L204

"The Yellow Wallpaper"

- Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Unnamed narrator (often identified as Jane) suffers from depression following the birth of her baby. Her husband misdiagnoses her with hysteria and prescribes "the rest cure." Trapped in bed, Jane grows bored. She's isolated from everyone but her husband and nurse, and she's not allowed to write, though this makes her feel better. Her condition quickly deteriorates. She starts to see a woman inside her yellow wallpaper. She thinks the woman is struggling to break free. Jane tears down the wallpaper in order to free the woman. Jane's husband comes to take her home, but faints when he realizes that she has gone mad. - Husband: John - Jennie: John' sister - Wife: Jane - the one that is crazy - undermining meaning is to rip away the person of male dominance and free the woman

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"

- Ursula Le Guin - In this short story, Le Guin describes the utopian city of Omelas during the Festival of Summer. The city is characterized by its happiness and beauty underscored by its close proximity to a sparkling sea. For the festival, the entire population of Omelas joins together in various processionals through the city. Boys and girls in the Green Fields exercise their horses in preparation for the festival race. Bells clang and people sing and dance so that the city seems alive with music. In Omelas, the people have precisely what they need, and have managed to trim away the more destructive excesses of life. Despite their happiness, the people of Omelas are not simple. They are "mature, intelligent, passionate adults whose lives are not wretched" (2). Their lives are complex and they do not live in an idyllic fairytale, as the description of the city might suggest. In terms of law enforcement and government rule, Le Guin leaves this area vague stating only that there is no military presence within the city, and that the people are not governed by a king. There are no slaves and the laws that govern the city are not outlined, but Le Guin "suspects that [there are] few" (2). Furthermore, the people are free from the tyranny of religious leaders, as the city lacks any priests or oligarchical elements. Sexual mores in Omelas are left to the reader's imagination. Lu Guin only suggests free love is readily available in the city, where potential lovers wander the streets ready to participate in sexual activity. This is, however, just a picture of life above ground in Omelas. Beneath the city lives a nameless child who knows only darkness and squalor. This child, of unspecified gender, is chosen from the population to exist as a living sacrifice that allows the rest of the city to live in peace and happiness. The child lives in a tiny, windowless room underneath one of the beautiful municipal buildings in the city, without any comforts or social interaction save the occasional people who come to gawk at it. Each person in the city learns of the child's existence at some point in their lives, and most come to peer at the child at least once, though some come for a return visit. The happy existence of everyone in Omelas depends upon the child's miserable condition, and the knowledge of this creates a conflict within the minds of some of the people of Omelas. Most citizens eventually overcome their guilt and continue to live happily. Directly above the child's locked room, people go about their daily business, choosing to ignore the child's suffering by accepting it as a mere fact of life. To most, the beauty and richness of their lives justifies the sacrifice of the child. There are, however, some who cannot reconcile the child's wretched existence with the comforts of their lives. These people leave Omelas. Some leave when they first learn of the child's existence and others leave after months or years of wrestling with their guilt. The ones who leave simply slip out of the city quietly and embark on solitary journeys out of the city. Though these people come from all walks of life, they all never return to Omelas, and their paths and fates are unknown. - The Narrator - The Child

"A Murder is Announced"

- Agatha Christie - Story begins with the newspaper, The Gazette, printing about a murder being announced. The murder has yet to take place, thinking its an invitation for a game, not an actual murder. Take place in Miss Blacklock's home - Little Paddocks - half past 6, neighbors attend. Lights go out, hears gunshots, bullet grazed Miss Blacklock, and a man lies dead at her feet, gun next to him on the floor. Detectives arrive to question the neighbors and Miss Blacklock. Among the neighbors present are Mrs. Swettenham and Edmund, her son. Edmund is a writer and an intellectual. There is an elderly couple too—Colonel and Mrs. Easterbrook. Mrs. Easterbrook is a kind woman and her husband a retired military man. There are two widows: Miss Murgatroyd and Miss Hinchcliffe. A pastor and his wife, Mrs. Harmon, are also present. Five others are in residence with Miss Blacklock. Julia Simmons and her brother, Patrick, are the Miss Blacklock's young cousins. Miss Dora Bunner, a school friend of Miss Blacklocks, is also staying at Little Paddocks. Miss Blacklock has two employees—Phillipa and Mitzi. Mitzi, the maid, is a refugee of war and often paranoid. The neighbors had arrived earlier in the evening with the pretense of just dropping in—except for Mrs. Harmon, who had asked point blank if the murder had happened yet. The man who is killed is recognized as Rudi Scherz, a receptionist at a local hotel, who had asked Letitia for money to return to Switzerland, but no one owns up to having any other contact with him. Detective Craddock is investigating his death after he receives a letter from Miss Marple. After interviewing the neighbors and residents of Little Paddock, Craddock determines that Miss Blacklock had something the killer wanted. He learns that she is to inherit a large sum of money from her old boss's wife. Her boss had no one else to name as beneficiary. Should Miss Blacklock pass before that can happen, then the step-children of her boss's sister—Pip and Emma—would inherit. Together, Craddock and Miss Marple dig deeper in their investigations of those present when the victim was shot and killed. As time passes, more people are killed, including Miss Bunner and Miss Murgatroyd. Miss Marple and Craddock learn that Scherz has a criminal past, though he had never committed a violent crime. They also learn that Scherz had been paid to pretend he was holding up Miss Blacklock; he did not know he was going to be shot. Craddock discovers that a door at Little Paddocks has oil on the hinges. Suspicion arises around Patrick, and the swapping of a lamp before and after the murder. Miss Marple also discovers that all the photos of Sonia—Miss Blacklock's boss's wife—are missing, though they were in place before Scherz was killed. Miss Murgatroyd remembers that she could see who was in the room right before the shooting, and tries to remember who was absent—and therefore who was the murderer. However, she is killed before she can reveal the murderer. With everyone summoned again to Little Paddocks, Craddock intends to perform the final round of questioning. Mitzi calls out that Miss Blacklock is the murderess, but Craddock reveals that Edmund is actually Pip, and he and his mother were both present at the shooting. But Craddock is incorrect; Philipa claims to be Pip. Their confusion is interrupted by a scream from the kitchen. There, Miss Blacklock is trying to drown Mitzi. She is arrested, and Miss Marple reveals that she is not Letitia Blacklock—Letitia died in Switzerland—but rather her sister, Charlotte, impersonating her to get the inheritance. Scherz knew this, and so she had to kill him before he could reveal the truth. She was the one who hired him to act as if he were robbing her guests. Both Miss Bunner and Miss Murgatroyd were killed because they knew or guessed too much. The book ends with Phillipa and Julia—who is really Emma—inheriting the money. Edmund and Phillipa marry and live in Chipping Cleghorn. - Letty (Miss Blacklock) - Miss Bunner - Mitzi - Julia and Patrick Simmons - Craddock - Miss Marple - Colonel Eastabrook

