The first story in this packet is called Red: an invocation, written by Lia Purpura, and the author focuses mainly on a fox. In a lot of these stories we read in this class the writers have an obsession with a particular person, place, thing, or animal. The whole story revolves around a fox and how, "red for the body of the fox isn't right, though when you look, as you might for long minutes if you've ever seen a fox before, not like this, you'd see, not red exactly, but how the color is a form, recognizable," (page 1). I think a lot of these essays and fiction stories that we read are metaphors but they are not clear metaphors. Five different people can see this story mean five different things and I'm not the biggest fan of that kind of writing. I want it to make sense to me and this writers fascination with red and how it's not exactly the color of the fox but whenever they see red they think of a fox? It's just strange and not interesting, this story lost my attention quickly.
The second story in the packet was actually not awful, I'm surprised! It is titled Sunday, written by Henry Louis Gates Jr., the short essay is about how, "White people couldn't cook, everybody knew that!" (Page 2). The story gives the audience a great visual of an african american family cooking and eating all Sunday long: enjoying themselves. I was unsure how the author was going to finish this essay but I enjoy the route he took, he decided to end it on a line that was memorable and gave the story was meaning/lesson. "White people can't cook, that's why they need to hire us," (Page 2). I found this line so memorable and interesting, imagine being so young and hearing that from your aunt, it would give me no hope for the future. I can't imagine what those little kids grew up thinking for their future, they were basically expected to be slaves and stereotyped to exceed to be nothing better then that, it's sad.
The short essays were very similar to the fiction packet stories but definitely written better for the most part. I was kind of confused how the first few stories were about two-three pages and then the last story or two was extra long, there seemed to be no pattern to the chaos. But regardless I enjoyed the essay "Sunday" the best because it actually had a moral and a purpose, I was left understanding what the reader was trying to tell me and a lot of times I think that we analyze these stories so much in class that we completely lose the real meaning behind them and we leave thinking the stories mean something totally opposite then what the author was trying to portray.
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