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The first story, “Popular Mechanics”, by Raymond Carver was a very interesting story from beginning to end. When the writer is describing how it is covered in snow outside and the time of day it is, I can imagine it all in my head. It is very descriptive and gets you drawn into what is going to happen next. I could envision this whole scene in my head like it was a part of a Lifetime film. I got scared when the husband said he wanted the baby and was going to take the baby away from the mother. The whole time I was confused because I didn’t know why he was leaving in the first place and why he was so set on taking the baby away. We never get any back story but this little scene. When they are physically fighting for the baby I am fearing what the outcome will be… and then to be so confused! Very good read, but still confused as to what the last sentence means.
ReplyDeleteThe story, “Reunion” by John Cheever also left me with a lot of questions. In the beginning, I was expecting for the father to be like a high class man that treats the son like one of his distant interns, but he actually treated him like a son. At the first restaurant, I felt bad for the dad because although he was rude I think in a way maybe he was trying to impress his son after so many years. I know what it is like to be with a family member that is rude in this way, maybe, it was the day and age that they were raised in that they spoke like that and the waiters didn’t seem to care. Apparently, this waiter was very offended and the father seemed to offend the waiters at every restaurant after that. I started to think that the father maybe had some sort of mental illness when he thought he was in England and started to speak in Italian. The end made me sad because maybe the son didn’t want anything to do with him after his little tantrums.
- Cassandra Martinez
Both of these pieces were very interesting to read as well as entertaining. In relation to these two stories they both dealt with family in two different manners. For “Popular Mechanic,” you were able to experience the intensity of emotions in the couple’s fight for their baby by the way the author uses dialogue. Since there weren’t any quotations in the story, I felt like I was reading a script, which made it bit easier and smoother to read. The fight over their child was emotional since the mother was desperately trying to hang on to her beloved baby. Her enraged voice drew my attention from the beginning. And emotions and frustration were filled in this violent scene. The tone played a huge part in this story. I hated how the father’s attitude towards his family. He didn’t have a care in the world, and there was no clue why he was leaving. But he couldn’t forget his baby. It drove him crazy to leave without his baby. In my head, I was wondering if their actions are justifiable because the couple is going through a tough divorce and their child is on the line. As they were in this physical fight or tug of war over their baby, it left me worried about the baby’s health. Neither of them let go of the baby. But this didn't help, instead they were hurting this poor little thing! At the end, I could feel the father’s anger as he holds on tight to the crying baby. “In this manner, the issue was decided” I was left to wonder was this baby killed in the end, when the parents were fighting? Or was the baby finally given to the one of the parents? If so, who would be the one to have the baby. The author left me with questions unanswered. As the second story, the “Reunion” it had a depressing setting. After all these long years, Charlie was excited to see his father once again and hoped to develop a better father/son relationship. It is told in Charlie’s point of view. He excepted his father to be the greatest person, but as we get into the end the father turned out to be a rude, selfless drunk.. As they were going on this journey to different restaurants together, the father was just so rude to the waiter, showing absolutely no respect. If you’re showing no respect to people, what makes him think he’ll show respect to his own family? No wonder the mother divorced him. He was creating a bad example for himself. With Charlie he was so looking forward to this reunion and it just came crashing down on him with his father’s insecurities. The ending sums it up perfectly. “… that was the last time I saw my father.” From these two stories, there were both left incomplete and left me to wonder what happened between these two families in the future.
ReplyDeleteAndrea Espericueta
From my perspective I think these two pieces were similar, not that they were the same with the meaning they were portraying, but the way I understood them both. I understand “Popular Mechanics” as short story of fake experiences the author might have encountered or witnessed. Like a story from real life that could have been easily mixed up and said. And for “The Reunion” I think it would go the same way, it could be a whole type of relationship with some individual and his father and things could have happened that way, but in realty maybe it had not. I feel like these two pieces were stories that had happened in real life but were made up of or twisted through out the lines.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the two, I enjoyed reading “Popular Mechanics” more because of its description. Just through out the story I felt like something horrible was about to occur. I liked how I was able to understand the tension between the individuals that were arguing back with each other. I understand that one of them was leaving the situation and it just started to get heated up. Even though the author used dialogue without quotations I still like feel I was able to understand the piece. One part that was kind of absurd I was how able to picture the stove and picture them fighting over their baby. I felt like something was about to happen to the innocent baby and since the stove had been mentioned they were going to be tied in together, but towards the end of story I came to the conclusion that something else had happened not what I thought.
