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- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 200 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
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- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
From all three stories, my favorite story would have to be “An Angel.” The way the author captivated me with the description of how suicide can be viewed really grasped my short attention span. “Angels come in two kinds: the others, and those who fell. The angel of suicide is one of those who fell, down through the atmosphere to the earth’s surface.” The way she makes suicide seem like not really a decision made by oneself, rather a personification that’s rather not pretty to look at. Yet, having a similarity to a beautiful being can be enough to captivate you and convince you into doing something out of your own will. “You wouldn’t believe a thing she said if it wasn’t for the wings.” I also really loved the story “The Hit Man” because it leaves you guessing who the hit man could possibly be. Is it a fictional telling of a notorious hit man? Is it just a random character the author made up? Then you get to the end, and the author kind of answers the question but not really. To me, the hit man was made seem like it was Death himself. So that really just left me captivated.
ReplyDelete-Miguel Garcia
Now that I have a clear understanding of the elements of the short-short story I must say that all three of these readings did an excellent job of leaving me wondering what the deeper meaning was. Beginning with “An Angel” by Magaret Atwood, at first this story appeared to just be about the descriptions of angels. In particular, the suicide angel and one would think those two words do not go together. However, Atwood explains that although the common association with angels is that they represent good that is not always the case. There are angels that carry bad messages such as death. He states, “…when you see her beckoning to you from outside the window, fifty stories up…” (145). This quote stood out to me as it appears the suicide angel lingers in the shadows as a form of temptation. On the other hand, “Loser” by Aimee Bender, was a tragic story from the start as the boy helplessly lost both his parents in an avoidable drowning. When reading about his skill I knew it was somehow connected to his parents. With that in mind, the ending was still upsetting as he says, “If he listened hard enough, he thought he could hear the waves hitting” (149). The extra sense was evidently a form of him wishing he could have been alert that day. Lastly, “The Hit Man” by T. Coraghessan Boyle, seemed to be a story about a man that was a loner and bullied in his early years which led him to become a hit man. As he highlights certain points in his life, I found it interesting he was still able to marry someone and have his son carry on his “legacy”.
ReplyDelete-Natalia Martinez
In the essay An Angel, I liked how Atwood created and expressed the descriptions of her imagery. As in, her description of the beautiful angels with curls and pretty eyelashes compared to the angel of suicide, which is dense, heavy with antimatter, and is a dark star. This showed how opposite the two kinds of angels are. Even though she claims all angels are messengers, she mentions how different those messages can be; thus, showing the differences of positive messenger angels versus negative messenger angels. In Bender’s Loser, I found the last sentence incredibly emotional. Right after I finished reading it, I thought, “What are they talking about?”, then it clicked in my mind, in about five seconds. I loved how Bender ended this essay as a full circle; as in, it started with the mention of the boy’s parents who drowned and died, and it ended with the author bringing the reader back to the boy’s loss. It made me think back to the title and think about why it was titled “Loser”, for I realized the boy lost his parents (making him a loser, in a way). It was incredible, Bender did a fantastic job overall. Lastly, in Boyle’s essay, the reader (more or less) gets to create a vivid picture of the hit man: appearance-wise and character-wise. Boyle shows us the hit man’s developmental years and whatnot; however, one does not truly know the character. We learn that he hates peas and got to “know” the flight attendants during his flights, yet the author only showed us pieces of his life. Sure, they showed us a bit on how/why he became the man he is now, but perhaps there is more to him? Nonetheless, the portrayal of his character is perfect the way Boyle presented it and intended it to be. It was straightforward yet still ambiguous.
ReplyDelete- Jasmine Hinojosa
I really enjoyed reading the three stories as all of them had deep, hidden meanings. In the first story, “An Angel,” by Magaret Atwood, the way Atwood describes how angels come in two kinds: “the others, and those who fell” (145). They aren’t picture perfect but are messengers as their objective is to carry out a task. What I got from this story is that one may come across the idea of suicide as Atwood mentions, “I know what the angel of suicide looks like. I have seen her several times… when you see her beckoning to you from outside the window, fifty stories up…” (145). Angels are not always what they seem to be. In the second story, “Loser,” by Aimee Bender, I kind of saw the message as a case of ‘being in the wrong place, at the wrong time.’ The orphan has a special kind of power by finding missing items and is able to find his missing neighbor. In the end, his guilt of not being able to save his parents or locate them as he was sleeping in the sand, comes back to haunt him as “he thought he could hear the waves hitting” when he starts to think about their absence (149). In the final story, “The Hit Man,” by T. Boyle, I saw the story as a circle of life. This story is categorized in main events of the hit man’s life, as his son is later going to follow his footsteps, trying on his first hood.
