Katherine Anne Porter

As I was reading "The Source," I quickly realized that the Grandmother, Sophia Jane, had a big influence on the people around her. She was full of personality, and had a leadership role in the story. The African American people who worked for her would complain about their living situations to her, and Sophia Jane would make sure their needs were met. Sophia Jane also seemed to like everything clean and organized, and was big on authority. I got the sense that her grandchildren loved her very much, but were also happy to get away from her at certain times due to her strict leadership role. Sophia Jane seemed to have such a caring heart, not only did she care greatly for the people around her, she also took great care in the animals she owned.
Once I started reading "The Old Order," I realized how much Sophia Jane hated change. The values she had are values from the old south, getting married, having children, disciplining your children, and men working. She seemed to love the past because she would always talk about the past. On page 12 Sophia Jane and and Nannie said that, "children were conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity. Childhood was a long state of instruction and probation for adult life, which was in turn a long, severe, undeviating devotion to duty, the largest part of which consisted in bringing up children." I thought that was a strange way of child rearing.
On pages 12-14, I finally figured out who Nannie was. She was an African American girl who was bought for Sophia Jane to be her playmate. I thought it was really sad that Nannie was taken away from her parents because someone wanted to buy her. On page 14 I read, "I want the little monkey, I want that one to play with." That is what Sophia Jane said to her father. I think that the only good that could have come of Nannie being taken away from her parents was that she was free of hard labor. Instead of being worked to exhaustion, she was able to grow up as a playmate to another girl, and they grew up to be the best of friends. It's sad that she was taken away from her parents and sold like she was nothing to another family, but I think it gave her a better life. Nannie even celebrated her birthdays. At first she didn't know when her birthday was, but Sophia Jane closed her eyes and pointed to a day on the calender, and that day was to be her birthday. She even guessed the year she was born. Once her date of birth was determined Sophia Jane wrote it in the family bible with everyone else' s. I think this gave Nannie a sense of belonging and importance, also feeling that she was cared for by others.
Later on in the story I read about a change that Sophia Jane didn't like. She didn't like how the role of women was changing. She seemed upset that one of her sons married a "wild women." She didn't like her daughter-in-laws direct way of speaking, walking, and talking. Sophia Jane didn't like that her sons wife had to have her way about everything, and she compared her to the "new woman," who wanted to vote and make her own living.
I liked how Sophia Jane and Nannie were such great companions. They seemed to enjoy each others company a lot. Sophia Jane even breast fed for one of Nannies babies when she was ill. Sophia Jane didn't care about how much her husband told her not to breast feed that baby. She just wanted to help out her friend. They both seemed to have lived honest and spiritual lives. Even though Nannie enjoyed where she was, she was still very saddened by slavery. On page 23 I read, "She could not understand why God, Whom she loved, had seen fit to be so hard on a whole race because they had got a certain kind of skin." I feel that she blames God for slavery.
"The Witness" reminded me of the Frederick Douglas readings. Uncle Jimbilly told stories of how horrible the slaves used to be treated, going into gruesome details. It was very difficult for me to read about the torture slaves encountered in the Frederick Douglas readings, it gave me feelings of sadness and disgust, and I had those same feelings in this one. I don't believe anyone should have had to live their lives like that.

Dry September, By William Faulkner

I thought this story showed us how unfair it was for African American people in the south of that time period. Based on a rumor in the town, a black man named Will Mayes was accused of a crime which possibly could have never happened. It seemed like some of the men in the barber shop randomly picked a black man to be the suspect in the rape of a white woman named Minnie Cooper. Without any evidence that a crime has actually taken place, Will was chosen to be the rapist based on his skin color. Just because Minnie said that the rapist was black, doesn't mean that it was Will. I thought it was so unfair that no one even bothered to look for evidence against him, beginning with his where abouts on the night of the crime. But I guess back then no one cared. If you were African American you had no rights according to most of the white people of the south in that time. Only one white man was brave enough to stand up for Will, and that man was a Barber named Henry. I liked how he spoke from his heart regardless of what others might think about him. Henry new that he lived in a raciest town, but he still tried to convince the others that he didn't believe Will committed the crime, and even mentioned that a crime may have even never existed. It was sad that no one else thought like Henry.
When the men who accused Will of the crime decided to get their revenge by going after Will, Henry went with them in hopes of stopping them from harming him. But he could do nothing. I thought it was sad when he jumped out of the moving car because he didn't want to see what was going to happen to Will. The story never described Will's fate, but it seemed that he was killed once he was taken because McLendon had a gun with him, and because some men in town had a few words to say about the incident, "What did they do with the nigger? Did they_? Sure. He's all right, all right, is he? Sure. He went on a little trip." Then someone else said, "Do you see? There's not a Negro on the square. Not one." It really bothered me to read that because Will never even had a chance once he was labeled as a rapist.
I don't even believe that a crime was committed. I think that Minnie made it up because she was depressed and desperate for attention. She was almost 40 years old and single. Guys never looked at her anymore and all of her friends were married with children of their own. When she was in the movie theater and started to laugh nonstop, I think she was happy that she was the talk of the town again, just like she used to be when she was younger. She was proud of herself for finding a way for people to notice her again, and because of it, a man was more than likely brutally murdered. It's sad that Will never had the chance to defend himself, and that it was only after his death that people began to question Minnie's accusations.

