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- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 200 words.
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- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
An Angel by Margaret Atwood Mentions the angel of suicide, and described there are other angel than the compassionate ones we are used to seeing. “Classical paintings, with their curls and beautiful eyelashes, or the ones on Christmas cards, all cute or white.” (145). The author mentions angels such as anger of lung cancer and angel of blindness, but the one that is most rebellious is the angel of Suicide. I believe in this story the character was contemplating suicide which is explains why she kept seeing this particular angel. In the Loser By Aimee Bender the story goes how a boy whose parents drowned at sea and his raised by the community in the village and is able to find lost things for people but in the end is lost as trying to figure out who he is, “where did you go, come find me. I’m over here. Come find me” (149). Which I thought was ironic because he was able to find lost things for people but wasn’t able to find himself because he feels like an outcast. The hit man by T. Coraghessan Boyle is about a man who brings death upon people in the timeline that they give through out the story, it seemed as it was a cycle because at the end the son ends up carrying on the Black hood for his father. It was a very dark story that seem to catch my attention more than the other two due to my confusion as to wonder whether he is the ruler of the underworld.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa Duque
The emotion of loneliness is hauntingly overwhelming in all three of these short-short stories. “An Angel” by Margaret Atwood brings a somber and eerie contrast to the typical image that one creates of angels. In terms of elements of fiction, the structure and design of the story utilizes every portion of the story masterfully, creating a profound reality in a brief length. “Angels come in two kinds: the others, and those who fell.” Just in that one sentence, the author provides a history of how the angels came to be, and specifically the origin of the angel of suicide. As a writer, I enjoyed this short-short story the most. The partnership of narrative and brevity were undoubtedly powerful. Aimee Bender’s “Loser” continues the theme of loneliness, however with the hope of reunion and being found. The element that stuck out most to me in this work was that of character development. Despite not even giving us the name of the main character, we are taken on a journey of self-discovery through strife. “If he listened hard enough, he thought he could hear the waves hitting.” After reading T. Boyle’s “Hit Man,” I immediately googled some sort of explanation of what I had just read. Out of all three this was by far the most enigmatic. Of course “wasting” someone is the implication of death, I still cannot differentiate what is reality and what is meant to be metaphorical. Definitely will be bringing this up in class.
ReplyDeleteNick Torres
These 3 short stories vary greatly from one another. The Angel by Margaret Atwood is the shortest of the 3. Even though she talks about the death angel, the mood or tone of the story is not dark. To me, it is almost similar to an essay, or a work of non-fiction. Yet, what makes this piece become fiction, is how angels are a more supernatural, or out of this world topic that crosses the line from truth, to fantasy. Even though fiction does strays from using the word “I”, in her story, it looks like Atwood makes herself the main character. Unless she is talking about someone else and uses first-person point of view. The next story, Loser, is more of a traditional story type. It explains the beginning of the story of a boy, and it contains a plot in the middle, a climax, and an end. In this case, the author uses a third-person point of view and she decides to include dialogue throughout the story which helps bring it more to life. Lastly, the structure of the story The Hit Man is very unusual. The author includes several sub-titles to demonstrate the process of the life of the hit man, starting from he was young, to his death. This was entertaining for me, since some of the subtitles may appear random, or unnecessary; however, they all somehow connect to one another and create the images needed to bring the story to life.
ReplyDeleteAna T. Flores
In the story “An Angel” just from the title I expected it to be a joyful, peaceful story. However, I was surprised that this story was referring to a “suicide angel.” I found the story very dark especially with the consistent contradictory ideas of suicide and an angel. This story in my opinion is very unsettling especially the last paragraph that says that the suicide angel calls to people to commit the act, but it does offer some truth in a sense that suicidal people feel this way. In the story “Loser” I enjoyed the special ability aspect of the protagonist because it differentiates from other characters and reminds me of a typical superhero backstory. However, I did not like the fact that the protagonist name is never said which makes it difficult to actually build a relationship with the character. In “The Hit Man” the structure of the story is different than the usual story which I found interesting because I had an idea what the paragraph was going to be about before reading it. Also, I like the way he referenced death by stating “The priest wears black. So does the hit man” in the beginning and end to depict the journey and life of the hit man.