ReplyDelete-Karen Lamas
Margaret Atwood’s “An Angel” has been one of deepest and darkest stories I have read this semester so far. This story discusses suicide and has some more darker elements to it. Atwood mentions on page 145 that “Angels come in two kinds: the others, and those who fell. The angel of suicide is one of those who fell”, and this could be interpreted in different ways. The way I interpreted this was that whenever someone contemplates the thought of suicide, the angel is either there to comfort or push you away from it. I believe that the angel character is already very convincing from the start, and so are the many details described by Atwood.
ReplyDeleteAimee Bender’s “Loser” can be interpreted in many different ways. The way I interpreted it was never take someone for granted because they could be the missing piece to your puzzle. I really liked how the story was designed and structured because it gets you hooked the entire time. Something I did not like was when the cop said “oh it’s the finding guy” because you’ll never know when you need someone, but it can probably be too late. Lastly, “The Hit Man” by T. Coraghessan Boyle, was structured in a way I have never seen before. I have never seen the different subtitles in a story that will describe what will be occurring each time, or with a bigger capitalized letter outlined with grey starting each paragraph. That is what I liked though because it gets you hooked on the story and gets you constantly trying to figure out what can happen in the next subtitle.
-Gilbert Sanchez
An Angel talks about a suicide angel and how she is not like one of the other angels. I think when Magaret Atwood says others; she is referring to one of the angels in a classical painting, with the curls and beautiful eyelashes. The suicide angel is a dark angel and she is one who fell. It is not clear how she fell. The angel of suicide was rebellious. The last line was confusing. Did a suicide angel talk to a girl and the only way she believed it was a suicide angel was because she saw wings or something? Loser by Aimee Bender gave more backstory but we do not know how or where the boy got his power from. In the beginning we read that his parents died while swimming. He got his power a couple years later after his parent’s death. His power got stronger as he grew up. I liked that there was more backstory because I was able to understand why he begins to feel lonely. Towards the end it seems he’s lost not literally but he still feels alone and I think he’s trying to find his parents or at least get answers. I did not like how the Hit Man had sub headers but I did like how this story took us through all of the hit mans life.
ReplyDelete- Maria Ramos
While reading Margaret Atwood’s “An Angel” I couldn’t help but make a connection with adrenaline or how subconsciously your mind tells you to do something reckless, for example, when I’m chopping onions, my mind tells me to stab my finger just because I’m holding a knife and it’s dangerous. Or when driving, I have the urge to swerve and wonder what it would be like to be in an accident. Atwood states, “The angel of suicide is one of those: a rebellious waitress. Rebellion, that’s what she has to offer, to you, when you see her beckoning to you from outside the window, fifty stories up, or the edge of the bridge, or holding something out to you, some emblem of release, soft chemical, quick metal.” (page 145). I enjoyed reading this short-short story. In Aimee Bender’s “Loser” I noticed the three-dimensional character used in the story. Just like Monday’s reading about including a flawed character, Bender did a good job in shaping the boy’s talent based on trauma. He lost his parents in the ocean and as a result of that, he has a knack for finding things. “Crossing his hands in front of himself, he held on to his shoulders. Concentrate hard, he thought. Where are you? Everything felt blank and quiet. He couldn’t feel a tug. He squeezed his eyes shut and let the question bubble up: Where did you go? Come find me. I’m over here. Come find me. If he listened hard enough, he thought he could hear the waves hitting.” (page 149). I really liked that part of the story. It insinuates that he never really moved on from his parent’s death and he wants to use his ability to seek them out. T. Coraghessan Boyle’s “The Hit Man” was a little harder for me to understand, only because it was told differently than the other two. It separated the events, kind of like a timeline. Something that stuck out to me in the story was when he stated, “On the other side of town the Hit Man’s son is standing before the mirror of a shop that specializes in Hit Man attire. Trying on his first hood.” (page 152). This gave me the impression that the son was following the same footsteps. I liked the three stories because of the depth meaning.
ReplyDelete-Bethzaida Ayala
In the essay “An Angel” by Margaret Atwood was a story about her describing different angels, mostly bad ones, and one angel that she describes was the angel of suicide. In the beginning of the essay she explains that she sees this angel all the time, so I understood it as if she is depressed and suicidal and depressed. She mentions that this angel is so smooth even though her appearance is hideous. In the essay “Loser” by Aimee Bender the main character in this story he is hit with his parents dying in the beginning and he is left adopted by the whole community. His family didn’t even care about him. This whole story revolves with him trying to find things including a boy who got kidnapped. Once he found the boy, he returned him to his mother and didn’t accept to whatever she was offering. In the end, he went back to his tiny house and says out loud to someone to try and find him and it ends like that. I believe he is trying to communicate with his parents, and he might have heard them since he did hear waves. In the essay “The Hit Man” by T. Coraghessan was one of the funniest I read. I loved hearing him wasting everyone because they were all just random killings. I do believe the main character was death. Since he was always wearing a hood, wearing black, and always being there when someone was dying. This story was interesting because you see all the happening in his life. Overall they all connect by talking about death.
