1. “Not one bad one in the string.” (95) How is this remark typical of the narrator or her way of expressing herself?
2. How does Uncle Rondo’s throwing firecrackers into the narrator’s room (95) advance our understanding of his character? How does it square with his throwing a nickel to the girl who helps cart the narrator’s belongings to the post office (139)?
3. The narrator takes with here to the post office an extensive number of objects that don’t pertain to her particularly, the way her clothes, for example, might pertain just to her. What do you make of the list of things she takes?
4. The narrator knows about radio offers of free seeds to those who send in a box top; the mother hasn’t heard about such an offer, and is curious. What does this exchange say about the economic or social class of the family? How does your answer square with the fact that her family “are naturally the main people in China Grove” (142)?
5. When all is said and done who do you think is the most mature, psychologically whole person in the family? Why?
6. When all is said and done who do you think is the least mature, least psychologically whole person in the family? Why?
2. How does Uncle Rondo’s throwing firecrackers into the narrator’s room (95) advance our understanding of his character? How does it square with his throwing a nickel to the girl who helps cart the narrator’s belongings to the post office (139)?
3. The narrator takes with here to the post office an extensive number of objects that don’t pertain to her particularly, the way her clothes, for example, might pertain just to her. What do you make of the list of things she takes?
4. The narrator knows about radio offers of free seeds to those who send in a box top; the mother hasn’t heard about such an offer, and is curious. What does this exchange say about the economic or social class of the family? How does your answer square with the fact that her family “are naturally the main people in China Grove” (142)?
5. When all is said and done who do you think is the most mature, psychologically whole person in the family? Why?
6. When all is said and done who do you think is the least mature, least psychologically whole person in the family? Why?
15 comments:
Hey evryone,
I am answering number
1: I believe this relates to the narrator because everything the narrator seems to say is positive. No matter how negative a situation may be, the narrator always has a bright outlook on it. This quote does not seem to be any different than the rest of the short story. She is look at the glass as half full and not stopping short of doing so. This is definitely just my two cents but let me know how you guys feel on this subject.
Thanks!
Ashlie
all of these questions are really hard.
6.) I suppose Uncle Rondo is the least mature because he is the least psychologically whole person in the family. He is always drunk. His behavior is radical. Throwing firecrackers into the narrator's room, wearing Stella-Rondo's kimono, and his overall drunken behavior show that he isn't in his right mind. Although everyone in the family seems to be irrational, Uncle-Rondo has an actual excuse from his drunken state.
In response to prompt number one:
“Not one bad one in the string.” (95) How is this remark typical of the narrator or her way of expressing herself?
I think this is typical of the narrator because she says things like that a lot. Remarks that are positive but yet are later fallowed with a negative thought. Like the stereotypical thought of southern people, that they are nice on the outside and have a negative thought on the inside, or just not saying what is their true opinion is.
Adressing to question number six, I think the character, Stella-Rondo is least mature and psychologically whole person in the family. I say this because she alwayscomplain and argues with her sister, the narrator. In the story, the narrator says "Stella-Rondo is exactly twelve months to the day younger than I am for that reason she's spoiled." (pg. 123) Well, the narrator describes her sister as spolied. She does gets whatever she wants.
Hey
So addressing question #1, I think that "Not one bad one in the string" is a reflection of the authors opinion because it illustrates her point of view on certain aspects of life. It shows that even though life may not be perfect in this time period and life may not be perfect in the life they live, but she does manage to seek the positive aspects life throws at her. "Not one bad one in the string" is a very positive thing to say. A string, a very plain and simple flexible material, is being described and compared to something positive and saying essentially that even in the little things that may seem like a burden, positive things can still be discovered in almost all situations. This is a very powerful statement and helps illustrate the point of view the author shows as a whole.
Mason
Hey, this is for #3. I feel that there are two main reasons she would take such random items to the post office.
My first guess is that she wants to annoy and spite her family. When she took everything that actually belonged to her or that she'd help pay for or acquire, they realized how little they actually had. There's the saying "you don't know what you've got until it's gone," and I feel like that really applies here. They don't think they will miss her until they realize how many other aspects of their life will be changed with out her too. And I also think she just wants to annoy them by being very particular and meticulous about what she takes.
