A Jury of Her Peers

I thought the plot of this story was very well written and completely creative. Minnie Wright murders her husband and is about to be blamed for it, however, there is there is little to no proof accuse her and have it hold in court. This is when the county attorney and Mr. Peters start to investigate her home. They are desperately trying to find any clue that can hold her accountable for his murder. When they get into the house everything is a mess, up to the stitching of the quilt that Minnie was making.

There is a little bit of chauvinism in this story but in the end it is the women who are the most insightful and prevail. They are the ones who find the motive, not Mr. Peters. The women hide the evidence because they feel bad for their friend. This story seems to look at the women's role in society as well as some human ethics. I think the story shows a great example of ethical behavior and what is not ethical. It is important to understand from this story that the women's behavior is unacceptable and their choice could be detrimental to their society.

Battle Royal

This is a story of an African American man who is extremely intelligent in a time when the intelligence of his race was doubted. The story takes place in a small southern town, where inequality was rampant. The main character narrates the story through the memory of his lifetime. He was taught through his grandfathers actions that to get as close to equality as possible he would need to be humble. He was taught to do as he was asked and never speak out. For this reason the white community accepted him more so than other African Americans. He is told that he will be a speaker at the graduation in his town. When he arrives he soon finds that it is all a set up. They more so brought him to be the entertainment and fight other African Americans than to actually speak intelligently. Without being discouraged he speaks anyway. Not everyone listens at first, and many yell at him during the speech, but his thoughts are heard.

This story was hard to read because of the pure injustice and prejudice that exists. It is painful to think that humans are capable of such hate. I think the message of this story is to speak for what you believe in. Someone will hear your thoughts and needs. In the end the main character feels invisible. That is the hardest part of the story because no one should feel invisible.

A Rose for Emily

This is a story about the life of a woman that almost mirrored the life of her town. Miss Emily Grierson was an upper class and wealthy woman. It seems that throughout the story as Emily deteriorates in health that the town seems to mimic that deterioration. She lived single and alone for a long time because no man was good enough to keep her company. Emily always held herself a little higher than necessary. After her father’s death a man named Homer Barron begins to court her. She does not seem very interested and his name could symbolize how he holds no future for her. She then buys some arsenic and uses it to poison Homer. The townspeople begin to notice a horrid stench coming from her mysterious home. I think that this part of the story was the most climactic. Stupidly the townspeople believed Barron just left because it was known he was not into “marriage.” In the end Emily dies at the age of 74 of old age and when people go to investigate this they find that Miss Emily had let Barron rot in her bed, and continued to sleep next to him for years. Emily couldn’t bear to part with Barron because she was so used to losing everything she had in life. The chronological order of the story was very unique and I struggled a bit trying to figure out exactly what was going on. This was the very reason I couldn't stop reading it. I found that even though the story is somewhat dark and twisted that it was so interesting to read. This was a great story.

Hills Like White Elephants

I found that even though this story left the reader hanging that I still enjoyed reading it. The story starts off with a girl, Jig and her companion waiting for a train in Spain. While they waited they drank many drinks, including trying some new ones. She also was trying to make what seemed to be small talk while they sat and waited. Then after some silence the companion tried to convince Jig to get some sort of procedure or operation. It sounds a little weird and the author never quite divulges what exactly it is that he wants her to do. They proceed to argue about it until Jig is so sick of hearing him talk about it that she threatens to scream.

It almost seems like in this conversation that the companion is trying to convince Jig to get an abortion. They are arguing about whether to do it or not and mention each others happiness. The companion doesn't want Jig to do it unless it is what she wants, and Jig says that she does not care about herself and if it'll fix their relationship then she will do it. It seems like with the male's comments that instead of actually caring about her feelings he is attempting to manipulate her to make the choice he'd like her to make.

Also in the story Jig comments on the white hills many times in their conversation which may symbolize the conflicts in her life and their relationship that she thinks have developed. With her actions and comments it seems pretty clear that Jig is going to have the procedure done. This story was really great because it was mysterious and kept the reader involved.

The Use of Force

I thought this story was kind of strange in a sense that it was a story that really had no point to it. It was simply just a tale of a doctor and one of his visits. It starts off with some sense of mystery as he got a call to see a new family urgently. Then he comes to find out that they have a daughter who has been sick for 3 days with a fever but they have no idea what from. Little do they know that their daughter is lying to them about a lack of sore throat. Through the story the doctor is trying to examine the child's throat but she is persistent and will not allow it. This is a problem because there have been other children at the school she attends that have died from diphtheria. After losing his cool and almost abusing the child to get what he wants, the doctor finally finds out that the girl indeed has diphtheria. I feel like the only climactic part of the struggle is when the child tries to scratch at him. Otherwise this seems more like a dull everyday thing. There is also no resolution at the end. It does not say whether it is too late for the child or if she will be fine. I did not enjoy this short story and think that if more actual story was added that maybe it would be less dry.

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

I felt like the story was very well written in a sense that it grabbed my attention from the very beginning. There was no sort of back story or lead in, you just jumped into the mindset of Granny Weatherall. I enjoyed the way that Granny's mindset continued to move rapidly from one stream of thought to the next. The story starts off with a Doctor Harry who is examining Granny. The reader gets a sense in the first few sentences that this woman is opinionated and probably pretty old. She is persistent in the fact that she thinks she is perfectly healthy and that the doctor is wasting his time. The doctor on the other hand thinks that this could be Granny's last day. After he leaves, Granny begins to think of many of the important things that have happened to her throughout her life.

The way that Katherine Anne Porter jumped between what was happening, the dialog, and the flashbacks of Granny Weatherall is what made this story so enthralling. The reader finds out about Granny's past and what has made her so strong until this point. It truly is well written and interesting. The best part of the story is the last page or so. Granny has finally come to grip the fact that these people are there because she is dying. She starts panicking about things she hasn't accomplished, things that the children should keep, people she hasn't seen. In the end she finally calms down and accepts death. The last sentence when Porter writes about Granny blowing out the light leaves such a lasting impression. This story is by far my favorite that we've read so far.