What short stories do you remember well from high school?

[Rhonda in TX]

There are a few short stories from high school that I want to make sure my kids read. I have vivid memories of these stories.

 

The Lottery

The Most Dangerous Game

a story about parents who are waiting while their child is being tested. He fails the test because he is too smart (anybody know the title of this one?)

 

What stories do you remember well? Is there an all-in-one source for these classic short stories? I know some are online, but one book source would be nice.

[Janice in NJ]

Hi Rhonda,

 

Closest thing I've found:

 

Fifty Great Short Stories

ISBN-13: 978-0553277456

 

There's an inexpensive Walch guide if you want a leg-up turning this book into a literature program:

Teaching With "50 Great Short Stories by Nyman

ISBN-13: 978-0825122910

 

Peace,

Janice

[angela in ohio]

I remember studying:

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavares County

The Lottery

The Tell-Tale Heart

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

[choirfarm]

It has the stories you mention and more. I'm not sure which edition this is, but here is an Amazon page with the list of stories:

 

http://www.amazon.ca/Perrines-Literature-Structure-Sound-Sense/dp/toc/141300654X

 

Christine

[amtmcm]

We used Norton's Anthology (same publisher as WTM) when I was in high school.

 

I vividly remember Metamorphosis by Kafka, but I wouldn't recommend it. I found it disturbing. But then I'm totally a romance gal - I enjoy Jane Austen, Out of Africa, Gone with the Wind type novels.

[Teachin'Mine]

We used Norton's Anthology (same publisher as WTM) when I was in high school.

 

I vividly remember Metamorphosis by Kafka, but I wouldn't recommend it. I found it disturbing. But then I'm totally a romance gal - I enjoy Jane Austen, Out of Africa, Gone with the Wind type novels.

 

I found most of what we read, especially the short stories, disturbing too. :tongue_smilie:

[Nan in Mass]

Did you find it useful to remember them? I remember four. They were from 8th grade, when we did short stories. We didn't do any in high school that I can remember, unless you count Canterbury Tales. I remember those fondly. They made the people of that time seem like real, grownup, intelligent people with ordinary problems. That was useful. And they were useful for their entertainment value. One of the short stories was The Match (I think - Jack London). It did teach me how cold cold could be, but other than that, I didn't gain anything from it at all other than being traumatized so much that I couldn't forget it. The same with The Lottery, Death of a Salesman (or was that a play?), and The Pit and the Pendulum. They didn't tell me anything I didn't already know about life. They were so upsetting that I completely missed how cleverly or beautifully the story was told. And they made a bruise in my head that I am stuck tiptoeing around forever. Ug. Why do people think it is important to read these stories? I guess one useful thing I got out of them is that I share that common trauma point with other people in my culture. That is rather useful, actually. If you had a very unimaginative, insular, ignorant student that you needed to yank out of his own little world, I can see them being useful. Perhaps that was what our eighth grade English teacher was trying to do and I just got lumped in with the rest? I suppose it could be considered some comfort to know that I traumatized the English teacher as much as the English teacher traumatized me. She had never met someone who could read so well and spell so badly and had no idea what to do with me. But seriously, I really want to know why these stories are taught? I obviously missed the point - completely missed the point. And I haven't exactly wanted to go back and reread them to see if I can see the point now, as an adult LOL. They are pretty ubiquitous, so there must be a point. What is it?

 

As far as finding an anthology, I bet your library could help you. There are lots of lists on the internet. Here is one:

 

http://ask.metafilter.com/118614/Pic...terature-Class

 

Glancing down it, I am reminded that I also read and remember The Bet, a whole lot of scifi, some Buck, Twain, O'Henry, Kipling, and of course, all the Sherlock Holmes stories. I read these on my own, many earlier than high school, so I didn't think to include them in "what I remember from high school". I do remember them, though, and I gained useful insight into being grown up, or interesting ideas, or information on what makes something well-written and what makes something not well-written. I also found many of them entertaining or good escape. Either my mother suggested them, or they were on our bookshelves. It may well be that we read some of these in my 8th grade class and I just don't remember reading them there because I had read them at home already.

