Escape! The cultural and familial experience in Drown and The House on Mango Street

The short story cycle is a style of writing and an organizational tool authors use to focus attention on the themes that enhance both their overall intent and their story telling ability. The short story cycle, unlike the novel, is linked through its themes and setting, rather than its characters and plot. This gives authors the ability to manipulate the plot of their stories in order to highlight certain events or characters, and in the end give the reader an insightful and even enlightening experience. In Drown, by Junot Diaz, and The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, it is interesting to note the similarities and differences between the way they use story order, language, and sentence structure to illustrate how the cultural and familial experiences of Yunior’s and Esperanza’s childhood shaped their attitude and life. In either case the epitaph at the beginning of Drown is an excellent precursor to understanding the experiences of the Yunior and Esperanza. It reads as follows: “The fact that I am writing in English already falsifies what I wanted to tell you. My subject: how to explain that I don’t belong to English though I belong nowhere else.”

In both Drown and The House on Mango Street the authors manipulate story order, and in turn the short story cycle, to present certain experiences and events in a manner from which the reader can better understand the reasons behind the attitudes of the main characters, Yunior and Esperanza. In Drown, Diaz presents the stories in non-chronological order, which requires the reader to piece together Yunior’s experiences in order to perceive his overall attitude on life. Diaz uses the stories “Aguantando” and “Fiesta, 1980” to develop the story of Yunior’s childhood and how his experiences in the Dominican Republic and later in New Jersey affected his development into a young adult. “Aguantando” focuses on Yunior’s experiences in the Dominican Republic and how living “without a father for the first nine years of [his] life” (69) affected him. He yearned to know who this mysterious man, Ramon, was and asked “to see his picture almost every day.” (83) When his mother refused to show him the photo Yunior would “[throw] [him]self about like [he] was on fire.” (83) Family was obviously very important to Yunior, and he even says that he “never wanted to be away from the family.” (75) However, in “Fiesta, 1980,” Yunior’s attitude about his family was completely opposite, as he says, “I never wanted to go anywhere with the family.” (24) In this story we also learn the cause of this ying-yang in attitude; his father’s violent tendencies and his father’s relationship with Yunior’s mother. When Ramon finds out that Yunior, who suffers from carsickness, ate dinner before a road trip, he calls him “Cono” (25), a vulgar word in Spanish, and “pulled him to [his] feet by [his] ear” (26) to scold him. Yunior begins to “[cry], tears in [his] eyes, more out of reflex than pain.” (26) The fact that Diaz uses the word “reflex” to describe Yunior’s response to his father’s violence implies that the situation was commonplace. The relationship between Yunior’s parents seems nonexistent, as his father “pushed past [his mother], held up his hand when she tried to talk to him and headed right to the shower,” (23) when he got home from work. His mother is described as “anxious, in her usual dispassionate way,” (24) as she waits for Ramon to get out of the shower. Diaz places the story “Fiesta, 1980” in the short story cycle before “Aguantando,” to show the disparity between Yunior’s two attitudes on family, and to clearly state the cause, his father’s abuse and indifference towards his family. Diaz uses the stories “Aurora,” “Drown,” “Boyfriend,” and “Edison, New Jersey” to show the fact that Yunior is not able to escape the effects his childhood had on him. In “Aurora” Yunior is a drug dealer with his brother, who he now refers to as Cut, and has an abusive, failing relationship with a juvenile delinquent. In “Edison, New Jersey” Yunior tells two stories, his job as a pool and card table deliveryman, and the story of his relationship with his ex-girlfriend. At the end of the story we learn about the way Yunior guesses the location of the first delivery for the next morning by “clos[ing] [his] eyes and put[ting] [his] hand on the map.” (139) This is meant to be a metaphor to the fact that Yunior has no guidance or direction in his life. Overall, the story order in Drown serves the purpose of showing the affects Yunior’s childhood had on his life. In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros uses a chronological story order to track the development of Esperanza, revealing things about her as the stories progress. The early stories focus on Esperanza’s reaction to her new home on Mango Street; how it is “small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they’re holding their breath,” (4) and that “the house on Mango Street isn’t” a house she “could point to.” (5) She feels as though she does not belong on Mango Street. In the story “Boys and Girls” Esperanza claims that “someday I will have a best friend of my own,” (9) showing her desire to be accepted. Later in the book, in the story “Our Good Day,” Esperanza meets and befriends “Rachel” and “Lucy.” (15) The next few stories chronicle their childish adventures together; for example, “the First Annual Tarzan Jumping Contest,” (22) off of a tree. However, towards the middle of the book the topics get more serious. In the story “The Family of Little Feet,” Rachel, Lucy, and Esperanza are given “one pair of lemon shoes and one red and one pair of dancing shoes that used to be white but were now pale blue,” (40) which they “trade..and take off and put on again.” (40) They walk through their neighborhood and get reactions from nearly everyone, most notably from a homeless man sitting on a stoop: “Your little lemon shoes are so beautiful…Rachel, you are prettier than a yellow taxicab.” (41) The story lets us know that Esperanza is at the age where her sexuality is presenting itself, but she decides she is “tired of being beautiful,” (42) so she gets rid of the heels. The theme of loss of innocence resonates through the next few stories until it reaches its climax in the story “Red Clowns,” where Esperanza is raped by “the one who grabbed me by the arm, he wouldn’t let me go,” (100) saying, “I couldn’t make them go away…I don’t remember. Please don’t make me tell it all.” (100) The book ends on a hopeful note, unlike Drown, as Esperanza says, “One day I will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away.” (110) This leaves the reader with the image of Esperanza packing her things and finding escape from the place which she never considered her home.

