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- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 350 words.
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- Reading responses are due by 10pm on the day PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
I don’t get it. “Wolf’s Head Lake” made absolutely no sense to me. I’m not even sure where to begin because it felt like for the first half I was reading one story but around the start of page 165 it was an entirely different story. I felt kind of lost, the first opening paragraph was good, had a plethora of literary elements and vivid imagery with the writers excellent usage of adjectives but then it just lost me. I thought the story was going to be about this girl spending a weekend during the summer at a lake house, all fun and dandy then it switches to what I feel is a bit darker with the man driving creepily slow in his car that is the “color of the storm clouds”. Oates writes “he’s in no hurry to turn on his headlights” which is also adding to the creepiness and judging from the description at the beginning its already kind of gloomy outside so maybe the driver almost doesn’t really want to be seen? I didn’t enjoy this reading at all, a good chunk of page 165 just seems misplaced and confusing to me, I am actually looking forward to discussing it so I can make some sense of it.
ReplyDelete“Recuerdo” was better than “Wolf’s Head Lake” in my opinion. It made sense. What stood out to me was how initially when Rosa was talking to Don Lorenzo she was uncomfortable and unhappy with the thought of him “taking care” of Maruca. Then as the story progresses, the readers are introduced to her living conditions and life situations and somewhere in there Rosa starts to think “what if” and try to convince herself that life could be good with Don Lorenzo (I think). The story is very real, in the real world plenty of women are in unhappy relationships or living conditions but they put up with it because of financial stability. I think the fact that this story has some truth behind it makes it all the more interesting.
-Alfredo Montemayor
“Wolf’s Head Lake” by Joyce Carol Oates took me a few tries to attempt to read. As I am reading it, I noticed the structure of the story being all one paragraph. Sentences varied from extremely long to rather short and at times it even felt like I was reading a poem. Oates is very descriptive with her language, and is very direct with the reader on her thoughts and emotions. The story itself is very short, apart from standing in the doorway of the cottage, there isn’t much going on. There’s a mysterious character, whom is introduced to be on route heading towards the cottage. Due to the tragic weather that, as the story said, ended a summer day early, I am left to assume it is the author’s husband or father, or some character in that sort, to come to the author’s aid and rescue. There wasn’t much I could get from the story, besides putting the author in a metaphor from being stuck in the cottage. Who is ‘he’ that is coming to her? Is it even a person? Oates is stuck, not even knowing who is coming to her aid.
ReplyDelete“Recuerdo” by Guadalupe Valdes was on the opposite end of structure when compared to the 1st story. Valdes keeps his writing, which is strongly contributed with dialogue, filled with many paragraphs. It isn’t till a little after the middle of the passage that more characters are introduced. The story is about Rosa, who faces a very real problem; finance. Finance is one of the biggest burdens that people face in their everyday life, we are hinted at by Valdes that Rosa has struggled through her life. In hopes of one of her daughters having a better life, she wished that the sexually harassing doctor was more attractive for her daughter Maruca. Rosa clearly wants the best for all her children, and will always put them before herself. This is a problem that some people are faced with in their life, and it shows the measures that some people are willing to go with just to be able to survive.
-Jesus Pena
Wolf’s Head Lake was a short but powerful story. The details surrounding the setting not only paint a very clear picture but set the mood for the story as well. There is more than a fair share amount of details for such a short story but everything that the author provides doesn’t merely take up space but move the story forward in a way that places the reader in that particular setting. I have never been to this location but after everything that Oates does to place me there, it is not hard to not only see but experience the ominous yet curious mood. The way Oates puts these hand in hand is a reference point to how I can place my reader in the type of mindset they would require to read my work. The way that the story jumps around is confusing but overall adds to the mystery of the work, it doesn’t lay it all out there and I actually prefer that, it leaves me room to make my own assumptions and makes the short story, in a way, interactive. The story requires the reader to be engaged and to work beyond just the minimum of only having to read. I would like to accomplish this in my works by having my readers be a part of my works rather than just an observer.
