“Reading Blind” by Margaret Atwood Essay

1. In her com mentary Reading Blind, Marg art A bothod gives her opinions on pointors that make a scam invoice good. She publishs that a good written report has to have a translator that moves not only crosswise p get alongs tho also through duration. approximately deal atomic number 18 first introduced to stories at a young age by the s open firedalous gossips and family secrets that children overhear their mothers discussing in the kitchen, or the oral tales with blab out donkeys and definite endings that their grandmother recites to them. All these stories practise by voice and they becharm the way each and e actually psyche expects from or brings to stories. According to Atwood, a good tommyrot has, in many ways, qualities that are similar to those that children emergency in the tales they are told or overhear. For a story to be successful, it needfully to have elements of mystery, proper buildup, unexpected twists, and an impeccable thought of timing. It als o has to effectively hold the tutelage of the readers, and gives them a sense of urgency and excitement in the narration.Toni Cade Bambaras short story The Lesson is one that effectively embodies the voice that Margaret Atwood mentions in her essay. This short story is told through the voice of the main charactera girl from the ghetto named Sylvia. Sylvias narration of the events in this story is as young and as true to life as any fiction apprize be. In Reading Blind, Atwood quotes from Raymond Chandler All delivery begins with speech, and the speech of common men at that. The voice in The Lesson precisely portraits the speech of a disconsolate girl living in the poor urban area with sentences that neglect auxiliary or conjugations, and by doing so, reveals the reality like it truly is. In order to closely picture the setting in her story, Bambara has sacrificed the proper and leaden ways of the English language and stay faithful to the speech and voices of the mountain wh ose stories she depicts.Only with this unmasked honesty git Bambara create a short story that is so appealing and speaks powerfully to the readers. Intentionally or not, Bambaras story The Lesson closely observes Margaret Atwoods qualities of a good story and thus, it is one that captures the attention of the readers and maintains their interest until the end. 2. In her essay Writing Short Stories, Flannery OConnor stresses the grandness of consequence in a short story. It is, she writes, what keeps a short story from being short. She goes on further to explain that the meaning outlinen from a story are from experiences, and by making statements well-nigh the meaning, a person can experience it even more deeply. She uses her have got Good solid ground People to demonstrate this point. The plot of this story, a bible salesman stealing the wooden leg of a faithless lady who tries to seduce him, can evidently be nothing more than a low joke. However, as the meaning of the wooden leg is explored, and the act of stealing the leg is looked into further, it is revealed that this story deals with often deeper issues.In OConnors opinion, no formula, technique, or theory can really can guidance for a story. In order to check up on to write a story, a person must first write one, then try to discover what he has done. She also discusses the two qualities of fiction the sense of mystery and the sense of manners. She stresses that manners collected from the surrounding environments can provide insights into a work of fiction, and also the importance in the depth of nature in the characters. In Eudora Weltys short story Why I Live at the P.O., the author explores the problems buried deep beneath the step up sibling rivalry of a gray family. Both Sisterthe overlooked older daughterand Stella-Rondothe be deald younger onehas troubled stories that hold them from committing themselves to a peaceful family life. A shallow reader might tally the plot of the story i n one sentence A charwoman is angry at the return of her sisterStellawhen her family turns from her to embrace Stella and her childShirley T. and after(prenominal) a while she leaves home and leaves at the Post Office, making it an unsophisticated and even fewwhat comical drama.However, as the readers ponders more roughly the meanings untruth deep under each characters actions their argument about the nature of Shirley T.s adoption, the competition for attention of the elderly in the family, and close to important of all, the act of breaking away of Sister. When the readers have got departed that sign stage of merely comprehending the story, they can start unraveling its hidden meaning and draw their confess conclusion and make their own statements about these meanings. Why I Live at the P.O. is also a story that draws plentifully from the Southern culture of Mississippi from which the author is from. Welty utilizes her knowledge of the people and environment almost her t o create characters that are realistic while at the same time mystifying, and thus achieves success in her craft. 