ReplyDelete-Melissa Garcia
In the subsequent story, "Failure," by Aimee Bender, I considered the to be as 'being in an unlucky spot place, at an inappropriate time.' The vagrant has an extraordinary sort of intensity by finding missing things and can locate his missing neighbor. In the last story, "The Hit Man" by T. Boyle, I considered the to be as a hover of life. This story is ordered in headliners of the hired gunman's life, as his child is later going to follow his strides, taking a stab at his first hood. In the paper "An Angel" I delighted in how Atwood made and communicated the depictions of her symbolism. Her portrayal of the lovely blessed messengers with twists and beautiful eyelashes contrasted with the heavenly attendant of suicide, which is thick, substantial with antimatter, and is a dim star. This indicated how inverse the two sorts of heavenly attendants are. Despite the fact that she asserts all blessed messengers will be errand people, she makes reference to how unique those messages can be; accordingly, indicating the distinctions of constructive detachment heavenly attendants versus adverse delivery person angels.Now that I have an away from of the components of the short-short story I should state that each of the three of these readings worked admirably of leaving me thinking about what the more profound significance was.
ReplyDelete- Julian Marroquin
All three essays had a puzzling piece of them when I dead them the first time. For example, “Loser” by Aimee Bender having the main character, finds a boy who was kidnapped and when the boy was returned to his mother he didn’t accept anything. My question for this story is did he feel the need to help another family because of his past? Did he do it out of the goodness of his heart or because he felt obligated to? Maybe both? In “An Angel” by Margaret Atwood she describes the main angel she writes about which is the angle of suicide which cases me to think that she plans on committing suicide since she describes that the angel is very “smooth,” smooth enough to convince you of suicide? Last but not least “The Hit Man” was a little more secretive with Easter eggs since he was always present when people were dying. In all, all three essays have death in common, but it’s also presented in different ways. Every essay has it’s unique way of letting you know what the message is.
ReplyDelete-Daniela Rios
An Angel, Loser and The Hitman. Three great short stories filled with imagery and all three had one thing in common. Death. In “An Angel” death is mentioned by people wanting to kill themselves by standing by your window fifty stories high, or by standing on the edge of a bridge. In “Loser” death is brought up right in the second sentence as it explains how the character’s parents were killed. Lastly death is also brought up in “The Hitman”. In “The Hitman”, I believe the character kills many people that he seemed to have issues with. He even killed this one waitress because she didn’t remove the peas from his meatloaf special. My favorite part though of these three stories was in An Angel” when it states, “Anyway, it was a long fall. From the friction of the air, her face melted off like the skin of a meteor. That is why the angel is so smooth. She has no face to speak of”. I liked this part because I could really picture how her face looked and it explained how smooth she was. Overall I enjoyed all of them, but the hitman. I really had no clue what was the point of the story.
ReplyDelete-Noe Ramos
In “An Angel” by Magaret Atwood Ibelieve that she’s writing about suicide. “Angels come in two kinds: the others, and those who fell” she claims that the angel of suicide is one of those who fell. Maybe she means that she may not have jumped from somewhere but possibly fell into the chaos that makes a person take their lives. The angel of suicide convinces you by showing her wings. I feel something all 3 stories have in common is death. Even in “Loser” the kid loses his parents, and The Hit Man is on his deathbed. My favorite of the three was definitely “Loser” at first in reading the title I thought it was going to be about someone who was lame, or seen as uncool and instead he wasn’t that. He was someone that the town although half of them skeptical about his character often went to him for help to find their belongings. It was ironic in the end of the story that he could sense the belongings or concentrate on certain aspects of the lost items and in the end he could hear the waves hitting from the beginning of the story from where his parents drowned.
ReplyDelete- Michelle Rodriguez
When I read through the short story “An Angel” I felt myself being drawn to the description of the angel of suicide and how it seemed to reflect the message it carried. The first details that caught my attention were the fact that she was categorized as “one of those who fell” (pg. 145) and the suggestion that she may have jumped of her own free will, mirroring the fact that suicide in itself is a choice someone makes but still reminding the readers that there are also instances where the action could’ve been provoked or encouraged. When reading through it a second time though I found myself caught on the idea of the angel of suicide being an inciter of rebellion in those who see her, as the action of suicide is not a solution that many would think to turn to thus turning it into a rebellious act against whatever issues or forces someone could be up against in life.