 

-Nan

 

 

 

[Murphy101]

To the above, I would add A Modest Proposal.

 

Well it's actually an essay isn't it? Still. I'm counting it.:)

[Kebo]

I'd never thought about it, but a lot of short stories ARE pretty creepy. I remember many of the above, and I'll add The Ransom of Red Chief.

[Murphy101]

Some others notables I remember.

 

The Embalming of Mr Jones by Mitford

The Ways We Lie by Ericsson

A Rose for Emily by Faulkner

[Robin in DFW]

and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and one about children that have a room that allows them to go into the wilds of Africa...there's a lion and they lure their parents into the room and the lion(s) kill the parents...

 

maybe Ray Bradbury? not sure....I remember that one to be particularly bothersome....

[samba]

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (by Le Guin). I'm not generally a fan of speculative fiction but this story and others in The Wind's Twelve Quarter had me reflecting on them long after I'd read them.

 

Carolyn

[Murphy101]

and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and one about children that have a room that allows them to go into the wilds of Africa...there's a lion and they lure their parents into the room and the lion(s) kill the parents...

 

maybe Ray Bradbury? not sure....I remember that one to be particularly bothersome....

 

That is Ray Bradbury's Illustrated Man :)

[Julie in MN]

The Lottery

The Tell-Tale Heart

 

I remember those, too. Must be the creepiness factor.

 

I recently listened to the Tell-Tall Heart again. It was on a free itunes app, so I tried it. It seemed a bit silly and a lot creepy and I don't know why I would want to listen to it again!

 

My ds read a few short stories last year from Lightning Lit's book for Extremely Intelligent Children (!). He didn't fall in love with the short story like I had expected. He liked the Kipling one but didn't want to finish the next Kipling we tried. He felt the Crane one was hard to follow & then just ended. It was interesting to watch his reaction.

 

I'm glad we did a few short stories in 8th grade, and expect to do a few more in high school. I hope you get a lot of suggestions.

 

Julie

[In The Great White North]

The only short story I remember from high school is the Rocking Horse Winner.

I had the dc read the ones I liked. The Ransom of Red Chief is great, but I think I read it after high school. First Confession by Frank O Connor was fun. Twain has a couple. Some epic poems have the same literary features as short stories (The Raven, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, etc.)

 

 

The Lottery I only read this year, and won't be having the dc read it. AFAIC, it's another foray into the genre of "Let's convince them life is worthless" literature.

[Nan in Mass]

Oooo... I like that genre title. Not the genre, but the label. "Depressing" wasn't quite right.

-Nan

[Cathy in TX]

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

To Build a Fire by Jack London

[Kareni]

The Lottery and A Rose for Emily are two that I remember from high school; they are haunting indeed. I LOVED The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton which I read in junior high.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[memphispeg]

Hawthorne, Maupassant, H. James, Isak Dinesen, JD Salinger, Thomas Mann (Death in Venice), Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Not sure of the names of all of the stories. I used to devour whole collections by these authors.

[Maverick]

Our high schools must have used the same anthology. ;-)

[creekland]

My favorite was Flowers for Algernon, but I can't remember if we read it in high school or junior high. I read the full book after we read the short story, but I liked the short story better.

 

The Most Dangerous Game also stands out. I found that one online for my boys to read.