Language plays a large part in both Drown and The House on Mango Street; however the way it is presented in each book is very different. In Drown, Junot Diaz utilizes the actual Spanish language directly in his text which gives the characters a unique voice and connects the characters to their culture. The Spanish words are meant to flow and come naturally within the text, as they are simply placed in the sentences without drawing attention to them using italics. For example, “All her neighbors were administrators and hombres de negocios and you had to walk three blocks to find any sort of colmado. It was that sort of neighborhood.” (75) When viewing the prevalence of Spanish in the text it becomes apparent that it serves to parallel Yunior’s cultural experience; that is, the stories which take place when Yunior is a young boy use Spanish quite prolifically, however as he matures and becomes more immersed into American society the use of Spanish in the text diminishes. For example, in the story Ysrael, when Yunior is nine, he uses words such as “colmado,” (3) “campo,” (3) and “barrio” (4) to describe Santo Domingo, his hometown, and throughout the story Spanish appears on every page. Later in the book, though, for example in the story Drown, when Yunior is in high school, Spanish appears only sporadically. Yunior appears to grow out of his native culture, avoiding it because he has experienced its affects on his family; how it pulled them apart, brought them together, and pulled them apart again like a game of tug of war. In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros does not use the Spanish language directly, as Diaz does in Drown; however language still plays a large role in Esperanza’s cultural experience. The book is littered with Spanish words here and there, and unlike Drown they are all italicized. The italics serve to distinguish the two languages, which makes the Spanish disparate from the English in the book, foreign even. This disparity can be seen in the book when viewing the prevalence of Mexican culture and the perception of the Spanish language. The barrio which Esperanza lives in is “All brown all around,” (28) meaning that only Mexican people such as Esperanza and her family live there. Esperanza talks about how “Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we’re dangerous.” (28) These descriptions reveal the fact that the neighborhood itself is separate from the rest of American society; it is in fact an island of Mexican culture. Esperanza, unlike Yunior, makes a conscience effort to escape this culture because she sees it as entrapping. For example, when her mother writes a note to Sister Superior asking her to “Please let Esperanza to eat in the lunchroom,” (45) the nun does not even take the letter seriously because it is so poorly written. Also, in the story titled “No Speak English” the reader learns of the woman named Mamacita who does not speak any English except for a few phrases and who traps herself in her home “because she is afraid to speak English.” (77) These themes of entrapment lead Esperanza, whose name means hope in English, to seek escape from her current location as well as her culture. In both Drown and The House on Mango Street the use of language shows the characters’ desires to escape their culture and the affect the culture had on their lives.

The sentence structure in both Drown and The House on Mango Street serve to help the reader experience the emotion in the books, which in turn helps the reader understand the important events and their impact on the characters. In Drown, Diaz uses short, graphic, blunt, Hemingway-esque phrases in combination with more refined and elaborate phrases to form the structure of his sentences. This structure facilitates the recognition of significant events. For example, in the story “Aguantando,” Yunior says the following about his father’s (Ramon) absence during his childhood, “He was the soldier in the photo. He was a cloud of cigar smoke, the traces of which could still be found on the uniforms he’d left behind. He was pieces of my friends’ fathers, of the domino players on the corner, pieces of Mami and Abuelo. I didn’t know him at all. I didn’t know he abandoned us. That this waiting was all a sham.” (70) Diaz carefully juxtaposes the two sentence structures to draw attention to the fact Yunior had no idea who his father was, except for the man in the photo. The fact that his father was absent during his childhood helped form Yunior’s relationship with his father later in life. Later, when Yunior talks about the car rides he and his father used to take to cure him of his carsickness, this same sentence structure can be seen: “They were the only times me and Papi did anything together. When we were alone he treated me much better, like maybe I was his son or something.” (35) Ramon not only did not spend time with his son, he was a terrible role model for him. He even went as far as taking Yunior to his mistress’ house for dinner. He compares the affair to “a hole in our living room floor, one we’d gotten so used to circumnavigating that we sometimes forgot it was there.” (40) The effect Ramon had on his life becomes evident when viewing Yunior’s relationships with women. In the story “Aurora” he describes the relationship he has with his on again off again girlfriend, Aurora. In the section titled “ONE OF OUR NIGHTS,” implying the everyday nature of the description, Yunior says, “We hurt each other too well to let it drop. She breaks everything I own, yells at me like it might change something… When she wants me to promise her a love that’s never been seen anywhere I think about the other girls.” (52) From the way Diaz sculpts his sentences it becomes apparent that Yunior is unable to have a normal relationship with his girlfriend, and even describes the loud argument his neighbors are having as “sweet talk” and that “They’re yelling because they’re in love.” (52) Diaz uses contrasting sentence structure to aid the reader in discerning the important events which play into Yunior’s life and attitude. In The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, a similar style is used to inject emotion into the text. Cisneros uses poetic, descriptive, matter of fact sentences in the same manner Diaz used his sentence structure; that is to allow to reader to understand the important events and their impact on the characters. It is necessary then, in order to understand the cultural experience of Esperanza, to highlight the instances when Cisneros uses her sentence style to point out certain events. In the story “My Name” Esperanza discusses her name. On page 10 she talks about its meaning in English, “hope,” and its meaning in Spanish, “sadness…waiting…the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.” She talks about how she inherited her name from her great-grandmother, but how she does not want to inherit “her [great-grandmother’s] place at the window” where she “looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on their elbow.” She eventually comes to the conclusion that she wants to “baptize [her]self under a new name, a name more like the real [her]…Something like Zeze the X.” It is obvious that Esperanza has no ties to her Mexican culture, and that she seeks to escape it. This theme of escape becomes more obvious in the story titled “Born Bad.” Esperanza reads to her Aunt Lupe a poem she wrote. It goes as follows: “I want to be like the waves on the sea, like the clouds in the wind, but I’m me. One day I’ll jump out of my skin. I’ll shake the sky like a hundred violins.” (60) Cisneros uses literal poetry this time to express Esperanza’s desire to “jump out of her own skin” and become free. In both Drown and The House on Mango Street the use of sentence structure highlights the events which influenced the lives of Yunior and Esperanza.

