Week Eight

8.1 Quiz (Done)



8.2 Comments on "The Chrysanthemums"

This story descibes the struggle of a woman attempting to gain influence in man's world. Elisa tried to define the boundaries of her role as a woman in such a stereotyped society. The story open up with Elisa working in her garden, surrounded by a wire fence that symbolizes her life's barrier. As the story progresses, Elisa struggled extending feminine power outside her sphere. She learned that she possesses that kind of power that was weak for that time.


8.3 Refelection on the life and work of John Steinbeck

Steinbeck is another Nobel Prize American author, he accumulated his masterpieces from his familiarity with the farming country, ranches and blue collar folks of his own native state; the novel Tortilla Flat exemplified this. He was a popular man who was scared his own popularity. Branded as a communist due to the nature of his writing. Hated by some political characters and disowned by his native state, yet venerated after his death.


8.4 Reflection on The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

A theme in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” is the idea that good must coexist with evil. That is, there cannot be light without darkness, pleasure without pain, or good without bad. One cannot be without the other, and both must be present for either to have meaning. Le Guin is trying to make the point that no matter how brilliant the society or how advanced the technology there must be evil somewhere in the equation.

8.5 Reflection on A Vey Old Man with Enormous Wings

This is a short story that begins with Pelayo and Elisenda finding a very old man in their courtyard during a stormy afternoon. They watch in astonishment the enormous wings attached to the body of the old man as he struggles to get up from the mud. The couple attempt to communicate with the old man but is unable because he speaks in a different language. Their neighbor comes over and lets them know that the old man is an angel who has come to take their sick child. Pelayo locks the angel in a chicken coop overnight. Early next morning Father Gonzaga along with the rest of the community tests the angel to see whether or not the old man really is an angel. Elisenda, tired of having the community at her house, decides to charge an entrance fee to see the angel. The family becomes rich and builds a mansion with the money collected. The crowd soon loses interest in the angel for another freak who has arrived to the community. The new town attraction is a frightful tarantula who tells her misfortunes to the audience. Meanwhile, no longer trapped in the chicken coop, the angel is free to roam around the house until one day his wings are strong again and flies away into the horizon.



8.7 "Pan's Labyrinth" and "For Whom the Bells Tolls" have the senarios on history, geography and politics. They both have Spain as their Location, civil war between the Spanish government and the insurgent communist rebels as their occasion point. Both leading character sacrifice their lives for the sake of the cause. However, the only difference between them the fushion of fantasy on Pan's Labyrinth.