Barn Burning

In the story Barn Burning the father goes around town to town and burns barns. He drags the kid in with him too which is wrong. The kid knows that it's wrong and doesn't want a part of it but doesn't know how to tell his father no. He's faced with a conflict. Either he can turn his father in or continue letting his father keep burning the barns. It's a tough decision but if I was in his shoes, I would know that my father is scum and would turn him in.
Abner Snopes, the father, is just a bad spirited person. He has a lot of anger built up inside of him and feels that everybody's out to get him. An example of a bad thing that he does is that he wipes his dirty feet on the governor's rug. It's to show him that he doesn't support his gov't. The family is part of the lower class and are white trash. That's why Abner Snopes has to resort to bad things because he feels so low about himself. He also sees himself as better than black people because they are the discriminated race and that's what he does to feel better about himself. He says that he's at least not black. It's just such stupid thinking.
I'm very glad that in the end Sarty runs away and doesn't join his father and his father gets shot.It's good because his father got what he deserved. Sarty kind of becomes a man when his dad dies because he's on his own and is in control of the family.

Dry September

Dry September was an interesting story. I couldn't believe that they white men just immediately jump to the conclusion that the black man,Will Mayes, raped the white woman. They just have that tendency that if a person is of that skin color that that person is bad and should be treated differently. It's amazing that they had no evidence to jump to a conclusion like that and yet they just do it anyway. I found this quote to be amazing too. "What the hell difference does it make? Are you going to let the black sons get away with it until one really does it?" In other words he's the rape might not have even taken place but the black person probably will do it. It's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I think the kid was right to stand up for the black guy and say not to kill him. He knew it was wrong and I'm glad he didn't back down and didn't take part in the awful act. No matter what names they called him he just never backed down. In the car he actually jumped because he just coudn't take part in it. I really look up to him for that.
I found it weird that the woman was happy that she told them that he raped her and that they killed him. She's also seen as high and mighty because she did that. I think towards the end though she knew it was a bad thing to do and regretted it. She didn't like all the attention she got. She realized it was a bad thing and knew she shouldn't have got that attention for it.

Kate Chopin

I think Kate Chopin is a very good writer. She introduced things that not many authors of her time said. One example was how she ended the stories. They ended with bad things happening. For example in the end of "The Storm" the two people get away with having an affair. The husband and wife don't find out. Also in "Desiree's Baby" the woman kills herself and the baby. So both those stories have not good endings as far as morals and happiness go. Kate Chopin does another thing that not many authors of her time did. In the storm she goes into great detail of a seduction scene. For example, "The contact of her warm, palpitating body when he had unthinkingly drawn her into his arms, had aroused all the old-time infatuation and desire for her flesh." I couldn't believe the detail she went into because I never have read something like that in a book before. You could picture what was going on. I thought it was very sad in the story "Desiree's Baby" that the husband left the wife because of the skin color of the baby. It's very upsetting that race had such an effect on people. Everybody should be equal no matter what color skin a person has. I'm glad times have changed now and everybody is viewed as equals. This story also reminded me of the story Thomas Jefferson wrote because it was all about slavery and how the blacks were treated unfairly. "The Storm" was like that because the wife was thrown away because the father blamed her for the baby's color. Meanwhile the father is black too and he didn't even look at his own self. He just assumes it's the wife that made the baby black because she's a woman and they were viewed as less then men.
I also found it interesting to learn about the class status that was in the stories. In "The Storm" the creoles were viewed as the wealthier group and they were the descendants of the Spanish people. The cajuns were lower than the creoles and were the peasants and farmers. It was interesting to see in the story how no matter what the classes, the creole went with the cajun. It was because they had a special connection with each other. I like how they defied the rules and, in the end, went with each other. Also they didn't get caught. They got away scot free and were very lucky that their husband and wife didn't find out.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick was another one of the literary giants in the south. He was one of the biggest writers of the African Americans. Him along with many other of the leading black writers had to leave the south and go north to begin their writing.
I can't believe all the things that Frederick Douglass had to go through as a slave. It's really traumatizing what he had to deal with. One think that was very traumatizing was that he had to see his aunt be beaten to a bloody pulp. I don't know how he got through such hard times. A quote from the book is,"I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, who he used to tie up to a joist, and whip her naked back till she was literally covered with blood." I can't imagine even putting myself in that situation. It's just so horrible. He even to go through many beatings of his own.
Another thing I had trouble understanding was how difficult to please the masters were. For example when the master is describing things that were not perfectly done to the horse. "He has not been sufficiently rubbed and curried, or he has not been properly fed, his food is too wet or dry." It just really annoyed how nothing would ever please them. These things are also irrelevant and stupid too. Then, because of this, the slaves would get whipped and beaten. Another thing that surprised me was that the slaves were not clothed properly for the weather. If the masters want to keep the slaves and not have them die then they should have them wear a lot of layers in the bitter cold and not a lot of clothes in the summer. As described in the story Douglass didn't even have shoes on his feet in the winter.
I really admired Frederick Douglass because even though he was going through all these hard times, he still managed to learn how to read and write. He didn't want to be illiterate, he wanted to be smart. If I was going through all that that would probably be the last thing on my mind. I wouldn't care about learning how to read at all. Another thing I admired about Frederick Douglass was that he fought back and started fighting his masters. An example from the reading is,"I seized Covey hard by the throat; and as I did so I rose. He held on to me, and I to him. My resistance was so entirely unexpected, that Covey seemed taken all aback." I'm glad he didn't feel like taking the abuse and stood up for himself. I'm also glad he ran away and made it to the north where there is no slavery. He had to make a decision to either get killed while trying to run away or continue getting beaten by the master and he chose to run away. I'm glad he did because we would of never known about this courageous man if he didn't.