The Lame Shall Enter First

The main character of this story is a man named Shepard. Now what is there to say about Shepard? Shepard is the kind of man that goes above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to helping complete and utter strangers. However, he is very slow to react when his own son is calling out for help. Shepard decides that it is his duty to take on a young boy named Rufus Johnson. Now Johnson has had quite the life. His mother is in jail, his grandfather beats him and he himself gets in trouble with the law. Shepard sees the boy has potential and decides that he should come and stay with him and his son Norton at his house. Johnson does anything he possibly can to get Shepard to hate him, but Shepard keeps on giving him eternal love. He treats him "better than his own son". Shepard cant even take two seconds to look around at his own life and see that there are other people in the world other than Johnson. Shepard says he is doing it to take his mind off of his wife's death. He wants his son to be just as generous as he his. He says it will help his son to forget his mother. Shepard actually tells his son to forget his mother and to move on with his life. Johnson takes full advantage of the situation in order to build Shepard's trust. He breaks into houses and because Shepard is so trusting Johnson gets away with it. This is just what Johnson wanted, but Shepard soon catches on and in the end Johnson gets what he deserves. Through all of this effort to help an ungrateful child, Norton only wishes his father would pay more attention to him. Norton tells his father that but Shepard is to busy to notice. In the end though it is too late. Shepard is too late to give the same eternal love to his own son. Everything he did was for nothing.

"A Rose For Emily"

A Rose for Emily was a story that I will never forget. It was one that will haunt me forever. Never in a million years would I have guessed that she just left Harmon to rot in a bedroom. That is one of the most disturbing things I have ever read. But why? I think she did it because she didnt want to be alone anymore. He was one of the only human beings that payed any attention to her and when he died she didnt want that feeling to go away. She wanted him to be with her forever. Which was probably why she didnt want them to bury her father. For the same reason. She didnt want to be alone. The neighbors werent the most neighborly people. The only time they payed attention to her was when something weird or new was happening. They didnt care about her on a daily basis. She really had no one so no wonder she wanted to keep those who loved her close. Dead or alive.

Culture

I really liked reading all three of the stories we read for today. I enjoyed reading them because I like stories that incorporate other nation's culture into them. I enjoy to read and learn something new at the same time. Most of the books I choose to read in my free time are books about other cultures and religions or even about the past. When I read, my mind takes me to those places and I learn through the characters. I really love it when the stories contain a foreign language because I love it when I can throw random languages into a conversation and actually know what I am saying. Most of these words I learned through reading books. Books truly are a great way to learn about another's culture.

"How To" Ride a Horse

First things first....
1. Catch the horse. That is the most necessary thing.
2. Tie them up so they dont get loose, but if they do, repeat step one. Hint: Carrots or grain should do the trick.
3. Brush them down good paying close attention to hair growth direction. DO NOT skip this part or else you will probably get kicked off because they will be uncomfortable.
4. Put on the saddle blanket and saddle or else you really cant ride without them.
5. Tighten down cinch doing it slowly and in several increments.
6. Put in bit or you will have no control.
7. Get on. Hint use a step stool.
8. Now comes the FUN part.
9. Keep reins even and your heels down. Sit up straight and sit on your back pockets.
10. Warm up for at least 5 minutes first.

The Cask of Amontillado

While reading The Cask of Amontillado, a few questions arose to me. My first question is what made Poe want to write a story like this? I also wondered why did he name the guy Fortunato which sounds like fortune when the guy dies in the end? That is not a fortune I would like to inherit. I didn't understand why a jester would be so influenced by such a rich and royal habit of wine collecting. Were they even jesters or did they just dress like them? I also didn't understand why the man killed Fortunato to begin with. Weren't they friends? If he was going to kill him all along why did he keep asking him to go back? Did he feel guilty? Or was he trying to seem worried so Fortunato wouldn't suspect anything? I really didn't understand this story, but I did like the way it was written. It was almost poetic. But I like a story where I don't have to play twenty questions just to understand it though.

Character Analysis

For my critical blog I chose to do a character analysis for "Sonny's Blues". I will be doing this for both Sonny and for the narrator who was left nameless in the story. The narrator was Sonny's older brother. Throughout the story, the brother's personalities develop into a completely different personality. This is because both of the brothers are able to see each other from a different perspective.

Sonny is the kind of person that would come across as rebellious and challenging. He becomes rebellious because his father dies and his brother goes away to war so he is left to grow up without any masculine role models to model his life after. He gets mixed in with the wrong crowd and ends up in rehab because of his heroin addiction. He is a musician and has a different perspective of the world. Sonny in the end replaces his heroin addiction with an addiction to music. Drugs and Music does the same thing for him. That was something his brother couldn't understand without going and personally listening to his brother play.

Sonny's brother on the other hand is responsible and caring. He cares about his brother's future and wants the best for him. He does have a problem with making promises that he does not or will eventually fulfill. He needs a lot of prompting in order to fulfill his promises. In the end he becomes more understanding of the reasons why his brother behaves the way he does and begins to respect his brother as a musician rather than treating him like a child.

About Me

Hi my name is Kirsten and I am a Freshman at Western Michigan University. I am a Biomedical Science Major with the hope to eventually become a Dentist. I am from a small town outside of Battle Creek and I know just about everyone that lives there. I enjoy riding horses and show at the local 4-H. I love to read in my free time along with other things. Thats it for now.