“That day, the white Supervisor came to inspect the school and wrote a nasty report on the state of the premises but more seriously about the “tribal-war situation developing between the school and the village, arising in part from the misguided zeal of the new headmaster” (2).

This quote is full of irony, which is part of the reason why I enjoyed it so much as the end of the story. All that Obi is concerned about throughout this story is turning the school into a “place of beauty”, but he seems to have his ideas backwards. He does not realize that the school is already beautiful; that what makes it so is the rich history that it encompasses and spirituality on its own property. He is concerned that the Government Education Officer will scorn the footpath if he sees it or sees anyone near it, doing what they believe it is made for. However, even the officer- a white man- understands the value of the footpath. Obi does not want his culture and village people to be looked down upon by the white man for their traditions, but in the end it is what Obi himself is doing that ends up being viewed as a “tribal-war situation”. On top of his displeasure with Obi and how he is trying to overtake such a precious piece of property, the white Supervisor also wrote a “nasty” report on the condition of the premises, which was ironic in itself because Obi had also been so concerned about the physical upkeep of the property and it had only taken one night for all his work to go to waste. Obi seems to have adapted the mindset that is becoming more and more prevalent in our own society today: that what’s old is useless and ugly, and what’s new and flashy will always triumph. This story did a good job of reflecting upon this mindset and the destruction it can cause, because this newfound, unwritten rule of new things being better is hardly true at all. Adapting such a mindset can only cause destruction of valuable things, as exhibited quite clearly in this story.

Ha Jin: "Saboteur" Analysis

"Fenjin was baffled by his teacher, who looked ferocious and muttered to himself mysteriously, and whose jaundiced face was covered with dark puckers. For the first time Fenjin thought of Mr. Chiu as an ugly man" (11).

            One of the main ideas of “Saboteur” is that no one person is as important as they think they are, nor can they have as big of an impact as they would like to think they can. We would all like to believe that we can save the world with our own two hands; that we are enough and all that is needed to make a difference. When Mr. Chiu is first arrested, he has big plans to get himself out of the jail and show the world what happened to him to make a difference and expose the officers of their wrongdoings. He knows that what happened to him was wrong and that he should do his best to make others aware of what happened to him so they can prevent it from happening to themselves and begin making changes in their authority figures. By the time that he is freed from the prison, his mindset is completely different. He is vengeful, and all he can think about is getting back at those who did him wrong. However, he does way more than get back at them, he takes out his revenge on everyone around him and people who he does not even know. In this way, Mr. Chiu is just as immoral as the officers who harassed him and his wife and then arrested him on false charges. He no longer seemed to even care about his wife, who he was so concerned about at first but then enjoyed his time away from as he turned more and more inward. He began exerting less energy thinking about others, such as his wife and other people who could end up in the same situation as him, and more energy plotting how to escape his situation. Once he was able to do so, his only focus was revenge. He could have left the prison and went to the newspapers or news stations, spreading what he now knew about the authorities they trusted, but he chose not to. Instead of making a positive difference like he initially intended to once he was let out, he used his little power to create a huge and harmful effect on society. In this way, Mr. Chiu is indeed an ugly person.

Annie Proulx: "Brokeback Mountain" Analysis

“They seized each other by the shoulders, hugged mightily, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying, son of a bitch, son of a bitch, then, and easily as the right key turns the lock tumblers, their mouths came together, and hard, Jack's big teeth bringing blood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva welling, and the door opening and Alma looking out for a few seconds at Ennis’s straining shoulders and shutting the door again and still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other’s toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and daughters, little darlin”.

