Dylan Short Story

I wrote a tossup (buzzer question in quizbowl) on James Joyce's short story collection Dubliners  after reading "Araby" in class and "The Sisters" a few days later. I was inspired to write it because I felt that both stories shared the theme of young men undergoing an experience that helps shape them as adults. I really like this theme partially because I was introduced to Joyce in the "Coming-of-Age Novel" class that I took with Mr. Mitchell last year, where we read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . In the book, Stephen Dedalus goes through transformative experiences which visibly shape him as he grows older in each chapter. I read "Araby" and "The Sisters" as being such chapters in the untold stories of the narrators of each story. Because of this fun thematic connection, I really wanted to write a tossup about them (although it doesn't really go into the connection), since writing down what I've read helps me appr...

When I read the Jenny Zhang short story "The Evolution of my Brother", I immediately made the connection to my own family life, as I'm sure a lot of us did, since we've been cooped up with them for the past 3 or 4 weeks. In particular, the theme of "realizing how your actions treat the people around you" has been sticking in my mind. When I'm at home (in general, not just during quarantine), I rarely spend any time around my parents. The combination of my own introversion and my perhaps suboptimal relationship with them leads me to spend pretty much all of my home-time alone in my room. The only times we really have extended conversations is when we need to discuss important things like college. And I never thought they really had a problem with that. In the story, Zhang states: "I feel self-conscious and stupid crying for myself--for my shame, for my regrest, for how quickly a childhood happens. I wish I had acted better. I wish I had been the ki...

"The light was so weak at noon that when Pelayo was coming back to the house after throwing away the crabs, it was hard for him to see what it was that was moving and groaning in the rear of the courtyard. He had to go very close to see that it was an old man, a very old man, lying face down in the mud, who, in spite of his tremendous efforts, couldn't get up, impeded by his enormous wings." This excerpt appears in the first paragraph of "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which we read in class last week. It introduces several notions that are repeated throughout the story, such as the initial reluctance to describe the Old Man as an angel. The context of this sentence is important. It says that "Pelayo was coming back to the houes after throwing away the crabs", during which he comes across the angel. The language used makes the angel seem mundane and like an everyday occurence. This is one way in which the angel is de...

This post is a continutation of the ending of The Machine Stops  by E.M. Forster, which we read in class. The premise is that Kuno doesn't die after the airship hits the compound, and wakes up some time later. -----       Kuno awoke to a burning light coming from the hole left by the airship. He was alive, but barely. Several hours must have passed since he was last awake. Blood seeping through his garments, he hoisted himself up and began to stumble around through the remains of the hive. He walked past the lifeless body of Vashti. He wept for the death of his mother, but was thankful she could spend her last minutes with him. Guided by the sunlight from above, Kuno continued to meander among the catacombs.      The Machine, which had dictated so much of his life, was no more. As Kuno realized his newfound autonomy, a familiar emotion overcame him, as it had when he had first escaped to the surface. But while it had previously been a trickle--a ...