The Cask of Amontillado

Well that story was messed up. When I finished reading it the first thing I thought was, "What could Fortunato have done to piss off Montresor so much that he buried him alive?" So I got to thinking about it, and I'm not sure what Montresor did was justified. Fortunato seems like a guy who's pretty full of himself and doesn't worry much about insulting others, so he probably insulted Montresor in a bunch of little ways until it finally all built up. But does that mean you have to KILL THE GUY?

I'll move past that point and look at some other things in the story. Montresor does do a good job of luring Fortunato in without even asking him to help him out. In fact, the entire time he's telling Fortunato not to help him out, but Fortunato's obsession with wine, and himself, refuses to let him quit and go back; he has to be the one to tell Montresor whether it is true Amontillado, not Luchresi. It's the perfect reverse psychology.

The story is riddled with symbols and parallels between Montresor's family and his inevitable revenge. His family's motto is "No one attacks me with impunity", which means no one attacks me and escapes punishment. The family symbol is a snake getting stepped on, but the snake's teeth are sinking into the man's heel at the same time, once again symbolizing that revenge that Montresor will get on Fortunato. Finally, the wine is called "De Grave", which is like the grave that Fortunato is heading to.

At the end, right before Montresor puts in his the last stone to Fortunato's tomb, his heart grew sick. Maybe he realized that he was about to take a man's life in cold blood? He shouts out his friend's name at the end, I'm not sure why, but it's almost like he felt a little bit of Fortunato's pain. What makes the story so disturbing in my opinion is that he feels that pang of regret at the end but still goes through with it anyway.

I gotta say this story bugged me a little. Edgar Allen Poe is one weird guy.

To Hell With Dying...Ha...it's funny because it's a play on words...

Well I have to say Mr. Sweet is one interesting guy. My first thought when I read the story was that Mr. Sweet was a creepy old man who had a bunch of problems, one of them being liking to play with little children. But as I read on I slowly realized that it was something else. This guy is interesting because he manages to have so many faults, yet he still is loved dearly by everyone else in the story. There was something about him that kept them loving him.

So I asked myself, what is it? Is it because he plays the guitar or plays with the kids well? Is it because they live in such a small neighborhood that they have known him all their lives and trust him? It seems weird that they would allow a "on the verge of being blind drunk" man to play with their kids. I got to thinking about it, and it seems like it's a combination of all these things. Maybe in that time period it wasnt as big of a deal to be an alcoholic as long as you weren't violent. They live in a small, mostly African American neighborhood, so maybe the narrator's parents grew up with Mr. Sweet and trusted him. And they probably liked the fact that he played guitar too.

An interesting thing about the way this story was written is the perspective for the reader. We read this through the eyes of the little girl who grows up playing with Mr. Sweet. Because of this, we look past Mr. Sweet's downfalls and grow to love him too. If the story had been told from an objective, third person perspective it would have been much different, and we probably would not have been so accepting of Mr. Sweet's actions.

Finally, I think there could be a symbolic connection between the girl's age and maturity and Mr. Sweet dying. When she is still young and doesn't believe death is permanent, Mr. Sweet is always revived by her actions. But when she is older, in college, and understands what death really is, she is unable to revive Mr. Sweet. It's like Mr. Sweet was kept alive while she was still innocent, but once that innocence was taken away she couldn't save him anymore. It may be a stretch, but I think there's a possible connection there. Then again, he could have just died because he was around 90 years old.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good story, and I enjoyed reading it.

White Elephants...Like the Christmas Gifts?

Hills Like White Elephants is a very interesting story, and is one of my favorite works by Ernest Hemingway, an author whose stories I usually enjoy. One of the things that makes it so intriguing is it's structure; the story is stripped of all unnecessary description and wordiness (I hope that's a word, if not I'm pullin a Shakespeare on that one), and what is left is almost pure dialogue. In the first read through, one might think that it is just a story of two people talking about meaningless things. However, the key is to read between the lines to see the tension and problems between the couple. This kind of structure leaves much more analysis up to the readers, and I think it makes the story more interesting.

A prominent theme in the story is that of white elephants; it is in the title, and the girl mentions that the hills look like white elephants a few times. The term white elephant is often used to describe something that is unwanted, and in this story it refers to the girl's unborn baby. While this isn't said outright, it can be gathered by reading into the story. The man is trying to convince the girl to have a simple operation, which would only "let the air in", and the girl can't decide whether or not to do it. The indecision on whether or not to keep the baby is shown when she decides that maybe the hills don't look like white elephants after all, they are just colored the same.

Another theme in the story is that of communication. The man and the girl talk to each other the whole story, yet they don't really seem to listen to what the other person is saying. They try to avoid talking to each other by drinking, which the girl points out is all they seem to do. This belies the problems that the couple is having, and shows that, even if the girl does have an abortion, their relationship won't go back to normal like the man says.

The story is set in a train station in between two cities, which represents the fork in the couple's relationship. At the end of the story the man goes one way while the girl stays behind at the table, symbolizing the fact that their relationship is over and they both know it.

All in all, I think it's a great story. Kind of depressing, but a good read if you take the time to read it more than once and to think about it.

Thank you for joining us for "Scintillatingly Sanguine Short Story Stints" with Nick Neuman, and we hope you will be with us again next week when we discuss Judy Blume's "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing."

In the Beginning...

In the beginning there was a man named Nick Neuman, and he was required to have a blog for one of his classes. He created that blog, and made it to his liking. He decided to use the blog to bring his wisdom to the unwashed proletariat of the world, so that they might aspire to one day be as wise and mature as he. And so, in his inaugural words, he said to them...

FIRST POST BABY!