As for “The Reunion” you would think that it was going to be a story that was based on family and having them all together but in the end it was just a regretful time with a son and his father. I can honestly say that I did not enjoy this story, I felt confused because of the languages the father was speaking and another thing was how it ended, it ended in a negative way. Well actually both of these stories did, but “The Reunion” just seemed too confusing to me and how there was just a lot of dialogue from the father when he had been shouting at random people at the locations they would be hopping around to.
-Aliza Longoria
We read two more short-short stories this time, the first by Raymond Carver and the second by John Cheever, both American and both now deceased. Carver grew up in the Northwest and published numerous short-stories during his 27 year career which began in 1961 and ended with his smoking-related death due to lung cancer in 1988. Cheever was from New England and was famous mostly for his short-stories though he completed four novels. Cheever died a few years prior to Carver but was quite a bit older.
ReplyDeleteCarver’s Popular Mechanics is composed primarily of non-quoted dialog between a couple. However, the short-short story begins by describing the weather where and pulls the reader inside to where the couple reside by way noting a window and ominously ending the introductory paragraph “but it was getting dark on the inside too.” Next a one sentence paragraph describes the action of the male member of the couple before launching into a series of also short paragraphs.
As mentioned previously, none of the dialog is quoted and I found this made the story difficult to follow. Although non-quoted dialog can work as seen in Angela’s Ashes, since so much of this story was dialog, it made it difficult to separate the action from the speech. Further, the series of short paragraphs also made it hard to follow. While it is possible that Carver is using this for some kind of effect, and truly a short-short story is so short that there may not be enough time to let the reader slow down and enjoy a lengthy descriptive paragraph, the whole device didn’t really work as far as I’m concerned. Perhaps Carver was trying to emphasize the animosity of the two parties against one another but it simply confused me. Of note that aside from short dialog-centered paragraphs, there are occasionally other short paragraphs that describe the scene. Since the dialog is unquoted, it is difficult to pull these paragraphs from the other and simply adding quotation marks would have aided this greatly.
Cheever’s Reunion was cast in the more traditional format and thus made it that much easier to enjoy. Indeed, I’m a bit shocked by Carver did since he gave the impression that he was fighting the reader in regards to clarity. It seems to me that one had better have very good reasons to stray outside the accepted standards of English prose in order to not throw the reader. The story is the main thing.
However, Cheever’s Reunion isn’t much of a story, unfortunately, though it smells a lot like Catcher in the Rye. He begins with a nice backstory describing the protagonist (first person narrator) and places the initial meeting between the two in Grand Central Station where they thereupon go from bar to bar. The story consists primarily of showing the rude behavior of the narrator’s father.
During the climax of the story we come to understand why the narrator’s father behaves this way: to get a rise out of someone. Which is kind of funny but also kind of silly. Overall it reads like a little short one might read in The New Yorker, something that just kind of titillates us or causes us to think a bit. There are people like that, the author seems to be saying, people who cause trouble to simply cause trouble.
Of interest to is the response many of the New Yorker’s give to his father. There, it seems, is a whimsical portrait of the brash non-nonsense New Yorker which hits dead on. It may be that their responses to the obnoxious behavior of the narrator’s father is the real focus of the story.
Elizabeth Barham
Both of the stories for this week were very interesting and pleasing to read. Both held a strong concentration in family matters. The first story, “Popular Mechanics,” by Raymond Carver was very entertaining and was quick to catch my attention from the very beginning. It was a doubt presented in a very dark setting, where even the day was turning into something dark right along with the relationship in this story. Both parents are fighting for the baby by yanking at his little arms left and right. The diction of this story really added to the intense effect that is given off. The actions verbs, like pushing, scuffling, and crowded really helped the story become very alive and visual as well. The ending was not clear to me; I didn’t understand what happened to the child. All in all I found that the diction in this story excellently portrayed and established the hostile setting in which the story took place. Consequently, this is a great example of how setting is a very important part of writing too consider when I write my own story. Furthermore, the second story, “Reunion,” written by John Cheever was fast paced as well and quick to grasp the reader’s attention. I think a lot of people can identify with longing or missing someone which I believe was a strong foundation for the writing of this story. It was relatable in one sense or another. One thing I noted was that although the age of the boy is not said it is very clear to the audience that he craves love from his father and misses him deeply, even wanting to be photographed together. Slowly the father begins to extinguish that feeling by his actions. It was very repetitive in the sense that everywhere they went the father had something to say and soon enough they were on their way to yet another restaurant so that kind of became the whole story. Although this this kept happening, the story kept we well on my feet. Most times one would get tired of reading something that keeps on happening over and over but I personally thought it was a very smart and sort of risky way to approach this story.