"Everyday Use"

- Alice Walker - "Everyday Use" is narrated by a woman who describes herself as "a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands." She has enjoyed a rugged farming life in the country and now lives in a small, tin-roofed house surrounded by a clay yard in the middle of a cow pasture. She anticipates that soon her daughter Maggie will be married and she will be living peacefully alone. The story opens as the two women await a visit from the older daughter, Dee, and a man who may be her husband—her mother is not sure whether they are actually married. Dee, who was always scornful of her family's way of life, has gone to college and now seems almost as distant as a film star; her mother imagines being reunited with her on a television show such as "This Is Your Life," where the celebrity guest is confronted with her humble origins. Maggie, who is not bright and who bears severe burn scars from a house fire many years before, is even more intimidated by her glamorous sibling. To her mother's surprise, Dee arrives wearing an ankle-length, gold and orange dress, jangling golden earrings and bracelets, and hair that "stands straight up like the wool on a sheep." She greets them with an African salutation, while her companion offers a Muslim greeting and tries to give Maggie a ceremonial handshake that she does not understand. Moreover, Dee says that she has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, because "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me." Dee's friend has an unpronounceable name, which the mother finally reduces to "Hakim-a-barber." As a Muslim, he will not eat the pork that she has prepared for their meal. Whereas Dee had been scornful of her mother's house and possessions when she was younger (even seeming happy when the old house burned down), now she is delighted by the old way of life. She takes photographs of the house, including a cow that wanders by, and asks her mother if she may have the old butter churn whittled by her uncle; she plans to use it as a centerpiece for her table. Then her attention is captured by two old handmade quilts, pieced by Grandma Dee and quilted by the mother and her own sister, known as Big Dee. These quilts have already been promised to Maggie, however, to take with her into her new marriage. Dee is horrified: "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she says, "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." Although Maggie is intimidated enough to surrender the beloved quilts to Dee, the mother feels a sudden surge of rebellion. Snatching the quilts from Dee, she offers her instead some of the machine-stitched ones, which Dee does not want. Dee turns to leave and in parting tells Maggie, "It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it." Maggie and her mother spend the rest of the evening sitting in the yard, dipping snuff and "just enjoying." - Mrs. Johnson, the narrator. - Maggie, the younger daughter. - Dee, the older daughter. - Hakim-a-barber, Dee's boyfriend. - Grandma Dee, whose quilt Dee wants.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find"

- Flanney O'Connor - As the story begins, The Grandmother is complaining about going on a road trip to Florida; she'd rather visit friends in east Tennessee. She worries aloud to the rest of the family, Bailey (her son), his wife, June Star and John Wesley, their children, and the baby, about The Misfit, whom she has been reading about in the newspaper. The Misfit is a serial killer who has escaped from the Federal Penitentiary and is on the loose. The next morning, the family sets out on the road trip. They stop at The Tower for barbecued sandwiches, where the owner, Red Sammy Butts, and his wife wait on them. The Grandmother and Red Sammy commiserate about the current state of the world, complaining that you cannot trust anyone these days. He tells a story about how he gave two men gas on credit; clearly he has been taken advantage of and regrets his decision. As they set off again, The Grandmother remembers an old plantation that she thinks used to be in this area. Bailey does not want to take a detour to go find it, so The Grandmother makes up a lie about how there are secret doors in the house with hidden treasure; this makes June Star and John Wesley scream and complain until their father agrees turn around and drive down the dirt driveway. However, after they have been driving for a while, The Grandmother realizes that the old plantation is actually nowhere around there at all. Her reaction causes the cat to escape from its box and jump on Bailey's shoulder, and he veers off the road. The car has flipped over and is in a ditch. Another car approaches, and from out of it climb The Misfit, Bobby Lee, and Hiram. The Grandmother recognizes The Misfit, and he answers, "it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn't of reckernized me." She begins to talk about how The Misfit is clearly not of "common blood," and how he must "come from nice people," flattering him. But he calmly orders Bobby Lee and Hiram to take Bailey and John Wesley into the woods, and soon gunshots ring out as they are murdered, As The Grandmother advises The Misfit to pray to Jesus, Hiram and Bobby Lee return from the woods dragging Bailey's yellow shirt with bright blue parrots on it, and The Misfit puts it on. Then Bobby Lee and Hiram politely help up The Mother and June Star to take them back into the woods, as well. The Grandmother begins to panic and resumes trying to convince The Misfit to find Jesus. She repeats, "I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady." Then she bargains with him, offering all her money to save her life. When The Grandmother hears the pistol shots that announce the deaths of the rest of her family deep in the woods, she cries out, "Bailey Boy!" for her son. The Misfit reminds her that no one has raised the dead except for Jesus, and opines that Jesus shouldn't have done that: the only pleasure he finds in life is "meanness." He reveals his lack of faith in God by saying that he can't believe Jesus even raised the dead, since he wasn't there to see it, and blames this lack of knowledge for how he has turned out. Noticing he looks like he is about to cry, The Grandmother cries out, "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!" and touches him on the shoulder. The Misfit responds by firing three shots into her chest and killing her. Hiram and Bobby Lee come back from killing The Mother, June Star, and the baby, and The Misfit comments that in fact, there is no real pleasure in life at all. - The Grandmother - The Misfit - Bailey: Father of June Star and John Wesley - The Mother

"Little Fires Everywhere"

