The Story of an Hour

Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour tells of the events that occurred during the hour after Mrs. Mallard is informed of her husband supposed death. Chopin includes several ironies in the story. The first is Mrs. Mallard's reaction to the death of her husband. The audience, and the other characters, expect her to be distraught. Her sister even tells her in the most delicate way possible, worried that a strong reaction to the news would cause heart problems on her. At first, Mrs. Mallard reacts as one might expect, "she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment". However, the more time passes, the more she seems happy at the death. She considers life without him as freedom, and imagines what she will do with this independence. Her positive reaction to the news is ironic, her sister clearly did not need to worry of the news causing her to die of grief. However, the ultimate irony occurs when Mr. Mallard enters the house, very clearly alive. Mrs. Mallard then has a heart attack and dies, rightly so for being so overjoyed at the death of someone she was suppose to love.

Popular Mechanics

In Carver's short story, Popular Mechanics, he tells of a couple in the midst of a tumultuous break-up. In the midst of the chaos, they begin fighting over the baby. The baby is a symbol, the prize for the winner of the argument. Neither really cares about the child, or at least in this frame of mind cannot put its needs above their fight. This is clear by the pain they are causing the child by fighting over it. At one point, the woman even points out "you're hurting the baby". However, neither parent is willing to let go of the child, because it is a representation of a prize, and something to hurt the other with. Carver uses this short story to satire how many broken families work today. Divorce has become more common, often with children caught in the middle, and used by their parents against one another. Carver points out the dangers of parents getting so caught up in their hatred of one another, that they cannot focus on their true priority, the child. 

February

From the beginning words of Margaret Atwood's poem February, it is clear the speaker is not in a celebratory mood. The speaker's apathetic and at times disgusted tone shocks the reader. She, the speaker, obviously has little love in her life, her only companion a cat that she admits could care less if she lived or died. She compares humans to cats, saying that if cats go around getting neutered, why shouldn't humans? The speaker even bashes her own species, saying humans should eat their young. The only reason we do not, you ask? Love. No that the speaker finds any meaning in love, for she bashes over its unappeal. The irony of this self-pitying poem about the uselessness of love is the title, February. February's the month of love, or as this speaker describes it, "month of despair, with a skewered heart in the center " However, the speaker thinks little of love judging by her tone, when not even the warmth of a nice, cozy fire can soothe her, she only complains of the pollution. The final ironic lines occur at the end, when the speaker admonishes the cat for being to pessimistic. The speaker should take some of her own advice, get out of bed, stop talking to cats, and find a guy before she dies and the cat eats her.

You're Ugly, Too

The central focus of Lorrie Moore's You're Ugly, Too is her controversial character, Zoe. Zoe fills her life with criticism, irony, and sarcastic comments. Although this makes her interesting and unpredictable, it does little in the way of making her a sympathetic character. It should be easy to feel sorry for Zoe, she is a single woman with few friends to speak of and a job she is less than thrilled with. She is not satisfied with life, which should invoke some emotion within the reader. However, I found it difficult to feel anything for Zoe except exasperation. She hides behind a mask of wit and sarcasm, pretending that everyone she meets is just too unobservant and ordinary to garner her interest. In reality, her immaturity leads her to ruin most relationships in her life. Her relationship with her younger sister has reversed, her sister now taking care of her because, while Evan is moving on with life, maturing in her relationship and personality, Zoe remains forever her sarcastic and free-spirited self. Her social awkwardness and inappropriateness is brought to a climax when she pretend to push Earl off the roof. She did not even seem to realize how inappropriate that was as "she smiled at him, and wondered how she looked" (370). It makes the reader wonder if all the men in her life really were lacking in the ways she described, or if she is simply too immature to make a real relationship work.

Bright Star

In John Keats' Bright Star, the speaker compares himself to a bright star. He weighs the pros and cons of this wish, all while personifying the star in question. He wants to be like a star because they are eternal and can see everything. He wants to be forever moving and gazing at the earth, never changing. However, in the final stanzas, he changes his mind. No longer would being a star suit him, for living forever would not be worth it without his beloved. This final thought reminded me greatly of the book Tuck Everlasting. In the book, a boy name Tuck and his family are "blessed" with immortality. However they soon come to find that living forever alone is a worse fate then death. Much like Keats, who admits "Still,still to hear her tender-taken breath, and so live ever - or else swoon to death" (pg 792).

Lonely Hearts

Wendy Cope's Lonely Hearts is a collection of personal advertisements by people looking for love. The variation of each advertisement is immense. Straight, gay, bikers, and musicians are just some of the requirements needed to answer these ads. However, each stanza has some repetition. Some ask "Can someone make my simple wish come true?", while others simply ask "Is it you?" (pg 973). These repetitive questions show that while these ads are all incredibly different, each person is looking for the same thing. They are looking for a relationship they feel their lives lack. The theme of the poem is that everyone, no matter who, is looking for love. That one question binds the gay man and the Jewish single mom, and the Libran. Each person is seeking someone they have a connection with, and feel so helpless that they take their search to the personal ads.

Eveline

In James Joyce's Eveline, Eveline's present circumstances leave much to be desired. She is often lonely, having few friends, an abusive father, one absent brother, and one dead brother. She must "keep the house together and see that the two young children who had been left to her charge went to school regularly and got their meals regularly" (pg 220). Her supervisor, Miss Gavan, is characterized as judgemental and critical, making working even harder for Eveline. Despite disliking this work, her father is the main source of her unhappiness. He is characterized as tempermental, prone to fits of violence and rage. He even fights with Eveline about money, forcing her to give all her hard-earned money to keep the family going. However, none of this is what eventually pushes her to attempt to leave. Instead, the memory of her mother's final days gives her the courage to decide to leave. She fears ending up like her mother, stuck in the house with an abusive man for a life of sacrafice and despair.

How I Met My Husband

In Alice Munro's How I Met My Husband, the main character is the hired girl, Edie. She is a very sympathetic character, meaning her hardships bring out emotions from the reader. Often, the reader feels for Edie because her innocense and niavety make her vulnerable. Her status as "the hired girl" contributes greatly to the feelings of sympathy the reader has for her. She has little to look forward to in life, a lack of education and money limited her future to working for the Peeble family. She is forced to work for this wealthy family, in awe of their wonderous lifestyle, but also in constant fear she will be fired or shamed. It is this fear that really makes the reader sympathize with her. She lives in fear of disappointing Mrs. Peebles, not wanting the woman to think ill of her. She is so afraid of Mrs. Peeble's bad opinion that she overcomes her shyness to beg Chris not to tell of her dress-up activities. She implores him, "I wisht you wouldn't say anything about the dress" (pg 136). This innocence and fear makes her a sympathetic character.