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The story that really grabbed my attention was the first one: "An Angel". I really liked how passive the narrative was. My favorite line was "the destroying angel. The latter is also a mushroom". I liked that it was a direct reference to an atomic bomb going off. In this comparison it reminds me of the famous interview that Jay Robert Oppenheimer (the man who split the atom and inadvertently created the atom bomb) gave. As he sees the bomb go off he remembers the Hindu scripture the bhagavad gita where Vishnu reveals his multi-armed form to the prince in order to convince him to do his duty. Vishnu then goes on to say "I am become death, destroyer of worlds." That's the direct connection I made while reading this short story, it was a very solemn story and a very serious one and I really enjoyed the way it was written. The second story that I really enjoyed was “The Hitman” it is very meticulous and concise just like the hitman. I liked the line “the white slash of a cigarette scarring the midnight black of his head and upper torso.” It is so beautifully written and it is used to describe someone who is cold and disconnected, kind of ironic. It is so absurd and void of humor, in turn making it very funny when something silly happens. I think of the line “The Hit Man reached into his pocket, extracted $1,800 and handed it to the wino. Then wasted him.” - Jesús Iván González
ReplyDeletethe video of Jay Robert Oppenheimer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuRvBoLu4t0
DeleteWhat was most interesting to me about this week's readings are the commonalities that these seemingly unrelated pieces had with each other. Another thing that I find striking is the contrasts I am finding with the readings that we had in our nonfiction section. With nonfiction sections, I find that most of the stories have an easy-to-define point: a moral of the story, information that one could take away, etc. With these fiction pieces, however, they are a lot more focused on fleshing out general ideas or maintaining a general aesthetic. Such as for "An Angel," there doesn't seem to be much of a point (to me) outside of fleshing out the concept and comparison between angels and dark themes such as suicide. Then, for "Loser," it tells a wild tale of a man that can find things. It lacks a moral or information to take away, but rather just draws line between this man and his own personal losses of his parents. Lastly, "The Hit Man" tells an incredibly abstract story that follows a hit man and his life from high school up to when he dies. These stories have little for a reader to take away, in my opinion, but convey interesting concepts that one can further build upon.
ReplyDelete- Hannah Daniel
I was a little confused as to the story An Angel by Margaret Atwood. I don’t know if she was being sarcastic funny but although an angel of suicide is no laughing matter the tone was kind of dark humor in some parts. I liked the descriptions of that she gave and the way she mentioned that the Angel of death had no face at then end when she mentions the wings although sad the fact that someone would consider suicide it’s kind of funny too. I liked Aimee Bonder’s story of the Loser. I thought it was an interesting development of the character. I could feel the boy’s loneliness and sense of lostness. In the end the message was one that wanted to be found I truly enjoyed the story. The Hit Man was a very weird story in my opinion I didn’t understand where the story was going. I didn’t understand if the story was about how our children will become like us or about the consequences of bullying, I just didn’t get it. My favorite was The Loser because I felt like I connected more to that story and by far it was the easiest to understand.
ReplyDelete-Maria Ramirez Montoya
In the short story “The Hit Man” I liked how unique the short story was written. I thought it was very creative how the author, T. Coreghessen Boyle, managed to tell a clear concise story that flowed well. In the story “An Angel” I liked how poetic some of the lines were such as “Snow angels, you’ve seen them: the cold blank shape of yourself, the outline you once filled.” I thought this was an amazing way for the author to say what he said and I am kind of upset I didn’t write that line before he did. For the short story “loser” I liked the overall story and how the author managed to tie in the ending with something traumatic that happened in the orphan’s life. I liked how it tugs on your emotion and makes you feel sad for the character. And I like it because I believe a story accomplishes it goals once it gets you to feel a type of way about something. I felt sad when I read the ending “He squeezed his eyes shut and let the question bubble up: where did you go? Come find me. I’m over here. Come find me… if he listened hard enough he thought he could hear the waves hitting.”
ReplyDelete- Eduardo Guerra
There was a common theme threaded through all three of the readings. Death. In Angel the writer describes the perceived beauty and splendor of the serving angels compared to the faceless suicide angel. One of the many fallen angels. In each of the cases of the differing angels corruption or death is sure to come. The suicide angel offers up a solution to those who are unwilling to serve any longer. Then the twist at the end being that even though the fallen and serving angels have differing appearances there is one thing that they have in common. Their wings. In loser there is a tragic sense of depravity due to an accidental drowning of the character's parents when he was young. He is deprived of being raised by his parents but rather by the community which could mean social service. He is then able to find things and even one child out of the longing to find his parents which are incessantly beckoning him to find them. The Hit Man is riddled with death and destruction throughout. The cut up nature of the writing itself engages me with one piece of intriguing content after another chronicling the beginning and an end of this hit man. It is not made aware of how the hit man had his beginning. He just is what he is. Passing it down to his son through indoctrination, and desensitizing.