[ryyans]

The one short story I remenber from high school is Bliss...a day in the life of a happy ,native young woman who is surrounded by shallow vain people but she is blissfully unaware of her circumstances.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_(short_story)

[Teachin'Mine]

Did you find it useful to remember them? I remember four. They were from 8th grade, when we did short stories. We didn't do any in high school that I can remember, unless you count Canterbury Tales. I remember those fondly. They made the people of that time seem like real, grownup, intelligent people with ordinary problems. That was useful. And they were useful for their entertainment value. One of the short stories was The Match (I think - Jack London). It did teach me how cold cold could be, but other than that, I didn't gain anything from it at all other than being traumatized so much that I couldn't forget it. The same with The Lottery, Death of a Salesman (or was that a play?), and The Pit and the Pendulum. They didn't tell me anything I didn't already know about life. They were so upsetting that I completely missed how cleverly or beautifully the story was told. And they made a bruise in my head that I am stuck tiptoeing around forever. Ug. Why do people think it is important to read these stories? I guess one useful thing I got out of them is that I share that common trauma point with other people in my culture. That is rather useful, actually. If you had a very unimaginative, insular, ignorant student that you needed to yank out of his own little world, I can see them being useful. Perhaps that was what our eighth grade English teacher was trying to do and I just got lumped in with the rest? I suppose it could be considered some comfort to know that I traumatized the English teacher as much as the English teacher traumatized me. She had never met someone who could read so well and spell so badly and had no idea what to do with me. But seriously, I really want to know why these stories are taught? I obviously missed the point - completely missed the point. And I haven't exactly wanted to go back and reread them to see if I can see the point now, as an adult LOL. They are pretty ubiquitous, so there must be a point. What is it?

 

As far as finding an anthology, I bet your library could help you. There are lots of lists on the internet. Here is one:

 

http://ask.metafilter.com/118614/Pic...terature-Class

 

Glancing down it, I am reminded that I also read and remember The Bet, a whole lot of scifi, some Buck, Twain, O'Henry, Kipling, and of course, all the Sherlock Holmes stories. I read these on my own, many earlier than high school, so I didn't think to include them in "what I remember from high school". I do remember them, though, and I gained useful insight into being grown up, or interesting ideas, or information on what makes something well-written and what makes something not well-written. I also found many of them entertaining or good escape. Either my mother suggested them, or they were on our bookshelves. It may well be that we read some of these in my 8th grade class and I just don't remember reading them there because I had read them at home already.

 

-Nan

 

 

 

 

 

 

:iagree: All short stories were done in junior high in our school too. The Lottery was certainly memorable. Another one - The Highway, Traffic Jam, The Fix??? - it was called something like that. A heroin junkie stuck in a traffic jam in a tunnel for eternity. Truly character building stuff. :tongue_smilie: Like you Nan, these stories and books stuck with me and caused me to stop reading for years. I wish I was as vocal then as I am now. I might have spent a lot of time at the principal's office, but I certainly would have refused to read that nonsense. :lol:

[Julie in MN]

Death of a Salesman (or was that a play?),

Yes, a play. Depressing. Required reading where I tutor & it takes a lot to take the student through it.

 

Why do people think it is important to read these stories? I guess one useful thing I got out of them is that I share that common trauma point with other people in my culture.

When I wanted to do short stories with my son in 8th, I was dealing with a boy who didn't like to read, and I thought that he'd find a genre he enjoyed in short stories. I personally have never liked short stories -- the longer the book, the better! But I thought his personality would enjoy it. However, I found he didn't find that genre compelling.

 

FWIW, the short stories studied in LL7 and LL8 are not all that scary but tend to still be depressing. Maybe it's the shortness of the drama that makes it all about heavy events? Ds read:

Rudyard Kipling ("Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" - there's a snake attack & death)

Stephen Crane ("The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" - there's shooting)

G. K. Chesterton ("A Crazy Tale" - without a spoiler, I'll just say it's odd,

)

Nathaniel Hawthorne ("Wakefield" - man just leaves his wife & lives nearby, watching her)

[Murphy101]

I've always enjoyed them and so have my older boys.

 

Not depressing at all.

 

Thought provoking and a bit funny even.

[regentrude]

I don't quite have the same experience as you all because I went to school in Germany, so the stories we covered in school were quite different.

