The Snow Fairy by Claude McKay

Throughout the afternoon I watched them there,

Snow-fairies falling, falling from the sky,

Whirling fantastic in the misty air,

Contending fierce for space supremacy.

And they flew down a mightier force at night,

As though in heaven there was revolt and riot,

And they, frail things had taken panic flight

Down to the calm earth seeking peace and quiet.

I went to bed and rose at early dawn

To see them huddled together in a heap,

Each merged into the other upon the lawn,

Worn out by the sharp struggle, fast asleep.

The sun shone brightly on them half the day,

By night they stealthily had stol'n away. 

"What I like in a good author is not what he says but what he whispers"

                                                     -Logan Pearsall Smith

I agree fully with this quote. I love not just a good story, but a deep meaning that underlies it. In the short story we read in class, the ambiguous ending makes you think about the meaning. On the surface the story is a husband finding out his wife is a witch. But if you look deeper, you can see the story explores concepts such as conscience and evil. 

My favorite short story is The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. This little story surprised me with it's ending, and made me realize that short stories can provide as much of a surprise and enjoyment that a novel can. Before I had read this, I thought short stories were silly, and that only books could be thought provoking or have good plot twists. But after this, I have become a fan of short stories. Another worth mentioning is the one  Mrs. Slockett's class read in the beginning of the year. It was the story about a community of werewolves, although it never actually says it, that is witnessing a werewolf turn into a human. The story is one huge role reversal, with werewolfs thinking that humans were revolting creatures that must be put down. This short story also provided an excellent and unexpected twist in the plot that puts short stories in a whole new light.

Do you think young people today value their education as much as Sara Smolinsky does? Why or why not?

I don't think young people in this generation value their education as much as Sara. I think school today is anti-productive and teaches kids to hate learning. Kids who do value education are often overwhelmed with work, and have little personal time. It's almost impossible for a child to balance a job and school at the same time and still achieve A's. So in today's world, valuing education comes at a great cost to your personal time and childhood. 

"There's nothing hard about writing. All you have to do is sit down and open up a vein." 

- Walter "Red" Smith

I think this quote is not entirely true. Writing for me is hard because there is so many standards set in school of what "good writing" is. Personally, I believe there should not be so many standards and rules of writing, I don't think anyone should put a rule on creativity. 

Bread Givers

So far I am really enjoying this wonderful book. During class, many good points were made about the meaning of respect, and it's significance in the story, as well as western matriarchal societies. This book is doing a great job in displaying the poverty of the Lower East Side Jews during the 1920s. I really enjoyed chapter 5 and the scene where Fania receives a love note, and her father disrespected her and read it before her and said she could never marry a poor poet.