English Comp II: John Steinbeck: The Chrysanthemums

"The Chrysanthemums" is a story that takes place on the ranch of Henry Allen. The story opens with Elisa, Henry's wife, working in her garden. While she does this, Henry is talking to some business men about some cattle he sold. When they leave, he speaks to his wife, and tells her he wants to take her out on the town to celebrate the sell of the cattle. Henry returns to work, and Elisa returns to tending to her Chrysanthemums. After some time, a wagon drives up. The gentleman driving is in the business of tinkering, fixing things in order to earn his living. He and Elisa have a special connection for a few moments, and as he leaves he says he will take some flowers to a woman down the road who wanted some chrysanthemums. After he leaves, he dumps the flowers on the side of the road. Elisa and her husband go to town.

English Comp II: William Faulkner: Barn Burning

"Barn Burning" is a story about a poor rural family. As the story opens, a trial is taking place. Abner Snopes, a sharecropper, has been accused of burning down someone's barn because they made him pay for some corn his hog damaged. Abner is found not guilty due to lack of evidence, but is told by the judge to leave town. Abner does, and takes his family with him. They finally arrive at the home of Major de' Spain. Upon arrival, Abner steps in horse droppings and intentionally rubs his foot into the family's rug, ruining the rug. He is ordered by the town justice of the peace to pay in ten extra bushels of corn to pay for the rug. Instead of doing this, he decides to burn down de' Spain's barn, and ends up getting shot.

English Comp II: Ernest Hemingway: A Clean Well Lighted Place

Henimgway's "A Clean Well Lighted Place" takes place in a cafe. A lonely old man is sitting in the cafe drinking, as he does most every night. In the cafe are also two waiters, one is old and the other is young. The man, as mentioned before, has made a habit of staying up late drinking in the cafe, probably because he does not want to be alone and in the dark. The young waiter does not like the old man, seeing him as a vagrant because he believes he is only a drunk that holds him (the young waiter) from going home and seeing his wife. The older waiter is more sympathetic towards the old man because he is similar to him, even saying that he is 'reluctant to close up because there may be someone who needs the cafe.' Unlike the young waiter, who sees the cafe as just a cafe, the older waiter sees it for something else, a place of refuge, and of safety, for all those who late at night need a place to relax and think.

American Lit. II: E.E. Cummings poetry

Edward Estlin Cummings was an innovator of poetry during his time. In his work it was common for Cummings to tinker with the form, spelling, syntax, and punctuation. This led to his abandoning of the traditional styles of creating poetry and caused his unique style to be the way it was. In the later parts of his career, Cummings received much criticism for not continuing to tweak his unique style of writing, but Cummings easily maintained a large audience, mainly among young readers of the day due to his simple language and willingness to talk about subject matter such as war and sex.

American Lit II: Zora Neale Hudson: The Gilded Six Bits

The Gilded Six Bits is a great story; it tells the story of a young couple who have been married for less than a year. The story opens with Missie May, the wife, rushing to prepare for the arrival of her husband. Her husband Joe arrives, and begins to throw coins in the door, inspiring mock anger in his wife, beginning their weekly ritual. Later as they eat supper, Joe tells Missie May that he is going to take her to a new ice cream shop that has been opened by a man from Chicago, Otis D. Slemmons. Later in the story, Joe walks in on Missie May and Otis having sex. Missie tells Joe she had sex to try and get a gold coin from him, something that Joe had mentioned he admired about Otis earlier in the story. It turns out that Otis isn't rich. Joe and Missie May go through a tough time in their relationship, but eventually make up, causing Missie to become pregnant and have Joe's child. This is definetely a good story with a great ending.

American Lit II: Susan Glaspell:Trifles

Trifles is a play set in the fictional home of John Wright. The story opens with Hale, one of the characters in the story, is retelling the events of what happened the day before the story takes place.(the sheriff is at the Wright's home because John Wright has been found dead by Hale) Hale tells the sheriff that he asked Mrs. Wright how John died, and Mrs. Wright replied from "a rope around his neck" and then continues on about her business. They go upstairs and confirm the body is dead, and again ask Mrs. Wright how he died, to which she says she does not know, even though he died while she was sleeping in bed next to him. The story goes on and the men make remarks about how women are only worried about trifles, things that don't matter or are unimportant in the world, a common belief in society at this time.

American Lit II: William Carlos Williams' Poetry

In American Literature, we went over the poetry of William Carlos Williams; we specifically focused on two poems, "The Red Wheebarrow" and "This is Just to Say." Williams was an innovator in the field of poetry during his time due to the way he wrote many of his poems; much of it just being very short poems about the length of a sentence. One would not think that his poetry would be very complex, but the shorter his poems are, the more complex they are due to the imagery he uses in his poems.