Cranes by Peter Meinke Response

The symbol of the cranes reveals the meaning of the story that even though love is forever, time can cut everything short and cause 2 people's love for eachother to end here on earth.  The cranes on the ground were a symbolism of the couple's love here on earth.  Although the cranes will not live forever,  there love for one another will continue on to eternity.  When the cranes plunged upwards toward the sun, this process symbolized the souls of the couple after they die and how they will float up to heaven and be together once again.  The crane is a very calm, peaceful creature which symbolizes the life and death of the couple.  The meaning of the couple's lives and love is told with how the cranes live and prosper in the moment.  Time is a very precious part of life that needs to be taken with great care and used wisely. If this subject is not taken advantage of the way it is supposed to, one's love with another will be cut short and be almost useless.  The short life span of the cranes tells how time is short and life only happens once, so make the most of it. 

Personal Response to Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville

He is able to evoke such strong emotions because of the fact that we know of the feelings of pity, lonliness, and isolation, we are able to see the author's perspective towards Bartleby.  Although Bartleby very much isolates himself from the rest of the group, the narrator as well as one of the character's obviously are somewhat hurt for Bartleby and want to help him, although they just dont quite know how to help someone who isolates themselves.  Bartleby's eccentric character and inscrutable personality has great universal appeal because of the fact that most people feel guilty towards Bartleby since he is  poor and doesnt associate with others.  Our natural response to this type of behavior is sympathy towards the isolated character and to try to reach out and help in any way possible.  Although both the narrator and the other scriveners were not able to help Bartleby's distorted perpetual ways, this creates more empathy, sympathy, attention, and interest to the character of Bartleby to where people want to learn more about his character and personality. 

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville Character Analysis

Character Analysis

Narrator-elderly man, ambitious lawyer, "safe man"seldom loses temper, level headed and industrious, calm and sane until he meets Bartleby, has a soft spot for him. 

Bartleby-strange scrivener, weird, lonely doesnt try to fit in, very isolated, drives everyone else crazy because he would rather not do what everyone else does, 

Turkey-copyist, short pursy Englishman, energetic, 60 years old, right hand man who is getting old, he is a very good worker in the morning but has a bad temper by the afternoon. makes more mistakes then

Nippers-copyist, opposite person of turkey, he is younger and works best in the afternoon, usually has stomach problems in the morning and has a bit of ocd to make him always change the height of his desk

Gingernut-office-boy, doesnt really accept Bartleby but always runs to go get ginger nut cakes for the other copyists thats how he got his name 


Questions

1. His attitude towards Turkey, Nippers, and GingerNut is that he knows them very well known and knows them inside out. this affects his relationship with Bartleby by always asking the 3 for their opinion about him. 
2.  He exhibited that he would never lose important papers, and that he was very neat,respectable, and forlorn. He was very thorough and did an extraordinary quantity of writing.
4.  Bartleby is quite different than the average human being. He always distances himself and always says "Id rather not to".  The 3 other scriveners just follow what the narrator does and dont try to change any relationship between them and Bartleby.  Most of his isolation is self imposed but is imposed by the three other scriveners.
5. The other employees treated him as if they were better than him.  They didnt really care to begin a relationship with him and isolated him.  Bartleby followed by always refusing to go with them anywhere. 
6. He wrestles with his conscience by trying to decide if he should just let Bartleby do his own thing and defy him and let him create something great, or if he should take action and do something about his defiance and refusal.  IN the end he pities him and makes exceptions for him. 
7.Bartleby evokes the reader's sympathy by telling us that he is very poor, but evokes anger and frustration by telling us that Bartleby always says "hed rather not to" do whatever the other people do. 
8.Well after Bartleby refuses to change the ways of the Narrator's business, the narrator begins to accommodate to him and makes exceptions for him.  The narrator begins to like Bartleby more after getting to know him. 

Multiple Choice
1. A
2. D
3. E
4. A
5. B
6. A
7.E
8. E
9. A
10. D

Nea Characterization In Saving Sourdi by May-Lee Chai

Indirect
"some men got drunk and i stabbed one of them. I was eleven"- shows how Nea wasn't scared of anyone even at a young age and was very protective of her sister
"I was certain we would at last find the life we deserved"-hopeful for a change and prosperity
"just the two of us, so we could talk about things like boys at school"-very close relationship with her sister sourdi
"I never thought of him as a fork in the road dividing my life with sourdi from sourdi's life with men" doesnt appreciate or like duke, feels lonely and replaced
"i took out the pack of cigarettes id stolen from ma's purse and lit one" shows the stress and how upset she was about her sister
"Ma found that recipe she wanted, that special delicious recipe she was looking for"- is a very good, convincing liar on the top of her head
"its a matter of life and death"-very dramatic
"she had made her choice, and she hadn't chosen me"- felt replaced and all alone, like her sister had given up all hope and nea felt terrible that there was nothing she could do
"i wish i was a naga"-wants to protect sourdi and make everything okay

Direct
chews her nails when nervous
has no remorse for stabbing the man, wants to kill him
is the younger sister of sourdi
is very emotional
felt as if she was a wicked girl
was glad she stabbed the man
jealous of her sister's beauty
fast runner