James Response 5

Quotes:

Feathers

“I put my face right up in her hair and hugged her some more” (360)

“Honey, fill me up with your seed!” (376)

“Olla, I called here once. You answered the phone. But I hung up” (368)

Chef’s House

“What about me? What about my sake? Don’t come back, he said” (378)

“This has been a happy house up until now” (380)

“If I was somebody else, I wouldn’t be me. But I’m who I am” (381)

Preservation

“Sandy and her husband sat at the table and drank whiskey and ate the chocolates” (383)

“She waited for him to say something, anything, but he didn’t” (391)

Compartment

“I gave you life and I can take it back!” (393)

“This boy had devoured Myers’s youth, had turned the young girl he had courted and wed into a nervous alcoholic woman whom the boy alternately pitied and bullied” (398)

Found Poem:

You answered the phone.

Her husband sat at the table,

Ate chocolates and drank whiskey.

Fill me up with your seed!

Honey.

Face in her hair.

Say something, anything.

She waited for him…

What about me?

What about my sake?

I gave you life!

But I’m who I am.

I hung up.

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Okay, so I'm really new to any of this voicethread/v-blog/embedding business, so I apologize if my posts are all messed up.

As a general theme, I took lines from each story that showed the deterioration of relationships. I got a sense from each that these were people slowly being torn apart. Foundations were cracking, there was trouble beneath the surface (or on it). I chose lines that showed what once was...and what was to be.

The first line I chose from "Feathers" was something that caught my eye from the narrator. He describes this lovely, quaint relationship he has with his wife Fran. It's simple and loving, and there is a romantic quality to it until the fateful dinner date. I like this quote in that it showed the beauty of the untainted relationship. Before circumstance and doubt rear their ugly heads.

The next quote, "Honey...," was great. It really takes you off guard. I chuckled uncomfortably when I first read it. This line, for me, represents the beginning of the end. Fran has become caught up in the baby fever and, while in the act of making love, she makes a desperate plea for something these two were content without. The line turns not only your head for a double-take, but also turns the fate of the couple's marriage.

I like this next quote, when the narrator tells Olla how he had hung up on her, because in retrospect, that is exactly what he should have done--kept hanging up (in a metaphorical sense). The moment he and Bud extended their relationship outside its parameters was the moment things went downhill. Just as Fran pushed things with the baby, so did they. Some things needn't be forced. Fran and the narrator were content with what they had. Bud and the narrator were fine friends at work. The speaker admits to Olla that he had called, thinking it silly. But really, deep down, he knows he was right to do it.

From "Chef's House," I chose this first quote because I thought it represented the selfish aspect of love that is seen in the story. Wes can't get over the fact that they're losing the house, and he lets that disappointment tarnish his renewed relationship. This line early on shows how Edna's boyfriend is selfish in a way as well. Is Carver making a comment about all of us? This guy can't take that his girlfriend feels the need to be there for her struggling ex. He can't look past her leaving him and see that what she is doing is the right thing to do.

"This has been a happy house..." This is Wes' selfishness. It STILL is a happy house. He is wallowing in his own pity and letting it affect a beautiful thing that he and Edna had forged over the summer. Until he can reconcile with this, he is doomed to forever let her down.

I loved Wes' philosophical rant at the end, so I chose this next line. It's hopeless. Wes feels like no one can change, least of all himself. He may remain sober forever, but he'll always be an addict. I feel like he's ultimately saying that he may have had a blissful summer with Edna, but it appears he'll always find a way to screw it up.

This whiskey and chocolates line from "Preservation" was just so sad and pathetic...it was beautiful. What a sorry state to be in. A perfect picture of a couple hitting hard times, with the chocolates representing a last gasp at love and romance. But what ultimately will win out? The whiskey.

This next line, where the woman waits for her husband to say something, encapsulates her feelings from the whole story. She has been DYING for him to show some sign of life, or affection, or love. She waits for him to speak, to give her any reason to believe or hope, but he can't. Just another Carver relationship fallen into decay.

I just noticed Vincent chose this line as well, and with reason. It's probably the most striking image of the story--this intense battle between father and son. And the idea that by conceiving the child, a gift has been given to the son, and that because of this, there is something that the father feels he OWES him...it's almost the root of their torrid relationship. Be it respect, love, or adoration, Myers feels he hasn't gotten what he deserves from his son, and he despises him for it.

The next line, "devoured youth," was my favorite. It was incredibly powerful. You see the intense animosity Myers has for his son. Although he claims he is not the same man that put the child in a headlock years before, this line says otherwise (as does his eventual cowardice). He places the blame for his failed marriage on the son, instead of where it probably belonged: on a sad, lonely man who had no place being a father.