What happened?

After reading "A Story of an Hour," why do you think the story ends the way it does? What elements are confusing about the ending? How does this story inform the ideas you had yesterday about stories told from a mother's perspective? 

Mothers vs. Children

When we first started reading short stories, we read several stories told from a child's perspective. More recently, we've read several stories told from the perspective of mothers. We talked in class on Friday about the elements that stories told from the perspective of a child have in common. Now that we've read stories told from the perspective of mothers, do you think that those stories have some things in common? Please cite specific examples from any of the stories that you discuss in your entry and be clear which of the three stories you're discussion ("Who's Irish?" "Everyday Use" "I Stand Here Ironing").

Short story 1

How would you describe the narrative voices of the two stories? Do you think these narrators have anything in common or are they quite different? Please include examples from both stories.

The Danger of a Single Story

After watching Chimamanda Adichie's TED Talk, can you think of a single story that has existed in your life (either culturally, personally, etc.) that you feel excludes you? Can you think of a single story or stories that you tend to think of as "normal," that you realize actually excludes certain people or groups?  How do these single stories affect and shape your thinking? How do you feel about that?

(Think of the examples that Adichie gives in her speech to help you come up with examples of your own.)

So, what do you think?

After reading the whole play and watching the entire trial unfold, who do you perceive as the protagonists in this play? In other words, whose side do you think you are supposed to be on by the end the play? Are you on that side? Which characters did you find the most sympathetic and accessible? Which characters are difficult to relate to and challenging to under? After answering all these questions in your post, do you think that this play wants you to come to particular conclusions after reading the play? If so, what are those conclusions?

Family Strife into Family Values?

Now that you have finished reading the story of Joseph and his family, have your impressions about this family changed at all? Does the family seem to have changed and evolved due to the events involving Joseph or are they primarily the same? Look back to your last entry about family strife and explain how and why your thinking about the family has or has not changed. You should quote your previous entry in this entry and you should also cite specific examples from the chapters you read most recently to support any observations or insights you have.

Family Strife

At this point in our reading of Genesis, we have encountered multiple families that have complex, confusing and often violent encounters with one another. At the heart of many of these problems seems to be favoritism. Paying particular attention to Jacob's family, how do you understand the role of favoritism in his family? What values does this family seem to emphasize and prize? In what ways is Joseph as the favorite different from  Jacob, Isaac or Abraham? In what ways is he similar? If you read about a family like this in a book that wasn't the Bible, what kind of conclusions and judgments might you make about them? Given the fact that this family is feature in the Bible, how does that change your understand of them? How does it change your understanding of the Bible?

In your answers, you should refer to specific moments and/or lines from the Bible to illustrate each of your points. You must include at least 3 examples from the text in your response.