Later at the Bar

Later at the Bar, by Rebecca Barry, is a short story collection whose structure resembles its own setting, a bar. The stories interconnect and mingle with one another, just like the characters in the book do at Lucy’s Tavern. Both the stories and characters build a relationship with one another, forming a community, or even a family. However, this familial relationship forms mainly to satisfy the need to not feel alone. In the tavern everyone knows everyone and they are at least sociable to one another, or even friends in some cases. But during the daytime “the rules were different,” (56) and that person who seemed friendly or open in the tavern would “pass...without speaking” (56). The tavern was a place where people went to escape the loneliness they experienced in their everyday lives. This loneliness stems from broken relationships, as in Harlin and his many ex-wives, alcoholism, as in Cyrus and how his drinking ruined his relationship with his ex-wife not once, but twice, and the atmosphere of the town. The small town in upstate New York was plagued with not only cold, depressing winters during which the residents would “crave warm sun and longer days” (57), but also a feeling of unconnectedness to the world. Lucy’s Tavern is where people would go to find this connectedness. However, the feeling of loneliness seems to permeate throughout the book and the town. For example, on page 152, Elizabeth, whose ex-husband left her for another man, is so lonely that she prays for one of her students to “Please…kiss me…I need to kiss someone” (152). This sense of hopelessness plays a major role in the book. This theme is present as early as the opening chapter, where the owner of Lucy’s Tavern, Lucy, kills herself by sitting out in the cold all night. The description of her body the next morning, “stiff blue and dead, her face titled upwards…as if she was waiting for something wonderful to happen,” (7) also serves to foreshadow the fact that perhaps this loneliness is only escapable through death. 

The Dew Breaker

The Dew Breaker, by Edwidge Danticat, is a short story compilation in the form of a jigsaw puzzle; meaning the reading has to be pieced together by the reader in order to comprehend the author’s message. The book’s protagonist is the Dew Breaker, a man who lived much of his life torturing people as part of the Tonton Macoute. His story however is not told all in one “chapter” of the book, instead his actions and the effects those actions had on the lives of others is explored throughout the book. It is through these “puzzle pieces” that the story of the Dew Breaker comes into focus. By exploring his actions as well as the ramifications of those actions, Danticat is able to bring to light the nature of human cruelty, forgiveness, and redemption. She shows that despite being subjected to suffering and pain the human spirit can endure and even prosper. This can be seen in the story of Beatrice, the bridal seamstress and victim of the Dew Breaker. After she refused his advance he proceeded to whip her feet until the soles of her feet were nothing but bloody sores. She not only walked home on these bare, bloody feet, but went on to make new life for herself years later in New York City. Although the torture she experienced may not be as brutal as that experienced by other characters the message still gets through to the reader. The book also sends a message of redemption and forgiveness, in contrast to its cruel and malicious content. This can be seen in the description of the Dew Breaker himself, who always hides the long scar on his face, ashamed of his past. His wife is also an interesting character to analyze. She is an extremely devout woman, who essentially lives in the church. This can be attributed to the fact that she fears for the outcome of her husband’s soul or because she feels guilty being married to such a cruel and malevolent man. Either way she sees her religion as a source of redemption, a way to atone for things done in the past. However, I believe her character is meant to show that if you get too wrapped up in the search for redemption it can be just as detrimental to your life as the actual sin you committed. Danticat makes one last point about the nature of human life through the character Ka, the daughter of the Dew Breaker. She, unlike her father who destroyed lives for a living, is an artist who creates, molds, and perfects sculptures instead. This opposing relationship of destruction vs. creation is Danticat’s way of reminding the reader that there has to be, and that there always is, a balance in life.

