Literature Analysis ~ “Homework” and “The Girl with Bangs”

As a current high school senior, taking multiple dual credit classes in an attempt of receiving my Associates Degree by graduation, I know well the harsh life of a student. Back in 8th grade, I was assigned a five page research paper, which I believed was the hardest, most cruel assignment a teacher has ever given. However, when I attended high school, that extremely vigorous five page paper looked dinky compared to the new high school essays that were assigned. Just recently, in one of my dual credit college courses, I was instructed to write a 15 page paper. I thought it was the end of the world; that I would never complete it and it would be a horrible research paper. After hard work and some dedication (and a couple cups of coffee), I finally managed to complete the paper, receiving an A, and relief rushed over me. I look back on my schoolwork throughout the years, and each year I overcome an assignment or course that I believe will result in my destruction. And yet, each year, I overcome every assignment and learn to grow from it.

In Helen Simpson’s short story “Homework”, I was prepared to talk about my classes and workload (like up above), and how not to procrastinate. However, the story took a different turn than I had originally expected. I thought it was going to be about a typical student who complained about his homework and how much he hated school. It turns out, the short story actually started that way, but the mother took the short story on a different, more creative path. It was weird for me to read how the mother encouraged her son to lie on his homework assignment, because that is opposing the traditional role of being a mother figure and is sending mixed signals for proper ethics that most mothers usually teach their children. As a student, I encourage creativity – heck, this blog is for my Creative Writing class – but in this scenario, the boy was instructed to tell a deep, personal message; something in his life that impacted who he was as a 13 year old boy. The mother did not believe anything that has happened to her son would have enough effect on him that would be life-changing. However, the situations a person grows up with define their characteristics and the type of person they become. In this story, the mother helps create a fictional story for her son to use as his paper. I am all for getting helpful ideas and tips from family members, but the mother proceeded to create an elaborate background, often pausing to mention bits of her past memories and parts of her family history. She seemed disconnected from her son, and related more with the story. An excerpt from the story states, “George scribbled away, not happy with where the story line was going but incapable of coming up with an alternative. I felt power, like a magician pulling rabbits out of a hat.” In that passage, the mother is the narrator, and she is calling all of the shots in the story, even if the boy does not agree but does not dare argue. This reminds me of how mothers often live experiences through their children. Some moms force their children to try out for the soccer team because when they were little they never could. Some parents force their children to study hard, because they didn’t when they were young and they wished for their children to become the student that they never were. In this case, I believe the mother is telling the story she never was able to experience. She wanted to run away, but she had to take care of her sisters and the rest of her family.

“The Girl with Bangs”, the short story by Zadie Smith, was fascinating to read because her voice in writing sounded as a male, never once indicating that a female writer created this story. This man became fascinated with tis woman named Charlotte because of her bangs. However, the girl was not good, not intelligent, and slept with whoever would have her. The narrator knew all of her bad qualities, but Charlotte’s black bangs had a fix on him; like a vanishing spell that wiped away all of his bad conceptions of her. In this sense, this relates to people who love someone even though they know are not good for them. However, I refer to this as “lust” or “attraction” rather than love. The character Charlotte mad me sad because it made me question if she was even capable of love.
“For in the real world, or so it seems to me, it is almost always women and not men who are waiting under windows, and they are almost always disappointed.”
In a subplot to the story, this other man named Maurice, who was dating Charlotte and later married her, left for a job where he met a worker. He, knowingly or not, led a girl on indication a connection that was not supposed to be real. Women in general relate to this poor woman, and similarly to the quote above, because sadly there is this stereotypical image many women create of men to be a knight in shining armor who will come out of nowhere, fall in love with them, romance them, and live as a happy couple. However, many great men are not like that, and not all good girls get the guys in the end. Even though Charlotte slept with other guys and was bad for Maurice, he still ended up marrying her. Maybe it was because he believed he could change her habits. Maybe he truly loved her for some odd reason. But in the end, women will just stay waiting for that perfect guy to come, even though he might not come at all.

Literature Analysis ~ “A Conversation with My Father”, “Mother”, and “My Life with the Wave”

According to dictionary.com, character is defined as the qualities of honest, courage, or the like; integrity. In the short story “A Conversation with My Father” by Grace Paley, an 85 year old man teaches his daughter how to make a proper story by incorporating detail, craft and technique. As the daughter revised her story, her father pointed out the ending was tragic, and that “a person must have character” in order to change. However, bad events can occur without with or without character. There is no way to predict it. That is what makes it a tragedy. But true character is defined by how a person handles a bad situation. I admire people who face bad situations with a good perspective, and who choose not to let the tragedies take a poor effect on them. Those are some of the strongest types of people.

The short story “Mother”, also by Grace Paley, tells the viewpoint of a daughter who recollects memories of her dead mother. This short story continues the theme of tragic events happening, with or without character. The mother knew she would die before her daughter turned 20 years old. There was nothing she could have done to stop it; the only thing she could do was prepare for it. But even though she knew she was going to die, she remained strong for her family and pretending like everything was normal. She continued to be a mom, ask motherly questions, and say goodnight before bed. This, to me, is true strength because the mother was slowly dying, and yet she continued to support and care for her family like normal.

“My Life with the Wave” by Octavio Paz was one of the hardest short stories for me to grasp at first. However, after reading it for a second time, I am slowly piecing what is taking place. My view of the unknown “she” transitioned from an actual girl to a personified wave of the ocean. The main character is a man who maintains a love interest with a wave. At first, I thought he was connecting with the ocean by sitting on the beach. However, he discussed taking her on a train and seeing her in his apartment. This is when I considered Paz having personified a wave into an actual character. Slowly though the story, their relationship decreases. First, she got him thrown into jail for “poisoning”, and then he almost drown because of her. His love grew into fear, and when he returned from an old visit, she was frozen, in which he sold her to a waiter who proceeded to chop her into little pieces of ice, thus terminating their relationship. What might start out as love could actually turn out to be lust, fear, or anger.