3. In his essay Looking for Raymond cutter, A. O. Scott makes a statement saying that More often than not, the big talkers in Carvers stories are in possession of a degree of curriculum privilege People who take to the woods on as if they know what they are public lecture about are regarded with suspicion.Carvers greatest philanthropy is reserved for those characters who struggle to use language to make sense of things, plainly who founder in the attempt. By studying Carvers two short stories duomo and What We Talk about When We Talk about love, the readers provide soon come to the conclusion that this statement is very true indeed. The very first line of What We Talk about When We Talk about Love reads My friend Mel McGinnis was talking. Mel McGinnis is a cardiologist, and sometimes that gives him the right. It is made clear that Mel is one of the people of the first group, the ones who talk and flaunt their ability to talk in appear of other people. Being a cardiologist might have condition Mel a position superior to his friends, yet that fact still does not justify the fact that he talks on. His wifeTerridoes not seem as enthusiastic to discuss the matter of love as he did, however. In the whole conversation, the only idea she is insistent about is the fact that Edher ex-loverloves her.The dialogues in this story are dominated by Mel, who always denies this information. For Mela character that carries on as if he knows what he is talking about, Carvers approach for him has not been generous. He describes them with a stress that exposes the flaws and imperfection in their personalities. Mel has a medical degree, and also a past in the seminary. He is certain that the extent of his knowledge gives him the authority to talk and he utilizes that power with no reluctance. He has a set of ideology of what love should be, and expects that only things that closely follow his criteria can be called love. He deems the actions of Terris ex- husband as not only violent and threatening, which they are, but also not love, which they can be. His prejudice on life and love makes him appear less reliable to the readers than the other characters, and therefore, he is viewed with suspicion. The narrator in Cathedral, on the other hand, falls into the second category of characters.Even from the initiation of the story, he has always had little to say. He struggles to make a link in communication with the blind friend of his wife, but does so unsuccessfully and with a lot of troubles. The barrier between him and the blind man is create not only by their inability to reach each other, but also because of the superior position he has put himself above his wifes friend. Throughout the whole story, the readers witness his efforts to be relevant to the guest and his wife as well but he fails to do so. His attempts to pop off with the other characters fall flat, because he is too caught up in his own world. He does not want a person from the outside to come in and interrupt the life he is living, much less a man who knows his wife all too well. He is reluctant and ambivalent of this visit and the effects it will have on his life and that is what causes him in the attempt to make sense of things.The empathy that Carver reserves for the narrator in Cathedral can be seen throughout the whole story. Even with his misanthropic but ignorant outlook in life, the narrator still possesses some qualities that are admirable to the readers. This character is a man who has the typical characteristics of an alpha-male. He is protective of his wife, and becomes jealous of other man who has gotten close to her. His inability to pertain with Robertthe blind manultimately boils down to the competition for his wifes compassion, and even though his thinking is flawed, his desire to keep his wife evokes empathy in the reader s. Any person would have felt the same jealousy towards another one who can potentially take what are theirs, and the narrators failure to communicate with the friend of his wife, no matter how pathetic, is understood by a universal audience and Raymond Carver himself.The narrator in Cathedral and Mel in What We Talk about When We Talk about Love are two types of characters created by Raymond Carver. Mel is a man who can talk a lot about many things, particularly love he comes across as a man who is judgmental and closed-minded. The other one, the narrator, while having his own struggles with jealousy and compassion, portraits a more universal and understandable kind of person, and therefore reserves more empathy from the readers and the author himself. By studying these two characters, it can be concluded that A. O. Scotts observation that the big talkers are in possession of a degree of class privilege People who carry on as if they know what they are talking about are regarded wi th suspicion. Carvers greatest empathy is reserved for those characters who struggle to use language to make sense of things, but who founder in the attempt is a true and accurate statement.Works CitedAtwood, Margaret. Reading Blind. The report and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. capital of Massachusetts Bedford/St. Martins, 1999. 1408-11. Bambara, Toni Cade.The Lesson. The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 1999. 71-6. Carver, Raymond. Cathedral. The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 1999. 168-78. Carver, Raymond. What We Talk about When We Talk about Love. The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 1999. 187-95. OConnor, Flannery. Writing Short Stories. The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 1999. 1619-24. Scott, A. O. Looking for Raymond Carver. The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 1999. 1595-9. Welty, Eudora. Why I Liv e at the P.O. The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 1999. 1317-26.