ReplyDelete- Mayra Lopez
Honestly, when I read Popular Machines, I seriously thought it about technology or something. I was not expecting a fight between an assumed married couple or just partners. I was intrigued by the usage of dialogue that was not using quotes at all. It had a foreboding climb to what most people can consider a "cliff-hanger" ending. It was very dark and suspending throughout the read that kept you guessing at all kinds of possibilities. Questions like: did the author not complete an ending on purpose to keep the suspense or to leave you guessing for the outcome? These are questions that really makes you think about what the writer was thinking while writing the piece. This portrayal of the thriller genre really makes me eager to see more works like this in the future. I enjoyed the dark thriller-like theme going on through the work and I love the suspense that makes me hang on the "what" when I think about the baby. All in all, I definitely enjoyed reading this piece and I have absolutely no complaints about it. This is most certainly types of works that I can use as references for my own writing someday.
ReplyDeleteIn Reunion, it felt sort of awkward with how everything was going for Charlie. He seemed so excited to see his father again and even wishing that there was some way that it was recorded that they were together. You do feel that sense of longing and some deep affection he has for his father. I do like the sensory using scent when he said he smelled: "a rich compound of whiskey, after-shave lotion, shoe polish, woolens, and the rankness of a mature male." I loved how it used that to give that feeling of desire to be close to a significant male figure, to the point that even their scent helps you recognize them. It felt a little weird as you see the father interact with random people at the restaurants they would go to and that they constantly changed locations. You feel a sense of sadness that Charlie is witnessing his dad act like that when he was really forward to seeing him again.The way it ended with: "and that was the last time I saw my father." was brilliant in its' own way, but could have been more explainable. I thought it was an alright read that could have been improved and been more detailed as well.
-Alexa Rodriguez
Popular Mechanics
ReplyDeleteI loved the introduction because the imagery just set the tone for the piece. Usually when snow is being written about, it is fluffy and white and sets a sort of winter wonderland vibe to in. However, in this case, she describes it as slush that is melting into the darkness. Automatically I felt a dreary miserable sort of feeling. I really liked that the author was so specific in the details that he included. However, I don't like that it ended so abruptly. i know that in some writing the ambiguity is part of what makes the writing so great. the mystery that leaves you on your toes adds to the tension. However, in this piece of writing I couldn't really tell what happened at the end and it seemed unfinished.
Reunion
This piece was a bit more straight forward and I really liked that. It gave just enough background on their relationship (or lack thereof) and kept it from being too drawn out and tedious. the rest of the story was easy to keep up with and I think it ended pretty straight forward too. I like that in the beginning, the son said that he would probably end up just like his father, and at first I thought that he was just talking about his career, but as the story went on and we see his father's personality I began to wonder if he would in fact turn out like his father in that way too. I think that the way this was written gives me the liberty as a reader to draw my own conclusions as to the outcome of the son and whether or not he will allow himself to be like his father.
Erin Valdez
Interesting first story, the way it doesn’t start at the beginning the way it’s conventionally taught to start a story. If you follow that sort of thing anyway. That in itself I think is the big takeaway from this one. Who says you have to follow chronological order? After all, you are the writer. It’s your fiction to command and control. This particular piece starts somewhere in the in-between with a fight being had by a couple. It’s unclear why they’re fighting, but the story works it so that the reader doesn’t really have to know. It kept me reading, not solely for the fact that it was a required piece but once the real fight, the one over the baby began I had to see it to the end. Some stories you can kind of visualize the ending before it happens, a premonition of sorts, not this one. The fact that quotations aren’t used by the author of this particular piece, is a peculiar quality I myself would never consider excluding from my own fiction, but as I said before it’s this person’s piece, they can do what they want. What the story lacks slightly, is that the characters aren’t properly fleshed out, in my personal opinion anyway. They could have used a little more detail. However when looking at the subject matter conserving the safety of the baby, one can garner a general assumption of what kind of people they are, electing to injure the child rather than to submit to the will of one another.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you right now John Cheever’s “Reunion” did not hold my interest as “Popular Mechanics” did. There’s a fine line, I believe between real and fake, and this one flirts way too much with it. When a fiction piece is put together, there should be a slight sense of unrealistic qualities. This piece just felt all too relatable. It was geared as a narrative, which was interesting because I have been experimenting with those in my works on memoirs and the like. I feel like this piece offered good insight as to how one can write successfully that way.