My second guess is that she wants to make the post office feel homier. It is obviously not meant to be a home, and with the additions of plants and decorations, she is hoping to make it seem more like a home and an acceptable place to live. She wants to be comfortable, and it could really be as simple as that.
I feel that it's a combination of the two reasons, and that it not all that peculiar that she takes such random items with her when she leaves.
Hey Everyone,
I am going to answer question number 3. It seems as thought the narrator takes several objects that she either paid and gave them as a gift or helped pay for them and paid for most of it also. She takes objects that she thinks would bother her family if she took almost to annoy them or make them say something she wants to hear. It doesn't really make them say anything that she really wants to hear, but it does make some of them upset. Also she seems to take objects that will help pass her time and give her plenty of things to do and work on. It seems as though she picked her objects strategically so that they were items that would annoy her family, but also items that she could make use of. All the objects don't really have anything to do with another, but to her she knows that it will annoy her family and I think that is mainly what she is trying to do. I actually feel bad for her because no one in her family seems to understand or like her and because of this it has come to this result, which is really unfortunate. I think her family isn't very good at listening to everyone and is just to bias to her sister and her "adopted" child and really just ignored everything the narrator said or her family members said things saying that the narrator had said it, when actually she hadn't. I think it is really unfortunate and yeah. Those are my thoughts and I look forward to reading some other thoughts.
Hello,
Adressing question six, I think that Uncle Rondo is the least mature person in the story. However, I do not think it is fair to completely judge him because he is always drunk. Being drunk is certainly not an excuse for his actions but it does however give me doubt on his real personality. Maturity has a lot to do with the moral strength one has. When one is drunk it is easy to let go of that fight against sin or simply craziness. So due to this I would say Stella-Rondo is the least mature character. Always arguing and fighting Stella-Rondo is eratic at best.
Hey everyone
I will be adressing question number 6. I find Sister to be the least mature and least psycholigically person for numerous reasons. In the openeing paragraphs of the story Sister shows her immaturity by blaming the family turning against her all on her sister Stella-Rondo. In actuallity it is her own fault that her family was drawn away from her. Sister has always had a competitive relationship with Stella-Rondo. If Sister accepted the lie that Shirley T was adopted, like everyone else in her family and was not so tubborn, Stella would not have turned Papa Daddy against her. Then Sister plays the guilt trip on her mother and says that if she was in her sisters place nobody would accept her. And she starts a rumor that Stellas baby has a disability. Eventually Sister turns the whole family against herself and instead of making things better with them. She moves out and lives by herself in the post office. Sister reminds me of a jealous 5 year old. She moves out of the house and secludes herself from her family for attention.
How does Uncle Rondo’s throwing firecrackers into the narrator’s room (95) advance our understanding of his character? How does it square with his throwing a nickel to the girl who helps cart the narrator’s belongings to the post office (139)?
Uncle Rondo's throwing firecrackers into the narrator's room is just plain rude and obnoxious. It is an awful thing to do, and there is nothing worse than being startled painfully out of a deep sleep. The fact that her own uncle would do such a thing to her, just out of spite, is baffling to me. Nobody deserves that and I feel so bad for the poor narrator. This helps us to understand the character because it helps us to see why the poor thing is so down on herself. She always seems to think that her family is out to get her, and it is extremely understandable when we see the way they treat her. They are just rude and they don't care about her feelings and they seem to be taking her for granted. Also, the fact that Uncle Rondo throws a nickel at the girl who helps transport the narrator's things, shows that he doesn't take her seriously. He doesn't think that she is actually going to leave forever, and even the fact that she is threatening to, doesn't phase her. His throwing of the coin shows is nonchalant attitude about the whole situation. His whole attitude is so obnoxious and helps us to understand why the narrator has such a negative self-esteem. I know I would have a low self esteem if nobody took me seriously or listened to what I had to say. No wonder she thinks everybody is out to get her.
