The Lame Shall Enter First Summary

The first environment that readers can analyze between the two Wes Moore’s is the lack of a father influence. Author Wes Moore grew up in Baltimore, Maryland with a family who seemed to have everything in place. Wes looked up to his father in many ways even as a young child. “I tried to copy his walk, his expressions. I was his main man. He was my protector” (Moore 11). Wes tells readers in the story that

“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two stories that reveal the consequences of individual suffering. These consequences include estranging relationships, bitter behavior, and even illness, addiction, or death. Throughout each of these stories, Sonny and John’s wife, known as the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, continue to suffer due to John’s and Sonny’s brother’s, known as the narrator of “Sonny’s Blues”, failure to meet obligations and familial compassion. Neither the narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” nor the husband, John, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” serve as the villains of the stories, however, I believe we are able to see how both their inabilities to effectively

    “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” one of O’Connor’s best works, describes a family on a trip to Florida and their encounter with an escaped prisoner, The Misfit. Although “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is an early work in O’Connor’s career, it contains many of the elements which are used in the majority of her short stories. The grandmother, a selfish and deceitful woman, is a recipient of a moment of grace, despite her many flaws and sins. A moment of grace is a revelation of truth. When the grandmother calls The Misfit her child and reaches out to touch him, the grandmother has a moment of grace that enabled her to see The Misfit as a suffering human being who she is obligated to love. The grandmother realizes that nothing will stop The Misfit from killing her but she reaches out to him despite this. The Misfit rejects her love and kills her anyway. This moment of grace is very important

“Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice”, focuses on the relationship between the protagonist, who is referred to as ‘Child’, and his father, referred to as ‘Ba’. The opening story follows the protagonist as he is struggling to overcome writers block, whilst dealing with his estranged Vietnamese father who is visiting. A number of flashbacks are used as a literary device to divulge into the protagonists past with his father as well as the fathers past. This reveals, not only an abusive past with his father, but also his father’s memories of the Vietnam war. It becomes clear that the son makes excuses for his father, with his girlfriend Linda also noting this, “I think you’re making excuses for him…You’re romanticising his past to make sense of the things you said he did to you” (pp.20). The protagonist reflects this himself, making the excuse that “he was a soldier” (pp.13), and that is why his father treated him as he did. The protagonist, despite once being able to admit to Linda that his father abused him, can no longer admit this, as his relationship with his father grows, and it can be argued that he is willing to overlook his past in an attempt to reconcile with his father. “It was too much these words, and what connected to them” (pp.13).

In “On Compassion,” an essay written by Barbara Lazear Ascher, compassion is observed through the eyes of someone who seems to be more fortunate. “Dumpster Diving,” a personal narrative written by Lars Eighner, features the adventures and tribulations of someone who does not easily survive in the hectic world that is the modern day. Through these two essays, the perspectives of the privileged and unfortunate. Each essay provides detail through personal experiences each author has had through their lives as members of their classes.

Last week I read, “Big Jesse, Little Jesse,” of Oscar Casares’ fictional novel Brownsville. “Big Jesse, Little Jesse,” tells the story of a twenty-four-year-old father, Jesse, who struggles to retain a father-son relationship with his physically disabled son. Throughout the story, Jesse continuously treats his son, as a boy without a physical disability. His state-of-denial further blinds him of his self-pride that views his son’s disability as a public failure. Jesse has the same machismo characteristics of other characters of Brownsville however, Jesse’s story is the first time that we see a man become humiliated. In this post, I would like to analyze the characteristics of pride in Jesse, as well describe how his hubris becomes broken.

Joy`s son, the narrator, wasn’t given this choice since his father passed because of an unnoticed epiglottis infection, while the other Wes Moore`s father proceeded to walk out of Wes`s life. The quote “Young boys are more likely to believe in themselves if they know that there`s someone, somewhere, who shares that belief. To carry that burden of belief alone is too much for most young shoulders.” pointed out a critical piece of information that shaped both men`s characters and agendas (Wes 28).

Sympathy, another theme in this book, can have the same amount of impact on an individual.  Instead of it having a negative reaction to the reader it has a superior reaction to the reader.  ?Lee Chong? knew he could not have helped it, but he wished he might have known and perhaps tried to help.  It was deeply a part of Lee?s kindness and understanding that man?s right to kill himself is inviolable, but sometimes a friend can make it unnecessary?(Page 2).  Lee was having compassionate sentiments for the man who committed suicide.  He had a deep feeling that he could of helped in someway to convince the man that his life was worth living.  A side story that was important to the theme of Sympathy was a story about Mrs. Kitty Casini a mouse and Mary Talbot ?Kitty Casini had a mouse?Daintily she stabbed the mouse through the back and drew it wriggling to her and her tail flicked with tense delight? ?I can?t blame Kitty Casini? said Mary. ?I?m just not going to like her no matter how much I want to??(Pages 155-156).  Mary had intense sympathy for that mouse that with no doubt died a tragic death.  She went to the extreme of disliking on of her favorite cat.  Sympathy can bring about the good in people.  Sympathy for loved ones or strangers can surprise one for their intense emotions.

