"The Country Husband" by John Cheever

Summary:

This story is about a man named Francis Weed. The story starts of with Francis on a place from Minneapolis. And the plane is forced to make an emergency landing on a corn field. And after the plane crash he came home to his family. But his wife Julia and there four kids were not very interested by his story and what had happened. But he felt that he had been given another chance to live his life. When he got home he went to the backyard were he sat by his garden and thought about what had happened. He was thinking about how he was given another chance and it was going to make sure he took advantage of it. And he listens to the sound of his suburban neighborhood. They live in the suburbs of New England called Shady Hill.

Characters:

Francis Weed: The Main Character in the story and the one who was in the plane that had to make the emergency landing.

Julia: Francis's wife.

Four Children: Francis and Julia's four kids

About The Author:

John Cheever was born on May 27, 1912 and he died on June 18, 1982. He was an American novelist and a short story writer. He writes fiction stories mostly located in the upper east side of Manhattan, the Westchester Suburbs, and old New England villages.

Themes:

Near Death Experience: I think that a theme to this story should be near Death Experience. Because he has a very scary near death experience which causes him to think that he has gotten a second chance at life.

Change: Because of the plane crash i would say that change would be a theme in this story because after the crash he decided that he was giving a second chance to live his life.

Meaning:

The meaning of this story is that life could end at any second and anything can happen to you. So you should live your life and to things that you like. Because at anytime something can happen to you. Like in the story a plane crash. So you should not waste your life you should enjoy every day of it.

Conflicts:

The conflict in the story is the plane crash and him changed his life around because he got another chance to live life. So the conflict of the story is the plane crash.

Questions:

1. Why did he choose to change his life around after the crash.

2. Why did his family not care about what had happened to him.

Reader Response:

I thought this story was interesting because of the plane crash. I thought that it was cool that he survied the plane crash and dicided to turn his life around. But i thought it was kind off mean that his family did not really care about what had happened to him. But the fact that he realized that he got a second chance to live life was cool. I like the idea of the story.

"The Farmer's Children" by Elizabeth Bishop

Summary:

This story is about a family that lives on a very large farm 10 miles from the nearest town. On this farm lives a hard working farmer and his wife and there three daugters. And also the farmer has two boys from his previous marriage. These boys are eleven and twelve years old. The boys were named Cato and Emerson. And the stepmother named her three daughters Lea Leola, Rosina, and Garcie Bell. The farm had belogned the fathers grandfather. And the farm was very big even though they had sold of parts of the farm over time it was still very large. The original farm house was miles away from the new one. So they had to have some one sleep there so it would not get robbed. So the father dicided to have the handy man that worked on the farm stay there. The handy mans name was Judd. And Judd was always going out to the town with the father to do sell parts of the land. But they really went to go drinking. So Cato and Emerson were told by there father to sleep at the old farm house and watch out for it. And one night it was very cold and they did not want to go but they had to and they died because of the cold. And the father blamed Judd and fired him.




Characters:


Farmer: Is a had working farmer and the father of the children.

Farmer's Wife: The farmers wife and mother of the three girls.

Farmer's X-Wife: The famers x-wife and mother of the two boys.

Cato: The son of the farmer and his x-wife.

Emerson: The son of the farmer and his x-wife.

Lea Leola: The daughter of the famer and his wife.

Rosina: The daughter of the farmer and his wife.

Gracia Bell: The daughter of the farmer and his wife.

Judd: Was the worker that the famer hired. And had him stay in the old farm house.

About the Author:


Elizabeth Bishop was born on Febuary 8, 1911 and she died on october 6, 1979. She was an American poet and writer. Elizabeth was very inspired by the write Marianne Moore. Later on Marianne Moore suggested that Elizabeth should resive the Houghton Mifflin Prize for poetry. And she did end up winning the around. Then her first book was published and made 1,ooo copies.


Themes:
Revenge: The Farmer wanted to get revange on Judd because he blamed him for for his two boys dieing in the old farm house. Becuase Judd and him were always going to town he forced his two boys to look out for the old farm house and they died because it was so cold. So he fired Judd.
Cruelty: Forcing his two boys to be out in the cold watching out for the old farm house.

Meaning:
The meaning of this story is that the cold can kill you and you should not force you children to go into the freezing cold over night. And you should not make them sleep on hay in the snow over night. And also you shouldnt blame others for your mistakes and fire them.

Conflicts:
The conflict in this story was when the farmers two boys died in the old farm house.

Questions:

1. Why did the father make his kids spend the night in the old farm house if he new it was freezing out.

2. Why did he blame Judd for his kids dieing.

Reader Response:

I thought that this was a good story. Because it was about a family on a farm and i found the story to be very interesting. But the fact that the dad forced his kids to stay on the old farm house in the cold i did not like becuase his kids died and i also dont like that he blamed Judd and fired him.