            I think that this quote sums up the relationship between Ennis and Jack very well. The two of them are at first in complete denial that they even have a relationship to speak of, and it is easier for both of them to look at the situation between the two of them as purely physical, something that they never thought they would enjoy but still do nonetheless. However, I could tell that their relationship would not remain just physical for long, and this is demonstrated here in this quote, where they are so excited to see one another again that they kiss even though Alma is right nearby and actually sees them. Her catching the two in their embrace represents all of the people that would disapprove of their relationship, which would basically be all of the society that they are a part of, and they are aware of this and do their best to keep the relationship private. Neither of the two know how to act with the other, and this is demonstrated through their physical interactions, involving bumping toes and biting lips and all kinds of awkwardness that they do not mind at all, because that’s how their whole relationship is anyway. There is nothing easy about the two of them being together, and they realize this. The descriptions used in this passage are very reflective of their relationship, as well. The two of them have the kind of love that can only be demonstrated through intense passion. If they aren’t pleasuring each other physically in the best sex either of them have ever had, then they are fighting and making each other more angry than they had ever been. There seems to be no middle ground with the two of them, and even though they step on each other’s toes often, like it is said in this quote, they simply cannot be apart from one another. As much as they argue they pull each other in at the same time, like a crying child who screams at their mother to put them down put clings to them even tighter while saying so. Jack and Ennis have a relationship that hurts, and that is never easy for them. However, it is demonstrated in this quote that it is still completely worth it to both of them and that they could not live without seeing each other.

"Everything That Rises Must Converge": Flannery O'Connor Analysis

“The further irony of all this was that in spite of her, he had turned out so well. In spite of going to only a third-rate college, he had, on his own initiative, come out with a first-rate education; in spite of growing up dominated by a small mind, he had ended up with a large one; in spite of all her foolish views, he was free of prejudice and unafraid to face facts. Most miraculous of all, instead of being blinded by love for her as she was for him, he had cut himself emotionally free of her and could see her with complete objectivity. He was not dominated by his mother” (4).

I found this quote to be interesting for many reasons. First of all, it is strange to me that Julian actually thinks that his life is not dominated by his mother. He prides himself on how little he cares about her and how free he is from her views of the world, but in reality his mother is basically all that he has in his life and vice versa. Without his mother, Julian would not have been able to go to school and would not have a place to live while he searches for a better job in writing. Without Julian, his mother would have no one to take her places and care for her, and more importantly, her love for him seems to be what keeps her going every day. The two are completely reliant on each other, much to Julian’s denial.
Another interesting aspect of this quote is how Julian chooses to completely ignore all that his mother did for him and the contributions that she had on his life, which were obviously plentiful. Without her, Julian would not have been able to go to college at all, never mind a third-rate one. He thinks that he ended up successful in spite of his mother, but truthfully he is not successful and he would be even less successful than he already is without the help of his mother. He sells typewriters, so clearly he had not come out of college with a “first-rate education” as he claims. He says that he is free of prejudice and unafraid to face facts, but he is terrified to love his mother and to allow her to be satisfied with the way she raised him and her opinions on the world, as well as herself. Julian constantly puts down his mother’s opinions, and even her own pride and dignity annoy him; he thinks that she needs to come to grips with reality when he is just out of touch with reality as she is, if not more. His mother has the opposite problem: she loves him so much that she chooses to ignore that he is most likely going nowhere in his life. She brags about him every chance she gets, and takes pride in the fact that he went to college, but he cannot even let her have this glory, because he says that the school he went to wasn’t great. Still, his mother supports him and is optimistic about his future career in writing, which she shouldn’t be, and it is very apparent in this story that both of the main characters need a bit of a reality check: Julian’s mom to benefit herself, and Julian to become a better person in general.

"The Voorman Problem" Analysis

“In this country there’s very little difference between the prison and the asylum”

I found this quote to be interesting, in general but also more specifically in the context of this movie. Insanity versus reality was a major theme of the film, and it made me wonder what exactly qualifies a person as insane. Sure, there are guidelines to be followed that help determine this, but if someone else begins believing the insane person, does that make them insane as well? In “The Voorman Problem” this was basically what happened. Once the doctor realized that the inmate could actually have some of the power that he claimed to have, he became the “insane” one. After a while, it seems like it would be impossible to tell who was insane and who wasn’t in that prison, with everyone believing that one of their own was a god. However, he did seem to prove his case, so would everyone believing him be insane or just logical?  In this way, insanity is a prison within itself: there is no way to fight one’s way out of it once immersed in it or being labeled as so. This is actually a scary thought; while what happened in the film would most likely never play out, the idea of insanity versus reality is definitely a sensitive one and being involved in such a situation would involve treading lightly. The prison in this case would be a person’s own head.
This quote leads the audience to ponder the reality of the difference between prisons and asylums. In my opinion, being trapped within one’s own mind is even worse than physically being incarcerated, and the men in this film both get to experience a bit of each. However, being trapped in an asylum is arguably worse than being incarcerated because, as I said earlier, there may never be a way out. People have a way of claiming insanity through practically any action of a person once they are considered insane, which is portrayed very well by the end of the film. The main character, the doctor, does seem like the insane one at the end, yelling and protesting. It made me as a viewer wonder whether he even was the sane one by that point. This film was definitely worth watching and made me wonder about insanity versus reality in people.