Drown

Drown, by Junot Diaz, is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories that explores the experience of Yunior, the Dominican narrator, as he and his family try to start a new life in the United States. Both the setting and time period of the book are not directly stated in most of the stories and often times they jump vastly between each story. However, in the end the stories all connect and support the author’s intent: to give insight into the lives of immigrants and to show how their passion and culture play a role in their immersion into American society.

The range of emotions experienced in the book is wonderful and terrible at the same time. Diaz uses short, graphic, blunt, and even Hemingway-esque sentences to allow the reader to experience the raw emotion of the events in the book. He combines this with a more refined and elaborate sentence structure, and in tandem they serve to keep the reader interested and on edge. This sentence structure helps the reader experience the emotions of the characters, for example on page 52 Yunior states about Aurora and him; “We hurt each other too well to let it drop. She breaks everything I own, yells at me like it might change something, tries to slam doors on my fingers.” And despite these hateful actions, “She picks off my glasses and kisses the parts of my face that never get touched, the skin under the glass and frame.” Through his sentence structure Diaz can communicate emotions that otherwise would not be as easily accessed. On occasion Diaz uses Spanish in his writing, using the Spanish word instead of the English one, to show how the characters have to skirt the line between the two cultures they are immersed in. This also gives the characters a unique voice and helps show changes in their personality. For example, in the first chapter of the book Yunior uses words such as “campesino” (8), “ponchera” (9), and “colmado” (19) simply to describe his environment, whereas later in the book , when he is older and involved with the wrong crowd he uses derogatory words such as “coño” (62) and “pato” (55). By the end of the book he has a job building and delivering pool tables and by then his use of Spanish is few and far between, perhaps signifying his complete immersion into American society. Diaz uses the story order and structure to reveal certain characters and events when he wishes, revisiting some aspects which he failed to describe in complete detail. Yunior’s father, Ramon, is painted to be an abusive father and unfaithful husband in the beginning of the book but by the end we learn of the hardship he had to go through to bring his family to the United States, which redeems his other character flaws.

The sentence structure, language, and order of the stories in Drown all play into Diaz’s overall intent.

The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, is a collection of short stories, each of which were written in the form of stream of consciousness writing. This means that the narrator follows his train of thought, using one idea to fuel another, bouncing from one thought to another. For example, in the first story of the book, "The Things They Carried," the topic of discussion goes from the literal objects the soldiers carry, such as the letters Lieutenant Cross carries, to the emotional baggage they carry, "grief, terror, love, longing...shameful memories" (21). The form provides the author free reign to take the story essentially anywhere, giving him the ability to more easily achieve his purpose, to tell the stories of the soldiers in the Vietnam War, especially his own. This purpose also leads to O'Brien's use of another form, verisimilitude, which blends the line between fact and fiction. His use of verisimilitude allows the audience to experience the feelings and reality of his own tour in the Vietnam War. He immerses the audience in environments which immediately capture and hold their attention. "His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star shaped hole" (124); this graphic introductory sentence to the story "The Man I Killed" is a fine example of O'Brien's ability to grasp the reader's attention. We find out later in the book that O'Brien never killed a man, but that he was there when it happened. However, by using verisimilitude he is able to communicate the emotion of having the responsibility for having killed a man, an emotion common to almost all soldiers in Vietnam. The author is aware of the verisimilitude in the stories, he even states in the story "Good Form" that his stories are not all true and that he uses the "story-truth" to help the reader "feel what I felt" (179). Through his use of verisimilitude O'Brien does in fact allow the reader to feel what he felt and succeeds in telling his personal story as well as the stories of countless others.

The Women of Brewster Place

The Women of Brewster Place is a novel in stories that details the lives of the women who live on the dead end street blocked off by a massive two story brick wall. All of the women have encountered some type of hardship in their life because of the things men have done to them and they have come to Brewster Place to start anew. It is a world of its own, defined by the attitudes of the women who live there, and yet it is a desolate, dying place. Despite the best intentions of the women, it seems they are destined to be trapped in the same town with the same problems as always. Their stories are interconnected, just like their lives. Each woman serves some purpose in the overall plot of the novel, and each can be seen as a “phoenix,” (5) in that the spirit of the street is reborn and lives in them. For example, Mattie Michael, who had to overcome the loss of her home and son after he fled bail, is reborn when she arrives at Brewster Place and finds her place as a surrogate mother to the other women. The story offers beacons of hope here and there, tempting the reader into thinking that perhaps life at Brewster Place could be what the women dream it as, but during the climax of the story this hope is shot down. Lorraine, a young, skinny, light-skinned, sensitive, lesbian woman who is just trying to fit in with the woman of Brewster Place, gets raped by C.C. Baker and his thuggish friends. This terrible tragedy crushed Lorraine’s spirit, and in her bloody stupor the next morning, still laying there as she did the night before, something even more unthinkable happened. Lorraine “slid against the wall” (172) until she reached Ben, the only person who had befriended her at Brewster Place, where she “smashed [a brick] down into his mouth,” (172) killing him. Ben’s death was accompanied by rain which “came down day and night for an entire week,” (175) seeming to symbolize the sadness which accompanied his death. In the final chapter of the book “The Block Party” Cora finds a bloody brick and states, “It ain’t right…It shouldn’t still be here,” (185) and pries the brick out of the wall. The women of Brewster Place end up tearing down the wall amidst a massive downpour, symbolizing the purging of the street and its inhabitants. The women have finally overcome the obstacles which have stopped them from living the lives they had intended to, and it is shown in the perfect metaphor of the wall being torn down. The last sentence of the chapter reads as follows, “Woman, you still in bed? Don’t you know what day it is? We’re gonna have a party,” (189) seemingly confirming the fact that life at Brewster Place is no longer a dead end.