"Greenleaf" by Flannery O'Connor

Summary: The Story is about an old lady named Mrs. May. She has two boys named Wesley and Scofield. Mrs. May owns a farm and has a man named Mr. Greenleaf working on it for her. The Greenleaf family is a very nice, hard working African American family. But Mrs. May is very racist towards Mr. Greenleaf. But he has been working for her for around 15 years. And Mr. Greenleaf has two boys named O.T. and E.T. And the difference between Mrs. May's boys and the Greenleaf boy's is that the Greenleaf boys are very hard working and Mrs. May's boys are spoiled and cruel. So one day a Bull was found by Mrs. May on her farm. But she did not know were the bull had come from. So she dicided to ask Mr. Greenleaf. And he said he was not sure but he would find out and catch the bull. But after a while the bull was still there and Mrs. May found out that it was the O.T. and E.T. bull. O.T. and E.T. were twin bothers and they owned a farm. So Mrs. May dicided to go to the Greenleaf boys farm and tell them to come get there bull because she was tired of it. But the boys were not there and a worker on the farm said that the boys did not want the bull. So Mrs. May got very upset bcause she knew that the boys expeted her to have to kill the bull. But she dicided that she would make Mr. Greenleaf kill the bull because she knew it would make him very sad. And she thought it might get the Greenleaf boys to come get the bull. But the boys never came so Mrs. May had Mr. Greenleaf take the bull to an area of the farm to shoot the bull. And Mrs. May dicided to folow in her car. But Mr. Greenleaf and the bull rain into a area of many trees and disapeard. So Mrs. May just sat on the hood of her car a waited. And She found that she had fallen in love with the bull. But the bull was really just a symbol that she had fallen in love with Mr. Greenleaf. And after a couple of minutes the bull ran out and stampeded towards her. And then the bull stabed its horn through her chest. And while this was happing Mr. Greenleaf was runing over with his gun and he shot the bull four times in the eye but it was too late and Mrs. May had died with the bull.



Characters:

Mrs. May: Is an old lady that owns the farm that Mr. Greenleaf works on.

Mr. Greenleaf: Is an old man that has been working on Mrs. May's farm for about 15 years.

Wesley: Is the son of Mrs. May.

Scofield: Is the son of Mrs. May.

O.T.: Is the son of Mr. Greenleaf and the owner of the bull.

E.T.: Is the son of Mr. Greenleaf and the owner of the bull.

Themes:

Revenge: Mrs. May is trying to get revange on Mr. Greenleaf because his boys are very hard workers and her boys are lazy. And also she wants revange on the Greenleafs because there bull is on her farm and she trys to make Mr. Greenleaf shoot it.

Racism: Mrs. May is very racist towards Mr. Greenleaf and the Greenleaf family because of the color of there skin. But also its because in a way Mrs. May is very jelous of the Greenleaf family.

Meaning: The meaning of this story is not to try to get revenge on people who have not done anything to you just because you are jelous of them. And also not to fall in love with a bull because they are not freindly animals and they will kill you. And also not to be mean and racist to people because then they might not help you in a time of need.

Conflicts: The main conflict in this story was the bull. Because it caused all the other conflict. The bull was the conflict because it was on Mrs. May's farm and she wanted it off. And then she found out that it was the Greenleaf boys bull and they didnt want it back. So that formed another conflict for Mrs. May. So she tryed to make Mr. Greenleaf shoot it which formed a conflict because he didnt want to kill bull. And then the bull killed Mrs. May while Mr. Greenleaf was trying to kill it. Which he did after it but its horns through Mrs. Greenleaf.

Questions:

Q. What did the bull symbolize in the story.


Q. Why was Mrs. May secretly jelous of the Greenleaf family.


Q. Why was Mrs. May really upset about the bull on her farm.

"The Killers" by Ernest Hemingway

Summary:

The story begins with Max and Al coming into Henry’s lunch room in a small town called Summit. They come in to eat and wait for Ole Anderson to show up. Then they take Nick Adams and the cook Sam to the kitchen and tie them up. And they talk to George who was a waiter, about Ole Anderson, who was a boxer who eat lunch at Henry’s lunch room. They were looking to kill Ole. And they verbally assaulted Sam. But after a while Ole never came into the dinner. So they left without filling anyone. After that George told Nick that he should go and tell Ole what had happened. And when he told Ole, Ole did not say anything. He already new that people were after him, and he didn’t want to do anything about it. After that Nick went and told George and he wanted to leave town but George told he to stop worrying. And Ole just stayed in his room waiting for them to come and get him.

Characters:

Nick Adams: Nick is around 17 to 20 years old. He was just an inocent person eating in Henry's Dinner.

George: Is a waiter at Hennry's resturant.

Max and Al: Are the two hitmen that were sent to Hennry's dinner to kill Ole Anderson.

Ole Anderson: Is the person that Max and Al were after. Because he did something wrong and got in with bad people.

Sam: Is a cook at Hennry's dinner. And he Max and Al were being very racial towards him.

Themes:
Revenge: Max and Al getting revenge on Ole Anderson. Because he did something bad to them and they wanted revange
Racisms and Hatrad: Max and Al say the N-word to Sam. Because of the color of his skin they were very cruel to him and taunted him. And they tie up everyone in the resturant just to find and kill Ole.

Meaning:
The meaning of this story is not to make a mistake and get in with the wrong people. Because they will find you. And you can run for your whole life and you will still get cought. And also weather it is smart to get involed by trying to help someone.

Conflicts:
The conflicts in this story are first when Henry’s lunch room gets taken over by Max and Al and tie up Nick and Sam. And also when they find out why Max and Al were after Ole.

Questions:

Q. Why do you think that Ole Anderson is so calm about the hit men coming for him?
A. Because he knows that he can run from them his whole life and they will still find him. So he felt that there was no point in runing.

Q. Why does Nick Adams decide to get involved with Ole’s problems?
A. Because he was a nice young boy who thought he should help out Ole. But then afterwards he got scared that they would now be looking for him.

Q. What do you think Ole Anderson did to make the hit men so mad?
A. He probably owed them money or got them mad when he was on a trip.

Video:

This video bellow has to do with "The Killers", because it is about running for a long time but sooner or later you will get cought. So Ole Anderson can run from Max and Al all he wants but eventually he will get caought.