Tim Parrish: "Complicity" Analysis

“He knocked the lone shotgun softly against his leg and ran his fingers beneath his nose. ‘Nobody fucks with my family and gets away with it,’ he said. I nodded, not sure what to say. He kept his eyes hard on me. Finally, he sniffed and walked out” (49).

This quote was thought-provoking to me, knowing what I knew as a reader and also knowing that Jeb knew the exact same information. At this point, it is pretty apparent to the reader, as it also is to Jeb, that Mr. Park beat up his own wife, for whatever reason. It is not out of bounds to assume that he has an aggression problem, which he most likely takes out on his family since he has to keep a professional façade at his job. Ironically, he works to protect his community from people exactly like himself. It seems as though he has been successful at hiding his true persona from his community.
While Mr. Park can hide that he beat his wife from his community by placing the blame on an imagined black man, he cannot hide the truth from himself. I found it interesting that he chooses to go so far as to sit outside his house with a shotgun, because he has no one to convince of the truth but himself. His neighbors seem to believe for the most part that a stranger broke into his home and beat up Mrs. Park when he wasn’t home; the only person who knows the truth (that he is aware of, anyway) is himself. He has turned into the type of enemy that he works so hard to fight against every day.
While Mr. Park hid the truth well for the most part, it wouldn’t have been possible for him to hide it from Jeb, who heard what happened in the Park household when Mrs. Park was assaulted by her husband. It is clear to the reader that Jeb realizes what happened but doesn’t want to admit it. In this quote, it also seems apparent that Mr. Park has his suspicions about Jeb- he seems to realize that he could have very well heard what happened and that he has the potential to cause quite a bit of trouble for Mr. Park. I think that while Mr. Park is justifying his actions to Jeb by making it seem as though he is protecting his family from that intruder again, he is warning Jeb at the same time. If Jeb was to tell anyone what he knew about Mrs. Park’s assault, it was destroy Mr. Park’s reputation and most likely cost him his job and possibly his family as well. Mr. Park seems to be warning Jeb that if he says anything about what he knows, there will be a severe price for him to pay.

Ray Bradbury: "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains" Analysis

“ ‘And not one will know of the war, not one
   Will care at last when it is done.

  Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
  If mankind perished utterly;

  And spring herself, when she woke at dawn
  Would scarcely know that we were gone’” (3).

This quote struck me as quite interesting within the context of the story. I found that it was quite fitting that we read this story right after reading “Second Variety,” because the overall storyline is quite similar: a world where technology can thrive while humans can’t. One question that came to mind while reading was just how important humans actually are. We are narcissistic creatures as a whole, and we would like to think that without us the world would fall to pieces. However, it is possible that this is not the case, and this story examines that idea critically. The world would go on without us, and it is possible that it would actually be a better place without humans. It makes more sense to think that what we create is more important than us ourselves, and this is why in the story the technology is so advanced. It is somewhat ominous to imagine that we could be in the process of creating something that could be far more powerful than us, and this is one frightening aspect of technology. There is no telling when computers could become smarter than us, at which point humans would not only be unnecessary: their existence would be threatened.
This quote in particular, however, seems to emphasize not only the possibility of humans’ inevitable destruction, but also the idea that the world would be a better place without humans. The last two lines reference both spring and morning, which give the image of a fresh, new start: definitely a positive idea. Humans cause a great deal of destruction on this planet: that is not a far-fetched concept. The idea of us being more or less useless to this world is a scary thought, but that is the main idea of the quote. Not that there would be a great relief if one morning humans were gone, but that instead there would be a feeling of indifference. I think that this is an idea that can be applied to people individually. I know that I personally would like to think that I am making a difference and that plenty of people would be affected in some way if I disappeared, but the world as a whole would not be affected; no one else would drop dead without my presence. I think that staying humble while going through your life is helpful in putting things in perspective, and this quote definitely provides a needed reality check: to myself and all of humankind.