The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros is a short story cycle which tells the story of Esperanza Cordero as she grows up on Mango Street. Within the book there are many themes that come up. The major two are Esperanza's loss of innocence and also her will to never stop dreaming.

The first theme, Esperanza's desire to grow up and become a woman is prevalent throughout the book. The book begins with stories about Esperanza's family and her adjustment to her new home. Nowhere within the book is Esperanza's age revealed, so the reader is forced to judge her age on their own. There are a number of stories which point towards her being a young girl, probably between the ages of 11 and 13. There are stories of her buying a bike with her two friends Rachel and Lucy and all three of them riding it down the street "all wobbly as is the wheels are spaghetti," (16) and of the "First Annual Tarzan Jumping Contest." (22) It can be seen in these stories that Esperanza is still young at heart, and wants to just go out and have fun, but as the book progresses it becomes obvious that she experiences things that change her. For example, in The Family of Little Feet, Esperanza, Lucy, and Rachel get high heels and try them on in a game of what seems like dress up. But as you read on through the chapter the game turns from innocent to perverted when a bum begins to hit on them. After running away from him the girls decide "we are tired of being beautiful," (42) wanting to regain the innocence that comes with being a young girl, instead of the attention that comes with being a young woman. But Esperanza's transformation into a woman is inevitable, as is her loss of innocence. There are a number of stories which she is taken advantage of, in The First Job she attempts to kiss a man at her work on the cheek, but when she does he turns and kisses her "hard on the mouth and doesn't let go." (55) Esperanza seems to be unaware of both her sexuality and the desire men have for her. This becomes evident in the chapter Red Clowns, where Esperanza says, "Sally, you lied. It wasn't what you said at all. What he did. Where he touched me. I didn't want it Sally." (99) While the reader is not exactly sure what happened it is obvious that something terrible happened, as Esperanza says, "I don't remember. Please don't make me tell it all." (100)

Despite all the terrible things she encountered, Esperanza managed to maintain her positive attitude and her dream of one day owning her own house. After realizing that her house on Mango Street "is not the way [her parents] told it at all" (4) she says, "I knew then I had to have a house. A real house." (5) She holds this dream throughout the book and in the chapter Bums in the Attic she says, "One day I'll own my own house, but I won't forget who I am or where I came from." (87) The book ends on this notes as well, Esperanza states, "One day I will pack my books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango...They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out." (110) Esperanza's dream is more than just a dream, it embodies the hope of everyone in the book for a better life beyond Mango Street.

Mid Term Paper

The Way to Rainy Mountain, by N. Scott Momaday, is a literary exploration of the history of the Kiowa tribe and its oral traditions. In the book the author presents the stories in one of three voices; the first being the oral tradition of the Kiowa tribe, the second being the history commentary pertaining to the story, and the third being the author’s own voice. When the book is viewed as a short story cycle it becomes evident that each of the chapters and each of the voices is part of the cycle, during which the history of the Kiowa tribe is explored and made permanent. From this point of view Momaday’s purpose for writing the book becomes clear; to preserve the culture, identity, and spirit of his people.

The short story cycle is very evident within with book, as each of the three voices within the book is used once in each chapter, giving each chapter a cyclical form. However, the repetition of this form for each chapter makes them part of an overall cyclical form. Momaday breaks this form up into three sections, the setting out, the going on, and the closing in, and within each section he has a purpose. The first section serves to introduce the reader to the Kiowa tribe and its culture, the second serves to give the reader more insight into the culture and identity of the tribe, and the third section serves to make the story of the Kiowa tribe and its people, including N. Scott Momaday, permanent in the mind of the reader. However, each voice also serves its own purpose in the overall form of the book, and as was said earlier, is part of a cycle within each chapter.