- Celeste Ng - eleste Ng's novel Little Fires Everywhere takes place in Shaker Heights, Ohio in the summer of 1997. On a Saturday in May, the Richardson family home was burned down by Izzy Richardson, the youngest of their four teenage children. Her mother, the only family member inside the house when the fires were lit, and her three older siblings- Lexie, Trip, and Moody- watched as their house burned down from across the street. In this moment, the siblings had been too distracted by the fire and their sister's involvement in it to consider the whereabouts of Mia and Pearl. Mrs. Richardson had yet to tell her children of their departure from the night before, and Moody wondered if his family would ever see Izzy again. One year earlier, in June of 1996, Mia and Pearl Warren had moved into the top unit of Mrs. Richardson's rental house. Mrs. Richardson only rented to people in need of her charity, and Mia was a single mother with a gifted daughter in need of a good education They settled in and learned the many rules of living in Shaker Heights. The philosophy behind the suburb was one of planned perfection, and Mia and Pearl, with their nomadic past and eccentric tendencies, were not its typical residents. Moody was the first of the Richardson children to visit the Warrens and develop an interest in their unfamiliar way of life. Pearl and Moody became the best of friends, and although Moody was deeply attracted to Pearl, she developed a strong liking for his older brother, Trip, instead. Lexie also became fascinated by Pearl's timid naïveté, and she pitied her, so she took her shopping and invited her to a Halloween party. To Mia's dissatisfaction, Pearl arrived home from the party past curfew, smelling of smoke and alcohol, and grew cautious of the relationships Pearl was creating with the Richardson children. When Mrs. Richardson offered Mia a new job as their housekeeper, Mia accepted it. Despite Mrs. Richardson's condescending tone, she took advantage of the oppurtunity to monitor her daughter's whereabouts. While working the new job, Mia met the youngest Richardson child, Izzy, and listened to her story empathically. Izzy had been suspended from school the day before for standing up to her teacher's racist and verbally abusive behavior. Mia asked Izzy a life-changing question: "What are you going to do about it?" (79). Izzy related to and confided in Mia, and after Izzy became Mia's photography assistant, Izzy's demeanor changed for the brighter. Upon discovering a photograph of Mia and the newborn Pearl hanging up on a wall in an art museum, Pearl and the Richardson children confronted Mia about her past. Mia provided them with limited answers, leaving Pearl to contemplate what her mother had done for them to survive. Izzy became obsessed with the portrait, so she researched the photographer, Pauline Hawthorne, and recruited her own mother- the reporter- to investigate further. This annoyed Mrs. Richardson, as Izzy had a tendency to do. The week after Thanksgiving, the Richardson family attended a birthday party for baby Mirabelle, who had been left at a fire station and adopted by the McCulloughs a year earlier. The details of the adoption caught Mia's attention, who knew that her co-worker, Bebe Chow, had been desperately looking for her missing daughter, May Ling. Mia was filled with horror at the idea of a mother losing her child, so she called Bebe Chow to inform her. After many futile attempts to get ahold of the McCulloughs, Bebe visited Mia for help. She could not afford a lawyer, so Mia suggested she involve the media. Bebe's story ran on the evening news, thus initiating the battle for her daughter's custody. Mrs. Richardson learned that Mia was the informant responsible for the case, and she became determined to dig up her past in honor of her dear friend, Linda McCullough. Mrs Richardson learned that Pearl Warren had been born in San Francisco, and she requested a copy of her birth certificate. To Mrs. Richardson's dissatisfaction, Pearl's father had not been listed. However, the certificate did reveal Mia's birthplace from which Mrs. Richardson acquired the location of Mia's parents in Pennsylvania, as well as her real name- Mia Wright. By February, the flirtatious relationship between Pearl and Trip became romantic while Lexie and her boyfriend, Brian, were also sneaking away to have sex, resulting in Lexie's unplanned pregnancy. Mrs. Richardson announced that she would be traveling to Pennsylvania for work, so Lexie scheduled an abortion for when her mother would be gone. Lexie asked Pearl to accompany her to the clinic. She trusted Pearl not to judge her, but to Pearl's utter dismay, Lexie wrote down the name "Pearl Warren" on the hospital intake forms instead of her own. Simultaneously in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Richardson was interviewing Mia's parents for a news article she claimed to be writing on their deceased son, Warren. She expertly steered the conversation towards their estranged daughter, Mia, and in doing so, Mrs. Richardson discovered what she had been looking for all along. Mia had sold her womb to another family- the Ryans- but then abandoned her commitment to surrogacy, never to be seen again. Mia was only a teenager when, in order to pay for art school, she agreed to be a surrogate mother for ten thousand dollars, but after her younger brother, Warren, tragically died, and her parents uninvited her to his funeral due to her pregnant condition, Mia fled to San Francisco and gave birth to Pearl as her own. Soon after, the famous photographer and Mia's dear mentor, Pauline Hawthorne, died of cancer, but only after shooting her last series of photographs- the portraits of Mia cuddling and nursing Pearl, together and in love. In the eyes of Mrs. Richardson, however, Pearl's father was Joseph Ryan, and her legal mother was Madeline Ryan. She had discovered Mia's secret, a secret she could use against her for infiltrating Linda McCullough's newborn maternal utopia. After the abortion, Lexie stayed with Mia and Pearl, and unexpectedly, became enlightened by Mia's genuine kindness. Lexie had previously been on the side of the McCulloughs, but whilst in Mia's maternal presence, she started to see things differently. Lexie witnessed a phone call between Mia and Bebe Chow, which inspired a conversation about Bebe and Mia's point of view. The custody hearing began in April of 1997 and it lasted for weeks. The courtroom heard a painful and complicated exchange of arguments between the two sides, one focusing on Bebe's lack of resources and the other, the McCullough's insensitivity to the baby's Chinese heritage. As baby Mirabelle's fate was being decided, relationships in Shaker Heights had started to crumble. Mr. Richardson felt guilty about his role in the trial; Moody had caught Pearl in her lies about Trip; and Lexie and Brian had broken up. Mrs. Richardson sought more dirt on Bebe Chow along the false accusation Linda McCullough had produced that Bebe appeared to be pregnant with a second child, and possibly had aborted it. While snooping through medical records, Mrs. Richardson was shocked to read the name "Pearl Warren" on a list of patients who had recently received an abortion, and she assumed that the father was her own son, Moody. Meanwhile, it was finally decided that the McCullough's would remain Mirabelle's legal parents, and Bebe Chow no longer had any rights to see her own child. Confused by these results, Izzy sought out Mia for emotional support, to which Mia offered Izzy an analogy. She explained that when people's lives were destroyed, they started over, like after a prairie fire. On a Thursday night, Mrs. Richardson confronted a very moody Moody about Pearl's supposed 'abortion', but Moody spitefully enlightened his mother of Pearl's sexual relationship with her other son, Trip. Izzy overheard their conversation, and she felt Pearl ought to know what her mother and brother had said about her. On the next Friday morning, Mrs. Richardson found herself driving to her rental house. She entered without knocking and berated Mia on her past, her hypocrisy, and Pearl's subsequent lack of morals, and then evicted Mia from the house to be gone by the next day. On that Friday afternoon, Mia retrieved Pearl from school early and informed her of the news. Pearl was devastated, and she refused to leave without a proper explanation. Mia sat Pearl down and told her every part, along with the details of her past and Mrs. Richardson's surprising eviction. Comforted by her mother's honesty, Pearl understood and continued to help her mother pack. Izzy stopped by in search of Pearl, but Mia turned her away after reminding her of the prairie fires as a way to say goodbye. On that Friday night, as Mia and Pearl departed for good, Bebe Chow was across town stealing May Ling back from the unsuspecting McCulloughs' and flying her back to China. Izzy confronted both Moody and Lexie on their involvement in the rumors and deduced that it was Lexie who had been pregnant after all. She ran back to the rental house only to find the lights were off and they had already gone. Mia left behind only an envelope of photographs, so Izzy took the one she knew belonged to her. Repulsed by her family's selfishness and determined to begin anew, Izzy concocted a plan with Mia's words in mind. On a Saturday morning in May, while thinking nobody was home, Izzy lit a small fire in the middle of each bed of her house and ran away from her family in search of Mia and Pearl. Mrs. Richardson discovered the flames and exited the house, but she instinctively knew Izzy was to blame. One by the one, each of Izzy's siblings returned to their house to watch it burn. Lexie, Trip, and Moody did not know of Mia and Pearl's departure from the night before, so they were shocked to hear their mother explain they would be staying in the rental house while they rebuilt. Inside the rental house, they discovered the envelope of portraits, one for each Richardson, left behind by Mia as gifts. Mrs. Richardson portrait depicted a single gold feather at the bottom of a birdcage, an image that haunted her as she would search for her daughter every day thereafter. - Izzy Richardson - Mrs. Richardson "Elena" - Mia Wright - Pearl Warren - Lexie Richardson - Moody Richardson - Trip Richardson - May Ling Chow/ Mirabelle McCullough - Mrs. McCullough (linda) - Bebe Chow - Bill Richardson - Ed Lim: Lawyer

