Cross-Country Snow

            After reading through the Nick Adams stories, this one was the easiest one for me to relate to was “Cross-Country Snow.”  Especially right now during exams, it is very easy for me to fantasize forward to break filled with days of nothing but sleeping.  However, we are awakened with the sad reality of school and the fact that we must study our lives away for a week before we are rewarded with a break.

As much as we are uneasy about sacrificing for exam week, Nick is even more so because he has to make a sacrifice for the rest of his life.  He had a realization that he can no longer fantasize of skiing with his friend every day or travel.  He knows that he has to do what is expected of him by his wife and future son, just as his friend knows that he must return to school.  Nick has come to terms with the fact that he is going to have a child and knows that he needs to make sacrifices in his life for it.  He was not ready at first to have his kid, but after a while he knows he is and this is why he is willing to go back to the United States.

This is a scary thought for me right now to think that at some point in the future I will be expected to make difficult decisions, but I know that when the time is right I will be ready.  Some of these decisions are already surfacing as I am trying to get an internship and thinking about what I am going to do with my life after I graduate with my degree.  It can be a daunting task to think about knowing the impact of these decisions on my future, but I hope to be able to choose what is right as Nick does even though it may not sound as appealing as fantasy world.

The Red Convertible

            This story really struck out to me after I had read it.  After reading the story, I immediately thought of a novel that I read in high school called The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.  The novel is a collection of stories that Tim O’Brien writes about a company of soldiers during the Vietnam War.  Although the narrator of the story is named Tim O’Brien, O’Brien claims that it is a fictional work based on his life experiences.  The story focuses on what the soldiers physically carried, different stories that happened to the company, and how the soldiers coped with war both at war and when they return home.

“The Red Convertible” reminded me of this book because of the descriptions of Henry after the war and how he changed with the baggage of his experience in the war.  The book made me sympathize for all of the soldiers in war because they go through so much that it can be impossible for some to escape or overcome.  As Lyman says, “the change was no good.  You can hardly expect him to change for the better.”  We see the ultimate result of the change at the conclusion of the story when Henry commits suicide.  Henry can no longer tolerate living in this half-dead state.  He specifically claims that he has tried to wake up but it is no use; he is changed forever.  Lyman mentions how Henry cannot escape the war even when he comes home, “for him it would keep on going.”

This story was really quite depressing.  It also brings to light the tragic reality of the effects that war can have on soldiers.  Lyman missed the relationship he had with his brother and tried to repair it, but he was not able to succeed.  He destroys the car in the river because it was a reminder of his brother and how he changed, just like he hides the picture of them by the car. 

Overall, I thought the story to be very meaningful.  Louise Erdrich did a good job in my opinion of conveying his message of the story as well as some other themes such as racial tensions.

The Cask of Amontillado

I actually have read “The Cask of Amontillado” a number of times in high school, along with a number of Edgar Allen Poe’s other short stories.  Although his stories tend to have darker subject matter, I tend to enjoy them due to the suspense that they bring.  His stories, this one in particular, usually focus on the darker aspects of human nature.  Although he usually uses extreme cases as seen with Montresor’s revenge on Fortunato, they are real traits and often faults of human nature. 

            Edgar Allen Poe really brings the reader into the mind of Montresor.  The story begins with Montresor justifying why he took his revenge to some form of audience (I will touch on this later).  He is never explicit with what Fortunato did to deserve his fate, we just know it was based on insult.  The reader is thrust into the psyche of Montresor’s games with Fortunato, beginning with his playing upon Fortunato’s self-proclaimed connoisseurship of wine to lure Fortunato into his house.  Montresor uses his knowledge of human nature throughout the story to get his way, as seen when he tells his workers to remain working while he is gone and they all leave.  He is able to put Fortunato’s guard down by quenching his thirst with wine and acting like a friend genuinely concerned for his well-being. 

            Irony is another aspect that is found continually throughout the story.  While they are on their trek through the catacombs, Fortunato insists that the cough will not kill him, but when he is buried alive it is most likely a contributing factor to his eventual death.  Another example of irony found in the story is Montresor’s family arms which read “no one attacks me with impunity.”  This is also very foreboding for the fate of Fortunato.  Montresor also implores the use of irony when he pulls a trowel from beneath his cloak when asked if he was a mason.  Fortunato was speaking of the brotherhood of the Free Masons rather than a mason by trade.  There are numerous other examples of irony throughout the story and can even be seen in the meaning of the character’s names.

            By the end of the story, we see exactly how twisted Montresor is.  He toys with Fortunato as he is sealing him to his death inside of the catacombs.  He mocks Fortunato by yelling and repeating what he says.  This is the most disturbing part of the story to me, as I am reading Montresor’s actions they seem inhuman.  He even makes the reader believe that he pities what he did to Fortunato when he claims his heart felt sick, but Montresor immediately casts it out and attributes his sickness to the dampness of the catacombs.

