Homework for 02/05/08

Videotape:
This is an interesting short story and I really enjoyed the way it was written. It had a dark realistic feel and the words show and evoke emotion and maybe even memories from the reader. You feel as if you are the girl filming the video tape and as if you are the man watching the videotape. The man watches the video tape over and over when it is shown on tv because people like to see violence and gore. Television has become increasingly violent over the years and Horror movies are filled with much more gore than before because of this.

Sonny's Blues:
This story is called Sonny's blues, and it is about A man and his brother's lives and their relationship, and its about Sonny's sadness, and the narrator's own. Sonny is a jazz musician who becomes a drug addict. The narrator and his brother Sonny both have lived lives full of death and sadness. From the death of their parents, to the death of the narrator's daughter. The narrator talks of his life, his brothers life and their fights. It's a very sad story and was almost difficult to read because of this. At the end of the story the Narrator sees Sonny play the piano and how it makes him feel, he really puts his soul into his playing becomes really happy when he gets back into playing. Music plays a big role in this story and its referenced many times, and so is the word darkness. That's what I got out of this story, music and darkness.

Lost in The Funhouse:
This is a very confusing to read story. I think there were a lot of metaphors and analogies I probably did not get when I read it either. The story is about a 13 year old boy and his family trip to Ocean City, where believe it or not he gets lost in the funhouse. The write breaks the fourth wall a lot in the story and talks about the writing, what is being done with it, and criticizes it. There are a lot of things that go on in the writing that I don't think actually happened either, so that also makes it confusing. This story definitely takes more than one reading to fully comprehend.