ReplyDeleteKevin Esparza
All three of this week’s assigned readings were incredibly interesting and thought-provoking. Of the three, “The Hitman” by T. Coraghessan Boyle was my favorite. It was an easy read for the brain, but nonetheless it was incredibly intriguing. Throughout the short story, there were several allusions to the character’s identity as Death. For example, the author mentions the Hitman’s scythe, three-headed dog (Cerberus) and the speedboat, a modern version of the boat on the river Styx. I found the irony behind the Hitman’s death amusing since he met his fate in a medical center named Mercy Hospital. The allusions and the author giving the Hitman a seemingly mundane life made this story entertaining. “An Angel” was a story that wasn’t quite as clear. The author states that all angels act as messengers despite the message containing good or bad news. Margaret Atwood provides examples on the various angels such as the angel of suicide, angel of lung cancer, etc. She also highlights the specific pull the angel of suicide may have. Each angel lures their victims to their deaths with their wings acting as symbols of legitimacy, allowing the victims to fall prey to their persuasions. With “Loser” by Aimee Bender, I had a little trouble following. I assume that the voice in the young man’s head is his father, tugging at him from the other side. The exchange with between the young man and Leonard threw me off, it seemed like the young man’s father was speaking to him and attempting to show affection to the young man by using his body. Overall, each of these readings made me read deeper than just the surface.
ReplyDeleteKayla Garza
In these reading we see how there are many different elements being used in these three stories. In the story “An Angel” I enjoy reading about how this one angel of suicide, she is very different to the others. When we think about the word “angel” we relate it to something beautiful and magical yet when we add the word “suicide” it becomes negative and somewhat of a sad tone. Artwood uses the words “who is dense, heavy with antimatter, a dark star” to describe her and goes on to explain how she is very rebellious. Aimee Bender’s story “Loser” reads a story about an orphan who has an ability for finding lost things. People did not seem to view this as “regular”. Often times they frowned or thought of him as an odd little boy. That is until he found a lost boy, which was something that meant a lot to the lost boy’s family. In the last story T. Coraghessan Boyle “Hit Man” is about a man who in his early years killed for a living. During this time we understand that he wear a black bag over his head. Over the years he manages to turn over his life eventually creating a family. I think I did not understand the overall message of this story but I did comprehend that the man had a change of life or moral. In all three stories there is a character that is unique and even though other people see them as different they manage to make the best of their ability.
ReplyDeleteMarlen Garcia
Each story took me by surprise than what I expected. As I started reading the angel, It was quite different than I imagined based on the title. I was expecting a beautiful angel or even a metaphor for someone. It turned out to be about the angel of suicide and it mentions how each angel is a messenger while emphasizing that there are two kinds of angels, the fallen and the others. As I was reading into this story, it reminded me of lucifer and the angels that rebelled with him just like the angel of suicide. “Loser” by Aimee Bender is about a young man whose gift is being able to fond lost things using a sixth sense. He Is known around the town to find things and when a woman’s son is kidnapped, he uses the boys clothing to find him. A lot pf people were skeptical of him and his gift but at the end of the story I think they began to believe it more. “The Hit Man” stuck out to me the most because I did not expect it at all. The Hit man goes on a journey killing anyone he pleases. The author uses the phrase “The priest wears black. So does the Hit Man,” multiple times to indicate a death. The last one being his own death.
ReplyDeleteMarissa Sanchez
While reading all of these short stories, I was able to find some differences in all of them. To be honest I was not expecting "Angel" to be about death. Usually, we associate that word with light and somewhat more of happy emotions. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading it. "Loser followed more a format that I am used to reading. It has a beginning and a plot, and a resolution. The use of dialogue between characters is something I greatly appreciate as well. As far as The Hit Man, I was intrigued to see all of the subtitles that came with it before I read it. Once I started to follow the story they all started to click and made sense in my head. Even though I was not familiar with this kind of structure I really enjoyed reading about it this way. All of these stories have vivid imagery and set the tone and the ability for me to try to connect on a deeper level with what is going on with each character. This comes to show that there are many ways to approach writing fiction, as well as which perspective, first-person, third-person, they can be presented as.
ReplyDeleteAndrea Videgaray
The Hit Man was a story I enjoyed the most out of all the readings. The sardonic, sort of crazy writing made it such an entertaining read to me. It was so unique with it's wording and the way it used different variations of descriptions. I particularly enjoyed the analogy of the hit man to Hades, likening him to be a bringer of death and casting ownership over the three-headed guard dog Cerberus. Although the comparison is a little weak, as Hades is a the god of the dead, rather than Death itself (Thanatos being a better comparison) the short hand is there for a wider reach of audiences. I can understand the confusion to writings like this, but to me, it makes them all the more enjoyable. The other writings were creative as well, with An Angel offering an interesting take on mental health and suicide, while Loser defined more what it was to really be a loser. What I took from "An Angel" was the allusion to Lucifer, as he is the most famous fallen angel. Loser gave me an insight for losing the things in our life and why things that matter to us being taken away is a key factor as to why being called a "loser" pains us so.
ReplyDeletePadini Paolo Santiago