"Sonny's Blues"

- James Baldwin - The narrator, a teacher in Harlem, has escaped the ghetto, creating a stable and secure life for himself despite the destructive pressures that he sees destroying so many young blacks. He sees African American adolescents discovering the limits placed on them by a racist society at the very moment when they are discovering their abilities. He tells the story of his relationship with his younger brother, Sonny. That relationship has moved through phases of separation and return. After their parents' deaths, he tried and failed to be a father to Sonny. For a while, he believed that Sonny had succumbed to the destructive influences of Harlem life. Finally, however, they achieved a reconciliation in which the narrator came to understand the value and the importance of Sonny's need to be a jazz pianist. The story opens with a crisis in their relationship. The narrator reads in the newspaper that Sonny was taken into custody in a drug raid. He learns that Sonny is addicted to heroin and that he will be sent to a treatment facility to be "cured." Unable to believe that his gentle and quiet brother could have so abused himself, the narrator cannot reopen communication with Sonny until a second crisis occurs, the death of his daughter from polio. When Sonny is released, the narrator brings him to live with his family. The middle section of the story is a flashback. The narrator remembers his last talk with his mother, in which she made him promise to "be there" for Sonny. Home on leave from the army, he has seen little of Sonny, who is then is school. His mother tells him about the death of his uncle, a story she had kept from him until this moment. His uncle, much loved by his father, was killed in a hit-and-run accident by a group of drunken whites who miscalculated in an attempt to frighten the young man. The pain, sorrow, and rage this event aroused colored his father's whole life, especially his relationship with Sonny, who reminded him of his brother. She tells the narrator this story partly in order to illustrate that there is no safety from suffering in their world. The narrator cannot protect Sonny from the world any more than his father could protect his own brother. Such suffering is a manifestation of the general chaos of life out of which people struggle to create some order and meaning. Though suffering cannot be avoided, one can struggle against it, and one can support others in their struggles. From this conversation, the narrator brings the story forward through his marriage and return to the army; Sonny's announcement at their mother's funeral that he intends to be a jazz pianist; Sonny's attempt to live with the narrator's wife's family, teaching himself piano while the narrator is away at war; the failure of this arrangement; Sonny's term in the navy; and, after the war, a final break between the brothers because of the narrator's inability to accept Sonny's way of life. The narrator then explains the suffering he and his wife felt at the death of their daughter, suffering that made him want to write to Sonny at the treatment center and that finally began to make him appreciate the importance of having someone to talk to, a source of comfort in suffering. In the final third of the story, the narrator and Sonny come to an understanding that seems to reconcile them. The narrator is very worried that Sonny will return to heroin. Sonny invites the narrator to hear him play piano with a group in a Greenwich Village club. When the narrator accepts this invitation, Sonny tries to explain why he took heroin. Heroin is a way to try not to suffer, a way to take control of inner chaos and to find shelter from outer suffering. Though he knows that ultimately heroin cannot work, he also knows that he may try it again. He implies that with someone to listen to him, he may succeed in dealing with "the storm inside" by means of his music:You walk these streets, black and funky and cold, and there's not really a living ass to talk to, and there's nothing shaking, and there's no way of getting it out, that storm inside. You can't talk it and you can't make love with it, and when you finally try to get with it and play it, you realize nobody's listening. So you've got to listen. You got to find a way to listen. At the nightclub, the narrator understands what Sonny means when he finally hears him play. He sees that Sonny's music is an authentic response to life. He sees that one who creates music "is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air." He understands that his brother's music is an attempt to renew the old human story: "For while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness." Having witnessed Sonny's struggle to play "his blues," the narrator recognizes that those blues are humankind's blues, that Sonny's music gives the narrator and all people a way of finding meaning in their pains and joys. This perception enables the narrator to accept his brother, the life he has chosen, and the risks he must incur. - Sonny, a drug addict and musician whose suffering fuels his music. - The narrator, a schoolteacher in Harlem, who tries to be a father figure to Sonny. - Isabel, the narrator's wife, who holds the family together. - Grace, the narrator's daughter, who dies at the age of two of complications from polio. - Sonny's father, a hard man who dies during a drunken weekend. - Sonny's mother, who dies while the narrator is away at war. - Creole, who plays the fiddle in Sonny's band.

