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.