First-Person Fiction

This story features a lifeguard whose life changed after a fearful event. The narrator, we learn, is Josh Michaels, who counted himself  a strong and handsome lifeguard who watched the people of Pirate’s Point. During the story, he continuously mentions people, like Ric or Mrs. Lovenheim, despite the story relays his growth and personal encounter […]

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I had a lot of mixed emotions from this piece. When I began reading, I was intrigued by the subject matter and essay questions the narrator was reading. However, once I reached the second paragraph on page 155, the choice of words the author used began to annoy me. I think this is because I […]

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Although there were many differences between these two stories, there was a common theme that differentiated the lives of the two narrators: change. While the concept of change is both physical and mental, the change (or lack thereof) that occurred in both narrators’ mental and emotional states could not be more different. “The Lifeguard” by […]

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Write no more than two pages (500 words) from the point of view of one of the figures in group 1 describing one of the scenes in group 2. Your aim is to fully describe the scene but to also convey telling information about the narrator who is describing that scene. Group 1   Group […]

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This story creates a heart-warming narrative of a couple and their passage through time together. It offers an honest, down to earth story structure. It uses flowing word passages and bleeding sentence structure to illustrate just how easy it is for two people to find each other in the world. Tiny and Lois’s meeting and eventual love […]

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Of the three readings assigned, the two that stood out to me the most were “Our Lady of the Quarry” by Mariana Enriquez and “It’s Bad Luck to Die” by Elizabeth McCrackan.  Both were very well written and I loved the focus each story had on emotions and surprises.  However, “It’s Bad Luck to Die” resinated with me more than […]

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Although very different stories in theme and tone, “It’s Bad luck to Die” and “No one’s a Mystery” share some striking similarities. Both begin with a relationship between a young woman and an older man. However, in “It’s Bad Luck to Die” that relationship eventually cultivates itself into something long-lasting and meaningful, while readers of “No […]

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The interest I have in this story stems from the use of the collective viewpoint; there is no “I” to the story, as one usually assumes is the case in first person-fiction, instead being replaced by a “we.” In the beginning paragraph, I almost thought the story had been selected as a mistake and that […]

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This story reads like a confessional made by a person begging for redemption from a booth in a church, though it doesn’t sound remorseful as one may expect in this situation. So to correct myself, this story reads like a confession, period. This is about a bunch of dumb teenagers making dumb decisions to impress […]

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What was revealed in this story was not a simple tale of two lovers and their life together, but instead a dynamic of what it is truly like to have found your soulmate, to have found the one that completes your puzzle. McCracken was able to create such a beautiful and enticing story that evokes […]

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This is a story with several points of view. The narrators are a group of teenage girls, and Mariana Enriquez captures their different voices through seamless transitions of pronouns and nouns. In the beginning, we have “Silvia lived alone in a rented apartment of her own…” (1), and we assume that the story is in […]

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The literary craftsmanship the author of this short story utilized was rich and made this piece relatable to readers whose lives drastically differ from that of the main character, Lois. I found there was a common theme throughout the entirety of this piece, and this theme would be most accurately described as the use of […]

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Edward P. Jones’s “The First Day” is about a girl whose mom is taking her to school for the first time. The story is told through the girl’s perspective as her mom tries to get her registered for school. Even though the story is being told in the present tense, it actually takes place in […]

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In the story “It’s Bad Luck to Die,” the surface level storyline appears to be about Lois describing the times she had with her late husband. While she believes this story is about her husband, Tiny, the story is instead an exploration of Lois’ personal growth both during her marriage with Tiny and after this […]

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This story shows a supposed maternal figure imposing a “proper” feminine life style that her daughter should live. The short set of advice includes both positive and negative suggestions based on current societal standards. But what I found most interesting about this narrative was the underlining themes presented through the expected mannerisms of a well-rounded […]

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Edward P. Jones’s “The First Day” is told from the perspective of a little girl on her first day of school. Even in the first sentence, Jones’s use of perspective takes the reader on an incredible journey through this little girl’s life without any change in tense. The first sentence is the story’s equivalent to a broken part […]

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“Our Lady of the Quarry,” by Mariana Enriquez, had been about the narrator being just another girl in her group of friends, trying to have fun in her youth. The narrator began the story about a woman, Silvia, she doesn’t like by giving details about her — how she saw Silvia. It comes to the reader’s attention […]

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This short story was an interesting exploration of relationships in different forms and how starkly they can vary from person to person and even from time to time. From the beginning paragraph, where Lois explained that she was Jewish woman who was heavily tattooed with Jesus Christ on her (multiple times) along with a Buddha on her […]

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Reading “It’s Bad Luck to Die” offers a look into a lifestyle that may be considered ‘alternative’ by today’s standards. By 1960’s standards, the very topic of the story would be considered taboo: A couple who express their love through the art of tattoos.  The way in which the narrator speaks to her audience, to the […]

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(This isn’t intended as a real blog post for classwork, but it’s something I’ve been dying to say for a while and it feels relevant enough to the course to post here. “Ode to Billie Joe” can be found at this link.) “Ode to Billie Joe” by Bobbie Gentry is one of my favorite songs. […]

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