When Kevin sees his father almost dying, he begins to think of the fatherless children in the world. He extends grace towards fathers in general by thinking how important a role they play in a child’s life, regardless of the mistakes that they might make. After thinking about fathers in general, he then thinks about his own father and as Bailey puts it, “ The caring-the carefulness-which was the belief in holding on to something worth preserving and passing on. Love. Kevin felt the tide of emotion that had been at its lowest ebb flowing back into him again. He looked to his Dad”. (259-260). Instead of remaining angry at his Dad for previous conflicts or for accidentally shooting his brother, Kevin extends grace to his Dad when he chooses instead to think and remember about all the love and caring his father has ever shown him. When he begins to feel that love for his father, his emotions pick up and that gives him the grace to keep on going without emotionally breaking down.

No matter the era, location, or even times of the darkest personal conflict, the power of love tends to always prevail. The power behind the love of family in particular seems to be the greatest. Despite the differences in the relationships, the deep bond of brotherhood in “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin shares some of the same levels of devotion that is present in “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty which is about the arduous trek a grandmother endures for her grandson. Although the stories differ in certain areas, both “Sonny’s Blues” and “A Worn Path” emphasizes the dedication one has both emotionally and physically and the importance of family bonds when someone they love encounters challenging and life threatening times by the displays of devotion to help the ones they love.

In the vignette GO CAROLINA by David Sedaris, David gets regarded as an ostracized person. His actions in the novel make a theme. The theme of the short-story “GO CAROLINA” is that one may always find light between obstacles even though one lives may be disclosed, because there is always a world full with love from the inside. Sedaris shows the theme throughout the story by showing a hyperbole for one example: “David’s not here today but if he were, he’d have a speech therapy session at two-thirty” (3).

O’Connor takes her main characters through an epiphany in which therefore helps the characters to become aware of their own ignorance. The characters eventually gained knowledge or better yet became self-aware of their attitudes towards others through some form of an unexpected tragedy. O’Connor wants her readers to see how no matter how much you try to cover or justify your ignorant ways whether it be through grace, judgment is still imminent. “In A Good Man is Hard to Find”, O’Connor reveals in this story both grace, redemption and pride. The

Each character in this story is experiencing an emotional battle which they try to find healing but for some it will be too late. The narrator in the story is Sheppard. Sheppard is a widow, his wife died in less than a year before the story began. Sheppard experiences emotional distress by trying hard to change a troubled teen, Rufus, into an honorable young man while teaching his son, Norton, to be selfless. Instead

Throughout Stewart O’Nan’s collection of short stories, In the Walled City, characters exhibit many personal problems that they must face in their lives. The main characters in three of the short stories in particular, “The Third of July,” “The Finger,” and “Steak,” all share similar methods of coping with these issues. These issues, however, build up and cause the protagonists to burst into self pity and hatred. Characters in O’Nan’s short stories, including Mrs. May, Carter, and Sheila, deal with their personal issues by denying that they exist and dwelling on the past. These issues manifest into the character’s lives by an outburst of compartmentalized feelings at one pivotal moment in the story.

Sheppard is a liberal minded individual. He has no faith in God, heaven, hell, or anything of that sort. He however is extremely hypocritical in his actions as Rufus notices and quickly catches on to. When Johnson arrived at the house, Norton offered and gave him a tour of the house. During the house tour he opens up a door which was for the guest bathroom. Norton says, “it’s for company...but he (Sheppard) uses it sometimes” (156). Rufus then says, “He ought to empty his head in it” (156). Here O’Connery makes it perfectly clear that that she dislikes liberal, atheistic people. Later in the story he says to Norton, “How do you stand it kid? He thinks he’s Jesus Christ!” (161). Here Rufus Johnson compares Sheppard to someone that he does not even believe in, someone Sheppard would not want to be even though it would typically be considered a huge honor. Sheppard thinks that religion makes no sense and he even tells his own son that his dead mother isn’t in heaven she’s just dead. Sheppard also has a huge ego and that is shown throughout the story. His ego is shown very early on when he believes that he can take in a troublemaker like Rufus Johnson and rehabilitate him back into society. He