Brother Grasshopper

John Updike's story, Brother Grasshopper, is very well written.  It is interesting to me to see the relationship between Fred and his wife Betsy with Germaine and her husband Carlyle.  The two married couples spend much of their time together and originally it all starts out well.  In almost a cliché manner, Fred starts to fall in love with another woman.  It's odd because he seemed to be so in love with Betsy, but then his mood changes.  Despite his new love, he decided to stay with Betsy, though he was never as passionate.  It is strange yet understandable for him to confess this to his brother-in-law.  Obviously, he would want to talk to someone about it, but it is strange, to an extent, for him to confide in his brother-in-law.  Sadly enough, the happy couples both divorce, Fred and Betsy as well as Germaine and Carlyle.  After Carlyle's death, the others are united one last time for the scattering of Carlyle's ashes.  It's a sad yet redemptive ending.  I really liked this story!

The Lady With Her Dog

I found this to be an interesting read.  This piece was a little frustrating for me to read through because of the reality of such situations in life.  From the beginning, Dmitri seeks after this "lady with her dog."  Her name is Anna.  Dmitri's lack of happiness in his marriage leads him to have love affairs with other women.  It's odd how much work they go through at the end just to see each other, and it's sad that they work this hard at seeing each other but not at their own marriages.  Dmitri's realization that this is the first time he has fallen in love is a sad realization.  Ultimately, I found this to be a sad story with the connection to real life situations involving lack of faithfulness in marriage.  The last bit reads, "And it seemed as though in a little while the solution would be found, and then a new and splendid life would begin; and it was clear to both of them that they had still a long, long road before them, and that the most complicated and difficult part of it was only just beginning."  Although the story is sad, they finally have something they are willing to work for, even if it's hard.

Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find

I really thought it was interesting how the grandmother was portrayed as the supposed moral character, however the reality is that she is just as bad, if not worse, than the other people in the story.  If you look at her words, she is often times very cynical towards the rest of the world.  She compares life as it is to what it used to be when she was a child.  I think she spent too much time thinking about the past that she did not see how she was acting in the present, which is contradictory to what she claims to believe.  The eye opening experience to why she is immoral is found at the end of the story when she is in front of the misfit with a gun to her face.  The misfit says, "she would have been a good person if there were someone to shoot her every day of her life."  She only pretended the times before to be the Christian woman she claimed to be and her only true goodness was found at the end, although she could have been faking those emotions to save her life.