G.O.O.D. Country People

Out of the two O'Connor stories we read, Good Country People really stood out to me. It was an interestingly shocking story to say the least... going from a perfectly reasonable story with no rising action, to an intense climax that ends in a legless woman who failed to be seduced by a bible salesman, had her prosthetic leg stolen by him. Part of that really spoke to me though. This was that the only villainous antagonist in the story was supposed to be this "good ole" country boy “that went to Sunday School and that read the Bible every evening. He was now nineteen years old and he had been selling 5 Bibles for four months. In that time he had sold seventy-seven Bibles and had the promise of two more sales. He wanted to become a missionary because he thought that was the way you could do most for people. “He who losest his life shall find it,” he said simply and he was so sincere, so genuine and earnest that Mrs. Hopewell would not for the world have smiled.” (O’Connor 4-5) At first I thought it might have been O'Connor displaying her feelings about certain religious views. So I decided to do some further research on her to see what her past was like. I checked Wikipedia’s page on her and found "From 1956 through 1964, O'Connor wrote more than one hundred book reviews for two Catholic diocesan newspapers in Georgia: The Bulletin, and The Southern Cross. According to fellow reviewer Joey Zuber, the wide range of books O'Connor chose to review demonstrated that she was profoundly intellectual. Her reviews consistently confront theological and ethical themes in books written by the most serious and demanding theologians of her time." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery_O%27Connor#A_Catholic_life). I was really surprised when I found this out, and was wondering why she would do this. I dont think the timing of the story has to do with it, as it was written in the 50s. I also wanted to comment on something mentioned in class about her story structure. I think why I found her stories much more entertaining than the others was because they were written much more uniquely. It kind of drags on until the end, then leaves the reader mind-blown. I wonder what’s different about O’Connor that makes her structure so different. Any thoughts would be great!

She's a Barbie Girl, in a Barbie World

After reading “The Necklace”, a late 19^th century short story by French author Guy de Maupassant, a lot of attention is usually paid to the main character, an appearance-driven woman by the name Madame Mathilde Loisel.  While Madame Loisel may exude the personality of an affluent and sophisticated woman, she is quite the contrary. Her husband, a lowly store clerk, tries to do what he can to appease her materialistic needs, but alas cannot. When her husband comes home one day trying to energize a spark in his spouse by showing her an invitation to a party, she very hesitantly accepts it, under the condition that she gets all of the money her husband has been saving. In essence, Madame Louisel is consumed with materialistic goods, a concept all too familiar in the present day.

Louisel wallows in self-pity all her life about how she deserves better for herself, and is only happy when she pretends to be something she’s not; a well-off woman of means.  This is why I don’t sympathize with her at all, because karma bit her right in the you know where.  She tried to fool everyone at a party by spending all of her husband’s money in the process for one night of a glorified game of dress-up, just to "fit-in" like an outcasted high-schooler does. This need for materialistic possessions is what’s wrong with society, as Louisel felt she was “born for every delicacy and luxury” (pg. 1) At the party, her Cinderella story was in full affect, as “She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart. (pg. 5)”

This self-absorbed behavior represents just how appearance is an extremely overvalued part of life. Loisel can only be happy if she has on her gold and jewels (even if they’re actually fake), and on the other 364 days of the year she sobs in depression of her lack of possessions. Over 100 years later, nothing has changed. Everybody needs their 50$ designer jeans, 200$ sunglasses, etc. Not saying that I am any better than Madame Loisel herself, I just thought it would be interesting to delve into the fact that most people could probably relate to her… just maybe switch out her fashionable necklace for the new iPhone or Michael Kors bag.

About Me

Hey guys! As you may already know, my name is Trevor Johnston, and I'm here to bring you the scoop with short stories. I'm a Freshman from North Smithfield, RI and living on campus for my first year here at URI. I'm going to be using this blog to share what I think of the assortment of short stories we will be reading. I hope to make my blog posts somewhat interesting, so people don't dread forcibly reading everyones blog. Well that's pretty much it for me, I hope to get to know everyone throughout the semester and look forward to what's ahead!