Sonnys Blues

As soon as i began reading this story it interested me. The first sentence makes you want to keep reading. "I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work." It made me want to know what he read, and why it would be everywhere. I immidiatly realized that the story was mostly on family. Family related stories are my favorites becuase i like to relate them to my family and i like to read about other families that are so completly different from mine.

The man in the beginning was strange, the one that was friends with Sonny when they were younger. The way he talked was mysterious, it was lke he could talk in a way so that he gets what he wants.

Something interesting that i found in the beginining was when he said that there were two types of laughter, the type that people relate with children, then the type that was mocking. That made me think about the way people laugh, it is so true, you can defenitly tell the difference between the two. With the child laughter you can here the fun in it, you can tell that it is carefree. The mocking laughter seems to be done mostly with teenagers i have noticed. It is not a laugh out of pure funness and the joyness in something, it is the laughter at someone.

It was also difficult in the beginining to tell whether or not Sonny was alive, they didnt really say anything on the subject, they were saying things like "hung" but also "to help him" so i wasnt sure if he had literaly been hung, but then realized he was still alive.

All in all this story was really touching, hearing about the family members that had died, seeing everyone help out sonny, and relating music into it. The part about the young daughter that died was very sad and well written, it was like you could picture it while it was happening, which made it even more real, which also made it even more powerful and hurtful.
I would love to read more stories by James Baldwin. This has been my favorite out of all the Haunted House stories so far.

Haunted Houses

I have a feeling this chapter is going to be fun! The introduction pulled me in and it made it seem that this whole chapter would be full of exciting emotional stories. My favortire types of stories, stories on family and love are in this chapter. I am very excited to begin reading all these stories.


I read Bone Black, it was very touching and very emotional to read about a daughters view on her parents abusive relationship. I noticed this writer used very short choppy sentences, which i thought worked very nicely with this story. This story was different, i have read many stories coming from the childs point of view but it was intersting the way the author wrote it.
I hope to read many more stories like this.

Essay uno DOS

So I have decided that i am going to write about America's obsession with security, while relating to Once Upon A Time. I am going to use the book as a basic guideline to help me come up with a thesis and help my the ideas of the book relate to my ideas.

Essay uno

At the moment I am a bit confused on what the first essay is about. It seems that the essay is us writing about the stories we have read so far? Thats what it sounds like at least, and if that is what it is about then that sounds good. So far I have enjoyed most of the stories we have read. There have been some i dont like as much as others, but all in all they have been interesting and very fun to analyze. Sometimes i wish a story could be just a story, that we wouldnt have to analyze and rip it apart until it's dead. But at the end of each class i come away knowing so much more about the story and the author. I come away knowing what my classmates think of the story, and i come away with thousands of questions on the story. I think thats the most important thing, to have questions, i think its even more important then completly understanding the story. If you completly understand the story then your finished with it, there isnt any more you can get from it. But if you walk away with more questions and more thoughts running around in your head then your not finished with it, there is still room to explore and gather new information.
So far out of all the stories we have read, there have been two that i have enjoyed greatly. Once Upon A Time and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Those two stories I feel have had the most room for exploring and ananlyzing. Especially Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? at first read you dont think much of it, then you start thinking, i mean really thinking, about it and you start realizing things arent what they seem, maybe there is a hidden meaning in the story, maybe there is something you didnt catch the first time. Then you start thinking about the characters and who they remind you of. You go from a simple story to people being a fallen angel, the devil, elvis presley.
I loved hearing what everyone else's opinions were too. Some peoples were similiar to mine and some peoples were completly in the oposite direction.

Cathedral

This story wasnt my favorite out of all the stories we have read. I did find it intriguing though. I liked to see how the characters changed throughout the story, which was set in mostly one day. The husband seemed to have changed the most, at first i really didnt like him, he seemed rude and bland and not open to new ideas or new people. He was very skeptical about the blind man coming and everything he said was very stereotypical and rude. But by the end of the story him and the blind man got along and he was much more open to him and even wanted to talk and get to know him. The wife in the begininning seemed very open and loving, but towards the end she seemed kind of paranoid and skeptical of her husband talking or getting close with the blind man. The blind man himself was a very interesting guy, the way he talked, what he talked about, the way he moved and ate and drank and smoked. He seemed just like any other guy, except he was blind. He seemed very interested in everything that was going on, he was very open to new ideas and going with everything that was happening.
While i was reading the story i was thinking about how it would be to be blind, what i would do if i were blind. I love people watching and watching and observing everything, so it wouldnt be too great for me. But what if he loved people watching before he went blind. He didnt seem depressed or mad about his blindness he seemed to imbrace it and take it in. I really enjoyed reading to see how it would be for a blind person, it did change my perspective on how a blind person could be, what they could still do even though they can not see.

Once Upon a Time

As we were talking about this story in class a lot of people related it to fairy tales. I thought it was semi fairy tale like, but for the most part it just seemed more of an overprotective paranoid family. In some ways i can defenitly see the fairy tale aspect, but it was kind of like a weird twisted creepy sketchy fairy tale i guess. I didnt really understand why the grandmother kept getting called a witch, we didnt hear much at all about her, other then she said to keep people out and she gave her grandson a fairy tale book. The story was kind of sad in my opinion, the family started out happy and for the most part care free. They had a wonderful home, and loved each other very much. But soon everything seemed to go down, there house became ugly when they added the wall and gate and barbed wire. I understand the need for protection, but some times it can go too far.
Another thing i noticed was that everyone loved everyone so very much. It said over and over that he loved her ver much, she loved him very much, the boy loved the cat so very much. It almost seemed like they were trying to convince the readers of there love for one another. It was like at the end of the day thats all they really had, they never felt completly safe, they never really had everything they wanted, but at the end of the day they had love for eachother.
It also seemed strange the person thinking of the story was trying to make her self feel better because she was scared of everything she heard at night, and she thought of that story. Which defentily did not make me feel any better at all.

A Good Man is Hard to FInd

Where to begin, this story was insane. It started off simple, just the family going on a vacation to Florida. In the beginning I couldnt really tell what the time period was, i thought it was around this time, maybe in the 90's. But as the story kept going it seemed to me that maybe it was set in the 50's or 60's maybe. I wasnt completely sure. Throught the beginning of the story you got a sense of the main characters, the dad, Bailey seemed strict, some what conservative, it seemed like he liked everything his way, nothing out of the ordinary to happen. The grandmother was very oldfashioned it seemed, she liked to be catorgarized as a lady, she made sure to wear a nice lady like outfit so people would know she was a lady. She was also very proper and liked to talk about the old times, where things werent as scary and everyone was a lot safer. The mom didnt say much or do much, she seemed pretty laid back, didnt really take control of the kids when they spoke out or didnt add her opinion in on anything. The two kids were very obnoxious, they spoke out way to much and were very rude. They didnt know how to speak to adults in a polite manner and said whatever they wanted to without thinking. Throughout the story everyone talked about the misfit, who ended up reminding me of Arnold Friend from our other story. But an older version. Him and his two friends were very creepy, as soon as they drove up i had a feeling it was going to be the misfit, and i had a feeling that the whole family was going to die. I wish the grandmother had kept her mouth shut and didnt even say anything about the big house she wanted everyone to see, which wasnt even in the same state. It seems like the whole time she was trying to protect the family by staying away from danger, especially the misfit, but it turns out she led everyone right for danger. It was her who decided to look for the house, who decided to bring the cat, who freaked out and woke the cat up, who spoke to the misfit. She really brought it all onto herself, of course she didnt mean to, but she did.