"The Secret Sharer"

- Joseph Conrad - An unnamed captain, reflecting on an experience that happened years ago, tells his readers of his first real command - when he was appointed to take a ship home to England, when the crisis of imitation into knowledge of his ship and his crew was complicated by an unforeseen partnership with an escaped criminal. The episode begins in the Gulf of Siam, just off the coast of Cambodia. As a sailing ship awaits a favorable wind, darkness falls, and the captain surprises the crew by taking the anchor watch himself. As he strolls the silent deck in his sleeping-suit, his serene reverie is broken by his discovery that the rope side-ladder has not been hauled in. The captain is astonished to find that a naked swimmer is floating at the end of the ladder. In the quiet of the sleeping ship, the two talk and the man, named Leggatt, elects to come on board. The captain, sensing "a mysterious communication" has been established between them, provides his intuitively perceived "double" with an identical sleeping-suit. As the dialogue continues, the captain is startled to learn that Leggatt, a young chief mate, has killed a man at sea and has been held prisoner for weeks aboard the Sephora. As Leggatt relates the particulars of the homicide, the captain finds that the fugitive appeals to him "as if our experiences has been identical as our clothes." Leggatt tells how a seaman panicked during the fury of a storm as they were trying to set a reefed foresail, how he fought the man - and later, when the storm subsided, the seaman was dead and Leggatt was charged with his murder. As the captain listens to the account, his identification with Leggatt deepens "I saw it all going on as though I were myself inside that other sleeping-suit." He takes Leggatt to his stateroom, and the grimly comic game of hosting his "secret sharer" begins. Part 2 of the tale opens with a visit from Captain Archbold, skipper of the Sephora, who is searching for his fugitive first officer. The narrator later will state that "I could not, I think have met him by a direct lie" - and for psychological (not moral) reasons." But the narrator goes beyond deceptive actions to protect his partner with saving lies. Although Captain Archbold admits that Leggatt's reefed sail saved his ship in the storm, this self-righteous guardian of law and order is determined to give his mate up to the shore authorities. Leggatt's protector goes through the successful charade of showing his suspicious visitor over the ship, and at last Archbold leaves empty-handed. The ship makes its way down the east side of the Gulf of Siam and at last, among some islands off Cambodia, the captain agrees to help Leggatt swim to freedom. To the surprise of the crew, the captain tacks the ship and sails in dangerously close to the shore. He smuggles Leggatt into the sail locker, and just before they shake hands and part, he places his hat on his "other self." By now the crewmen are watching in awed silence as the ship moves toward the towering blackness of Koh-ring. The captain, a stranger to his ship, finds it impossible to tell whether she is moving safely away from disaster until in the gathering darkness he detects, floating near the ship's side, the hat he had given to Leggatt. This "saving mark" confirms that the ship is sailing out of danger. With the secret stranger gone, the captain is left alone with his ship at last, enjoying "the perfect communion of a seaman with his first command." He walks to the taffrail and catches a final evanescent glimpse' of the white floppy hat, left behind to mark the spot where the captain's "secret sharer," his "second self," had "lowered himself into the water to take his punishment; a free man, a proud swimmer striking out for a new destiny." - Nameless Captain - Leggatt - Captain Archibold - captain of sephora - The Chief Mate

"Fun Home"

- Alison Bechdel - Young Alison Bechdel lives in Pennsylvania with Helen, Bruce, and her little brothers Christian and John. Bruce and Helen had been living in Europe, but the death of Bruce's father forced them to return stateside to take over the Bechdels' funeral home business (which is the inspiration for the memoir's title). Bruce meticulously cares for and improves upon the family's old Gothic revival mansion. Meanwhile, his relationship with his children and his wife is frosty and sometimes violent. Bruce's volatile moods fill the Bechdels' home with uncertainty and tension. At a young age, Alison feels as though she wants to dress like a boy and during puberty, she discovers that she is attracted to women. She comes out at as a lesbian at the age of 19, while she is in college. Soon after coming out, Alison learns from her mother that Bruce has always carried on affairs with men and boys. She is shocked to learn that Bruce was engaged in sexual relationships with his gardener and the children's babysitter, and that her mother has always been aware of his infidelity. Not too long after Alison's revelation, Helen tells her daughter that she has asked Bruce for a divorce. - Two weeks later, Bruce Bechdel is dead, having been hit by a Sunbeam Bread truck while crossing the street. Bechdel suspects that her father's death was a suicide, highlighting several specific facts and incidents as evidence. She laments that he died before she could properly speak to him about his sexuality and his subsequent shame. As a result, Fun Home follows Bechdel's journey as she tries to unpack and understand the depth of Bruce's closeted life and his motivations, especially as they relate to her own. - Alison Bechdel - Bruce Bechdel - Tammi - childhood friend - Helen Bechdel - mom

"The Tell-Tale Heart"

- Edgar Allen Poe - An unnamed narrator opens the story by addressing the reader and claiming that he is nervous but not mad. He says that he is going to tell a story in which he will defend his sanity yet confess to having killed an old man. His motivation was neither passion nor desire for money, but rather a fear of the man's pale blue eye. Again, he insists that he is not crazy because his cool and measured actions, though criminal, are not those of a madman. Every night, he went to the old man's apartment and secretly observed the man sleeping. In the morning, he would behave as if everything were normal. After a week of this activity, the narrator decides, somewhat randomly, that the time is right actually to kill the old man. - On the eighth night, the old man wakes up and cries out. Narrator can hear his heart-beat and is scared the neighbors could too. He attacks and kills him. He dismembers the body and hides the pieces under the floor boards in the bedroom. Police come. They don't suspect anything. In the bedroom they're talking and the narrator can hear the thumping of the old man, and he thinks the policemen know and hear his guilt so he confesses and tells them to rip up the floor boards. - The narrator - The old man - Policemen

"The Fall of the House of Usher"

- Edgar Allen Poe An unnamed protagonist (the Narrator) is summoned to the remote mansion of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher. Filled with a sense of dread by the sight of the house itself, the Narrator reunites with his old companion, who is suffering from a strange mental illness and whose sister Madeline is near death due to a mysterious disease. The Narrator provides company to Usher while he paints and plays guitar, spending all his days inside, avoiding the sunlight and obsessing over the sentience of the non-living. When Madeline dies, Usher decides to bury her temporarily in one of his house's large vaults. A few days later, however, she emerges from her provisional tomb, killing her brother while the Narrator flees for his life. The House of Usher splits apart and collapses, wiping away the last remnants of the ancient family. - The Narrator - Roderick Usher - Madeline - Usher's sister