Both quality reads, which leave something of a set of cliffhangers towards the end of each story. There’s room for more, but I suppose they leave that to the imagination of the reader.
Lucas Zamora
In Popular Mechanics the tone of the story is very intense and full of drama. It grabs your attention the moment you start to read. The snow melting into dirty water seems to tell the tone of the story as well. How a relationship turns from the snow being good to the dirty water where the relationship is headed into bad. Its full of mostly dialogue between the two characters but its pleasing because of the constant back and forth. It allows action through dialogue in order to keep the reader entertained. The title of the story really gets you thinking about what the story is actually about. It has a completely different sound to the story but it could address what the situation that is happening. The title can mean the separation of mother and father and baby from each other and how this happens frequently around the world. It takes a look from the inside of how it unravels and how dramatic and difficult it is.
ReplyDeleteThe Reunion deals with the same dilemma of a separation that happened years ago. The son and father are still in touch with one another. It seems like it will be a warm get together between both of them. That drastically changes the tone of the story to disturbing once the first restaurant is presented. The style of the story is good to read and the dialogue is the opposite. It puts dark light on the father for a number of reasons that are untold. One reason could be that he is actually that rude to waiters or anybody that he feels superior to. Or it can be that it was the father that did something to cause the separation in the family and that is why the author chose to darken the character of the father so much. To get out the frustration and show how much hatred he has towards the father. The title complements the story really well because it has been a few years since they saw each other, but also it could foreshadow a next time for them to meet. At the end of the story the narrator says and that is the last time I saw him, which might resemble that he only saw him once and doesn’t recall hoe he actually is or that a very long time is going to be waited to be seen
-Victor Vasquez
In the first story, Popular Mechanics it is horrible what is happening, especially since there is a child involved. To me, this reading is very different from others because this is something that many people connect with, especially when the reader may have children and forced to share custody with the person they left. It is very bad that something could happen to a child and to me, this story is a metaphor on how a relationship could fall apart. The child may represent how both of them want to have the relationship continue and also express how they love each other, but it is also a reminder of all the wrongs and ugliness that occurred as well. When they were pulling the child back and forth like a tug-of-war, it is horrible to see because it represents how they both want to put the blame on the other person and prove to the other person that they were right instead of the other. They want to show that person that they are making a horrible mistake and also they are the reason was to why everything is falling apart.
ReplyDeleteIn this story, Reunion, was supposed to be something that was happy and being reunited with someone that the protagonist hasn’t seen in a long time. But as the story continued, we see that a father and son are trying to connect after being separated for 3 years. It may have come off as something that was happy and a family that was being reunited is wonderful, but this story is showing how it can be bad. Over the years, Charlie, the protagonist, has seen that his father has changed and this represents how he feels about his father. At first, before he saw his father again, all he saw a was someone that was a stranger and when he was getting to know him again, he felt that he was right. This represents how he was foreshadowing his own thoughts. Charlie didn’t see his father till later on in life after his parents’ divorce and the then knew when he saw his father again, that he was going to be disappointed. This foreshadowing helps the readers know what may happen in the future and once it happened we saw how Charlie was really disappointed and also how he felt when he had to leave his father again.