ReplyDeleteSpiro Zagouris
“An Angel” by Magaret Atwood instantly leads into a completely different direction than I was anticipating. I would have imagined that this would be some kind of love story, or about the narrator losing someone and referencing them as an angel but no. It was interesting to see the author take a word that is usually used in a positive and innocent way and use it in a negative and dark connotation.
ReplyDeleteThe next story, “Loser” by Aimee Bender, was my favorite out of the three. Even the title was brilliant in my opinion. The boy could literally be a superhero. I do wish that the kidnappers would have at least gotten in trouble or something. It seems bizarre to me how he just left with the boy and did nothing. However, the ending really pulled on my heart strings. Just like how he found the little boy, he wished that his parents would find him, even though he knows that they are gone.
Lastly, “The Hit Man” by T. Coraghessan Boyle, was really different from what I’ve seen. I’m not sure if the styles of how this was written confused me, or if I just simply didn’t understand some of it. It seemed to be highlighting important moments in the Hit Man’s life all the way to his death. The ending was the most eerie part of the story though. The author ended the story by implying, not specifically saying, that the son will now continue the legacy of his father. Which I found uncanny since the father was never caught for any of his crimes, that leads me to think that the son won’t be caught either.
Angela Milan
Great reads! Loved every reading this week. An angel was a bit hard to understand at first but I liked the description of things as the story unfolded. It was probably the most somber one of the three. “This is what you will be, they say, perhaps what you are: no more than the way light falls across a given space.” The author here is referencing how empty snow angles are and this line itself took me back to the emo teenager years of my life! Pretty gruesome stuff. Loser was entertaining overall. The supernatural elements the main character has made him a superhero(?) I could get behind. I liked that it was tied to him losing his parents. Felt Disney like in a sense. I like how the author starts and ends the story with the parent’s tragedy. When the kid has grown enough to control his powers, he sniffs around to see if he can locate his parents. Sad ending to what we know can never come back. The style of the hit man was something I’ve never come across. I enjoy stories where we read and picture certain motives the main character can/will have only to not sit with our narrative at the end. Discovering that this is death itself portrayed as a member of the community was quite funny. The timeline snippets recounting death’s life were quick and concise. Having the bolded words preface the paragraph helped a lot too.
ReplyDelete-Leonardo Torres
These selections were very interesting. "The Angle" by Margaret Atwood was my favorite. I don't believe it was religious in any way but that is kind of how I saw some of it. It mentions the fallen angles which is something that is real in Christianity which is how I saw it. It was interesting reading about the physic of the angle of suicide and how she beckons you to jump off the bridge or the building. I also related to the story since suicide or wanting to commit suicide is something my family has had to endure so it was interesting reading about the angle of suicide.
ReplyDelete"The Loser" by Aimee Bender was kind of confusing for me. I kind of got how he felt lost and didn't know where he was or who he was but the way it was portrayed didn't make a lot of sense, I also don't get how the title is related to the story, is the young man the loser?
I appreciate the structure of "The Hit Man" by Boyle but I don't exactly understand what the point of the story is. I know it was going through his life but I don't understand what it was trying to show.
-Rebecca Muniz
Fiction is definitely a genre I find myself enjoying more. The two stories that really held my attention were “An Angel, and “Loser”. The Angel was definitely my favorite because of how it ends. The story is dark and serious but the ending gives a little comical relief. “You wouldn’t believe the things she said if it weren’t for the wings,”. I couldn’t help but to smile at that last sentence even after reading something that was honestly a little intense. I really enjoyed how Atwood compared the two types of Angels; the stereotypical ones that we are familiar with and the Angel of suicide. “The others and those who fell. The angel of suicide is one of those who fell…” Atwood goes on to say that we’d have to ask the Angel if she fell or if she jumped off and that was really impactful to me. Atwood’s style of writing is something I really enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteAimee Bender’s “Loser”, was also a story that was easy and enjoyable to read. The sense of feeling like you’ve lost something and the frustration of not being able to find it is the worst. I found it very ironic and a little twisted that the boy could everything that everyone else lost, including a mothers abducted son, but still couldn’t find or form a connection with his dead twin brother.
I wasn’t too big a fan of “The Hit Man”, because to me, it lacked structure.It just kinda bounced everywhere and I personally couldn’t enjoy it.