The first part of the cycle the reader encounters in each chapter is the ancestral voice, or the oral tradition of the Kiowa tribe. These stories had been passed down through the ages and were a key part of Kiowa identity and culture. It is through these stories that the reader encounters the only primary source within the book, and therefore the most direct contact with the Kiowa culture. Momaday uses this voice to track the history of the Kiowa tribe and offer insight into their customs and traditions. The first story in the first chapter discloses the myth behind the creation of the Kiowa tribe, and it goes as follows, “You know, everything had to begin, and this is how it was: the Kiowa’s came one by one into the world through a hollow log.” (16) This story gives some understanding of the oral tradition, in that it serves to give the Kiowa tribe an identity. However, some stories do more than just provide the tribe its identity; they instead offer an explanation of important cultural symbols. This can be seen in the story of Tai-me, the central figure of the kado, or Sun Dance. The tribe had stumbled upon bad times, and there was no food, so a man went into the wild to look for food. He came upon a canyon on his fourth day of traveling, weak with hunger, when a voice said to him “Why are you following me? What do you want?” (36) He told the “thing standing before him [which] had the feet of a deer, and its body was covered with feathers” (36) that the Kiowa’s were hungry. The creature which stood before him was the Tai-me, and it told him, “Take me with you and I will give you whatever you want.” (36) This story plays a significant role in the story, as it reveals both the origin and the purpose of the all important Tai-me. Each story in the ancestral voice serves to uphold the legend of the Kiowa tribe and its people. This can be seen in the last story of the book during which the tale of a woman buried in “a beautiful dress” in “an unmarked grave.” (82) The story also remarks on how the “dress is still there, under the ground.” (82) The woman seems to encompass the best of the Kiowa tribe, and the story of her and her dress can be considered as a metaphor for the existence of the Kiowa tribe, which is “buried” in the lands which they lived on. However, by the time the reader reaches the end of the book, it can be seen that both the identity and the culture of the Kiowa tribe has been encompassed within the pages of the book.

The ancestral voice alone is not enough for the reader to understand and derive meaning from the text, a supplement is needed. This is where the historical voice comes into play within the cycle. For example, on page 17 the historical voice gives background information on the Kiowa tribe, including its various names, the “Kwuda,” the “Tepda,” and the “Gaigwu,” as well as their origins. But this voice does more than simply give facts about the Kiowa tribe; it gives the reader a historical perspective to aid their understanding of the ancestral voice. For example on page 39 the ceremony behind the “peyote ritual” is explored. The reader learns that during the ritual “the songs go on all through the night, broken only by intervals of prayer, additional distributions of peyote, and, at midnight, a peculiar baptismal ceremony.” The historical voice is Momaday’s way of helping the reader become more aware of how the ancestral voice plays into the history of the Kiowa tribe.

The last part of the cycle is Momaday’s personal voice. This is where Momaday adds the human aspect to his book. He uses his voice to make the reader more emotionally involved in the book, or in other terms uses it as pathos. The style of writing he uses is very vivid and allows the reader to immerse themselves in the story. For example, on page 17, Momaday describes “coming out upon the northern Great Plains in the late spring” using terrific imagery and says, “I now see the earth as it really is.” Through this and other stories Momaday offers the reader the closest thing they can get to getting in the head of a real Kiowa Indian. Having already figured out so much about the culture and identity of the Kiowa tribe, the reader is drawn to the more human side, the spirit, of the Kiowa people. Momaday gives this insight to the reader in each of the stories in his voice. On page 37 he talks about his first and only encounter with the Tai-me, describing the room as having “a great holiness… as if and old person had died there or a child had been born.” The connection of the past, the legend of the Kiowa people, and the present, Momaday’s experiences and voice, allows the reader to humanize the culture and experience it from both a historical perspective as well as a personal one.

In conclusion, The Way to Rainy Mountain, by N. Scott Momaday, took the form of a short story cycle broken into three sections during which the reader is exposed to three voices, each playing their own role within the overall experience of the book.

The Way to Rainy Mountain

The Way to Rainy Mountain, by N. Scott Momaday, is a collection of short stories told in three voices. Each chapter is composed of three stories, each told in one of three voices: the ancestral and oral tradition of the Kiowa people, the historical commentary about that oral tradition, and Momaday’s personal reminiscence. Through these three voices Momaday attempts to give the reader both insight and appreciation for his lost culture, and the same time convinces them that the culture still lives.

The first voice in each chapter is the ancestral one. Each short story told in this voice is part of Kiowa oral tradition and serves to prove a point or teach a lesson. These stories were passed down and added to through the ages. Momaday’s purpose for adding these stories to his collection is to give the reader an insight to a life and culture that is long gone and cannot be relived, except through the oral tradition. However, the stories passed down through this oral tradition hold little to no significance to a modern day reader. To help the reader interpret meaning from these passages Momaday offers relevant historical commentary. Through this commentary he allows the reader to better understand the context of the ancestral voice. Lastly, Momaday offers his own personal voice to the collection. Through this voice he connects the past to the present, and brings the spirit of the Kiowa people back to life. I believe that is what Momaday’s purpose was for the book, to preserve the culture of his people, which he was successful in doing.

