For those of u that don't know, i am a huge Lemony Snicket fan, and the thirteen and final book in A Series of Unfortunate Events was released on Oct. 13th.  i am reading the book as we speak, and it seems pretty good so far.  it has that signature flavor and poeticness right from page one along with the realization of how truely wicked the world is and just how hard it can be to make it through.  Lemony Snicket begins the book by talking about peeling an onion and brings this action into dicussion and relation to real life and his story.  i would definately recomend reading the whole series, if you haven't already.

Hey, what's up?  This is for all of you that still visit my bravejournal.  Since stories class is over and I have a ton of cites, I decided to use this one to post updates on movies, music, books, and myself.  I have two other cites which are crazy_helena.bravejournal.com & beca_ann08.bravejournal.com.  crazy_helena will contain my writings, which I will continue to post and becca_ann08 will contain news about my favorite unsigned bands in the area.  Thanks for visisting.  Love always, Becca.

In William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily, Emily is an older resident in her home town and the whole town goes to her funeral when she dies.  The town knew Emily was strange, but the elements of her secret and crazy life only began to truly unravel after her death.

A group of men go to see Emily on the matter that she owes taxes.  She tells them that she doesn't owe any taxes and vanquishes the men from her house.  Later some people begin to complain about a horrid smell coming from Emily's home.  Some men sneak into her yard and sprinkle lime around her house while she watches from a window.  Then you find out about Homer Barron, a guy she became interested in after her father's death.  Next you learn that Emily bought some arsenic from a druggist.  The man asks what the poison is for and a few lines later you learn that the poison is for rats. 

Homer wasn't the type of man to marry.  He said he liked men and he hang out and drank with the younger men.  The people all thought Emily had killed herself at first, but came to find out she was still alive and never had a second thought.  Everyone assumed that Mr. Barron had left because his work was done.    All of these elements, including her death make up the rising action of the story. 

When a few people go to Emily's house and see Homer dead in her bed, the climax occurs.  Then, the people see her indention in the bed next to his body and find a long strand of iron-gray hair.  This is the resolution.  At this point the people have learned the whole story and put everything together, and are finally able to step into Emily's twisted world.

“We’ve been taught that negative equals realistic and positive equals unrealistic.”  This is also true with relationships, but in many cases it’s not this simple.  Often the negative is thought to be positive and the unrealistic is thought to be realistic.  Love and lust are often confused and hearts are often broken in the course two people by several factors.

The relationship between Alan Austin and Diana in “The Chaser” is one driven by passion and naiveté.  Alan thinks that if Diana shows jealousy and clings to him that there will be love between them.  Alan thinks he is in love with Diana, but the reality is that he is driven by lust.  If Alan weren’t so naïve, he wouldn’t be trying to get Diana to love him.  Diana doesn’t feel for Alan as he does for her, and hence the bond between them couldn’t be love.

The connection between the ghostly couple in “A Haunted House” is an everlasting bond, that withstands the most destructing force of all; death.  The ghostly couple is searching for the light in the heart. They search their house, once full of love, looking for the love they had and left behind.  The couple still wanders in the house together, reminiscing of their love and since they still remember, it still lives, though they don’t.

The love of Elisa and Henry Allen in “Chrysanthemums” is one of desolation and confusion with a number of misunderstandings and words left unsaid.  Mrs. Allen takes great pride in her chrysanthemums and Mr. Allen seems to miss a lot of the signals Elisa is sending.  When the tinker comes through and shows a false interest in Elisa’s Chrysanthemums, she sees a lot of things she doesn’t see in her husband.  Elisa is sheltered a lot by her husband and he seems to show little interest in what she cares about, though he tries to make her happy through compromise.

In “The Lottery” Tessie and Bill Hutchinson have a strict and formal relationship as dictated by the norms of the community, which seems to be challenged by Tessie whenever the occasion presents itself.  Tessie and Bill live in a community that is tradition oriented and relies on social norms.  Tessie seems to be a little out of place.  She is late to the lottery and then tells her husband to get up there and draw, which isn’t socially accepted.  When the Hutchinson family is drawn and Tessie is found to have the paper, her husband throws love to the wind to conform to social norms.

In “The Lady or the Tiger” a commoner and a princess face the trials of family and social dram, with the commoner clinging to the princess by trust.  The princess and her lover had a relationship that was separated by class.  The lover was but on trial by having to open a door and either be married to another woman or die a terrible death.  The commoner knows the princess will find out which door contains the lady and which contains the tiger, but the princess is jealous of the lady behind the door and doesn’t want another woman to have her lover if she can’t.  The princess is semi-barbaric, so the ideas of morals and ethics don’t seem to cross her mind.  The commoner has every faith in the princess and trusts her with his very life.  The princess doesn’t seem as dedicated to the relationship as the commoner.

So, the next time you find yourself in a relationship, ask yourself:  Is it love pure and true, or is it influenced by naiveté or other outside forces like social norms?  The male-female relationships in “The Lady or the Tiger,” “The Chaser,” “The Lottery,” and “The Chrysanthemums” are similar in the aspect that they have people that are mislead and misunderstood.  “A Haunted House” seems to stand out from the rest of the stories in that the couple doesn’t seem to be facing problems, other than death, and they don’t seem to need approval for their pure love.  In short, love can be misleading.

Mrs. Allen and her husband live in Salinas Valley in California.  Mrs. Allen grows chrysanthemums.  Mr. Allen has just sold some cattle and plans to take Mrs. Allen out to celebrate, when a man comes and asks for some chrysanthemums.  Mrs. Allen shows her strength all the time.  When Mrs. Allen saw her flowers that she had given the stranger on the side of the road, she was upset.  She began to feel week and told Mr. Allen that she didn’t want to go to the fight like they had planned to and she begins to cry.

I liked the story because I think it shows a sense of loneliness and the idea of trying to hide weakness.  Mrs. Allen likes to be strong and she admires the beauty in the flowers.  Also, she is so happy when the peddler comes and shows an interest in her flowers because her husband doesn’t seem to show much interest in the chrysanthemums.

What is fairness?  Fairness is but a society based opinion.  What seems fair to one society may not seem fair to another.  Also, different people have different ideas of fairness.  Two stories that give excellent examples of what is and isn’t fair are, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and The Lady, or the Tiger by Frank R. Stockton.  These two stories show a sociological view of fairness.

            In the story The Lottery, people perform a ritualistic killing to ensure that the corn crop grows properly.  The male head of each household draws, then the head of each family within that household.  Finally, when the lottery is narrowed down to a family, each member of the family draws their piece of paper.  This seems fair to the community because a person is chosen at random by them and not chosen by other members of the community.  When Mrs. Hutchinson draws her piece of paper, she sees the ideas as unfair.  She didn’t really seal her entire fate alone, her husband drew the piece of paper for her family and then she drew for herself. 

            In The Lady or the Tiger a trial is held in the King’s Arena.  The accused is sent to arena and made to choose between two doors.  One of these doors holds a fair maiden and the other, a ferocious tiger.  The wrong doer is faced with this decision as an entertaining and ‘fair’ way to determine guilt or innocence; the accused is said to determine their own fate based on guilt level.  This may seem fair to the public because the accused isn’t being judged by a bias party and the sentencing immediately follows the verdict, but the accused may hold a different idea of fairness in this case.  It is by chance that the accused is found guilty or not guilty and not on the reasons of fact and situation.

            “Fair is fair and just is just.”  If this is true, you must wonder:  How do we know what’s fair and just if it is so changing.  That is the whole point of both The Lottery and The Lady or the Tiger.  Fairness isn’t always as fair as it seems.