"A Celan, Well-Lighted Place"

- Ernest Hemingway - In "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," two waiters at a Spanish café must wait for their last customer to leave before they can close up. This customer, a deaf old man, had previously attempted suicide, and the waiters gossip about this. Eventually, the old man leaves. The younger waiter at the café is impatient to get home to his wife. He feels no sympathy for the old man, who also had a wife once. When the old man doesn't leave, the younger waiter screams that he wishes the old man had succeeded in killing himself. The old man leaves, but the older waiter keeps the café open, realizing that he, too, needs this clean, well-lighted place in order to cope with the nothingness that haunts him. - Old Man - Old Waiter - Young Waiter - The old man is drowning his sorrows in drink, and his sorrows grow out of loneliness, if we are to believe the old waiter (the old man lives alone, his wife now dead). However, lest this turning to drink be interpreted as weakness, the author is careful to depict the old man as being punctiliously neat and controlled in his despair. He does not, after all, spill a drop. Rather, the old man is a heroic drunk, one whose pursuit of oblivion is depicted as a reasonable, even noble course of action in a world which can be too much for certain souls to withstand. Where the younger waiter seems to feel not enough, this man seems to feel too much. Old Waiter - The older waiter, in contrast to the selfish younger one, is a sympathetic man. He knows the old man's history and identifies with it. Like the old man, the old waiter is lonely, a little sad, and he takes pleasure in a quiet public place. The old waiter is not, however, as desperate as the old man is. He seems to endure his loneliness with a certain objectivity, realizing that although he is alone, he is not alone in suffering. The older waiter seems wise and resigned. Young Waiter - Set against the two mild and weary older men, the younger waiter's personality seems acerbic, even cruel. We learn about an unspoken rule of service which dictates that a cafe only close when the last customer leaves voluntarily,

"Why I live at the P.O."

- Eudora Welty - It is the 4th of July and, man, is it STIFLING! The arrival of Stella-Rondo is about to push the emotional temperature well past the boiling point. Not only has she come home to announce that she has left her husband, Mr. Whitaker—whom she stole right out from under Sister—but she's also got a two year old daughter named Shirley T. Stella-Rondo explains that the girl is adopted, but Sister alone is suspicious about that because, after all, little Shirley seems to take after Papa-Daddy, their grandfather on their mother's side. In fact, if Papa Daddy cut his beard off, he would look very much like Shirley T. The suggested to Papa Daddy that Sister thinks he should cut off his beard only serves to turn up the heat as he gets angry at Sister and repeats his believe that she's been made at him ever since he helped to get her the job down at the post office. The appearance of a drunk Uncle Rondo later in the evening wearing kimono that Mr. Whitaker had given to Stella-Rondo initiates a heated argument between the two sisters over the jealousy Sister feels toward Stella-Rondo. Later Sister accuses her mother of playing favorites with Stella-Rondo before making more accusations about both the lineage and the mental capacity of Shirley T. By now, Sister is convinced that everyone has turned against her at the reappearance of Stella-Rondo except for Uncle Rondo. This situation is upset when Stella-Rondo insinuates that Sister was making fun of his wearing the kimono and the next morning kicks off with his setting off firecrackers in Sister's bedroom. Having made the decision to start living at the post office now that the entire house has been turned against her by Stella-Rondo, she goes around the house and started collecting items that she considers hers. Mama steps in to debate these considerations and Sister brings up the issue of Shirley's parentage again before refusing to sit down to a game of cards with everyone. - Finally, Sister tells everyone if they ever want to see her, they can feel free to come down to the post office. Papa Daddy says he won't bother. Sister points out that if none of them ever come to the post office, there will be no way for Stella-Rondo to stay in touch with Mr. Whitaker. At the suggestion that Mr. Whitaker was the one to initiate the separation, Stella-Rondo runs from the room in tears. It has been five days now since Sister started living at the post office and in that time no one from the family has come to visit. Some of the other people in town sided with her family against her, but she claims to be happy and wouldn't even bother listening at this point even if Stella-Rondo finally came clean about what really happened between her and Mr. Whitaker. - Sister: narrator - Stella-Rondo - Shirley T. - Papa-Daddy - Mama - Uncle Rondo

"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"

- Gabriel Marquez - The short story, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings tells the story of Pelayo and his wife Elisenda, who find an old man with wings in their courtyard after killing crabs in a rainstorm. Pelayo gets his wife, and they try to communicate with him unsuccessfully. They eventually get their neighbor woman, who informs them that the old man is an angel. She tells them that it was on its way for their sick child. They put the angel in the chicken coop, and during the middle of the night their child's fever breaks. They decide to let him go, but when they return to the courtyard at dawn the entire community has arrived to see the angel. Father Gonzaga soon arrives, declaring that the old man is a fake. He promises to get the real truth from the higher courts of the church. The news of the angel spreads like wildfire, and the courtyard soon resembles a marketplace. Elisenda then has the idea of charging a 5 cent admission fee for seeing the angel; they are soon rich. Rome takes it time deciding on whether the old man is an angel, and while waiting for their verdict, Father Gonzaga works desperately to restrain the crowd. The crowd leaves on its own, however, when a carnival boasting a Spider-Girl arrives in town. Spectators are allowed to question her, and she tells them how she was turned into a tarantula one night for disobeying her parents. This appeals to the masses more than an old winged man who ignores the people around him. Thus, the curious crowds soon leave the angel for the spider, leaving Pelayo's courtyard deserted. Pelayo and Elisenda build a mansion with all the money they have accumulated. They neglect the angel and prevent their child from getting to close to the chicken coop. He soon becomes a part of their life, and they no longer fear him. The child visits him often. After a while the chicken coop breaks, and they allow him to move around their house, although it causes Elisenda much distress. He gets increasingly frail and sickly, and they fear that he will die. He recovers, however, and one day Elisenda watches him fly away, to her great relief. - The Angel - Pelayo: discovers the old man with wings - Elisenda: one of the first to see the old man - The Child - Neighbor Woman - Father Gonzaga - The Spider-Girl

"Garden of Forking Paths"