            Lastly, I wanted to touch on who Montresor is retelling his story.  I believe that Montresor is telling his story to a priest as reconciliation on his death bed.  However, after the way in which he tells the story with every exact detail and no mention of remorse, it is hard to say that Montresor actually is trying to reconcile his actions.  Rather, I believe that Montresor is boasting about his actions.  He didn’t want to die without anyone else knowing about his “perfect” revenge, so he told the priest in reconciliation.  He is recounting the story to someone so that they “appreciate” the measures he went to in order to “punish with impunity.”

Ten Indians

After reading through the Nick Adams stories that we have this semester, the reader almost “grows up” with Nick by observing from the outside.  Out of all the stories that we have read, “Ten Indians” really stuck out to me because of the impact it had on Nick.

          Throughout the story, Nick’s feelings take a relentless beating.  It starts when his friends, the Garner sons began making fun of him about Prudence.  The father even indulges a little with his sons, although not as bad.  Mrs. Garner does try to stop her family, but she even makes a joke to her husband.  Nick can do nothing but just listen to the comments. 

As if this verbal abuse wasn’t hard enough, he arrives home to meet his father for dinner.  His father mentions that he saw Prudence with another boy today at the camp.  The father seems to almost be toying with Nick’s emotions as if it were a game for him.  He completely disregards his son’s feelings because he had to have known about Nick and Prudence.  Nevertheless, Nick cries himself to sleep but forgets about it in the morning.

Nick cannot escape the remarks since they are coming from both his friends and his family.  The only person that actually tries to console Nick or restrain in any way is Mrs. Garner, who is clearly prejudiced by the way she acknowledges the Indians.  Although she may try to seem sincere in her words, upon further examination she is clearly a hypocrite. 

By analyzing everything that Nick went through in this story alone, it is clear that Nick didn’t have an ideal upbringing.  This is touched on more in the story “Fathers and Sons,” when he speaks of his father.

My Favorite Teacher

            One of my favorite teachers that I had in high school would have to be my Calculus AB AP teacher, Mr. Wright.  Now Mr. Wright was a man in his sixties and had even taught my friend’s dad.  This man had been around for a while and knew exactly what he was doing, but if you listened to him, he made it sound like he was completely lost.  He always warned us before we started new material that if he was a real teacher he would go over the book, but that he was not smart enough to go over the way the book did it.  Instead he would teach us a way that made sense to him which was always much easier to both comprehend and perform in problems.

            He definitely was not your typical teacher for several other reasons.  One of the most notable would be his bet that he made with the class.  If we ever caught him forgetting a chain rule, he would immediately give the first person to call it out twenty dollars on the spot.  When a friend of mine in my class noticed, sure enough he gave him a twenty on the spot. My friend even tried to not accept the money, but my teacher made him take the money since he made the bet.  Another unique characteristic of his was his teaching method.  He would lecture for ten or fifteen minutes in the beginning of class if that, then we would go to the chalk board in groups and work out homework problems.  He would walk around the class and help us out when we were stuck.  He would also occasionally give a student a light smack in a manner of jest, which had surprising force coming from him.  This teacher was a great guy, and definitely one of my favorite teachers throughout high school, although he complained that he wanted me to fail one of my tests in his class to “humble” me a little.

            He taught every class in the same loud, energetic manner and somehow was able to make calculus enjoyable.  He also genuinely cared for every student in his class and was willing to help with anything if he was approached.  He was a very fair teacher that looked at the effort that the students made in his class, not just the numerical grades.  Overall, I believe that I truly learned the material which was proven to me when I got a 5 on the AP test at the end of the year.

Not Your Typical Hotel

            Over the past summer, our family vacationed to West Virginia.  He had a business conference at The Greenbrier that he was attending through one of his clients.  The Greenbrier is a very old and extremely nice hotel that is its own separate part of West Virginia in a town called White Sulphur Springs.  There are no major cities near it, and the grounds lie on an amazing layout consisting of numerous trails, paths, golf courses, and many other things.  It is actually the home of the FedEx Cup along with a few other PGA events.  Needless to say this was by far the nicest hotel that I have ever stayed at, and the scenery around the hotel was unreal.  We made a hike on a trail that concluded with an aerial view of the grounds which was well worth the seven mile trek.  They offered many other activities at the hotel; one that we attended was falconry which was very cool to see.

            Even with all of these things, the most fascinating part of that hotel cannot be seen by a passerby or walking around the grounds.  The Greenbrier was the home for a secretive fallout bunker for congress.  In the case of a nuclear attack, the government would secretly transport both the Senate and the House of Representatives to the bunker which is an easy three hour drive from D.C.  The bunker was not made to withstand a direct attack, but rather the fallout of an attack on D.C.  What surprised me the most about it was that the bunker was on the third floor of the hotel.  It was actually right under our room the entire time but we did not notice until we went on the tour.