- Andrea Serrano
Both stories had me feeling differently about how the children in the story were being treated. Its as if both stories were stirring up emotions in me but I couldn’t figure out what those emotions were. I’ll begin with “Popular Mechanics”. Apparently there seems to be a separation happening between a couple. The husband is packing his things and there is a struggle for who is going to keep the baby. Based on the father packing up the baby’s picture, it shows that he loves his kid. He wants his things and to have him close. Now this struggle seems to get very physical. What a difference there is between this father literally fighting for his son to be him versus what we see in “Reunion”. Now while we are never given the boy's exact age it does appear that he is older than a baby. And in this story the father son relationship is more strained. The son does love his father very much. It is shown in the way he explains how he enjoys his scent and how he wishes someone would take their picture. The father however seems to get a kick out of upsetting others by picking on them. He does this so much he basically misses out on spending time with his son entirely. Both stories had a focus on relationships it seems. The end of “Popular Mechanics”, however left me slightly confused. “In this manner the issue had been decided”. I’m going to take that as meaning that from there on out they would always be fighting over the child? Being a divorced parent myself who went through a custody battle for two years I find it very difficult to see that two parents would so violently pull their own child away from each other. I think as a parent that is what got me most and perhaps why I had emotions I wasn’t quite able to make sense of. Kids deserve kind and loving homes and it just seemed that these parents only cared about what was best for themselves and not for their kids.
ReplyDelete-Diana Zepeda
These short stories are very interesting and very different from each other. Popular Mechanics is somewhat dark, but as a family man, I believe these situations occur, more often than one wants to believe. It is sad. The story starts by describing the setting, the day is dark, there was snow, therefore I assumed there was ice, dirty, and muddy perhaps. There is a discussion between the couple, and there is probably a very strong reason for him wanting to leave, and she also wants him out. There is a narrated dialogue and the developing story absorbed my attention. The attention to the dialogue, gestures and details of the couple, tells me something happened, and whatever it is seems they are both is disappointed. It is hard to tell whether he cheated on her, hurt someone, or did something very wrong. Whatever he did, seems he knows he has to leave, and he wants to take the baby with him. What if it is the other way around and he is leaving her? What if it was her who has a problem?
ReplyDeleteReunion is also sad. But it is clear who is at fault here. The father is not a good example. Seems like Charlie, the son, in the end realized why he grew up, and still grows without a father. The father drinks, has an attitude, disrespects, and seems the type of person who degrades people. The father has bad manners, and treats all restaurant servers very bad. Seems the type of person who cheats through life, and accomplishes nothing. It reminds me of a movie with Dustin Hoffman, but I do not remember right now. As a father, it is sad to read about a son, who did have a hope and was very happy to see his father after so many years. He cherished the moment regardless of his father. He knew what to expect. But as the day passed by, in the end, he reaffirmed who his father was, and it was a bad memory. The moral of the story to me is, enjoy the most of your fatherhood, by setting an example, and leaving a great memory to your children.
-Francisco J. Aboytes
“Popular Mechanics” was confusing to me. I didn’t really see what the point to it was supposed to be. I do find the title really interesting, though, as I don’t see how it relates to the story so it has got me thinking about it more and more, leading me back to the story itself. My best guess would be that the two characters employ popular mechanics for their situations. The woman is trying to kick the man out and the man is trying to take the baby from her, whether because he truly wants the baby or simply to hurt the woman is unknown, but both reasons are equally common. What is also common, unfortunately, is their resorting to a physical altercation. This altercation, I believe, was introduced along with the other unpleasant exchanges by the line, “But it was getting dark on the inside too.”
ReplyDeleteThe lack of quotation marks in their dialogue really distanced them from me as I read, almost like watching a play. I knew what was happening but I was not actively involved, just a fly on the wall. I much more enjoyed “The Reunion” as it made me wonder about the narrator’s father. Is he suffering from a mental illness, Tourret’s Syndrome or is he simply rude? Alzheimer’s perhaps? He seems to be a well educated man as he is familiar with various languages, beyond mere popular phrases as his strings of Italian illustrate. Is his father’s behavior the reason why he took so long to reconnect or is this a new reason keeping him away? I was left with many more questions than answers, but I liked this about it as there are so many angles to look at it from. Perhaps the father is wealthy or came from a high society family who was used to talking down to people. Maybe he is racist and the waiters’ races were some he disliked. Why did the mother divorce him? What is because of this behavior or did this behavior/mental illness develop as a result of the divorce and the resulting grief? I get the sense the father meant well and perhaps didn’t even know he was being so offensive.
Jessica Rodriguez
Before being told that something dark is about to occur in Popular Mechanics, by Raymond Carver, we can already make this assumption from the first sentence. The short story starts snow, which symbolizes clean and pure to it turning into dirty water. The father and the mother in the story are determined to keep the baby, but instead of battling for custody in the future they play tug-of-war with their baby.
