JGB's ENG 104

No lie. Let’s get this right. Don’t lay low; lie low. Say: “Today, I’m just going to lie low.” That way, tomorrow you can say, “Yesterday, I lay low.” Today, you lay your cup on the bedside table and lie down for your nap. Tomorrow, you say, “Yesterday, I laid my cup on the table […]

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“Strange day. Well, true enough. That was something they could all be sure of.” – pg. 247 When in mourning, the body seems to go into another version of shock. Not the one type that makes you have to lay down with elevated feet and an unbuttoned shirt, but a version that leaves you a […]

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    In Deborah Eisenberg’s ” The Girl Who Left Her Sock On The Floor,” the story is told in the third person, leading the reader to see the actions of the main and supportive characters through the eyes of a spectator. By reading a story from this point of view, the reader is able […]

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“Anything  can happen at any moment,” Jessica kept exclaiming. “Anything can just happen.” (pg. 247) Deborah’s story, “The Girl Who Left Her Sock on the Floor,” addresses themes of death, acceptance, and the future. It follows a girl Francie after an argument with her roommate, Jessica, about a sock on the floor as she deals […]

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Carrie Browns’ “Miniature Man”  is told in first person by our narrator, Tomas.  Thanks to this point of view, we the readers are able empathize with Gregorio and understand that he is a very dedicated and determined person. However the point of view does affect the way we perceive the events of the short story because unlike most narrations […]

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Use one of the prompts below to write an essay no longer than two double-spaced pages on Carrie Brown’s story “Miniature Man.” Please make sure you carefully proofread your essay, then place it in the Essay 1 folder on Google Drive. Identify the point-of-view in the story, and discuss how it affects our response to […]

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Yesterday he had said, “Not possible,” but today he said nothing. (116) In this story, Robert Olen Butler explores the role of patriarchy in religion, and more specifically, in the Vietnamese culture. The tone is not accusatory or satirical but a matter-of-fact manner that critiques how the grandfather speaks to his granddaughter. The grandfather approaches his […]

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Robert Olen Butler’s “Mr. Green” addresses the theme of masculinity vs. femininity in Vietnamese culture, a conflict which shapes the narrator’s outlook. This can first be seen in the following passage, where Mr. Green speaks to the narrator’s grandfather. My grandfather bowed to the parrot and said, “Hello, kind sir,” and Mr. Green said, “Hello, kind sir,” and […]

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There were women around Jesus when He died, the two Marys. They couldn’t do anything for Him. But neither could the men, who had all run away. Through this short story, the main character continuously struggles with the stigmas against her gender. She is seen as inferior because of her anatomy. While she aspires to remain true […]

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“This is the way it’s done,” and she fisted her other hand around the sparrow’s head and she twisted. (113) There are two passages in Butler’s “Mr. Green” in which there is a change of events that cause the narrator, a young girl who battles with her role as woman, to view the world differently. […]

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But a Vietnamese woman is experienced in these things and Mr. Green did not have a chance even to make a sound as I laid him on his side, pinned him with my knee, slid my hands up and wrung his neck. In the beginning of the story, our main character is told that she […]

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I am a Catholic, the daughter of a Catholic mother and father, and I do not believe in the worship of my ancestors, especially in the form of a parrot. In Robert Butler’s story “Mr. Green” the grandfather’s parrot is used to demonstrate the disconnect between two different lives, the life of a grandfather and the […]

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“Why aren’t they flying?” I asked “Their wings are clipped,” my grandfather said. That was alright with me. They clearly weren’t in any pain and they could still hop and they would never fly away from me. Robert Olen Butler’s “Mr. Green” brings light to harmful aspects of a patriarchy through the growth of the […]

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“I looked at its face and I knew it was a girl and my mother said, “This is the way it ‘s done,” and she fisted her other hand waited and I could hear the chattering of the sparrows from the box.” In “Mr. Green”  by Robert Olen Butler the main theme of the story […]

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The next day he began to cough. I knew the cough well. But I took Mr. Green to the veterinarian and he told me what I expected, the cough was not the bird’s. This was a sound he was imitating. “Did someone in your household recently have a cold or the flu?” the doctor said.  “It is […]

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His wings were pinned and he was bigger in my hands a than I had ever imagined. But a Vietnamese woman in experienced in these things and Mr. Green did not have a chance even to make a sound as I laid him on his side, pinned him with my knee, slid my hands up […]

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“I knew the cough well. But I took Mr. Green to the veterinarian and he told me what I expected, the cough was not the bird’s.” This story is told by a forty-one year old woman looking by back on her memories of her childhood, especially her memories of her grandfather. The story switches back-and-forth […]

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Up until then, I’d always thought it was only sensible to fall in love with tall men so I wouldn’t look like so much of a giantess. That way we could dance in public, in scale, no circus act. It didn’t matter though: I never had a date all through high school, couldn’t dance as […]

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She put one of the smaller pumpkins on Clark’s long lap.”Now nothing surreal,”she told me.”Carve just a regular face. These are for kids”.   Mary Robinson “Yours”, brings out a popular topic that has been debated throughout time, which is the debate over how a child should be raised.  The above quote first seems insignificant but it […]

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So I’d just run my finger over the tattoo, feeling the outline raised up like it always is when fresh. Then it’d peel by itself, and one day I’d put my finger down and not be able to tell the difference in skin: it’d really be a part of me. And that’s when I started […]

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“What’s going to happen to you now?” my mother asked me. “What if you want to get married again? What man will want you when someone else has been scribbling all over you?”… “I’m sorry,” I told her, “These are my widow’s weeds.” Elizabeth McCracken’s “It’s Bad Luck To Die” not only demonstrated an atypical love story, […]

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On the cot I tried, as a sleep trick, to remember my answer to Essay Question I– word for fucking word. (158) This sentence expresses how the narrator, a twenty-one-year-old woman, keeps her time occupied with mind-engaging activities in order to advert from thinking about her parents’ death. As the girl tries to fall asleep, she is afraid […]

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The next day I was putting a T on his arm when Tiny said, “Do me a favor, Lois, huh? Don’t forget me?” The professor began to giggle in bed and ended up laughing, hard. “Do you think she’d be able to, even if she wanted? Look at her – she’s a human memo board.” […]

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I am not a museum, not yet, I’m a love letter, a love letter. Elizabeth McCracken’s “It’s Bad Luck to Die” seems to be much deeper than a typical love story. It’s not a “girl meets boy” romance, but a story of self-love and peace with the main character’s husband, Tiny, as the catalyst. From the […]

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‘Sweethearts carve their names on trees, not each other. Does it ever occur to you that you are not leading a normal life?’ (15) Lois never thought twice about her and Tiny’s relationship. She knows that she loved him, so why would she jeopardize her happiness for everyone else’s? Lois knew what made Tiny happy, […]

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