            During the tour, we learned that it was made as part of the hotel’s additions in the 1950s.  They built the bunker mixed into another wing of the hotel, which is why no one was able to figure it out during the construction phases.  It was kept as a fully functional bunker from 1962 until 1992 when a reporter leaked the location and purpose of the bunker.  During this time, it was kept entirely stocked and remained fully functional on its own with a group of workers that were on the hotel staff.  The grounds included kitchen, living area, beds, and all other necessities including a contamination cleaning area.  Most employees of the hotel did not even know it was there.  Another remarkable aspect of this was that the entrance and part of the actual bunker was in plain sight and was even used to host events.  There was just a twenty ton door hidden behind a fake wall that would have been used to seal it off in the case of an emergency. 

I found the whole story of the bunker remarkable, merely by the fact that they were able to keep it a secret for forty years.  Even with employees and hotel guests constantly around it along with trucks constantly supplying it, they were able to hide it from the outside world even though it was also large enough to hold about seven hundred people.  After I learned of this bunker, I began to wonder what other kind of bunkers or secrets the government has in case of emergency.  This bunker was only for congress, so they probably have two other bunkers for the other two branches also.  It surprised me that this was able to be kept a secret for so long especially in today’s day and age.  However, I do think it is a shame that the bunker was uncovered because now it is used as a storage facility for a security company and for tours to guests.

            

The Notorious Fishing Trip

           Once I read the list of topics, one certain fishing trip that happened a few summers ago immediately jumped out.  It all started when we decided that we were going to go fishing with my uncle from California one day.  Uncle Charlie is notorious for bringing bad luck to the people that he is with.  An example of this luck is when my dad was following him step for step wading in the water; suddenly my dad falls in an oyster bed and has to get stitches while my uncle leading the way is unharmed.  This is one of several examples of the bad luck, so we should have known to be hesitant to go with him.  As if this was not enough to deter us, my uncle also bought a fishing license which does not usually happen.

            The next day when we were leaving, we decided that we were going to have two boats.  On one boat it was my Uncle Mike, Uncle Owen, Uncle Chris, and me.  The other boat consisted of my Uncle Charlie and two of his friends, one being a “paid professional” at the place we were going.  Chris and Uncle Owen tried to buy a fishing license at the bait shop because of the feeling of uneasiness they had about the trip with my uncle, but the store were not selling them.  Nevertheless, we launched the boats and were on our way off.

            We are fishing in a new area that none of us have fished before besides Uncle Charlie’s friend Jesse, so we were planning on just following them around for the day.  We pull up to a spot that seems to be in the middle of the passage way, and Jesse tells us to drop anchor here.  He told us, “Fish with a Carolina rig on the bottom.  The spot can turn on at any time, but you have to be on the bottom.”  At this point the other boat says they are going to try some spots that we could not get to since they had a shallower boat.

            We begin fishing here, but after not catching much of anything, we decide to try our luck at another spot.  We make our way into a big open lake and just start to fish along the marsh on the outside.  We begin catching a variety of fish here and there including red fish, sheep head, and trout.  At one stop we pull up and I immediately hook a big sheep head, so Uncle Owen relieved me of my anchor duties at this spot.  Just as we were netting the fish in, we see a boat make a bee-line for us.  We realize that we are the only other boat in this water, so it has to be a game warden coming for us.  The game warden goes through the usual checks then asks for fishing licences.  I was fifteen at the time, so it was legal for me to not have one.  Uncle Mike had a lifetime lisence so he was ok also.  This left Uncle Owen and Chris as the targets for the wardens.  Uncle Owen, who grew up around where we were in southern Louisianna although he lives in Denver now, began shamelessly name dropping people he knew in the department.  Chris, on the other hand, just accepted the fact that he was getting a ticket.  Uncle Owen was saved with a warning because he bought a fishing license , but Chris got the ticket and was forced to attend a wildlife appreciation class.  This was also the first time that we ran into the game warden when fishing.

            As if our luck was bad enough as is, we go to pick up the anchor but it was no longer there.  A distracted Uncle Owen never tied the anchor off, so the anchor and all one hundred yards of rope were gone.  Uncle Owen then decided that he was going to wade in the water and search for the anchor.  Keep in mind earlier today we saw some alligators, one being pretty large, in that same body of water.  Nevertheless, he was able to stumble upon the rope and find the anchor safely.

            Although the trip was not the best, we did end up with about twenty-five fish.  This was more than the other boat, so we were happy about that fact.  This trip is one that we still tell stories about and comes up during every other fishing trip.