- Jorge Luis Borges - Dr. Yu Tsun, a Chinese national and a former professor of English, reveals in his statement that he is a German spy. He recounts the events leading to his arrest, beginning with when he discovers that his contact has been killed. He knows he must devise a way to get an important message to the Germans. He looks in a telephone book and finds the name of a man, Stephen Albert. Yu Tsun thinks Albert will be able to help, although he does not reveal how he knows this. Yu Tsun then recounts how he travels to Dr. Albert's house, pursued by Captain Richard Madden, an Irishman in service to the English. When Yu Tsun arrives, Dr. Albert mistakes him for a Chinese consul that he knows; Dr. Albert assumes that the Chinese man is there to view his garden. Yu Tsun discovers that Dr. Albert is a sinologist, which is a scholar who studies Chinese culture. By a strange coincidence, Dr. Albert has created a garden identical to one created by Yu Tsun's ancestor, Ts'ui Pen, a writer who worked for thirteen years on a novel called The Garden of Forking Paths; he also was working on a labyrinth before being murdered by a stranger. In addition to recreating Ts'ui Pen's garden, Dr. Albert further reveals that he has been studying the novel. Dr. Albert tells Yu Tsun that he has solved the riddle of the lost labyrinth, arguing that the novel itself is the labyrinth. Furthermore, Dr. Albert tells Yu Tsun that the The Garden of Forking Paths is "an enormous riddle, or parable, whose theme is time." Albert explains that the novel reveals that time is not singular, but rather a "dizzying net of divergent, convergent, and parallel times." Like the labyrinth, each turn leads to different possible futures. Dr. Albert shows Yu Tsun a letter written by his ancestor that says, "I leave to the various futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths." This letter has provided the key Dr. Albert needs to make sense of both the novel and the missing labyrinth, that the "forking" referred to by Ts'ui Pen is not a forking of space, but a forking of time. Yu Tsun experiences for a moment a sense of himself and Albert in many other times. Suddenly, he sees Madden approaching. Yu Tsun asks Albert to let him see once again the letter written by his ancestor. When Albert's back is turned, Yu Tsun shoots and kills him. - Richard Madden - Narrator - Yu Tsun

"Story of an Hour"

- Kate Chopin - Because Louise Mallard suffers from a heart condition, her sister Josephine gently and carefully gives her the news of her husband's death. Mr. Richards, a close friend of her husband, Brentley Mallard, and the first to learn of the tragic railroad accident that claimed Mallard's life, has accompanied Josephine to help soften what they know will be a cruel blow. Louise falls, sobbing, into her sister's arms, then retreats upstairs to her room. Josephine, who begs Louise to let her in, would be shocked if she knew what thoughts were racing through her sister's mind. Louise has loved her husband, who has in turn loved her and treated her kindly, but she is not crushed by his death, nor do her reflections make her sick. Indeed, although she initially hesitates to admit to herself that she is not distressed, she begins to repeat one word: "free." Her life is her own again; no longer will she have to yield to her husband's wishes. Only yesterday she had regarded life as tedious and feared longevity. Now she yearns for long life. Finally, she yields to her sister's repeated pleas to unlock her bedroom door. Louise embraces her sister, and together they go downstairs to rejoin Richards. As they reach the bottom of the stairs, Brentley comes through the door, unaware of the accident that supposedly has claimed his life. Richards tries to move between him and his wife to shield her from the shock, but he is too late; she has already seen Brentley. She screams and falls down dead. The doctors who examine her afterward say that her weak heart could not bear the sudden joy. - Louise Mallard, a wife who has suppressed her desire for independence, begins to understand her need for self-discovery when she learns of her husband's death. - Josephine, sister of Louise Mallard, models ideal female behavior and cares for her sister, carefully breaking the news of Mr. Mallard's demise and offering comfort. - Brently Mallard, by all accounts a loving husband, is presumed dead in a train accident; the report, however, is mistaken, and he reappears at the story's end, causing his wife's fatal heart attack. - Mr. Richards is the family friend who brings the news of Mr. Mallard's death and attempts to screen Louise from the shock of his reappearance.

"The Garden Party"

- Katherine Mansfield - The Sheridan family throws a garden party in the self-titled story about Laura Sheridan and the triviality of life for a wealthy family in New Zealand. Mrs. Sheridan leaves her daughter Laura in charge of orchestrating the last minute preparations for their garden party. Laura is a kind-hearted socialite with sympathy toward the lower class. She prefers the company of working men who arrive to put up a marquee for the party than the boys she spends her time with at dances and dinners. Yet, despite her sympathies she does not belong in their world. In the midst of planning for the party, unexpected news arrives: Mr. Scott, their neighbor has been killed in a horse riding accident. He left behind a poverty-stricken wife and several children. Laura is deeply saddened by the news and wants to call off the garden party but her family refuses to do so. Her mother explains that no one would expect a family like the Sheridans to stop their party for the likes of Mr. Scott. Disturbed by her family's elitism, Laura is torn between wanting to help the Scotts and help her family prepare for the party. Eventually her family obligations win out and she, with her parents and siblings, throw a successful party. After their guests leave Mr. Sheridan reminds his children about the Scott's tragedy and Mrs. Sheridan asks Laura to bring a basket of leftover food to the grieving family. Laura sets out but immediately regrets her decision, as the poorer residences of their town stare at her as she passes by. She realizes how out of place she is in their world. Laura finally reaches the Scott house and is taken inside to see the body of Mr. Scott. She is envious of the content look upon his face and recognizes how trivial her world of privilege must seem to families like the Scotts and runs out of the house. - Cook - Mother: Mrs. Sheridan - Jose Sheridan - Laura's class-conscious older sister - Laura Sheridan - Laurie Sheridan - older brother - Meg Sheridan - one of her sisters

"Young Goodman Brown"

