O. Henry Award

In my second critical reading exercise I wrote more than my last one. I included three paragraphs and I started off my assignment with, “In Sherman Alexie’s short story, “Indian Education”, includes many concepts of the genre conventions, such as being alienated from his society and feeling left alone to solve his own problems. However, Alexie also modified some genre conventions such as conflict of generations”. This introduction is different from my last critical reading assignment because this time I included the title of the reading and had a clear thesis that maps what I will be discussing in my next paragraphs. The second and third body paragraph talked about a genre convention that was used/modified in the short story, and I ended that paragraph with what message that can be interpreted by using/modifying that genre convention. I feel like this critical reading exercise is much more in depth and clearer than my last critical reading assignment by having a clear thesis, and nice flow: start with a genre convention, then a quote to support the genre convention, and lastly the message that the genre convention conveys. I chose to use this type of organization because it feels clear, straightforward, and leaves no room for confusion. Besides the critical reading assignment, it was nice to write in a different style and structure for the RIP assignment. I liked that my ideas were able to flow freely from my brain to my hands. I did not have to think about analysis because…

Cathedral Who is actually considered blind? A person who cannot physically see or a person who cannot see because of their ignorance? In Raymond Carver 's short story Cathedral, as any other good short story. We have our antihero who also comes along with our protagonist. In this case our antihero has no name, but goes by the title the narrator. Both of these main characters are proceeded differently. Robert the protagonist of the story embodies the characteristics of being a humble person who…

In everyday life, prejudice is an ongoing dispute faced by people for many different reasons; these reasons include religion, race, ethnicity, physical and mental disabilities, and almost any kind of diversity in general. In the short story titled “Cathedral”, written by author Raymond Carver, Carver illustrates character growth of a protagonist through the our unnamed narrator – referred to as “Bub” by Robert – when he undergoes a transformative experience realizing he should not discriminate…

Robert Carver uses the character Bub, in his short story “Cathedral”, to demonstrate the difference between being physically blind and emotionally blind. Bub proves that he is capable of seeing the physical things around him, such as his wife, his home, his marijuana, and even the blind man Robert, who eventually changes his outlook on life. However, these sights are all on the surface and have no deep meaning to Bub and his one track minded life style. In fact others authors including Mark…

There are many ways to describe a character. Some ways are through dialogue, character description, language etc. “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver and “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason, both made characters very similar. However, with similarities also comes differences. Both husbands from Carver and Mason’s short stories both felt unwanted by their wives but in different ways. Carver made the husband feel unwanted by making him jealous while Mason made the character feel unappreciated. In “Cathedral”,…

the Magi” by O. Henry, was published in December of 1905. In only a few pages, William Sydney Porter, under his pen name O. Henry, composes a magical story of love and sacrifice. Both characters are willing to give up what they love most for the person they love. O. Henry shows his excellence as a writer in “The Gift of the Magi” with his plot, use of irony, and his theme of love. According to Emily Wenstrom from “The Write Practice”, there are a few elements that are key to writing a…

The title of the text is, “The Bath: What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.” It is written by Raymond Carver and the primary characters are Scotty, his mom, Mrs. Ann Weiss, his dad, who was referred to mostly as the father in the story. The story concerns a boy called Scotty who will soon celebrate his 8th year birthday. In preparation for the birthday, his mom went to the baker’s shop to order his spaceship chocolate cake, which will be ready on Monday morning before the birthday starts…

“Fat” by Raymond Carver is the first short story in a collection called Will You Please Be Quiet, Please. Carver intrigued me because of his unique style of writing and captivated me from the first short story I read. This short story is a conversation between the narrator and her friend Rita, as she serves a fat man in the diner where they both work. The story, whilst seemingly is a ‘slice of life’ everyday mundane observation, slowly becomes more uncomfortable and unsettles dark secrets that…

“Cathedral” is a story about a man’s changing views, based on a growing and learning experience that he faces throughout the story. The man’s speech on his wife about her initial contact with the blind man begins passively: her job to work for the man is simply a job, nothing more. The narrator grows a rapid jealousy and resentment, following the event where his wife allowed the blind man to touch her face, although his initial reaction to reading the poem about the event is blank and unmoving,…

R.K.Narayan’s ‘Talkative Man’-A Mini Novel of Many Characters: A Study A. Phaniraja Kumar Abstract: Talkative Man is a short novel based on a man’s life in his struggle to make his reputation as a renowned journalist(TM) in the well-known modern town of Malgudi. It also describes the charisma of born flirt Dr. Rann and his Home Guard wife, Sarasa. In this novel R.K.Narayan focuses on characters rather than incidents. It is an entertaining read with humorous moments juxtaposed…