I read a lot, however, for pleasure, and I vividly remember from my teenage days:

 

Edgar Allen Poe: Pit and the Pendulum (which I actually consider a great story!), Fall of the house of Usher, The Mask of the Red Death (come to think of, we DID read that one in 8th grade or so)

 

Mark Twain: The Man that corrupted Hadleyburg, Eve's diary etc

 

Jack London: To Light a Fire (one of my absolute favorites which I have re-read dozens of times), Lust for Life

 

FS Fitzgerald collections of short stories; the most memorable one is The Lees of Happiness

 

Bret Harte: The Luck of Roaring Camp and collection

 

A bit later in life I read and found remarkable:

Susan Glaspell Jury of her Peers

and yes, The Lottery which I consider a truly great story. Not a pretty or entertaining one, but one with a deep truth. I guess that's why it is taught.

 

I read a lot of Kafka, Metamorphosis being the one I most vividly remember because it is so awful.

[Nan in Mass]

Because of the spelling issue, I was demoted to the low English in 9th grade. The teacher didn't know what to do with me. We didn't read anything traumatic because nobody could read well enough. After a few weeks, the teacher tried to switch me to the high English, but I refused to switch. I couldn't tell anybody why, but I'm sure those short stories had something to do with it, just like I couldn't tell anybody why I refused to take biology but the issue was dissecting. I only knew years later what the problem was. Fortunately, the school did it through my parents and my father thought "I don't want to" was a sufficient reason to stay put and overruled everybody else. When my younger sister got to 9th grade and read The Plague and other horrible things, I was very grateful that I had spoken up and been listened to. I could never have spoken up for myself against the school, though. In 10th grade, when the teacher just signed me up for high English without telling me, I was ok because it was mostly Beowulf and Canterbury Tales and other nice things. I managed to see the beauty in Cry the Beloved Country, and I was too young to be bothered too much by Faulkner or The Invisible Man or The Great Gatsby. Steinbeck was hard, but my mother did some damage control. My husband loved For Whom the Bell Tolls, and helped me through that one. I pretty much resolved never to read a non-scifi, non-humor short story ever again, though. I could see that in order to work while being so short, they had to be traumatic. Ug. I wish I had been able to speak up, too. Isn't it funny that we couldn't? I think my children, despite my efforts to teach them to defer to grownups, are much better at resisting. I wonder why?

-Nan

[Murphy101]

Now Wuthering Heights. That is just depressing old time Twlight styled junk. Talk about messed up pointless destructive relationships.

 

Oh and Grapes of Wrath. Hated it. Don't care if I do live in Oklahoma. Still hate it.

Edited February 7, 2011 by Martha

[regentrude]

Oh and Grapes of Wrath. Hated it. Don't care if I do live in Oklahoma. Still hate it.

 

I know many hate it - and I LOVE it. One of my favorite American books.

I find the language of the "slow" chapters which are in between the narrative wonderfully poetic.

Had a lot of discussions with people. Some see it as depressing,. I see it as an uplifting document about the resiliance of the human race... and it has an uplifting ending, despite all the misery.

 

Maybe it's because I was never *required* to read it?

[Nan in Mass]

How old were you when you read it? I think at 15 I just plain didn't have enough life experience to find it anything but depressing. It wasn't that I didn't understand them - I did. I just had a child's perspective about things, which is apparently very different from your standard adult perspective. I don't seem to be growing up very fast literature-appreciation-wise, though, so maybe I'm off base about this.

-Nan

[regentrude]

How old were you when you read it? I think at 15 I just plain didn't have enough life experience to find it anything but depressing. It wasn't that I didn't understand them - I did. I just had a child's perspective about things, which is apparently very different from your standard adult perspective. I don't seem to be growing up very fast literature-appreciation-wise, though, so maybe I'm off base about this.

-Nan

 

Grapes of Wrath?

For the first time maybe when I was 16.

And then I have reread it several times since then.

 

Our literature education was quite different. For school, we had to read a lot of TRULY depressing things - lots of WW2 and Holocaust stuff. Mandatory school field trip to concentration camp in 8th grade. Nothing ever has been as depressing compared to that.

