Short Fiction Blog

 "No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window." This bit of imagery is especially important to the story because it shows how purposeful the author was in her language. She clearly uses the phrase "elixir of life" to juxtapose the husband's sudden death, and how the main character becomes alive in the aftermath.  "It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long." At this point, the author revealed bits about Josephine's life and marriage, which all correspond with the feelings she eventually had after her husband's death. The imagery highlights just how much she was beginning to look forward to tomorrow, when before it seemed like a death sentence. "But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air." This bit of imagery is important because it shows how life, almost, is coming back to her in the face of her...

 1/11/23 This is my favorite even before reading the rest of the stories for this unit.  Everything about this work is clever, from the title to the body. Usually, I feel that I can grasp what is going on in a book early. For this one, I didn't know until I did. All of the mentions of the operations were utterly ambiguous until Hemingway mentioned the " hold of two of the strings of beads." Suddenly it clicked. An American man was traveling through Europe, met a girl, got her pregnant, and was now pressuring her to get an abortion. And the girl was trying to make her decision while fingering what was most likely her rosary. Which culturally, makes sense, as a large portion of Madrid is Catholic.  I do wonder, rereading the story a couple times, if the girl had made her decision before they caught the train. Firstly, I think the author made no mistake in referring to the protagonist as a girl, the guy as a man, and the bartender as a woman. Leading me to think that the gir...

 "Do we know what money is like."  This is, single-handedly, one of the most powerful lines in the story. The funny part is, I don't even think it was meant to be. Toni Cade Bambara wrote an incredibly sad story. Maybe it was just meant to be honest. But to me, it's sad. If kids are lucky enough, they never have to realize just how much things cost until their adults, because they've never really wanted in life. But kids who have seen their parents struggle and have gone without the things they've needed, are more aware of it. The kids in this story don't seem to be aware of it until their teacher points it out to them. She was right in doing so. It's disgusting that we live in a world where some people are able to spend thousands on toys that their kids don't want, and hundreds on a paperweight for decoration, but parents can't afford to buy beds for their homes. There's an apparent inequity in the distribution of wealth in this country. B...