"Interpreter of Maladies" - indirect characterization

"At the tea stall Mr. And Mrs. Das bickered about who should take Tina to the toilet. Eventually Mrs. Das relented when Mr. Das pointed out that he had give the girl her bath the night before. In the rearview mirror Mr. Kapasi watched as Mrs. Das emerged slowly from his bulky white Ambassador, dragging her shaved, largely bare legs across the back seat. She did not hold the little girl's hand as they walked to the rest room."

In "Interpreter of Maladies," it does not directly say that Mrs. Das is a bad mother, inconsiderate, or rude. However, the reader can come to this conclusion by how others desribe her and how she acts. In the quote above, you can tell that she really doesn't want much to do with her children. She doesn't even want to take her daugther to the bathroom and she won't hold her hand. Mrs. Das seemed to only be concerned with herself, so it was shocking when she took in interest in Mr. Kapasi. However, her motives for her iterest in him are later revealed that she wantedhim to help her. Again it's all about Mrs. Das. She was never really interested in Mr. Kapasi, she just wanted him to fix her problems. Even though it is not expressly stated in the story, the reader can conclude that Mrs. Das is self-absorbed and inconsiderate from the indirect characterization.

"How I Met My Husband" -suspense

"As for me, I put it all out of my mind like a bad dream and concentrated on waiting for my letter. The mail came every day except Sunday, between one-thirty and two in the afternoon, a good time for me because Mrs. Peebles was always having her nap."

This short story really surprised me. The whole time I thought Edie was going to marry Chris. I was kind of disappointed when she married the mailman. Edie spent the most of the story describing how she met Chris, but only a paragraph about her husband. I guess it was just good use of suspense to keep the reader interested. When Edie first met Chris, I kept wondering how long it would be before they got together. Then they finally kissed before Chris left but he said he would write to her. Edie waited by the mailbox each day for the letter, but it never came. I though the waiting was just a build up of suspense because I thought a letter was actually going to come. So I was shocked when no letter came and she married the mailman. However, I think Edie's story about Chris was necessary to tell the reader how she met her husband.

"Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead"

"He's ready. I am not. I can't
just say good-bye as cheerfully"

I kind of liked this poem.  I felt like it was pretty easy to understand.  I think there is a conflict of beliefs between the father and the son as shown in the quote above.  The father believes in the after life and is okay with dying.  The son, on the other hand, does not believe in the after life and wants to spend time with his father now.  The father is at ease with dying because he believes he will have more time with his son in the after life.

"Edward"

"The curse of hell from me shall ye bear,
            Mother, Mother,
The curse of hell from me shall ye bear,
    Such counsels you gave to me, O."

This was a interesting poem.  It had a lot of repetition. It was also kind of disturbing because it talked about killing a few different things.  I was a bit confused as to why it said "Mother, Mother" over and over again because it did not really seem relevant.  But towards the end I realized that the speaker was saying that he did these things for his mother.  He killed his father because his mother wanted him to.  At the end, the speaker curses his mother because of what she made him do.

"Lonely Hearts"

"Can someone make my simple wish come true?
Do you live in North London? Is it you?"

This poem is an example of a villanelle.  It has five tercets and a concluding quatrain. The two lines above are repeated throughout the poem. Each tercet represents a different personal ad, in which people solicit companionship from others.  This form of villanelle is appropriate for the subject matter because it breaks each person's ad up into different sections.

I thought this poem was a little weird.  Do people really put ads in the paper looking for a companion?  That is a strange way to meet people.  Why would anyone ever want to publish an ad saying they are single and looking for a companion? I just don't understand it.

"Death, be not proud"

"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;"

I an not sure if I understood this poem correctly.  I understood that the speaker was addressing death through apostrophe.  The speaker was telling death not to be proud.  The speaker gives different reasons why death should not be proud.  The above quote is an example of the speaker's reasons.  I think the speaker is a man of assured faith with a firm conviction that death is not to be feared.  In the end of the poem, it says "we wake eternally, / And death shall be no more."  This is a reference to the Christian belief that we will all rise from the dead and live in eternity with God and defeat death.

"That time of year"

"This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long."

William Shakespeare's poem is an example of a sonnet.  The poem has a rhyming pattern of abab cdcd efef gg.  The quote above is the couple at the end of the poem.  Each of the quatrains introduce different images.  The first image is of fall because it describes "yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang."  When I read this line, I pictured different colored leaves and little to no leaves on a tree because it is fall.  Then the second image is of the fading sunset. And the last image is a deathbed.  All these images seem to be about death and hope fading away.