Kate Chopin

I thought the three stories by Kate Chopin were very exciting. She wrote about, love, romance, scandal, race, and social class, and her stories were so unpredictable that I didn't know what to expect next. My favorite story by Chopin is called, "Desiree's Baby," because I was so surprised by the ending.
When I first started reading, "Desiree's Baby," I couldn't understand why Desiree was abandoned . The writing said, "The prevailing belief was that she had been purposely left by a party of Texans, whose canvas-covered wagon, late in the day, had crossed the ferry that Coton Mais kept, just below the plantation." I couldn't tell if Chopin was trying to give us the idea that she was left by people who didn't want her, or if possibly, maybe slaves had left her their because she looked white, so they thought she could have a chance at a better way of living if a white family found her and adopted her.
Once Desiree was found by a loving family, it seemed like a fairytale. She was beautiful, in love, wealthy, happy, and pregnant by her husband who was everything to her. But shortly after the baby was born the fairytale started to crumble. I liked when Desirees mother looks at the baby and said in surprise, "This is not the baby," and Desiree just laughed at her reaction and began talking about how much the baby has grown. She didn't even realize that anything was different, she had just thought that her mother was surprised at how much the baby had grown. I think that shows how much Desiree had cared about and loved her child.
When I read the end of the story I was so surprised. I never would have thought that Desiree would take her baby and walk into a body of water, never to be seen again. I believe she did that because her husband meant everything to her, and without his love for her and their child she felt that she had nothing worth living for. She was in shock, and I don't think she fully new what she was doing at that moment because if she was aware, I don't think she would have ended her babys life. She could have reaised her baby at her mothers house, and provided a great life for it just like she had. I was also shocked when I read the last line of the book, "night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery." That means that Armand was just like Desiree, his mother was black and his father white, but because they were both light skinned they never knew it. Thats why the baby was born so dark. Armand had drove Desiree to her death by making her feel so ashamed of where she had come from, and all along he came from the same place. I wonder if he'll hate himself for what he is, just like he hated his own wife and child for being of mixed race. I still can't understand why he acted that way towards her when he found out that she was of mixed race. If he loved Desiree and his child so much, why wouldn't he let love overcome his feelings of hatred for a different race.
At the end of class on Friday, I heard someone mention that they didn't believe Desiree had one black parent and one white parent, they thought that Armand was the one that caused thier child to be darked skin. I agree with that. In the writting Desiree said, "Look at my hair, it is brown; and my eyes are gray," And my skin tone is fair," "Look at my hand; whiter than yours." I believe that Desiree was the pure one, and it's sad that she had ended her life, along with her child's life, just because of how Armand had made her feel, which was ashamed of herself. I know that Desiree wouldn't even care that her husband was of mixed race, but she was never able to find out the truth.

Frederick Douglass

I found this reading to be very upsetting for me to read. There were even a few parts that made me tear up. I got a horrible view of what slavery was like by reading about the life of Frederick, who was born into slavery and taken away from his mother before he turned one years old.
While Frederick was describing the horrible acts of violence he witnessed while growing up, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of person could do something like that. The slaves were abused so much, even though they worked so hard and obeyed their masters. They were treated as if they had no feelings at all. The part that bothered me the most was when Demby ran into the creek and stood at the depth of his shoulders to get away from being whipped by Mr. Gore. Mr. Gore told him that if he wasn't out of the water by the count of three he would be shot. Demby was tortured so much by getting whipped that he couldn't take it anymore, so he ran to safety and refused to come out even though he knew his life would be ended by his choice. That part made me really upset. Slaves should have never had to suffer like that.
The part that I liked reading about was when Frederick taught himself how to read and write. He had so much hope and passion to continue to learn how to read and write, even after Mrs. Auld stopped teaching him. Mr. Auld told his wife to stop teaching Frederick because it was unlawful and unsafe, and he would become unmanageable to them and would be useless to keep. Then Mr. Auld said, "If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an eel," and I loved when Frederick quoted that in his writing once he learned to read and write because it meant that he had come so far on his own to learn , even though he could have gotten into a lot of trouble if he was caught. He was very clever too. Especially when he used to tell the white boys that he could write better then them, and ask to have a contest to see who would win. He did that just so he could have a chance to learn new words. He had so much determination to learn to read and write, and he did it.
At the end Frederick managed to escape the awful life of slavery. This was his second time trying, and he succeeded. I enjoyed reading that part as well. But I couldn't figure out where he met his wife, Anna. In his writing he said that he wrote to her immediately after his arrival to New York, so he must have known her from somewhere, but I couldn't recall reading about her in his writings.