ReplyDeleteRecuerdo does not have the mystery, and although it does have a setting, it isn’t as fleshed out as that of Wolf’s Head Lake. Instead it focuses on the emotions of the main character Rosa. The story places us in her shoes, where she is thinking of doing something that everyone would instantly say no to but because of her circumstances, she actually has to consider the awful proposition. Works like these explore areas that are not usually talked about. The author introduces us to a world that most readers are not familiar with, making us think differently. This type of writing is excellent to model after because it introduces your readers to something new and that in turn causes them to be engaged in the writing.
-Alvaro Pulido
I thought these shorts stories were interesting. In "Wolf's Head Lake" by Joyce Carol Oates she talks about how people enjoy themselves at a lake along the Chautauqua Mountains with loud music and in a beach like setting. Then she talks about how people go into this hotel and show up and disappear. Wondering where they came from but I think because people come from random places just to spend the night. There's a highway 23 with two lanes by Port Oriskany. I felt she might be describing men coming to this hotel for prostitution with the uncle running it. Or the setting made me think it could be a killer on the loose too circling the area finding the next victim when she describes in the last paragraph how the car with the man in the shades drives from highway 23 looking for a way in. And the woman describes with the killer smile could be a part of the scheme.
ReplyDeleteIn "Recuerdo" by Guadalupe Valdes she describes a story of poor people and their lives and explains how a man spoke to her about I guess her daughter. She had a meeting with him and wondered what it was about. The author describes a world of wealth sort of winning over the mothers head and thinking of her daughter,intentions for a better life. Even though her daughter told her how she did not like the man touching her, she considered the mans offer of giving her daughter protection, to take care of her and giving the mother money. Its life choices that make the mother feel these wealthy men come rarely in their life times even if the man was sweaty and disgusting it seems. I wonder what choice the mother made but she seemed to have considered the offer. Even if the daughter did not want it and she is describes to probably be young and have no say in things.
-Adelisa Fuentes
So for the first story, “Wolf’s Head Lake,” by Joyce Carol Oates I noticed that she started with off with a setting, setting the tone and shaping the story, as it goes she went ahead and repeated the same beginning of the first sentence on the second sentence. This caught my attention due to her emphasizing the setting at the beginning and throughout the first section. What I found very interesting from this story, is that she repeated the word, “He’s.” This man or boy, was someone importance to one of the memories that tied up with a lovely summers day. As this character developed he resembles what to me was the lost person in the mists of a summer fun day at a lake that turned in to something very not fun. Carrying on to the next use of repetition, the word “She’s,” this person might have had been the resemblance of a newcomer, a person with no knowledge of the said to be Wolf’s head shaped lake, this is why she asks so many questions.
ReplyDeleteThe second story, “Recuerdo,” by Guadalupe Valdes, reminded me of the Mexican culture. Not offending anyone of course, but this story, even the title says it all, “remembrance.” As this writer starts off with setting, she is also very descriptive with her choice of words. This technique that she uses make me feel part of the story. It is very useful, as it makes us feel what the mother felt along with her daughter working for men, disgusting and abusive men. Relating the next thing, Valdes mentions children and how she cannot help them because she cannot even help herself. She then mentions her past about other men, and how they are going to do the same thing to her daughter Rosa as they did to her. And it makes the character of the mother wonder if there is anything else better for Rosa out there, she explains this at the end. Making her wonder weather old rich men are better due to not being able to give the kids or young poor men that leave, but at the end men are men and they leave.