-Arianna Martinez
Each short story has a unique way of expressing itself and my favorite one was “An Angel” the way it was written brought a sentimental feeling that made you feel all kinds of emotions while reading it. I feel that there was some humor on there but brought a dark tome to the story. Even though it was confusing for me to decide if it was a sob story or a person going through depression, I really enjoyed reading this short story. The short story “The Loser” was also fun to read because it contained emotion towards the characters that were involved. I really liked the story behind it especially the way he spoke about missing his parents and wishing they would be reunited again really made sad just because he was left alone with no family. The third story “The Hit Man” the way this story was presented was very interesting I enjoyed how the story was being told because he was talking about his own life and experiences. At the end I was trying to figure out the message of the story and I couldn’t figure it out, but it was well written and I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDelete-Karla Romero
Reading “An Angel” was a dark and somehow refreshing experience. It personified and gave life to a concept many don’t really understand and others live with daily. It was dark and morbid, but it needed to be to tell the story it wanted to. The descriptions of it were vague, since the subject itself is a personal experience that people experience differently. “Loser” was a story drenched in loneliness and emptiness, of someone who is gifted at finding things but is utterly lost. Even when he uses his abilities on himself, the only thing he finds are waves crashing from the past. “The Hitman” was almost like a dark humor, the life of Death as a civilian who marries and raises his son to be Death. It is abstract and almost whimsical, giving me the feeling of reading snippets of the life of a sitcom character throughout their entire lives, only this character was someone who killed and dressed in a dark hood at all times since childhood. This last story is almost comedic in its portrayal of this Hitman as he lives and dies. The three stories seem darker than any other set we’ve read so far in class and seem to be trying to address some more serious topics that nonfiction ever approached.
ReplyDelete-Hubel Gonzalez
I was impressed by the first reading, “An Angel”, because the main theme is a very serious theme that has affected many people around all ages. This is a harsh topic, and the story talks about an angel of suicide, which the narrator knows how it looks like. I liked a lot this reading, and I understood that the angels are represented as the different things that come to our life. It is stated that the angel of suicide differs from normal angels since it is one of those angels who fell: “Angels come in two kinds: the others, and those who fell.” My theory is that the angels who fell in this story are the ones that bring tragedy into our lives. The second story, “The Loser”, was very sad because it starts with the death of an orphan’s boy parents, then explaining how he finds lost things throughout his life. And it actually also ends like that, with the boy wanting his dead parents to find him. I think this boy was a curious character due to the ability that the author gave him, and he also was lonely. From the third story, “The Hit Man”, I mostly enjoyed reading it mostly because of the organization of how it was written.
ReplyDelete-Paulina Longoria
All three of these stories had differently organized storylines yet similar tone. I love that this weeks short essays were written as someone telling a story. Firstly, the tone in "An Angel" was intimate, yet supportive of the less popular opinion. The author was pretty ironic when talking about suicide. Usually, when someone thinks of suicide it is viewed negatively and tragically. Though the story gives implications of this fearful truth, it is told from the point of view of the person who is suicidal. To them, death and "rebellion" looks so alluring and comforting. Who is to say this is not the truth? It made me think, "maybe this life isn't for everyone". Maybe some of us were meant to experience the world, and make a choice. Either you stay or become "an angel". Secondly, "The Loser" had me hanging onto every word. I sympathized for the characters tragic past, I fell in love with his modesty, and admired his willingness to help others. Though the ending, for me personally, was a cliff hanger, it left me wanting more. How insightful the author was to bring the story back full circle to his parents. He had been finding things all his life; now its him who wants to be found. Thirdly, "The Hit Man" left me utterly confused. Who is this man? Is this all an allusion to a very ordinary man or was it meant literally? Either way, the organization was quite refreshing and interesting to read. It kept me wondering what surprise was next. Also, I liked that he didn't use a lot of words to inform the reader. Everything was simply as it was displayed. Take it or leave it. The writing style felt like a rebellion to writing itself. All in all, i loved this week's readings.
ReplyDelete-Cassandra Ramos
The story I enjoyed reading the most was An Angel because it left me wondering if this angel was real in this story or some made up angel to fall into the story of the narrator being suicidal. He mentions several angels like the angel of blindness and the angel of seizures. It’s like the narrator saying how each person is going through something but then there is this angel who is around. I like how detail the narrator is about this angel, “Not so the angel of suicide, who is dense, heavy with antimatter, a dark star..” So you assume of course it’s like a dark star because suicidal thoughts are just bad the color says it all, because he is not describing a happy angel or white, its more of this darkness of light who maybe saved him. For The Hit Man I like the way it was written as it mentions the fathers death in a small paragraph then it goes to the mothers death, and so on, and I liked the ending how the hit man’s legacy is maybe continued by his son, “On the other side of town the hit man’s son is standing before the mirror of a shop that specializes in Hit Man attire. Trying on his first hood.”
ReplyDelete-Carina Pompa
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