The Mats

This book report discusses the plot, significant characters, setting (e.g., time of the story took place, historical background), problems and resolutions, themes or messages of the story. A reflection of the author’s writing style will be presented followed by a conclusion.

“The boy went back to the corner where he had been studying and pulled out a thick book carefully covered in brown paper.” (pg 233)

An event very related to his feeling after his father’s death was when he saw

“Those were dear good people, but they must have carried simplicity and credulity to the limit. They would stick a pin in my arm and bear on it until they drove it a third of its length in, and then be lost in wonder that by a mere exercise of will-power the professor could turn my arm to iron and make it insensible to pain. Whereas it was not insensible at all; I was suffering agonies of pain” (3).

Ronald Takaki’s chapter in his sweeping 1989 text, Strangers from a Different Shore, “Dollar a Day, Dime a Dance: The Forgotten Filipinos”, outlines the experiences of primarily male Filipino immigrants to the U.S in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The author did a good job showing what the Filipino went through. Like many immigrants before them, they came seeking work and a better livelihood. They faced backbreaking work, low wages, and at time, extreme racism. However, in many ways the Filipino immigrant experiences were extremely different from other ethnic groups, the Chinese and Japanese immigrants.

They arrived at the parking lot, got their things and headed to the ticket booth. His parents paid 3 tickets and a couple of minutes, they entered into a world of pure happiness and excitement

"He was carrying a suitcase with clothing in order to stay and another just like it with almost two thousand letters that she has written him they were arranged by date in bundles tied with colored ribbons, and they were all unopened."

The author writes the story in a very interesting way. The way that there are only a few descriptions scattered about and that it focuses on dialogue is what allows us to figure out what the characters are speaking about and to find the intentions behind their words. The subject of this short narrative stands out boldly. Though it was written in

This clever story is crafted down to the smallest detail - every word and expression implies something, often has a second meaning and so manipulates the reader's opinion. The factor that makes this story even more

The story is told from the narrator’s point of view and it contains a changing

"Then I saw a fine black thread and pulled it from the frilled paper. There was a loop tied in the end. I slipped it over my finger and stood stretching it taut. And this time it danced. Clifton has been making it dance all the time and the black thread had been invisible" (Ellison 446).

In every home, there is a different definition of family and how family should treat each other. Two short stories were read by an author named Flannery O’Connor. “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. It was about a dysfunctional family who encounters a criminal named “The Misfit”. The grandmother which is the main character is very judgmental towards others and sometimes her own family at times. This story starts off with a disagreement on where to go for a family trip, but they decide on going to Florida for the family trip after a while of arguing. On this trip, it showed what type of family they are. They talk about everything with one another as well as bicker and fight but at the end of the day, they are still family and love each other. They come together the most in panicking situations such as the accident and waiting for a car to help them. The point of this paper is the theme of family. Specifically, family is a theme in this short story because it depicts a dysfunctional family; the family you see on a crazy television show and can’t get enough of because they’re funny but also they have serious moments. There 's the two troublesome and annoying kids, the hot-headed dad who tries to maintain control of a situation and fails, the wife busy attending to the baby, and the grandmother, who 's a case all to herself (and also the main character). Though the story starts out seeming like a comedy, it takes a serious turn when the family encounters a criminal, who kills them

Therefore, the story’s main idea was to let the reader imagine what the real meaning of the

You can really feel the despair and grief that the families and friends have cope with, and suddenly you become attached to the memories that are shared. The memories are the most golden parts of the book because they are like the clay that is being built up and once it’s sculpted, you can really see how beautiful the characters were and that sculpture is the preserved reminiscence of the three of them. The author makes it seem like the characters in the story are so real and you feel how they feel in the moment.

2. The genre of this story is science fiction. Science fiction is a class of theoretical fiction, normally managing inventive ideas, for example, advanced science and innovation, space travel, time travel, quicker than light travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. Sci-fi regularly investigates the potential results of logical and different advancements, and has been known as a "writing of thoughts". It more often than not dodges the powerful, not at all like the related class of imagination. Truly, sci-fi stories were planned to have an establishing in genuine science, yet this association is presently just expected of hard sci-fi.