A Good Man Is Hard To Find

The story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor there are a lot of examples of it being southern grotesque. The first thing I noticed was how the kids are bratty, snobby, and rude to their parents and their grandmother.  And the parents are completely submissive to this behavior, the grandmother seems to be the only one to acknowledge the fact that children are disrespectful.  The grandmothers behavior is also southern grotesque because she makes a racist comment about a young African American boy, calling him a bad name, and made a statement as to why he wasn't wearing any pants.  She is also very manipulative.  When she wanted to go see the house that she was talking about she lied that there was family silver hidden inside the house; this got the children to throw a fit so that the father would change his mind and take them to the house, its essentially her fault that they ended up on the same road that the Misfit was on.  She also tries to manipulate the Misfit all to no avail when she's begging for her life and those of her family saying that "you've got good blood, I know you wouldn't shoot a lady." and telling him that if he prayed Jesus would help him.  And it's also southern grotesque when the Misfit and his two buddies kill the family one by one because the story goes from a family road trip/vacation to a story about murder and the Misfit has no remorse about what he's done to the family.

The Lottery

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" concerns itself with concepts of magic and superstition and their place in society. In this story the townspeople once a year in June hold a "lottery" essentially to see which one of them is going to get stoned to death.   This lottery has been going on for ages and the townspeople and the people before them are so superstitious that if they don't do this lottery and if someone doesn't get stoned to death then they're scared the wont have good crops.  They think that by doing this ritual something magically happens and they always have a good crop season.  This superstition reminds me of today how some people do certain things like before a game because they're superstition and if they don't do those things then they're going to have a bad game.

Blog #2 "Boy"

Pull your pants up so they're not down around your ankles, always look presentable which means comb your hair, shave, and be clean.  Treat people with respect, which includes your parents, elders, teachers, and of course girls.  When you take a girl on a date you will open the door for her, be polite, pay for dinner, and have her home at whatever time her father tells you to have her back by.  Keep your room clean, our house isn't a dump, pick up after yourself, you will do whatever chores we ask of you and you will not whine about it.  Your education is important, you will study every night so you can get into a good college or university, so that you can get a good job and support yourself.  You are not going to be one of those kids who sits around all day playing video games.  You're going to play sports and you're going to have some sort of job, you're not going to sponge off me whenever you need money.  Have a good head on your shoulders, don't do drugs or drink alcohol, they have consequences.  Have no regrets and make smart choices.

Blog Assignment #1: Introduction

1. My teachers last year will tell you that I am quiet.
2. My friends will tell you that I am outgoing when I'm around them.
3. People like me because I'm generally a nice person.
4. One thing most people don't know about me is I'm a natural blonde.
5. Five years from now, I will hopefully be at graduate school at BSU.
6. The bravest thing I ever did was going cliff diving.
7. I have trouble dealing with stress.
8. I appreciate it when teachers tell me that they want to see me succeed.
9. I like to exercise because it makes me feel good.
10. I really need to not procrastinate when it comes to doing my homework.
11. My friends make me laugh when they talk in funny accents.
12. My pet peeve is people who are very two faced.
13. When I am sad I go running.
14. The most stressful thing in my life is college.
15. The most influential person in my life is my mum.
16. If I had one hundred dollars, I would probably go get another tattoo.
17. It is difficult to learn math, I can never remember any of the formulas.
18. I have no regrets about what I've done in life.
19. A friend once showed me how to drive a stick shift.
20. I like hip hop music, particularly Nicki Minaj, Drake, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar.
21. My favorite color is orange.
22. One dish I can cook well is scrambled eggs.
23. My favorite place on earth is anywhere in Orofino.