-Maria J. Salinas
Wolf’s Head Lake had an eerie presence to it. The first thing I noticed was that it was all in one paragraph, this kind of threw me off because the story seems to switch right in the middle to something totally different. A lot of details are given in the story, like the weather and the surroundings. It doesn’t seem like a nice day outside, and it definitely doesn’t seem like a nice time to be out while some lurky man is cruising either. “He” is never given a name, but he does sound dangerous. The fact that he keeps knifes in his car and wear shades at night don’t sound too good either. I tried to make sense of it, but all I could come up with was that “he” was a bad man and everyone should stay away from him and his companion.
ReplyDeleteRecuerdo, by Guadalupe Valdes, was a more entertaining story. The writing puts you in Rosa’s place, leaving you able to read her thoughts and see the decisions ahead of her. The details given make the surroundings sound very unappealing, but I guess that was the point. The dialogue is what basically gives you insight to the story, we find out that Rosa is called over because Don Lorenzo is interested in her daughter. Though he is described as a very unappealing man, he would be able to take care of them. As a woman who seemed to be without the aid of her husband, we can tell that Rosa wants the best for her daughter. We are debating the issue with her. When reading the ending we can more or less tell what she is going to want Maruca to do. Rosa sees the opportunity as somewhat of a blessing, and though nowadays a situation like this may sound crazy, matchups like this were common. Petra represents how Maruca would be if she ended up with someone young and lazy, I feel that is why Rosa doesn’t want her influencing Maruca to do what “the young kids” do. Maruca sounds very innocent, and therefor will do what her mother wants of her.
-Alyssa Ramos
Wolf’s Head Lake by Joyce Carol Oates. This story had a lot of imagery. When reading through it I imagined a little town with the dark weather and carnival just a few miles ahead. I noticed the author didn’t use any paragraph structure. It’s all one long paragraph. The repetitiveness of the story is focusing too much on the setting of Chautautauqua Mountains. The author mentions a screen door and clothesline in the story. I felt a connection there; it took me back to a flashback of my childhood. Being at my great grandmother’s house. She would hang her clothes up on a clothesline and having to get in and out of her house we needed to push the screen door open. When the author wrote “You feel the grit on your fingers, and you touch your face.” (Page 164) I knew exactly what the author was describing. I myself grew up with that same exact feeling. The overall story I liked but didn’t understand it. I didn’t get a purpose to it. It didn’t make scene to me.
ReplyDeleteRecuerdo by Guadalupe Valdes. Very descriptive story. The author didn’t leave out any detail. I followed along well. Her transition flow was easy to follow. She literally took us (the reader) through an entire day in her shoes. From her poor job, introducing us to what seems to be her creepy boss, then the walk home in the extremely hot sun, and lastly getting home to her handful of children and unfaithful husband. Reading this story made me feel like this author is born in South Texas. The story has such similarities as to peoples living situations here. I have sympathy fir the author. I felt bad when reading this story. I can’t imagine what its like to have children you can’t feed or a husband that beats you when he drinks. I had a heavy heart. I read this story multiple times because I liked it. I also got a good setting of where the story may have been or could be. I wouldn’t mind reading more work by this author. I enjoyed her writing.
- Monica Barbosa
In Joyce’s “ Wolf’s Head Lake “ I get this strange feeling that somebody is going to die. And it actually took me three times to figure it out. But it sounds to me that the person that’s talking is the person that’s been kidnapped, describing what he’s noticing around him but suddenly it’s occurred to him that he’s been kidnapped. I’m honestly not too sure. The fact that the author wrote with just one paragraph kind of annoyed me because I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Maybe that’s how the author wanted us to feel? That’s why I thought the author was the kidnappee because he probably couldn’t breathe in those moments in the car watching the guy drive. I may be wrong.
ReplyDeleteIn Valdes “Recuerdo” made me feel like there was a strong message about the history of women and men too, marrying off their daughters to wealth people to break the tradition of being poor. Which is why in the beginning she enters this almost waste land which represents a death of some sort. The death of not having a choice to marry the one you love but to marry for wealth. She is stand offish about it in the beginning but comes to turns that maybe its for the best because she doesn’t want her daughter to be poor, and marrying him would be financially stable. And it’s called Ruecuerdo because in English it means remember and its telling us to remember our roots and how women were wed to men for wealth and that still happens to men in the world now, I think.