ReplyDeleteWith “Loser” by Aimee Bender I sort of let myself get caught up with my own idea of what the title could mean so when the story started out with a description of a tragic event leaving a child parentless it shocked me. Continuing on though it seemed to me that it was almost pointing out an irony, that he’d lose something as dear as his family only to gain the ability to find mundane, everyday items. Once he realizes that he has the ability to seek out people too though, at least in a way connected to the items they held while lost, it seemed to me that the final paragraph was him using that connection and that tug he feels while searching for the lost things as a way to feel connected to his parents one more time.
To me, “The Hit Man” by T. Coraghessan Boyle seemed to be a modern retelling of several different myths revolving around death and those who bring it and are surrounded by it with the most prominent inspirations seeming to be the Grim Reaper and the Greek god Hades. The story also seems to be taking these well-known perceptions of bringers of death and giving them a more human quality by describing the “ideal life” of growing up, finding love, having a career and a family, and eventually retiring. By doing this the story really cements the idea that death is, in its plainest form, a cyclical part of life, letting the hit man go through the motions before the cycle repeats itself with his son becoming the next hitman.
-Raven Quintanilla
All three stories have a different style to each. The first one An Angel could be a lot of things. It could be or not be about an angel. Maybe the writer focuses on the angel of suicide, maybe this story has a darker meaning? Maybe the writer is contemplating something. The second story “Loser” has a very dark theme. The young man has had a tough childhood and then he acquires a superpower which either has people amazed or hating. The second part just made me tear up a bit because although you know he must like helping people but what if he actually did find the boy the other way? His superpower does have pros but the consequences sometimes might be a little too much. The last story “The Hit Man” is very dark. It also has kind of an even when you’re this dark persona, you can still get married, have kids, and live like any other person. This gives me a mob boss aura. Out of all the stories, the one I liked the most was Loser. All of them are good though because they have enough detail, but not where it doesn’t leave you hanging.
ReplyDelete- Yaretzi Diaz
so something that I noticed in all three stories was the amount of imagery and connection with death. In the first essay, "An Angel" by Margaret Atwood, I feel intrigues with the fact that this story is even about angel but I was not expecting the kind of angel, the angel of suicide. As it is described in the essay the angel of suicide is described to be an angel who is dense from classical paintings and gorgeous curls with long beautiful eyelashes. I felt like this essay tried to say that in a way death is always around us but we avoid it if possible. As for "Loser" by Aimee Bender, another connection to death is when it is indicated that the characters parents had passed away. "Both his parents had been killed when he was eight years old, swimming in the ocean when it had turned into wild waves both trying to save one another from drowning. I feel like in a sense in this essay the boy tries to seek them out by constantly having flashbacks about them. he swears that he can hear the ocean and continues to ask questions about where they might be. In the "Hit Man" by Boyle, I kind of like how the story begins with telling a background story about the characters in the story and how he makes choices in his life that were similar to his father's. In the connection to the previous stories, there were also several deaths in this one as well, being that his father was one of them. I like how it goes to like it being a day in the life of what he lived and how he ends up living his last moments, it gave me a want to knowing more about it although it had reached to him dying in the hospital. -Ana Silvia Mears
ReplyDeleteStarkey is including a variety of writing styles with in the “Short-short” story. The Hit Man by T. Coraghessan Boyle was set up in a bizarre way. The story is in a point of view of Third person limited because it just brings up his emotions, but it doesn’t bring up the other characters emotions. It seemed more like a characterization outline rather than a story. I am still not sure what to make of it. I keep expecting to simply walk away from this piece completely undisturbed and that it would be utterly forgettable, but I have an easy time recalling the Hit Man’s life. The author must’ve employed some type of memory technique with it. I am struggling with why I could remember something so trivial that didn’t even get an emotional rise out of me
ReplyDeleteThe short story “An angel” by Margaret Atwood is a story about angels and how there can be different types of angels, angels are messengers and can portray a message which isn’t always good “Angels come in two kinds: others, and those who fell,” I think this represents the good and evil representation of when God condemns Luther, his angel, Which is known as the devil, the angels that are causing cancer, seizures, and destroying represent the devils works.
In the story Loser by Aimee bender, the boy Loses his father and his mother and gains the unique talent of searching for items. In his search for the pure connection of unconditional love, this boy struggles to relate to people. Adopted into the community he relates inanimate objects misplaced from their original home. Expanding on the visual language of Bender’s writing, this toy theatre piece uses shadows and blurred imagery to explore the story of a boy displaced. I really enjoyed this story like in the first paragraph I thought it was really crazy how he could sniff out misplaced items, but then like Jenny turned it around on him like if he planned on impressing her mother but she wouldn’t hear him out. He then goes into a major situation where Mrs. Allen loses her boy Leonard and she is desperate and at the end the boy finds him and gets some appreciating for his talents.
-Max Garcia