[Nan in Mass]

But didn't you already know that truth before you read the book? Didn't school itself teach you that truth? (And sadly, that is probably my biggest worry about homeschooling.)

-Nan

[Murphy101]

How old were you when you read it? I think at 15 I just plain didn't have enough life experience to find it anything but depressing. It wasn't that I didn't understand them - I did. I just had a child's perspective about things, which is apparently very different from your standard adult perspective. I don't seem to be growing up very fast literature-appreciation-wise, though, so maybe I'm off base about this.

-Nan

 

9th grade and again last year bc it was on some reading lists I was considering for then 9th grade son.

 

Nope. Opinion didn't change. Hate the movie too. I "get it" I just hate the book.

 

I love Dickens tho. So I don't think depressing or mature content has ever been my issue with reading material.:)

[regentrude]

But didn't you already know that truth before you read the book? Didn't school itself teach you that truth? (And sadly, that is probably my biggest worry about homeschooling.)

-Nan

 

No, not from first-hand personal life.

From history of course, and from other books - but I have never personally encountered situations that bring out the worst in the human beast.

I think one of the appeals of the story is how succinctly she put it and how well she hit it with that one story.

 

Btw, my DD has read The Lottery when she was 12. She grasped the horror completely, but was not traumatized by it. in fact, when she read the hugely popular Hunger Games, The Lottery immediately came to her mind in comparison... which I think shows that she really understood what she was reading.

[Murphy101]

No, not from first-hand personal life.

From history of course, and from other books - but I have never personally encountered situations that bring out the worst in the human beast.

I think one of the appeals of the story is how succinctly she put it and how well she hit it with that one story.

 

Btw, my DD has read The Lottery when she was 12. She grasped the horror completely, but was not traumatized by it. in fact, when she read the hugely popular Hunger Games, The Lottery immediately came to her mind in comparison... which I think shows that she really understood what she was reading.

 

:iagree: Similar experience here with my boys.

[Nan in Mass]

Sigh. I can certainly see how that would be true. Perhaps that is why I couldn't see past the depressing part to the uplifting part - not enough experience with human awfulness. I knew about the Holocaust, or course, and slavery, and I read some pretty horrendous things, now that I come to think of it, and enjoyed them, but somehow I was protected from their reality. Less traumatic things seemed more real, somehow. I could feel Grapes of Wrath, but it felt presumptuous to even attempt to identify with slaves and concentration camp victems, somehow, and I knew that I wasn't strong enough, anyway. I don't think I am explaining this well.

 

Anyway, I can certainly see why you would find it comforting to read about people surviving and life going on after depressing things, since life didn't go on after much of the truly depressing stuff you were exposed to, except for a very few.

-Nan

[Nan in Mass]

I think I extrapolated from the small horrors of public school and at 13, when I read The Lottery, was absolutely not surprised. It seemed to me exactly what you would expect. I guess that isn't so bad, though, because I've spent the rest of my life being pleasantly surprised when people don't act as horribly as I thought they might : ).

-Nan

[Nan in Mass]

I like Trollope, but I have trouble with Dickens. I'm not sure why I like Trollope.

-Nan

[regentrude]

Less traumatic things seemed more real, somehow.

 

That makes perfect sense.

If you come to think of it, in all the stories that were mentioned (Lottery, Pit and Pendulum, To build a Fire, and many others), the horror is of a very special kind. There is no blood and gore, no graphic violence, no people dying in huge numbers - it is the anticipation of the horror that makes them so hard. (Even though the woman will die in the lottery, and the guy will freeze to death -those are not the main point and not the most horrible thing about the stories).

And, by the same token, this is also part of why it is great literature and worth reading. Anybody can write a slasher story and make people sick and miserable, but to convey the horror in such a quiet and understated way, that requires a lot of skill.

[mooooom]

I really liked it's subtleties

 

FWIW, I am going to be using The Teaching COmpaniy's "Masterpieces of Short Fiction next year (12th grade). My parents actually used it first, and they were able to find almost all the stoires online for free (I think they bought 2?) I like the general selection, and we will probably add in a few more modern ones at the end, like the one I mentionned above.