ReplyDeleteThe next story seemed like the protagonist, Charlie, knew that it would end terribly and John Cheever makes his readers aware of this in his short The Reunion. From the beginning we can see that the father is not so much of a great father, by having someone else set up an appointment to meet. Unlike his father, we can tell that Charlie does want to have a bond with his father. The father seems to get getting on everyone’s bad side, as if he is not even trying to make a good time while on the clock with his son. In the end of the story Charlie calls his father “daddy” twice, it is a bit strange for a young boy to call his father “daddy”, but it is as if he knows that he will never have that bond with his father. This is his way of finally connecting with his father.
Both stories deal with trouble that is going on in the family. The first story was a couple splitting and the second was already about a split couple and how their child is dealing with it. Another difference is that in the first short the father wanted his child to be a part of his life, on account of him wanting to take his baby with him. Both short stories did provide clues to what would occur in the future. Both children are also affected by the way that their parents are behaving (or did behave). From the two I preferred The Reunion, because I feel that the story is able to get more emotion out of readers.
(Sandra) Melaine Villarreal
Popular Mechanics, the first reading of the two assigned, was a bit of a difficult piece to digest. I found myself not being able to analyze it effectively until my fourth time re-reading it as the ending hit me like a wall of bricks. The situation is an unpleasant one, one that connects to a reader who has witnessed similar fighting and instantly is made uncomfortable as they are torn between watching the two adults argue. The introduction of the baby drives the narrative further and helps bolster the uncomfortable feeling the reader may experience while reading this piece. I believe that the ending is supposed to emphasize what the reader should be feeling, a “torn” feeling as they continue to read this about confrontation. Although I must confess that it is rather morbid and even the last sentence may make light of the situation, it is powerful in achieving its goal.
ReplyDeleteReunion was touching story in a sad manner. A male character who has not seen his father for a long time reunites with him and ponders about his future and follows his father around as he proceeds to yell at a variety of waiting staff. The ending gives us a sense that the main character is rather disappointed in the entire reunion as he simply leaves without giving a hug or handshake, leaving the father arguing with a newsstand owner. I also get a feeling of sadness for the father, as I think he is trying to reconnect with his son as well, but may not really know how to do so, which may indirectly fuel Charlie’s sadness towards his father, as he may be coming to terms that his view of his father may have been slightly glorified and is now dealing with the “reality” of his father not being a good person. I resonated with this story deeply, as I imagined me and my own father in this situation and it made me feel sad, depressed even. A father and son not being able to connect with one another is personally one of the most painful things ii can imagine, which may have played a slight bias of me liking this narrative, but even without that, I feel it is a solid piece overall.
-Pedro Conchas
Raymond Carver short story has plenty of imagery and there is something about arguments that draw the reader into the story. Reading this was like watching drama on TV, Carver wrote this peace well because of the transition between the wife and husband. I was able to hear the tone of the characters arguing to each other. The wife yelling, and the man just talking calmly but stern. Carver brought the reader into the setting of this story by effetely giving clues about kitchen furniture or items. Creating a setting helps a story come alive and is a great tip for me to think about when I write my short stories. The title Popular Mechanics didn’t seem to fit the story the way I would want it to. I guess the title was relating to how the parents were fighting over the ownership of the baby, while trying not to hurt the child. Overall I enjoyed the flow of how this story is written and liked that the ending did not give away on who took ownership. If I’m right about the meaning of the title, then the ending is perfect since there was not a choice made between the parents.
ReplyDeleteReunion by John Cheever was a perfect title for this story. The beginning of the story didn’t attract my attention as much as the middle of the essay. I did not like the structure of how the story started because it was a glob of information. Once the characters met and began to have conversations with one another I was more engaged with the conversation. I enjoyed how Cheever created his characters father into a realistic jerk. I have seen or heard of situations were waitresses are disrespected and Cheever gave great believable examples for this father character. I did not like the father he was so rude and being able to have a feeling towards a character is what every authors goal should be. Cheever smoothly transitioned into three types of scenes. I would have a challenge with just one scene, but this is a great example to look back on for reference.
