Hmm... Emotions and Reality Are Never Easy, Are They?

I'm not sure how I feel about this week's short story in English class.  Obviously The Drunkard was funny because it was in the Humor/Irony chapter of my over sized English book but it also hit home on some subjects that sometimes are too raw to talk about.  I don't even know if "raw" is the right word for me to use in others situations, but for me, its appropriate.

I have had some very personal experiences with alcoholics and they are not pretty.  It sometimes feels likes you are opening doors that never end when dealing with alcoholics at their worst.  Unfortunately, alcoholism is a common trait for both sides of my family.  When I read about he young boy begging for his father not to drink, it reminded my of times when I had to do that with my father.  It makes you sober up to reality even if you are not the one drinking and I think this happened with the boy in the story too.  I know what its like to know that your parent won't be getting up in the morning to go to work or when they stumble in at 1 AM promising they are "just fine."  It's a horrid reality that no one should have to experience.

This makes me think of the story when I see what they boy does for his father whether he did it intentionally or not.  When someone puts a child in a situation like that then somehow, someway that person will face consequences just like the father did in the story.  Reality will set in.  There are somethings that are just more important than quenching your own needs and desires.  The father in the story realizes this but only to the boys expense.

This story really hit home.  It reopened a wound only healed on the surface, but at the same time, this story reigns as my favorite because of the message it sends to it's audience.  Maybe I should keep it in mind the next time I have to face an uncomfortable situation with my family because they choose to fulfill their own desires without thinking about possible consequences.

POV: The Positively, Optomistic, and Vendictive Way to Screw with Our Brains

POV. This makes me want to barf only because I have a serious problem staying in one point of view.  I know that all the great authors that ever live were a master at POV but I just don't understand how they do it.  It's like they transform their mind into a world that only speaks in that POV.  It's irritating.  Who would ever go around town thinking, "Katherine likes to go into the book store because she loves to read" when I'm the one going into the bookstore.  If I referred to myself in 3rd person all the time I would go crazy.

We read a short story yesterday in English called "Hills Like White Elephants" and it had a really stange POV.  Hemingway hid his true purpose of the story behind his point of view very well.  I never understood the story until we discussed it in class.  I personally felt detatched from the story because I didn't have any idea of what they were talking about.  Now that I have been told what they are talking about, it's obvious.  With Hemingway's POV in the story, I think you have to pay close attention and acutally read the story multiple times before anyone can know what these two people were talking about.  Any story that uses this POV is going to be difficult.  They require multiple readings and I just don't feel attatched to stories like that.  I like to be in the heads of my characters like with my outside reading book, Pride and Prejudice (which is the best book writen in all of history), Jane Austen uses a 3rd person POV but she enters each characters thoughts and discreetly tells the reader what they are thinking.  I just don't like the way Hemingway's POV connects with the readers.

Hello, My Name is Theme and I am a Literary Device..

Theme is one of those tricky literary devices that always makes my brain hurt too much because I over analyze and think too much.  Sounds like me, right?  Well unfortunately we talked about theme in my English class and let me tell you my head still hurts.  Theme is a touchy subject for me.  I feel like I'm one of those people that tries their best to analyze a story and come up with the great theme for the story and ultimately  fails at it. 

Theme and I have had some rough patches but I can see a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel.  It's really sad because I try so hard to make my theme analysis as good as it can be but then it just flops.  But now that I actually took notes and actually focused on the dreadful subject, I see a bright future for me and theme.  

I don't know if it was actually the principles that helped me understand theme more but what I do know is that once it was explained to me, I could understand it and actually do the work a lot easier.  Now all I have to do is come up with a subject of theme for stories...  which will not be fun since that's that part that I don't ever agree with.  

As of right now, theme is still a mystery to me.  I understand it but it's still like another foreign language to me (which may I might add really sucks to learn).  I hope that when this is all over, I can easily identity and come up with awesome theme sentences but until then theme and I have a lot of strapping in to do because it's going to be a bumpy ride to the finish line. 

Pardon Me Sir, but are You Just Cruel or Truly Evil?

What makes someone evil?  I think that all of us have some kind of evil held inside just waiting for the opportune moment to come out and say "Hello" to the world.  Others hold more than they can carry and others hold very little but is there some supernatural force that determines how much evil is inside of us?   Others may say it's not evil, it's just cruel.  Is there a difference?  In my book... Yes.

The Destructors by Graham Greene is full of evil actions and cruelty displayed by young children toward an old man who cares for an old house.  These boys or to be more specific, the main character Trevor, were not just cruel; they were evil.  For some reason they thought it wise to completely destroy this innocent old man's house.  What I don't understand is why.  They had a ball to play with and they had each other to provide entertainment; they didn't have to destroy this man's house.  Personally, I believe it all comes back to the "Evil v. Cruel" thing I was talking about earlier.

You can be taught how to be cruel.  Others can show you how to kick a cat or beat a dog or steal Twinkies; however, no one can teach someone how to be evil.  The "gang," as they like to call themselves, knew how to be cruel to someone but Trevor, the temporary leader, was born with evil in him.  He was horrid to the old man.  He didn't take money or valuable possessions.  He took the whole house.  That to me, cannot be taught.  Either you are born with a darkness inside of you that creates these ideas that just seem so right but are really so wrong.  Evil can help be apart of people's personalities.  It's impossible to take it away but it is possible to shelter it from the outside world until it drops in for a visit.  I understand the difference between the two, but can you?