in response to #2
Uncle Rondo's actions throughout the story are very random and eccentric. It was hilarious when he put on Stella-Rondo's Trusseau and was upset about not being taken seriously in it and was insulted. He is also drinking some sort of "prescription" which I assume is alcohol or a form of alcohol which also makes him act more bizarre and might have been why he played such a childish prank on Sister. He seems to want revenge whenever something doesn't go his way. He stomps on the lingerie when Stella-Rondo says Sister doesn't like it on him which shows that he takes out his anger irrationally just to make a scene. He may have threw the firecrackers into Sister's room to take his anger out on her but also to provoke her. It is clear that Sister has sensitive ears and Uncle Rondo most likely knows that. He may have wanted to push her to her limit and get her to leave the family alone. He also throws a penny to the girl who helps Sister move out which shows just how happy he is that she is leaving. He got his way and may have given the girl a good tip because he was happy he had succeeded in antagonizing his niece.
I believe all the characters have both of their negative and positive sides. Stella-Rondo is a manipulative woman who stole Mr. Whitmaker from her sister; however, she is only acting spoiled to alleviate her broken heart. The sister does not sympathize her sister as the rest of the family because all these years, she had to put up with her selfishness and drama. Uncle Rondo acts immature when he is drunk, and he just wants to have fun again.
Hello,
I know number one has been talked about a lot but I think I have a slightly different idea about it, so I thought I would share. As I said in my last blog, I think the narrator is very sarcastic. In this quote she is referring to the fireworks and that when Uncle Rondo threw him in her room every single one of them went off and there was not even one dud. I have to disagree slightly with what Ashlie was saying because I don't think the narrator has a bright outlook on the situation- just the opposite. I think the narrator is making fun of the situation but is at the same time very pessimistic. I feel like the narrator hates her situation both with the fireworks and within the family but plays it off as a joke to herself in order to compromise the bad situation. This is typical of the narrator because she does it over and over and over again. For example, when she decided to move to the Post Office, she claimed that if her family were to never come see her again, that would be okay. I feel that the narrator is unhappy but doesn't want to show her unhappiness so rather, she comes off as sarcastic and makes fun of the situation in order to make it better for herself. I feel that the story as a whole sort of relies on her sarcasm, and also sets the tone. If this story was written with all the sarcasm taken out not only would it be boring, but it would be fairly sad as well. Rather, even when the story ends, you don't feel all that bad for the narrator because she seems perfectly content in her place. Considering last night's blog as well, I feel that the narrator's random comments about people throughout the story follows the same line. The narrator uses sarcasm and amusement to portray certain aspects of people (usually bad). I think not only is the sarcasm typical of the character, it is typical of the author. The whole story is very amusing when you look at it this way and makes the whole thing so much more interesting.
Thanks.
I feel that all the characters in the story are a bit psychologically unstable. However, out of all the characters, Sister changed the most drastically for me, from being somewhat sane, to pretty much completely insane. I guess in her mind her family was not satisfying what she thought they should be doing. She wanted them to agree with her, and they never did in any situation. She started out semi-sane with the objective seeming she wanted her opinion heard and agreed upon. Except as the story proceeded she became more and more obsessed with somehow proving herself right, and her family wrong. She wanted them to believe her. She gets so upset near the end of the story she leaves. I feel she has completely lost her mind by this point, the whole thing seems really irrational to me. It also does not seem like something a sane person would be doing. I feel she ends the story as being the least mature, and least psychologically whole person in the story.
Pall
#6
I'd say that Papa-daddy is the least mature and least psychologically whole person in the family. He throws such a huge tantrum about his beard and then just chills out in the hammock for a while (similar to sulking in ones room), and when uncle rondo comes, starts saying bad things about the narrator just cause of his beard. Also, he refused to even think about the fact that the narrator blatantly said "I did not say that about you pappa-daddy!" Overall, however, I would say that the most harmful fact to his being immature is that he let a member of his family (his daughter) leave the house in a fight. Any half responsible parent, i think, would at least try to resolve the issue.
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