First-Person Fiction

Stevens begins his story by describing a letter he received from Miss Kenton. From this letter, he makes an assumption that her marriage is failing or is at least not very good. However, I am not sure that this is what made Stevens write his story. I think his feelings for Mrs. Kenton and his […]

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On the very first page of the novel, we learn that the butler, Stevens, was taking a journey of some kind; implicitly that leads the readers to thinking that this story will either be about the trip itself or that it may be some kind of reflection that long trips alone bring about. (It’s both.) The […]

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The story begins by telling us about a troubled year when a 16-year-old boy’s life changed forever.His life is depicted as relatively stable. His father worked on for rail line while his mother passed through as a waitress in town. Everything seemed to function as a normalized familiar unit. The father is characterized as being […]

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There were several parallels and similarities between Richard Ford’s two stories “Optimists” and “Communist”, though in varying forms.  One such similarity was the connection between “lost” father figures in each of the narrators’ lives.  In “Optimists”, the narrator loses his father as he goes to prison for killing a man, while in “Communist” the father had […]

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Memory is an intriguing factor in the narration of this story. As we are told this story from first person point of view, we rely on Frank Brinson’s memories to relate to us the truth. And yet, his memories are not as he remembered. If even one memory rings uncertain, it calls into question the […]

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What information is presented in the story’s opening paragraphs? What is the perspective of the narrator? What relationships are at the heart of the story? What passages seem particularly interesting or meaningful? How does the story end? How does that ending reverberate? How does the story’s title relate to the action in the story?

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Based on the introduction to this particular story, I feel like the narrator (who we never learn the real name of, only a fake name that he provides later in the story, which also adds to the idea that he is also a liar, like in many previous stories) is speaking due to his experience that became […]

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In both stories “Going to the Dogs” and “Winterkill” Richard Ford uses slight details to establish the narrator and other character’s biases. Ford is able to display how some characters view certain ideas or groups of people without explicitly stating their thoughts, instead, he makes word choices that lead us to the same conclusion. In […]

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The story is about a man who is getting ready to up and leave town after his wife left him when he encounters two women. Both women have just gotten back from hunting dragging along a deer for Gainsborough, a man we can possibly assume is close to the narrator from this quote on the […]

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The narrator starts out by not giving out much about his life or who he is other than the fact that his wife has just left him and he lives near a hotspot for hunters. He is caught in his bathrobe the day before Thanksgiving by two hunter women (he seems to focus heavily on […]

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The characters and their interactions in this story were very interesting, especially between Russell and Bobby. You could feel a strong tension between them sometimes, but at other times, they seemed okay with each other. I felt a lot of fear coming from Bobby about going to jail. He didn’t seem to place any blame […]

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In this chapter “sweetheart” Arlene’s ex-husband was staying with them in her house. He was going to turn himself into jail to do his one year jail time. Russ and Bobby were not great friends but got along, as Arlene was a woman they both loved. Russ makes him breakfast and Arlene talks to Bobby […]

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I chose this picture because it reminds me of my grandmother. She hangs all of her clothes and bed sheets on a clothes line. I remember running through the sheets when it was windy as a kid. This picture brought back a childhood memory and is the biggest reason I chose it.

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The thing that stood out to me the most in this short story was the sheer recklessness that Bobby embodied. On the first page alone it said that “He had written several bad checks, and before he could be sentenced for that he had robbed a convenience store with a pistol…” Throughout the story it […]

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As I watched the videos I screenshotted several different parts that peaked my interests but decided to use this one for my post. It is nothing fancy or extremely dramatic, but the layout and off-centered focus of the quilt make it feel more “cozy” I guess I could say. The geometric designs and randomization of […]

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