Short Story 3 A Good Man Is Hard To Find

1.I felt alittle confused with this story like the concept of the story was hard to find. The grandmother was very outspoken, she was always talking. The family was going on vacation to Florida, the grandmother didn't want to go to Florida she wanted to go to Tennessee. She wanted her son to read the paper about the misfit in Florida running around. I felt like the only reason the grandmother wanted her son to read the paper was because she was thinking about herself and she wanted to go to Tennessee. The family left to go to Florida and the whole way all the grandmother did was talk. The kids seemed very happy and outspoken themselves. Jonh Mesley and June Star were the two kids and there was also a baby. The family went out to eat at Red Sam's Barbeque where they met Red Sam and his wife. He was upset because he was saying that everything was getting terrible that people just run over him. He had said that he credited some gas and the people never came back. The old woman said she supposed it was beacause he was a good man that he did that for those people. As they traveled the grandmother kept talking about a house she wanted to see and she said the house had a secret panel with money hidden. Wesley and June Star wanted to see the house so the father was going to let them. The grandmother told them where the road was and then she relized that the house was really in Tennessee. Bailey, the older son, wrecked the car. The 3 men that came to help ended up being the misfit. The misfit killed the family taking them into the woods with the little boy and the father, then the mother, the daughter, and the baby. The grandmother stayed there in the street talking to the misfit. She told him that he should pray. He said he believed "Jesus was the only one that ever raised the dead, and he shouldn't have done it. he thrown everything off balance. if he did what he said, the its nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow him, and if he didnt then its nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can-by killing someone, or burning down there house or doing some meanness to them. no pleasure but meanness. If i would have been there i wouldnt be the way i am now. he said theres no real pleasure in life." The whole family is dead, he killed the grandmother and the rest of the family.
I was confused about how to feel about the story i wasnt really upset when the grandmother died but i was when the rest of the family did. I felt confused about the story i didn't really know how to feel.

2. subject- family going on vacation to florida

theme- always be kind hearted even when its not needed. Karma always comes back around

I like the story alot, it was hard to put together what the author was trying to say. The old woman in the story was very minipulative, selfish, and out-spoken and stuck up all the time. The only time the woman was nice was when she wanted something. In the end when the misfit was going to kill her she was nice. I feel like this explains the theme of the story. Always be kind hearted, not only when your doind it because you want something.

3.The closest thing the author said about the theme was when the misfit said "she would of been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."

I felt like this had alot to do with the theme, be good hearted all the time not only when you want something. If the old woman would have been thinking about others instead of just herself the family wouldn't have been in the predicament they were in. They probably would have ended up in Florida on vacation.

4. subject-a young woman with leukemia who falls in love with a popular young man

theme- true love will remain strong through thick and thin regardless of everything going on.

Short story #1 A Party Down At the Square

This story was told by alittle boy that saw a man get burned in a fire. I believe its supposed to be from back in the day but there was a plane and electric lines so it couldn't be to old. There was a man getting burned down in front of the courthouse. He was a black man so this was a racial story. The little boy in the story was talkin like that was all he was use to. In the story someone called the boy a name that had Cincinnati in it. I asume thats where he is from.

I feel like this story was cruel and had no purpose. There were three main tragedies that happen in this story and then the story ends.The first tragedie is a black man getting burned in a fire by the community. The second tragedy is a plane thinks the fire is the landing and crashes. The third tragedy is a big storm that causes alot of problems in the town and then the story ends.

I feel like there is no reason for this story. Why would somebody want to write a story like this? that is my response..i almost felt uncomfortable reading this story.

After finding out that Ralph Ellison is a black man it changed my outlook about the story. I feel like he wanted people to know how people were treated during this time.

2. The boy in this story was young. He was a child and he live with his mother and uncle Ed that is with his mother. His father passed away. This boy was the narrator of the story. When ythe man got burned and the boy was talking about the man being strong it made me feel as if he had sympathy for the man, but then i relized that he was raised to not kno that blacks are equal so that why he had an attitude like he really didnt care.

3. the author didn't explain waht the athour was like. The characters were shown and noticed by there actions. A character in the story name Jed let himself be known because of his cruelty he kept throwing gas on the fire and trying to let the man burn.
4.simlie-is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the word "like" or "as".
metaphor-describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way.
personification-The act of personifying
allusion- a literary device that stimulates ideas, associations, and extra information in the reader's mind with only a word or two.
hyperbole-A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect
irony-the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning

SHORT STORY 2 It Can't Be Helped from Farewell to Manzanar

In this short story I learned alot about feeling like an outsider. The girl in the story was very young and brave and reminded me alot of myslef. She was going through a time in the World War 2 where there were plenty of racial faces toward oriental people, she herself was oriental. She was moved all over America to different places. She had to go through a frightening experience with her own oriental people because she was raised in a caucasion community. The oriental kids at the new schools teased her and bullied her because she only spoke english. Her father often spoke of the orientals coming to take her away she she was scared.
When I was younger I went through a similar experience so I can understand how frightened, lonely, and scared she was. She had alot of family support so I believe what kept her strong was her family. The ending of the story never told us what happened to this girl but it showeed a state of relief for the troubled family during World War 2.


I believe the meaning of this story is focused on insiders and outsiders. I believe it wants some symphathy for the people who had to go through tragic situations due to wars. It has to do with racial problems and situations that help you determine your character. The story had alot of different settings but most were ghettos places where they had to live, not chosen. There was a part in the story where they mentioned American Friends Service which was a Quaker organization formed in 1917 to aid Victims of war. I think the author really wanted people to know what people had to go through the heart ache and the tragedies that most people will never know about.