My Papa's Waltz by Roethke

For this particular poem I made a prediction of what I thought the poem would be about before I read it. In my mind I thought it would be about a father who had danced with his daughter for the last time before he passed away. I don't know if any of you know the song "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman but that is also one of the things that came to my mind before I read the poem. It turns out that it was not what I had expected it to be. For one thing, it turned out to be a father and son, not a daughter, dancing. I do feel like they were attempting to dance with each other, but the father is clearly drunk and not able to concentrate on what he is doing. The only snippet of the mother we get is that she is frowning, clearly a sign of disapproval that the father has been drinking. It is quite unfortunate that the family has to deal with the father in this state, because he is supposed to be the one that protects them from anything. For me this is one of those things that just make you question how anyone could do that to their family. Why is it so important to drink? The only thing it does is tear families apart. Something as simple as waltzing with his son is extremely difficult, and probably not even that enjoyable anymore for his son, because the father has chosen to drink. Again I feel an important aspect of the story to take away from reading would be not to take anything for granted. The husband had a wonderful family that he was pushing aside whether he realized it or not. No one should ever have to deal with a situation like that, and my hope would be that people would realize how good they have things before they go and let things get out of control. Definitely a poem worth reading, not at all what I expected, but I enjoyed it just the same.

I wandered lonely as a cloud by Wordsworth

This was my favorite selection of poetry that we have read for this class so far. I was able to read it fairly easily and understood it pretty well too. For me the poem is a reminder that we need to stop and smell the roses every now and then. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our routines that we miss opportunities that could have been extremely beneficial to us had we payed attention to them. People go through their lives with such a strict focus that all they can see is themselves and the goal they are trying to reach. They miss the beauty of the small things in life, such as nature in this poem. When we do come across these rare moments in our life we do not always understand what their purpose is. Just as the poem points out that they "Little thought What wealth the show to me had brought" (459). Sometimes we do not realize what we had until it is gone. The take away point of the poem for me is not to take anything for granted. Appreciate everything you have, because you never know how long it will last.

A&P by Updike

This short story was my favorite. I found the story to be somewhat comical in a sense. The narrator gets right to the main attraction of the story in the first sentence saying "In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits" (430). I mean it is a little creepy that he and his fellow store clerk just stare at the girls as they wander through the store, but the way they do it is quite funny. They are so bored in the store that watching the girls becomes a sort of game for the narrator, he even compares it to a game of pinball trying to figure out which aisle they will come down next! The second part of the story the narrator gets the chance to check them out, in more ways than one, when they come to the counter. When the manager embarrasses the girls for wearing bathing suits in the store, the narrator makes a failed attempt at heroism by quitting as the girls are leaving the store. He is hoping that the girls will notice him and be so appreciative of his actions, when in reality they could care less what he decides to do. Part of me wants to feel sorry for him because he did quit his job and really has nothing to show for it, but I also feel like he should have known better than that. I enjoyed the story and found it very pleasant to read overall. If I had to pick one thing to take away from this story it would be to stand up for what I feel is right, but go about it in a smart way.

Cathedral by Carver

This short story has been my second favorite selection that we have read for this class thus far. When I saw the title I was expecting the content of the story to be more centered on religion, so it was interesting to find out otherwise. Because the title of the story is "Cathedral" I feel as though that is were we are supposed to find some sort of deeper meaning to the story. In my mind it was not just a moment that helped the husband and the blind man bond but also has some significant meaning to the husband particularly. When the husband asks the blind man if he knows anything about Cathedrals one of the facts the blind man knows is that the men who began work never lived to see the Cathedral completed. I found a connection with this when the blind man asked the husband to close his eyes as they finished the drawing. It was sort of like a trust exercise. Just as the men who built actual Cathedrals had to believe they would be completed, so to the husband had to believe their drawing would be completed. The take away point for me in this story was that you can't always be in control. Sometimes you have to trust that other people know best, and that everything will turn out the way that it is supposed to in the end.