The structure of Momaday’s book also holds a fantastic metaphor that symbolizes the Kiowa existence. The beginning of the book describes a story in which “seven sisters and their brother [were at play]” (8) when the boy turns into a bear and attempts to eat his sisters. The sisters end up climbing on top of a tree stump which rose high into the air, and they were “borne into the sky, and they became the stars of the Big Dipper.” (8) This story seems to be completely arbitrary until the last two pages of the book, when Momaday describes a meteor shower that took place at the start of the decline of the Kiowa people. There were “brilliant flashes of light in the sky…with the speed and intensity of falling rain, stars were falling from the universe.” (85) The Kiowa had lost their place in the universe and “the falling stars seemed to image the sudden and violent destruction of an old order.” (85)

In Our Time

Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time is a collection of short stories all pertaining to common themes. The major theme of the book is how youthful innocence, fatherhood, and death are all connected. Although the stories do not all share common characters, plot, or even location this thread can be seen throughout the book.

The theme comes into play in the very first story of the book, "Indian Camp". A boy, Nick, and his father, Henry, go to an Indian village to help deliver a woman’s baby. During the course of labor Henry attempts to teach his son about how babies are delivered. Through this gesture Henry seems to be caring, attempting to teach his son a useful skill, but during the entire event Nick is completely uninterested and he “was looking away” (17), as “His curiosity had been gone for a long time” (17). Later in the chapter Nick sees the body of the Indian father, who had cut his own throat from “ear to ear” (18). During the experience young Nick, who still calls his father “Daddy” (19), lost his childhood innocence. On the way back to his home Nick asks his father several questions to include, “Is dying hard, Daddy?” (19), and his father responds “No, I think it’s pretty easy, Nick” (19). Hemingway echoes this thought in his description of the Indian father’s death; he simply “rolled over against the wall” (16) and no one realized he was dead until Henry pulled the quilt off him. In his death the Indian also symbolizes Hemingway’s opinion of fatherhood, which is that fathers are required to take the innocence from their sons.

This opinion can be seen in a later story, "My Old Man", with Joe and his father, a jockey. The story, narrated by Joe, starts with innocent father-son workouts and Joe describing himself as being “nuts about the horses” (117). The story seems innocent at first but by the end of the story this opinion takes a complete 180. The first significant event during the story is when Joe and his father leave their home in Milan to live in Paris after a scene during which two men accuse his father of being a “son of a bitch” (118). While attending a race in Paris Joe’s father asks George, the jockey riding the odds favorite, who is going to win the race. George tells him that his horse, Kzar, “won’t win” (121) and that he should bet on Kircubbin instead. Joe’s father does just that and ends up winning the bet after a very close finish between Kzar and Kircubbin. When Joe asks his father what he thought of the race his father responds, “It sure took a great jockey to keep that horse Kzar from winning the race,” (124) admitting that the race was rigged. Joe has a different opinion of the jockey, calling him a “son of a bitch” (124). Hemingway did not repeat this accidently; in fact his reuse of the phrase is genius. In the last scene of the story Joe’s father dies in a race and Joe overhears the reactions of two men watching the race, saying that “Butler got his, all right” and that “the crook had it coming to him on the stuff he pulled” (129). Through his death Joe’s father solidifies his son’s loss of innocence.

There are many other parts of In Our Time where the connectedness of youthful innocence, fatherhood, and death can be seen but the length limitation of this blog ends my analysis here.

The Dubliners

James Joyce's The Dubliners is a short story sequence during which the reader is immersed into the lives of 19th century Dubliners. The major themes of the book include the repetition of daily life and death. These themes penetrate and play a role in every story. The people in the book never seem happy with the difficult and boring repetition that is their daily lives, and yet are unable to do anything about it. The thing that restrains them is not their ability to make change but instead their unwillingness to do so. For example in “Eveline,” a young woman is considering leaving home with a sailor named Frank to begin a new life in Buenos Aires, where “he would give her life, perhaps even love” (31), but at the last moment she becomes “passive, like a helpless animal” (32) and does not get on the boat with Frank. Frank has given her the ability to start a new life but Eveline is too afraid to take the action necessary to do so. This theme of helplessness can also be seen in “The Boarding House” where Mr Doran, a “thirty-four or thirty-five year” (52) old man, is essentially forced to marry the 19 year old daughter of his landlady, Polly, with whom he has been having an affair with. This is all despite the fact that “his instinct urged him to remain free, not to marry.” (54) Maybe Joyce is simply frowning upon sexual relations between two unmarried people. Or perhaps through these anecdotes of its people Joyce is instead attempting to characterize the city of Dublin; a city in which everyone seems to be miserable and yet no one makes any change or even effort towards change, a city that is paralyzed. The 9th line of the first chapter even alludes to this when the narrator states as he stares out of his window at Dublin, “Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis.”

Death ties into this theme of paralysis, which is evident in first chapter of the book. This chapter, “The Sisters,” explores the death of Father Flynn, an ex-priest accused of simony. Apparently not even death was escape for “poor James” (10), as the narrator recalls, “The fancy came to me that the old priest was smiling as he lay there in his coffin. But no…he was not smiling.” (8) It is also interesting to note the reaction of the child narrator to the death on page 6, “I found it strange that neither I nor the day seemed in a mourning mood.” The city seems to go on as if nothing has happened, and yet it revolves around death. The character Gabriel Conroy seems to be a microcosm of Joyce’s purpose for writing the book. The character attends a party hosted by his aunts during which he expresses his wish to leave Dublin and Ireland altogether. At the feast Gabriel gives a toast during which he addresses both death and the paralysis of daily life. It reads as follows, “Therefore I will not linger on the past. I will not let any gloomy moralizing intrude upon us here tonight. Here we are gathers together for a brief moment from the bustle and rush of our everyday routine.” (177) This proposal could not have come at a more opportune time for Joyce and his The Dubliners, as his book “dies” twenty pages later.