-Christopher Capello
Joyce chose a second person point of view for the writing, which I can see works is putting the reader into the story somehow. I kind of felt the story was meant to be somewhat filled with a sense of fear and anxiety due to her choice of words to describe the weather and the lining for fishing or hunting and what not seems to describe what kidnappers or serial killers would use. The car was the same color as the sky is what Joyce created which gives that dark feeling. In Recuerdo, it just seemed to be another unnerving piece especially with the descriptions of violation or molestation was uncomfortable and with an older man who seemed to desperately want the character’s daughter. I can see why the author created t he piece to have conflict and hard decisions but also to reflect on a hard situation to see what to choose. The ending of the piece seemed to have the character leaning to one side that there was more options to the life of her beautiful daughter who could have it all which I thought was too hopeful since even the most beautiful people get divorced or cheated on all the time as well and vanity isn’t forever.
ReplyDeleteLisa Serna
The composition of the story involves so so so many short sentences and an exaggerated use of commas, but that makes the imagery the author wants to draw out for the real more clearly. This particular memory the author is describing makes it seem as the reader is in the presence and the reader can see and feel what the author wants to describe to the reader. The beginning of the story really caught my eye because as Joyce is describing the scenery she repeats, “it’s an early dusk” in two consecutive sentences to add more oomph to her story and it also emphasizes her surroundings. Also the ways she describes the rusted screen doors and how you would need to feel it in your fingers then touch your face and tasting it. I don’t know why you would want to taste the grit from the rusted door but to each their own.
ReplyDeleteRecuerdo starts with short three word sentences to create the scene for the reader. The continuation of short sentences to describe Rosa’s current situation because it paints a clear picture that she wants it to be nighttime but unfortunately it is still noon. The use of suspense while meeting Lorenzo gave me the chills. I was expecting the worst. His character was ugly, terrible, and disgusting after reading the rest of the story. This story does not plain out describe what was happening in the story and I’m not sure why she went to go see him as it does not mention it or I might of missed it. Unless it is about looking for a husband for her daughter in order for her daughter to be later financially stable, because it says “no need fo her to marry a poor young bum who could not even get a job” also Not sure how the title ties in with the story because recuerdos means memories.
-priscilla Pena
I am immediately intrigued by how Joyce Carol Oates vividly describes the sky at the lake in “Wolf’s Head Lake”, at the beginning of her story. The way she molded the sentences brings upon this clear image of how it feels when it is dark and cloudy outside before a storm, it made perfect sense! As I continue reading I start to become a bit confused with what the author is trying to explain to her readers. I feel as if this author was describing rust to life, which confused me a bit because I wasn’t able to confidently distinguish what she was trying to say, this short story just got worse after that. To readers, its kind of discouraging because you start off with this great couple of sentences then as you continue to read it just continues to get less and less appealing. Oates does briefly mention to why she might have named this piece with the title she did, “Along Wolf’s Head Lake in the foothills of the Chautauqua Mountains the small cottages of memory, crowed together in a grid of scrupulous plotted rows at the southern edge of the lake that’s said to be shaped like a giant wolf’s head,”. As a writer, I feel that it is important for the author to make clear in some way throughout the piece a reason for why the title is named the way it is.
ReplyDeleteJust by reading the title of the second short story, “Recuerdo” by Guadalupe Valdes, the author can get a slight feel on what this story might be about in regards to the Mexican Culture. As I continued reading I was able to get a clear feel on how the author felt while writing this piece. She places you and makes you feel exactly as this character does within the story. Throughout reading, I felt appreciating towards my own life, I value how times have evolved, in the terms to women becoming independent. Overall I enjoyed reading this story, much more than the first one.
