On the Rainy River

Today I will be blogging about the story On the Rainy River. The story is about a young man named Tim O'Brian who gets drafted to war but runs away to Canada. Tim is smarter than average and goes to college. He is also cocky because he claims he is to good to fight this war. So he runs off to Canada in hopes of evading the war draft. He doesn't belive the war is right. Is he a coward for running away? This is the main question through out the whole story. He belived he was too good for the war and that its wrong. He did what he belived. Not very many people do what they belive. He feared that if he goes back home, his community will look down at him for evading the war. Is he a coward for running away or brave for taking the risk to fulfil his beliefs? I personally think he wasn't a coward for taking the risk. Many young men his age were drafted for war and just went without question or concern. Tim O'Brian didn't. He thought the war was wrong and decided to avoid it. I would have done the same thing as well.

Chef's House

The quote below is what makes the house you see at the side. Its from the story Chef's House. This can symbolize the setting cause most of it takes place at Chef's house.

“I have to do it for Wes’s sake. He’s trying to stay sober. You remember what that’s like.”(Pg. 297) This quote comes from Wes’s ex-wife Edna. She is telling her friend that she needs to go see Wes for his sake. This quote gives us a hint about Wes. He is most likely a recovering alcoholic.

Dimension by Alice Munro

This represents the conflict between Lloyd and Doree in the book Dimension. The quote below is what shapes the heartbreak.

“It got worse, gradually. No direct forbidding, but more criticism.”(pg.270) Here the narrator is talking about the relation between Doree and Lloyd. As time passed, Doree and Lloyd’s relation became very unsteady until Lloyd killed the kids after an argument about dented Spaghetti can and Doree leaving the house.

Blood by Zdravka Evtimova



This is the picture of blood. It can represent the title of the story, which is called Blood.



This picture represents the pet store in Blood, which is where the setting is.



This is a snake. The narrator tells us he sells snakes in his pet store.




The narrator tells us he sits on an old couch in the corner of his shop.



One of the characters in the story is an old lady



The old lady wanted to buy blood of a mole.



The old lady needed the blood for her son who is sick.





The blood healed the lady's son.



The next day, an old man cuts the pet shop owner's arm for blood.




Dark days begin to pass uneventful.



A mob of people show up the pet store.


The mob of people show up with knives, they all want blood.



The Bees by Dan Chaon

Welcome to another post. In this post, I will be using quotes and pictures to help explain different elements in the story The Bees. The elements will be characterization, mood, and foreshadowing.

The picture represents the main character.

Characterization: “He thinks of the way she leaned over him and brushed his hair as he stared at her, imprisoned in a full body cast, sweating his way through withdrawal and DTs.” This quote gives us an idea of Gene (main character) in the story. It tells us that he had a rough past and alcohol/drugs were heavily involved in his life.



This picutre represents Gene(main character) thinking.



Foreshadowing: “He can’t sleep. The presentiment that Mandy and DJ are dead has lodged heavily in his mind.” Mandy is his former wife and DJ is his son. He hasn’t seen them for a long time. From this quote we can guess that he may go back to drinking to take the thought out of his mind or maybe try and find them.



This can represent the mood of the story which is a dark psycological story. Death is also thought alot through out the story.



 Mood:“Here is a high empty wail that severs Gene from his unconsciousness like sharp teeth. It is the worst sound Gene can imagine, the sound of a child dying violently.” The narrator is describing Gene’s mental reaction to his son Frankie who sometimes wakes up and screams randomly. This sets the mood of the story to a psychological horror type. 

How Far She Went by Mary Hood

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/725851.How_Far_She_Went -I think this is a good discussion website. People post their thoughts and feeling toward the books and even recommend other stories.

http://www.enotes.com/topic/Mary_Hood- Very good website that gives us background information on Mary Hood, author of How Far She Went. It tells us biography and her writing stlye.

http://uk.ask.com/beauty/Analysis-on-How-Far-She-Went-by-Mary-Hood- This site provides links to various discussions such as themes and criticism. This could help understand other people's point of views.

http://prezi.com/ke07qoomloiy/how-far-she-went/- This link will take you to a prezi that gives us more detailed information about the author and the stories she published. This will help students get a better idea of the types of story they are reading.

http://books.google.com/books?id=2FGahwDJFu4C&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=how+far+she+went+mary+hood+discussion&source=bl&ots=rfYejN7hKB&sig=A5sJjMN7ZIWoE6qauByeV2P5pAY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SdlWT5n5NZK_gAeVkJn3DA&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=how%20far%20she%20went%20mary%20hood%20discussion&f=false- This link takes you to a discussion page. It compares themes with other stories and writing style of different female authors.

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1000- This link shows all the awards Mary Hood won throughout her career.
http://www.betterworldbooks.com/how-far-she-went-id-0380699729.aspx- This link takes you to a discussion page. This will help students understand different points people make. Good way for social interaction.

http://www.chacha.com/question/what-are-the-themes-of-mary-hood's-how-far-she-went- On this website, you can post a question about the story and recieve different answers from people. You can decide which answer scales best with what you think the answer is.

http://engl611-nixon.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/Hood,+How+Far+She+Went.PDF- This site offers a printable copy of the story. You can choose the font size and type of font. Good website for free story prints.

http://books.google.com/books/about/How_Far_She_Went.html?id=vP9eLWaRSUUC- This site takes you to a comment and rating page about How Far She Went. This is website gives people a chance to leave there opinions and thoughts about the book.

http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/how_far_she_went- This link will take you to a website where a summary of the story is listed. Under the story, it tells us a little about the author and how she came up with the story. This would help students make connections between real life and the short story.