In conclusion The Dubliners was the portrayal of Ireland and the city of Dublin at the turn of the century by James Joyce and his literary genius.

The Country of the Pointed Firs Response

When reading The Country of the Pointed Firs, by Sarah Orne Jewett, the first thing that came to mind was the fact that it is perhaps the most descriptive series of stories I have ever read. In her writing Jewett uses fantastic, colorful words to describe the setting and events that occur. Words and phrases such as “the few houses which seemed to be securely wedged and tree-nailed in among the ledges by the Landing” (7), “The hot midsummer sun makes prisons of these small islands that are a paradise in early June, with their cool springs and short thick-growing grass” (33), and “Elijah Tilley…was in a thick blue flannel shirt with white crockery buttons, a faded waistcoat and trousers heavily patched at the knees”(104), are examples of the depth with which she describes her stories in. Her words and style of writing are extremely well planned out, and gives the reader a sense that they are witnessing the events in the book first hand. Jewett even leaves the narrator unnamed, so as to aid the reader in their own immersion into the story. However, the book is more than just a detailed account of the events and scenery that surround Dunnet Landing. This can be seen by analyzing Jewett’s style of writing.

Her style of writing involves extremely descriptive narrations all with a common thread, and thus can be classified as a short story cycle. The thread is not linear however; as there is no real order or reason as to why one story follows the other. Instead it can be better classified as a tree with many branches, each connected to the trunk. In lieu of using plot to connect the different parts of her story, Jewett uses location. This allows her to essentially take the reader wherever she would like with the story without being accused of rambling. Also by using this style, Jewett is attempting to inform the readers that plot is not everything in a story and that a book can instead be substantiated and even enhanced by an investigation of the lives of different characters. Even further Jewett asserts that people can be enhanced by stories and storytelling. Evidence of this can be seen when Captain Littlepage recounts the story of the waiting place. Captain Littlepage, who had earlier been described as “an aged grasshopper of some strange human variety” (15) and “pale and old” (14), comes to life as he tells the story. In fact he undergoes a complete 180, “spr[inging] to his feet in excitement” (26) and regaining his “alert, determined look and the seafaring, ready aspect” (27). In my mind Jewett’s work is a lasting legacy of the attitude people used to have about the lives of others. They actually cared about and were interested in the occurrences of others lives.

Throughout the book almost every character has their personal story revealed (or at least some part of it), with the exception of the narrator. In my opinion this omission is Jewett’s way of persuading her readers to explore the lives and stories of others, instead of their own. Jewett could have opted to tell the story of the narrator in The Country of the Pointed Firs, but instead uses the narrator as a medium to tell the stories of others. She even goes as far as to use the characters the narrator meets as a medium to tell the stories of others.

Only through a thorough analysis of Jewett’s writing style can her stories be appreciated fully for what they are; a look into a distant past where people cared about others and their lives, and a plea for people to be concerned with more than just themselves.

What is the difference between a novel and a short story?

In my opinion a novel is a highly descriptive and involving story in which the reader is heavily invested in, whereas a short story is a bare-boned literary experience during which the reader is only expected to draw major themes from. Readers of novels are required to spend more time and energy in order to experience the story; however they are rewarded with fantastic insight to the characters and their lives. A short story on the other hand is less demanding on the reader because the plot develops quicker and comes to a climax sooner than in a novel. A metaphor that can be used to compare the two is the following: Imagine watching a baseball game in its entirety, all nine innings, every pitch, and every play. Consider this the “novel.” Now imagine watching Sportscenter late at night and catching only the highlights of the game. Consider this the “short story.” In both cases the person watching receives mostly the same information: the score, the big plays of the game, the home runs, the errors, etc. The major difference between the two experiences is that the person who watched the full game was able to get every detail of the game while the person who simply watched Sportscenter only caught the overall or major plot details.

What is the result of this difference in styles?

Because authors of short stories must move their plots along quicker than authors of novels, short stories tend to be full of action, rather than exposition. This means that readers of short stories are unable to get to know the characters as well as readers of novels, but this does not mean that short stories are less satisfying or rewarding to read. In fact short stories are perhaps the ideal medium for authors impart their opinions and values. Short stories don’t overload the reader with details (or pages for that matter); instead they cut right to the chase allowing readers to more easily draw upon major themes or lessons from the material, which they can hopefully apply directly to their lives. Novels, with their many plot twists and turns, tend to be an experience for readers rather than a lesson. Readers of novels go into their reading with the attitude that they will be shocked and awed by the linguistic wizardry of the author. This difference in styles results in two completely different works which have two completely different purposes, even though short stories and novels share the same plot components (setting, conflict, rising action, climax, and resolution).