Bianca Salinas
“Popular Mechanics” was quite amazing! Initially I was a little confuse regarding the author’s choice to start by describing the outside setting. The sentence structure felt simple and odd. It made sense but there’s something about it I found unnerving, it could have been worded better. Although, I did like that in choosing to describe the setting the author presents his story like a play, I can almost see in on stage. There’s something incredible about this type of story, like a cliché that most don’t seem to get tire of. As a reader, we don’t know why the characters are fighting, why she wants him to leave, or why he thinks he is better fit to take care of their child. All we, the readers, are presented with is the tension and anger from both parties. It’s a great technique to get your readers engage and start their imagination running. It makes me think of my personal interactions with people and how I only get to see a glimpse of what goes around their lives, how we can only speculate for the things we don’t see. Another thing I found to be important in this story is the things people do when they have fallen out of love. Never mind the woman’s harsh words or the man crossing her personal space, their hate for one another is so strong they come to overlook the safety of their child and even go so far as to hurt him/her just so one of them gets to keep him/her. “Reunion” felt like a distant memory, melancholic to someone in a similar situation. It’s one of those stories that humanize and demonstrate the very real flaws of those we idealize when we might not know them well. Cheever present the father as a mean drunk through his rude mannerism and appalling behavior towards others but never does the son say anything bad about him. It made me think of how often we’ll see the behavior of others and not do anything about it because they are someone we respect/ or we’re too shocked to do anything about it.
ReplyDelete-Maria Fajardo
Both stories see a difference in their rising tension. Popular Mechanics, by Raymond Carver, is on high tension from the beginning through the use of the dialogue. It is loud with the use of exclamation marks and in short outbursts. Additionally, the exchange between characters is just as quick as the short outbursts causing the reader to speed through the reading. In Reunion, by John Cheever, dialogue is not of importance, but setting is. The reader, similar to the effect of the outbursts of dialogue, are revealed more about the characters based on his interaction in the different environments. In terms of the escalation, or exposition of the story, both flash fictions have a gradual development to the central conflict. The intense fighting dialogue reveals the child to be central when in the middle of the story “she noticed the baby’s picture on the bed and picked it up (Starkey 155)” to which the other character reacted with “bring that back.” The baby is the objective superlative as ultimately upon him/she “the issue was decided (Starkey 156).” In Reunion, the initial conflict is introduced implicitly when the protagonist calls his relation with his father “my fresh and blood, my future and m doom (Starkey 156).” The father/son stress is witnessed with the father’s aggressive behavior with the different servers. The behavior itself, like the intense fighting from Popular Mechanics, is linear in that it becomes expected for the protagonist’s father to treat the servants in a humiliating way. However, the iteration serves to escalate the protagonist’s self-realization, similar to the ending of Popular Mechanics. In Popular Mechanics, a fatalistic ending becomes understood. The parents will not remedy their differences and unfortunately their son has to pay physically. In Reunion, the protagonist’s father is unwilling to change in his way addressing other humans, and the protagonist, realizing he does not have to be part of that way of life leaves. Their relationship becomes frozen in time as “that was the last time I saw my father.”
ReplyDeleteFrom the selected readings, I personally liked how dialogue can help make a quick interesting read; on the other hand I don’t think I’ll be relying on multiple settings for character exposition unless necessary.
-Alejandro Sanchez
In the short story “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver wrote in a simple manner and intensified his narrative through the use of strong verbs. His organization is chronological by the structure of the short sentences. One of the strongest elements found in this narrative is the power of setting and the gruesome comparison the events subtly occurring externally. For instance, as Carver introduces the characters, he describes particularly the weather and how “snow was melting into dirty water.” Moreover, the intensity of the action is described through “streaks” running down. I think Carver intended the reader to notice such beginning and used it cleverly to transition smoothly into the darkness inside the couple’s home. The reader is not informed of what caused the conflict, but is entertained through the calamity and the effects. The repetitive exclamations populated the story and the reader is trapped in between the isolated sentences. As I reread this narrative, I thought about the title and did not find much significance as to why it was “popular mechanics.” However, as I consider the ending, I am convinced that the title is given in a negative tone. In the end, the baby who was fiercely fought over is lost and “the issue was decided.”
ReplyDeleteJohn Cheever’s “Reunion” is developed through a first person narrative. The author is able to bring up strong characterization in the very beginning as he introduces the paternal figure as a dominant one. Immediately, the reader is able to catch a sense of familiarity and how significant the father is to the narrator. Cheever is astute when he includes descriptive language by incorporating details in the adjectives expanding on the imagery while reviving the senses. The setting is changed into four different scenarios each augmenting the drama and revealing the character of the father. The reader is impressed by the high image of the father but the exposition of his character through the dialogue is quite melancholic. Cheever writes swiftly making his paragraphs mainly short, but still the reader is able to feel the tense atmosphere. Cheever succeeded in the development of the characters, the careful description of the conversations, and the juxtaposition or sharp contrast between the father’s words and the child’s expectations.