[Carol in Cal.]

We studied a lot of short stories in 8th and 9th grades. I remember "The Most Dangerous Game" very fondly. And I really liked "The Cask of Amontillado," although it was far more dark.

 

The ones I remember hating with a purple passion were all the stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne--there was a whole anthology, and I didn't like one single one, very unusual for this avid reader. "Young Goodman Brown" was particularly appalling, but they were all bad. Then we also read "Rain"--so depressing--and some British story about a woman looking at her garden, and getting ready to host a party, and realizing for the first time that she really does desire her husband, only to find that he is in love with someone else (a guest at the party)--horribly hopeless, and a bunch of dreary others. We also read Steinbeck's short novel "The Pearl" which is about as depressing as anything I have ever read. And somewhere in there I read "On the Beach" on my own, which put me into a funk for several months.

 

The pattern here is despair without idealism or any redeeming and/or ennobling moral uplift. And it is so unnecessary. We studied "Antigone," "A Tale of Two Cities," and "Romeo and Juliet" in the ninth grade as well, and although those were tragic, they had hope within them, and service to ideals as well. Those redeemed them from being depressing, even though they were very sad. I read "The Lord of the Rings" for the first time in 7th grade, on my own, and it was one of the most uplifting, ennobling books I have ever read in my whole life. It was also challenging from a literary standpoint, with plenty to discuss; although I never had anyone to discuss it with. I wish that I could think of more short stories to recommend that had some of that same flavor. I don't see any reason to wallow in depression and call that sophisticated, and why we put middle school kids through that is beyond me.

[Carol in Cal.]

Actually, there is a short novel that is very idealistic that would be reasonable to read in ninth grade--"The Moon Is Down" by Steinbeck. Lots to talk about in that one, and it's a pretty easy read. Democracy vs. fascism, the extent to which free people can or cannot be oppressed, challenges of being an occupying force vs. challenges of being in an occupied area, etc. Not to mention accompanying materials about World War II in Europe being a superb tie in. I didn't do that study with DD, but it would have been a great one.

 

For Christians, "The Screwtape Letters" might be a good shortish novel as well at that age.

[Murphy101]

That makes perfect sense.

If you come to think of it, in all the stories that were mentioned (Lottery, Pit and Pendulum, To build a Fire, and many others), the horror is of a very special kind. There is no blood and gore, no graphic violence, no people dying in huge numbers - it is the anticipation of the horror that makes them so hard. (Even though the woman will die in the lottery, and the guy will freeze to death -those are not the main point and not the most horrible thing about the stories).

And, by the same token, this is also part of why it is great literature and worth reading. Anybody can write a slasher story and make people sick and miserable, but to convey the horror in such a quiet and understated way, that requires a lot of skill.

 

:iagree: again.:)

 

I feel the same about movies.

[Murphy101]

We studied a lot of short stories in 8th and 9th grades. I remember "The Most Dangerous Game" very fondly. And I really liked "The Cask of Amontillado," although it was far more dark.

 

The ones I remember hating with a purple passion were all the stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne--there was a whole anthology, and I didn't like one single one, very unusual for this avid reader. "Young Goodman Brown" was particularly appalling, but they were all bad. Then we also read "Rain"--so depressing--and some British story about a woman looking at her garden, and getting ready to host a party, and realizing for the first time that she really does desire her husband, only to find that he is in love with someone else (a guest at the party)--horribly hopeless, and a bunch of dreary others. We also read Steinbeck's short novel "The Pearl" which is about as depressing as anything I have ever read. And somewhere in there I read "On the Beach" on my own, which put me into a funk for several months.

