If you liked Louise Erdrich's "Scales"....
then you might also enjoy ”What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie, ”Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason, or ”The Loons” by Margaret Laurence. For Friday, read ONE of those stories and post a 4-5 sentence reflection/reader response here as a comment to this blog post. You also need to REPLY DIRECTLY to 2-3 of your classmates comments (think: Instagram/Facebook feed, but slightly more detailed than a series of emojis or five word responses!) as part of this assignment. There's no need to include actual textual evidence in either your original response or when you comment on classmates' work, but if you're having a hard time generating ideas, feel free to look back to the short story questions we used last term. I just want to get a sense of what you thought about the story you've chosen; there's no pressure, so have some fun and be creative!
You know, when I first read "Scales," I really wasn't into it. The setting was confusing, the characters weren't fleshed out, and I was having a hard time keeping everything straight. By the end, however, I realized how essential the symbolism was to the story as a whole. The same goes for "What You Pawn I Will Redeem": Alexie's narrative seems exceedingly simple at first. However, when you actually get into it..... (and I would continue until I've finished. One disclaimer: you don't need to be comparative in your response. It was just helpful for me to be here to take up space!).
ReplyDeleteWow, Mr. B! It's funny how we can read the same short story and have such different opinions! Don't you think that Alexie failed to... (and I would continue for a sentence or two as a response to my classmate).
DeleteI found “Loons” mildly interesting, but initially I had a bit of trouble deciphering the significance of one of the main characters, Piquette and her connection to the title, “Loons.” At the beginning of the story, Veronica portrays Piquette as hostile and ungrateful due to her refusal to acknowledge the beauty of the lakeside cottage. Despite Piquette’s sullenness, Veronica is still enamored by her, possibly due to the stark contrast she poses to her own life. Just as she was drawn to Piquette, Veronica was captivated by the loon’s unforgettable “ululating sound” when she is sitting on her dock with her father. Amidst the peaceful scene of the lake, the loons should have stuck out but they instead seemed to fit right in. I think that Veronica’s idealized view on these two things speaks or her unwillingness, or rather inability to see the reality of what is happening at her beloved lake house. Piquette’s pessimism was eventually justified at the end of the story as it reflected the realism of the situation that Veronica and her family more or less ignored. While at first, I read Piquette as the more flawed character, I eventually saw that Veronica was the more flawed out of the two. Piquette was able to look past the Edenic setting that Veronica and her family created for themselves and see the loons for what they are: symbols of a beautiful landscape being destroyed by over-development and rampant tourism.
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