"Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver - UGLY

"Get away, get away! she cried." This whole story is a very sad situation. To me, it is one of the saddest that can face any family. Divorce brings many hardships to the whole family, especially the children. Sometimes it shows weakness on part of one or both of the parents, but sometimes it's due to not thinking through marriage properly beforehand. Many different reasons infect marriages of today, and the easy allowance of divorce does not help this situation. Even worse, this situation has turned violent and outright hateful. Neither respects the other. They don't even communicate to each other directly. They fight over their child and don't try to find any common ground or compromise. It really scares me to see such a sad situation in life.

"You're Ugly, Too" by Lorrie Moore - Gender?

"...his Magic Marker buttocks turned away now toward all of downtown, a naked pseudowoman with a blue bracelet at the wrist..." I am not very entertained by the gender reversal in the story. The woman appears to have shaven like a man. And the man, if that's what he is, is described in very feminine terms. The irony almost causes humor, but to me, it doesn't. It just adds to our culture of not being able to accept oneself. Today's society has come to accept that if you aren't fully pleased with who you are, you can change that in an instant. It doesn't require work to accept what God has given us. I see this as an easy way out of life. It doesn't bring true happiness and is a disease infecting human nature.

"The Drunkard" by Frank O'Connor - Irony

"I could and without difficulty. I started to get sick." This line sums up the major irony in the story. Instead of the father getting drunk, as expected, the son gets drunk. This brings humor to the story. The kid becomes a babbling fool and embarrasses his father. This is like retribution for what the father had done. Another irony is that the mother was pleased with the actions of her son. She called him a guardian angel. How could this be since he is underage and getting drunk in front of the town? It saved the Father from becoming drunk. This saves the family time and money. This irony adds to the humor of the story in that we laugh at the good fortune the boy received after he was drunk.

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson - Q1

1.What is a "lottery"? How does the title lead you to expect something very different from what the story presents?
"Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones..." Winning the lottery is usually associated as something good. It usually means winning a prize, most commonly money. But it can also be a lottery for a material good. The title of this story makes it appear that one would want to win the lottery. However, we find that the lottery, for this town, has a much different connotation. The winner of the lottery is stoned to death. That makes the surprise ending a surprise! Yes, there were clues, but throughout the story, I was thinking, the lottery winner has to gain something beneficial. But it turns out that the winner is murdered. Without the title, much of the suspense would be killed.