-Natasha Villarreal
The first thing that Joyce Carol Oates talks about in her short story, “Wolf’s head lake” is the setting describing the “early dusk” that the dark clouds that “marble” the lake. With this she creates a kind of creepy tone to her piece also adding the “that laughing-rippling sound at the base of the spine”. I really admire Joyce Carol Oates because of the imagery she uses with the taste of the rust on the screen door, you can practically taste the rust. As well as the imagery she uses in describing the lake, I can practically picture the lake. She also mentions why the lake is called “Wolf’s head lake”, due to the fact that the lake is shaped like a giant wolf head. Which kind of circles back to that mysterious guy who wears sunglasses at night. The last sentence she writes is “he’s patient, circling the cottages, looking for the way in.” and when I read that I immediately thought of a wolf circling a herd of sheep, which makes a complete circle with the title of the story.
ReplyDeleteThis story is unfortunately all too real for a lot of people. Parents having to practically sell their children to pervs just for a shot at a better life for their child. I really like that the location is along the Rio Grande River, it makes this story kind of more personal and relatable. I really like that she really gives a Spanish point of view of this story as well as some Spanish words that are thrown in a couple of times. Guadalupe Valdes made Rosa seem, at first, like she was a lost little girl and then throughout the story she states that she’s not even a girl anymore and then you realize that she’s in her mid-thirties and has a lot of children. I was kind of hoping that this would be like a super feminist piece where Rosa would beat the shit out of don Lorenzo for molesting her daughter but it didn’t really work out that way, instead she gives her daughter away to some sweaty old guy in hopes that she would have a better life with him. I guess it kinda is a feminist piece because Rosa had to sacrifice her daughter in hopes that Maruca would be able to have the world someday, which is a horrible decision to make as a mother.
-Lowen Sauceda
While reading, “Wolf’s Head Lake,” I saw a lot imagery. Describing exactly where she is and what’s around her so in a weird sense of comparison I am about to make I have recently played this game called Firewatch and it’s in a forest with a crazy story and I got the same picture in my head when they were describing the area because of the game I recently played. I know it is two different completely things, but it actually is and technically the same thing in some essence. And the story focused on a person I am not sure who and in the game it focused on a child who used to go to the forest with a terrible father then never heard from again after he left. I guess to me I just didn’t understand most of the story but it really did remind me of the game since I had no clue what was going on. I don’t even know what the lake has to do with anything. But there was a lot of connections in this story that got me to wonder about what exactly the character saw. That’s about all I could see.
ReplyDeleteSo while I was reading, “Recuerdo,” I loved being inside the character’s head. Seeing exactly what she thought and what process she thought of how to be stable instead of just poor. Which is what happens in almost every culture in the world, where the woman believes that she has to depend on a man to support her financially and so he has her way with her and her children and they just stay because they have nowhere else to go and nowhere else to rely on. It’s a tragic story and shows a burden of being unhappy to keep children happy since there is no other way to survive without a man. I really did at least enjoy this story and understood what was going on.
- Victoria Benavidez
The Wolf’s Head Lake is a great story that without dialogue we are able to understand what the author is portraying. The way the language is used to give full description on how this person is feeling along with where they are located. The way they describe the weather, the route and the way they viewed this lady asking for directions. The author gives a great example on how with a simple thought that you full develop in a character were you could full understand the story without having to add dialogue.
ReplyDeleteRecuerdo was a very nice story that in my perspective the author gave a good understanding on how different language can be used to make the story even more interesting and different from common stories. I believe I found it interesting because it was in Spanish so it was something I understood. The dialogue that these two characters were having made this story come together. It gave an understanding on why this divorce situation was happening. After reading the authors name I thought more of my Hispanic culture and viewed this story in different perspectives that others might not see. This author is able to use her Hispanic background to elaborate a story that can commonly happen in a house-hold which I find to be interesting. The way she tries to elaborate these two different female characters giving them both a different sense in the mother daughter role. The ending makes this story come together by letting the reader get that final understanding on how this mother views her daughter. When I read this it made me think as if the mother was looking back at herself when she was younger and thinking that maybe she herself could have had the world and not needed to suffer with a poor life, and should have done what she wants her daughter to do.