- Nathaniel Hawthorne - Young Goodman Brown, a young and innocent man, bids farewell to his young wife, Faith. Faith asks him to stay, but Goodman Brown says he must leave, just for the evening. He ventures into the gloomy forest of Salem, and is soon approached by a man of about fifty, to whom he bears a strange resemblance. His companion wore simple clothing, but carried a staff that resembled a great black snake and seemed to move like a living serpent. Time and again, Goodman Brown protests the trip, insisting that he must turn around. But, his companion tells him that his father and grandfather had walked along the same path, as well as other important townspeople, such as the governor. Goodman Brown continues to follow. Along the path, they see a woman, Goody Cloyse, who taught Goodman Brown his catechism. His companion begins to resemble the devil, while the woman, a witch. The staff, too, seems to take life. After a while, Goodman Brown sits down, determined to not go any father. His companions go ahead without him. As he sits, Goodman Brown thinks he hears the minister and Deacon Gookin on horseback discussing the night's meeting and a young woman who would be taken into communion that night. Goodman Brown begins to hear voices, and among them, the lamentations of Faith. He shouts her name, but hears only a echoes, and then silence. A pink ribbon - Faith's ribbon - flutters down form above. "Maddened with despair", Goodman Brown rushes forth into the forest, laughing louder and louder, until he reaches the gathering. There, he sees an altar, surrounded by four blazing trees. Many of the town's most honorable members were present, as were some of the least welcomed - the sinners and criminals. Goodman Brown is led to the altar, where a cloaked female figure is also led. A dark figure prepares to welcome them into the fold, pointing to the crowd behind them - the crowd Young Goodman Brown had reverenced from youth. The figure revealed them all as sinners, noting that "evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness". The cloaked woman is revealed to be Faith. Before the figure could lay the mark of baptism on Goodman Brown, he called to Faith to "look up to Heaven, and resist the wicked one." Immediately, he finds himself alone in the forest. The next morning, Goodman Brown arrives back in town, bewildered about the events from the previous night. He runs into many people he saw in the forest - the Deacon, Goody Cloyse - all acting as if nothing had happened. He sees Faith, but passes without acknowledging her. Since the "night of that fearful dream" Goodman Brown became a dark and gloomy man, who saw nothing but blasphemy all around him. - Goodman Brown - Faith: wife - The Old Man/Devil - Goody Cloyse - The Minister

"The Lottery"

- Shirley Jackson - Small town of 200 people meet to play the lottery. Mr Summers runs the lottery. He arrives in the square with the black box, followed by Mr. Graves, the postmaster. The town elder is Old Man Warner. Tessie Hutchinson joins in late and is flustered because she had forgotten it was the day to play lottery. Old Man Warner hears from Mr. Adams that there are other villages that have given up playing the lottery, and he said that was "nothing but trouble". Bill Hutchinson "got it", and Tessie makes a complaint that he didn't have enough time to select a paper, ruling not fair. Mr. Graves dumps the papers out and puts in the five names for the Hutchinson's. Each member of the family comes up to pick a piece of paper out of the box. Tessie got the one with the black dot on it. The villagers grab stones and run toward Tessie, who stands in a clearing in the middle of the crowd. Tessie says it's not fair and is hit in the head with a stone. Everyone begins throwing stones at her. - Mr. Summers - Mr. Graves - Tessie and Bill Hutchinson - Old Man Warner - Mr. Adams

"A Rose for Emily"

- William Faulkner - Divided into five sections. Recalling how everyone went to Emily Grierson's funeral in her home, and no stranger had gone in before in 10 years. Colonel Sartoris, the town's previous mayor, had suspended Emily's tax responsibilities to the town after her father's death, justifying the action by claiming that Mr. Grierson had once lent the community a significant sum. Her servant is Tobe. In section II, the narrator describes a time thirty years earlier when Emily resists another official inquiry on behalf of the town leaders, when the townspeople detect a powerful odor emanating from her property. Her father has just died, and Emily has been abandoned by the man whom the townsfolk believed Emily was to marry. As complaints mount, Judge Stevens, the mayor at the time, decides to have lime sprinkled along the foundation of the Grierson home in the middle of the night. Within a couple of weeks, the odor subsides, but the townspeople begin to pity the increasingly reclusive Emily, remembering how her great aunt had succumbed to insanity. The townspeople have always believed that the Griersons thought too highly of themselves, with Emily's father driving off the many suitors deemed not good enough to marry his daughter. With no offer of marriage in sight, Emily is still single by the time she turns thirty. - Women of the town send their condolences to Emily, when she answers the door she tells them that her father is not dead - for 3 days then buries him. - Homer Barron - lead guy of construction. Likes Emily, becomes popular but he is under a different status than she is. - Emily buys arsenic - "for rats" - People think she is using it to kill herself while also thinking Homer and Emily are going to get married. - Emily dies. Townspeople go up to a closed door and knock it down. . The room is frozen in time, with the items for an upcoming wedding and a man's suit laid out. Homer Barron's body is stretched on the bed as well, in an advanced state of decay. The onlookers then notice the indentation of a head in the pillow beside Homer's body and a long strand of Emily's gray hair on the pillow. - Emily Grierson - Homer Barron - Judge Stevens: Mayor of Jefferson - Mr. Grierson - Tobe: Emily's Servant - Colonel Sartoris: Former Mayor of Jefferson

"Sweat"

- Zora Neale Hurston - The short story opens with Delia Jones, a hardworking washwoman, trying to get a head start on her work on Sunday evening. As she sorts laundry on the floor of her house, she feels something slide over her shoulder, which frightens her terribly because she is afraid of snakes. However, it soon becomes clear that the object that has grazed her shoulder and fallen to the floor is not a snake at all but the bull whip of Delia's abusive husband Sykes, who enters the scene. Sykes rails at Delia, who he criticizes for washing white folks' clothes in their house on Sunday, the Sabbath day. He screams at her and threatens to mess up and soil all of Delia's carefully sorted laundry, but this does not prevent Delia from working. She points out that it's precisely her job as a washwoman for white people that provides for their living. She defends herself with uncharacteristic tenacity, threatening Sykes with an iron skillet in anticipation of one of his habitual beatings. Sykes is startled and leaves angrily. Since it is generally known that Sykes has a mistress, Delia expects he will spend the night at her place. The next Saturday in front of the store, several men from the town are talking about Sykes and Delia. They reminisce about how pretty Delia used to be when she married Sykes 15 years ago. It is apparent that Sykes is not very popular among them. The men even talk about murdering him. Shortly afterwards, Sykes arrives at the store with his girlfriend Bertha. Coincidentally, Delia is just passing the store on her way from work. It gives Sykes immense pleasure to taunt Delia by parading Bertha around. One day, Sykes brings home a huge snake in order to further terrorize Delia. Everyday, Delia begs Sykes to get rid of the terrifying animal, but he has no mercy. Once, while doing her work, Delia finds the snake in the basket with the laundry. Terrified, she quickly leaves the house and goes to sleep in the barn. When she awakes, Delia sees Sykes go inside the house. A short moment later, she hears him scream, so she moves towards the house. Standing by the door, Delia sees that Sykes has been bitten by the snake. She hesitates. At one point she feels pity for Sykes, but eventually she backs away from the door and waits for him to die. - Delia Jones - Sykes Jones - Bertha