The Story of an Hour

I thought that this was a great short story Because of how they introduced her heart problem at the beginning and then subtly hinted to it at the end.  What surprised me the most about this short story was how at the beginning, Mrs. Mallard seemed sad that Mr. Mallard was dead but then it almost seemed like she erupted in a volcano of happiness.  It was quite a fitting ending for her to believe that without her husband there would be years of freedom to come only to see him, and die (losing those years of freedom due to death and the husband) due to the shock and disappointment of realizing that her husband has come back, and that the prospect of living free is apparent no more.  Notice how at the end she dies of heart disease, an aspect of this story for which I applaud the author.  Very subtle.

And of Clay Are We Created

my first reaction to this story was wow!  What a crazy, touching, and loving story, and being my first real post on a story like this, I digress I don't even know where to begin.  Let's start off with my reaction to the plot: very touching, and sweet, while at the same time making me feel lucky to be alive right no.  After listening to a story like that who cares that I didn't get dessert tonight.  The story occurs right after a volcanic eruption consumes a village and occurs in the perspective of a nameless reporter, who is either the spouse of or the girlfriend of another reporter named Rolf Carle, who takes us through a journey of trying to save a young girl's life.  Rolf Carle finds this girl—whose catholic name is Azucena—while she is being uncovered by volunteers who are digging her out, and from that point on makes it his goal to help save this girl.  What struck me about this book the most was how Azucena ended up helping Rolf Carle even more than he could fathom, and even more than he could help her.  But the aspect of this that ended up getting me at the end was the fact that I thought that at the end of the book, she would be crying and Rolf would be crying and she would be happy and Rolf would be happy, but instead, the story veers of this path of normality and what would also make for a good story and goes for how Rolf Carle is the son of a Nazi.  What confused me about this was how arbitrary it seemed to put in "I'm the child of a Nazi, I felt bad at the end of WWII, my father hid my retarded sister Katherina because she was a shame to him, and he left my family for South America so he wouldn't be killed".  This didn't make sense to me because I felt not only did it not add much, but it was impractical and was totally unnecessary.  Even still, that part about his shame as the son of a Nazi was pretty touching indeed.  Overall I don't think I could sum this up in one night, and believe that it may have taken a paper to unearth the meanings of this short story, loved it, it was very touching, and I love the relationship between Azucena and Rolf Carle.