- Julio Manzano
In “Popular Mechanics” it is interesting to see the lack of quotation use again. The characters also don’t have names, and the baby is discussed as an object rather than a living human. I felt like Carver was distancing me from the story as much as possible and yet still letting me very close. I felt like a fly on the wall watching the entire situation progress. His analogy of the darkness outside and the darkness inside was brilliant. Letting the reader know what we were to witness beforehand. The only closeness we have to the characters in the story is when Caver lets us inside their heads for the moment they are fighting over the baby. Carver lets us feel what they feel, not necessarily in emotion but more in touch. “She felt her fingers being forced open.” We have the view of the women. “He felt the baby slipping out of his hands,” we are also able to view the man’s thoughts and feeling. But, that’s all Carver gives to the reader. He keeps us at bay without completely letting us into the situation. Almost like in real life, you have families that struggle and have turmoil or serious conflict but they don’t feel they can have it out in the open, or discuss it publicly to be resolved. They must keep it hidden, like society demands; they must keep it in the dark.
ReplyDeleteIn “Reunion,” I felt like Cheever was describing a family reunion, and the narrators father was the crazy uncle, the alcoholic aunt, and the loud cousin all wrapped into one. With his sporadic behavior and their constant removal from restaurants, Cheever gives his father an unstable persona like all family reunions have. The narrator loves his dad and idolizes him and wishes to be around him, just like you wish to be around your other family members. But, when you get them all together, it gets crazy, just like the narrators encounter with his father. The narrator never says he resents his father or is embarrassed of him. He actually keeps his father in a good opinion. The reader sees all the flaws and pities the narrator, but the narrator keeps his father in high esteem.
Claria Buddle
The title “Popular Mechanics” usually refers to a magazine about new gizmos, scientific revolutions, and innovations. This is not how it refers to Raymond Carver “Popular Mechanics” which plays on the idea that all couples fight. But I do not think the title gives the story its full depth, the couple in the story goes all out eventually tearing their baby apart. The last line of the story reminds me of the biblical story of how king Solomon decided who was the real mother of an infant. Two mothers go to the king and demand that the other give up the infant child claiming the baby is theirs. The king decides to cut the baby in half and would give half to each woman. The false mother is accepting of the decision and the real mother wails and begs to not have her child killed. That is how the king decided who the real mother was.
ReplyDelete“Reunion” was interesting in how the narrator presented his childhood perception of his father. The narrator looks up to him and is naïve to his first encounter with his father in three years. He describes smells and effectively communicates his experience through the senses but as well as how, the intent. That of a child, inexperienced and looking for an example. His time with his father slowly progresses to a mix of booze and a downward spiral of mishaps in restaurants with an ass of a father. As the story progressed there is a sense that you realize things about his father along with the narrator. The fathers swindling and alcoholic tendencies are brought to light and the narrator is taken to a point of reflection. The narrator gives up on his father because his father gave up on himself. The narrator grew from it all, never saw his father again but at the same time got a template for what not to be.
- Abran Garcia
Popular Mechanics is an uncomfortable story to read. You have this scene where this couple is splitting up and, at the same time, splitting their child. It isn't outright said, but it is inferred through their actions and how they speak that their fight over the child is less about who will be able to raise the baby, but more like, who can hurt the other by keeping the child from them. It was disgusting and awful. I believe this is a cautionary tale, and it is very effective.
ReplyDeleteReunion by John Cheever is the story that affected me more emotionally. Popular Mechanics was uncomfortable to read, but Reunion gave me a physical reaction. I got choked up and there was a heavy feeling in my chest. It was easy to empathize with this young man who wanted to meet the father he barely knew, only to have his hopes crushed. His father is an alcoholic and an unlikeable man who makes trouble on what should have been a special day for him and his son. I am not sure if this is nonfiction or not, but I felt that the short story had a personal element to it, something real and not fabricated. It would allow a reader to connect to the story beyond the ten minutes or so it would take to read the story.
-Doris Tolar