There is many different ways to view both these stories but both these authors gave great examples on different tactic for dialogue, imagination for setting, imagination for the title, along with self thoughts of one of the charactors.
-Alicia Lucio
In Joyce Carol Oates’ Wolf Head Lake, the layout of the Short-short is one continuous thought. It is written first-person as the narrator takes the reader into her thought process. There are no paragraph breaks and the story seems to be the imagination of a child. She describes the scene of a lake front cabin and some of her uncles’ creepy costumer stories. The intensity never lets up as she jumps through reality and imagination. I found this piece to be tight in the sentence structure and this also added to the intensity of the piece. The writer does a good job to create panic and anxiety in the reader with this condensed thought process. Themes in this story seem to focus on vacationing, tourism at lake fronts, and creepy story telling from relatives.
ReplyDeleteIn Guadalupe Valdes’ Recuerdo, the layout is lengthened; yet, the piece works to also layout a continuous thought. The piece transports the reader through a series of actions but the main point of the story is the decision Rosita has to make for Maruca. The title plays especially well off of this piece as it suggests the decision has already happened and yet the story leaves off with no definitive clarification of what it was. This story also follows the action as a first-person narrative but somehow has the feel of third-person. This strong sense of third-person must stem from the fact that the decision being made is effective on the part of two other characters in the story. Themes in this story include: feministic ideology, cultural ideology, unplanned pregnancy, financial stability, single parenting, sexual abuse, family dynamics, and social status ideology. Valdes packs in a lot of meaning behind this Short-short.
Both stories reveal the inner workings of thought. I like them both for very different reasons. In Wolf’s Head Lake, I like the intense rush and wonder of strangers. In Recuerdo, I liked the length and the fact that Valdes took the time to bring in both sides of her decision. I wish Wolf’s Head Lake had taken more lines to explain the imagination’s origins.
~Brenda Gomez
“Wolfs Head Lake” by Joyce Carol Oates took me a few reads to grasp on to something, as it did not make sense to me at all. The structure and lack of details of the characters made it a difficult read to understand. I liked how Joyce was descriptive when it came to the setting of the story, as I was able to picture the setting itself clearly. I don’t know what it is but I get a very languid tone and attitude from the details she provided. I do not like how she assumes the reader already knows background information to the story which is what me throws me off and makes feel lost when reading. Lack of dialogue did not help as in my opinion, having dialogue attracts the reader and enhances the story.
ReplyDeleteIn “Recuerdo” by Guadalupe Valdes, I felt that this story was very authentic and I liked how she includes her culture in this story. There was plenty of dialogue in the story, which I thoroughly enjoyed and it glued me to the pages wanting to read more. Valdes did great with the usage of imagery in the piece. The reader can picture a hot dry town in Rio Grande border to the fat sweaty unprofessional lawyer she talks to. Overall, I enjoyed this reading simply because she embeds her culture as I said before but I think in short fiction putting personal experiences/feelings can make a great paper this story justifies that fact. Rosa gets into a argument with Maruca and you can feel the intensity jumping from the text and it adds to tone of the story.
-Brandon Garcia
"Wolf's Head Lake" by Joyce Carol Oates is strange story. It has a very dark and eerie presence to it. She goes into great detail about the dusk and speaks of a storm. The way she described everything around her was very poetic from the adjectives used to the similes and metaphors. The way it was written made me feel like I was reading in a roller coaster of sentences. They were either extensive or staccato. In short bursts. Kind of like this. The story also has a lot of uncertainty to it. "He MIGHT have a companion." "Where he MAYBE lives." Sentences like that felt mysterious ad unsure. I did not fully understand this story.
