The First Day Analysis

The First Day by Edward P. Jones is a story about a young girl that is about to go to her first day of kindergarten. The story goes into detail about how the mother perfected her daughter’s clothes and hair, along with going to extreme lengths to get her to school. It is evident after reading that the family lives a poverty stricken life and the reason why the character’s mother was so determined to get her daughter to school is to give her a better life than the one she had as a child. The reader knows the mother didn’t get an education when she asks another woman for help filling out a form because she can’t read or write, it is also evident in the way that she talks. In the first sentence the girl states, “long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother” (page 1), this combined with the fact that at the end of the story the mother didn’t play their game with the girl shows that the mother gave her daughter up to this higher class of society which eventually caused the girl to be ashamed of her mom.

Short Story #2 (Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin): Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin is a story about two brothers difficult lives growing up in Harlem and how poverty affects one’s opportunity to live a comfortable life. Throughout reading it becomes clear that despite going different paths in their lives the brothers are both imprisoned in some …show more content…
Krebs tries telling stories of the war to everyone, but nobody seems to care because they only want to believe in the heroism of war, not the sad and gruesome stories that Krebs experienced. Throughout reading it becomes evident of the conformities society expects Krebs to make in order to fit in. This is similar to War Correspondent in that both Steinbeck and Krebs want to help ordinary people understand the “behind the scenes” of war instead of just believing the lies that society wants them