element of the story is of course setting as the entire story bases around a soldier returning to his home in Kansas.  But I also feel that Character study element was also used within the story to provide a picture of the soldier, his life, and demeanor.   We could tell that he was a soldier coming home from Germany two years after most of the other soldiers.  The photograph in paragraph two give you a good idea of his size and stature, and the way that he acted throughout the story tells that he had lost his ambition but still had a love for his family.

            During the story it is described that Krebs father had a car to which he cherished and wouldn’t ever let him drive it, but at the end of the story Krebs mother told him that his father gave him permission to drive the car.  I think that it was their way of finally respecting him as an adult.  It seamed to me that Krebs had been home for sometime before his father decided to allow him to drive the car, why do you think it took his father so long?