ReplyDelete"Recuerdo" by Guadalupe Valdes had a very dark and unhappy tone to it as The Wolf's Head did, only this story was a much easier read in my opinion. This story had a lot more explanation with introducing the characters and the surrounds of them. It was more in depth with the characters' feelings towards each other and to themselves. The dialogue helped this along as well. The story felt real, almost nonfiction. I would have believed this to be a true story. Unless it was, I'm not sure.
Overall, I really enjoyed the challenge of reading (and rereading) Wolf’s Head Lake. I liked the style it was written in; it was different compared to other stories we’ve analyzed and I can’t wait to hear what other students have to say about this piece. Recuerdo, on the other hand, was enjoyable because I really felt for Rosa. I don’t know, the story was raw.
-Ryan Bluhm
Wolf’s Head Lake, this piece really didn’t make much sense to me in the beginning, I did like the way Joyce Oates puts an image in my head in the beginning because of such excellent way she has of portraying the setting. Oates makes myself as the reader to paint this portrait in my head. Later throughout the short story, the authors brings this character to have so much power to combine the lake as well. The description of the woman is big busted with bleach hair; typical. Wasn’t shocked about that one, but maybe the author could have gone with a different kind of description. Yes a woman, but with maybe fiery red hair, that would bring out a more powerful character. The the clothesline being out of knives, facing up ward that way you can bleed just a little bit. I wonder if the author is trying to portray that someone is looking at the lady and being descriptive while watching every move of hers.
ReplyDeleteRecuerdo, while reading the beginning, it gave me an image of the valley, how the beggars are just hungry for money and work, along with the dogs as well. Like the image of downtown, but the aftermath. After three am, the following day it goes back to this same routine for the beggars. This short story gives me the image of one being jealous or the mother at the end saying, oh well, she’s just going to get cheated on. I didn’t really understand these short stories, frankly because they were so descriptive that it brought me tons of thinking as to what these may mean.
-arianna tabares
The writer is very descriptive with her language. The mysterious and dark feeling of the text is fantastically built up by the introduction to the story, thanks to the description of nature. The reader follows a mysterious character by reflecting on the world that surrounds her. The details of the surroundings have been built in a very eloquent way to create the atmosphere of the story. The mood was built slowly, the vision of nature seems to be melancholic, dark, dangerous and sad, as if the author was trying to paint an impressionistic picture. Her words make visions and the reader is able to stop in time and see every detail, the sky, the lake, the cottage. Later, the author continues to "paint the picture", guiding its aesthetics to darker and mystical paths. An interesting procedure is the focus on the surrounding world, which builds the character of the text and creates the atmosphere. The story and the outline of the plot appear in the later part. The story itself is not concretized and is quite confusing. Many questions remain unanswered, many remain unresolved. However, I have the impression that those were the intentions of the author. The story was not written to present the plot, but to evoke emotions on the reader. It is unknown whom is the men, who is a fat woman and why we read about her, but all these facts build the mood of the story. The reader might be guessing what will happen, yet everything remans unsure. The reader feels in his bones that the situation is dark. If I were to describe the mood of the story in a few words, I would say that the author with her language, just as a impressionist painter, created an atmosphere of horror and mystery, thus introducing the reader to a feeling of anxiety, curiosity and agitation, as well as sadness and melancholy. The feelings and character of the text are built up by nature. This is an amazing procedure, because the image of nature allows the reader to draw conclusions from what the hero of the story feels. There are clues everywhere, and every description of the nature is in fact the description of the heroines felling, since a reader only sees her perspective. Following the dark mood of the history, the last day of summer, the sky, clouds and mosquitoes, it can be concluded that the heroine of the text struggles with dark feelings. Her reflexes are visible in the surrounding world. The character may feel some kind of distraction, longing, difficulty, while at the same time feeling calm, sad and melancholic.
ReplyDelete- Adriana Drozd