 

The pattern here is despair without idealism or any redeeming and/or ennobling moral uplift. And it is so unnecessary. We studied "Antigone," "A Tale of Two Cities," and "Romeo and Juliet" in the ninth grade as well, and although those were tragic, they had hope within them, and service to ideals as well. Those redeemed them from being depressing, even though they were very sad. I read "The Lord of the Rings" for the first time in 7th grade, on my own, and it was one of the most uplifting, ennobling books I have ever read in my whole life. It was also challenging from a literary standpoint, with plenty to discuss; although I never had anyone to discuss it with. I wish that I could

think of more short stories to recommend that had some of that same flavor. I don't see any reason to wallow in depression and call that sophisticated, and why we put middle school kids through that is beyond me.

 

Wha? I thought Romeo and Juliet was stupid. Hope? They both end up DEAD bc they are too stupid to communicate basic necessary information?:001_huh::lol:

 

It's all about perspective isn't it?

 

I like some Hawthorne, tolerate the rest enough to appreciate his talent while just not caring much for the topic.

 

Oh I remember feeling the same way about Madame Bovary as you probably felt about the lady in the garden book. I didn't know who I wanted to reach through the pages and smack more, the wife for being such a whatsit or the husband for putting up with her. What a waste of several hours of my life reading that novel. I kept reading it thinking it just had to get better or have some redeeming value. But no. It didn't.

[TXMary2]

The only short story I remember is "The Cop and the Anthem" by O'Henry.

 

I know I probably read several, but I don't remember. I do remember most of the novels I read.

[Carol in Cal.]

Wha? I thought Romeo and Juliet was stupid. Hope? They both end up DEAD bc they are too stupid to communicate basic necessary information?:001_huh::lol:

 

It's all about perspective isn't it?

 

I like some Hawthorne, tolerate the rest enough to appreciate his talent while just not caring much for the topic.

 

Oh I remember feeling the same way about Madame Bovary as you probably felt about the lady in the garden book. I didn't know who I wanted to reach through the pages and smack more, the wife for being such a whatsit or the husband for putting up with her. What a waste of several hours of my life reading that novel. I kept reading it thinking it just had to get better or have some redeeming value. But no. It didn't.

 

Well, there was the idealism of believing that true love is worth risking everything for, and the hope of the families reconciling. I'm not defending them, but the story was not nearly as depressing as the others, and it conveyed a basic worldview that had some bright spots in it.

 

Madame Bovary--totally agree with you there. But I read that later.

[Another Lynn]

Not sure how old/what grade, but I don't think I've seen it mentioned yet.... "For Esme With Love and Squalor"

[Murphy101]

Well, there was the idealism of believing that true love is worth risking everything for, and the hope of the families reconciling. I'm not defending them, but the story was not nearly as depressing as the others, and it conveyed a basic worldview that had some bright spots in it.

 

Madame Bovary--totally agree with you there. But I read that later.

 

I am too much a realist to think the families were ever going to reconcile. I bet the young couple weren't buried a month before the families managed to blame each other's kid for it. Sure it's worth risking everything for, but they didn't need to die - that just dumb lack of resourcefulness. I doesn't help that I was engaged at 16 when I read it the first time and had these opinions. The whole young love thing just didn't make sense to me then or now. Tho I love my husband very very much.:)

[regentrude]

One thing that bothers me about the portrayal of relationships is that what counts as "romantic" is, in fact, not healthy at all. Seeing how many girls and women have issues identifying healthy relationships, portrayals of dysfunctional ones, of stalking ("no means no" is a rather recent development), of self sacrifice and even of tolerating abuse do their part in cementing relationship patters that I would not want my daughter to engage in.

 

Rome an Juliet is a wonderful play, a classic, a romantic drama. But I don't want my kids to learn any behavior from it.

Killing yourself out of love sickness is not something I want them to model. It is not romantic.

[mez4family]

I can't remember the name, but I remember the story. Maybe someone can help me out? (I read the thread but don't remember seeing this story listed).

 

It was a story about a soldier that was being hung, the rope broke and he fell into the river and escaped. The story followed his escape and then at the end it was really just a series of events in his mind as he died at the end of the rope.

 

Ring a bell?