"Why I Want A Wife"

     "Why I Want a Wife" (1972) , by Judy Brady, is a short essay that gives a list of what an ideal "wife" does and she says that she would love to have a "wife" if the wife does all these things. The author explains why she wants a "wife" by listing all the things a "wife" does from physical needs to the children. The author wrote this in order to tell what society said was an ideal "wife". The intended audience is most likely men as it shows what a "wife" is supposed to be and how partners should share equal responsibility.

     Personally, I loved this essay. When I was reading everything that a "wife" is to do I could easily understand what Brady was trying to say. Being in a relationship and raising a family requires a lot of work and all the responsibility shouldn't be placed on one person. Such things should be shared equally between the two people. If the concept of a "wife" that Brady described existed I'm sure everyone would want a "wife".

     The essay is written in a way that describes an ideal "wife" and finishes by saying "My God, who wouldn't want a wife?". In this essay, the "wife" isn't an actual person but an idea. This assumptions is confirmed by the fact that no pronouns are used whatsoever. The idea of a person who does all the things she talked about is wonderful in theory but in practice is ridiculous. Only one person taking care of the responsibilities of the relationship is unfair and she is indirectly saying that both people in the relationship should share responsibility.

"The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society"

                In this story “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” from the book Illiterate America written by Jonathan Kozol (1985) suggests that the number of illiterate adults exceeds 16 million in 1980.  Kozol provides lots of facts and real life situations to support his opinion of what people who are illiterate go through on a daily basis. 

            I enjoyed reading this story because I never thought of what people who are illiterate might go through on a daily basis.  The little things that I take for granted are the things they struggle with.  In the story Kozol uses the example of being able to recognize simple words like ambulance, police, and fire in case of emergencies.  Of course I understand the importance of being literate but to the ones who are illiterate everyday life is difficult.  Even in his example about the lady and the Crisco.  I laughed when I first read that she thought she was buying chicken to make a meal for her daughter.  I thought where her common sense is but once I let the information settle I had another thought of maybe she wasn’t from this country.  It’s amazing of how many immigrants come to this country everyday and don’t understand the simplest things.   

            One of the things I will that from this story is to make myself approachable for people who need help can ask for it.  I know it’s not my responsibility but if I can help then I will.  I think us as people should be open to people asking for help whether it be directions or to get a clear understanding something means.

The Deer at Providencia

         Annie Dillard the author of "The Deer of  Providencia" (1982) explores in the her narrative the suffering that takes place in both cultures of developed and under developed countries and the different reactions to these sufferings.The narrative depicts village life in the Amazon jungle seen through the eyes of city travellers on some sort of a pleasure tour.The travelling party comprised of mostly men with one young woman among them enjoying the food and tropical delights that the villagers of Providencia provided. A suffering deer was  the focal point of the story, which suggests that its struggles and suffering is a part of the preparatory ritual of venison in the village. In a carnivorous society, the methods of harnessing meat for eating have long been traditionally staged. The hunter seeks his prey with traps and weapons to kill. Some of these inflict and causes great suffering on the animal before death arrives. This action for some presents a very cruel picture, for others its just a part of the cycle of life. Where there is life, there is suffering. They both walk side by side.

I could not help feeling sad at the examples of suffering in this story, the deer in the village and the man burnt badly laying in the hospital. What is puzzling about this narrative is the strong contrast posed by the author between the unflinching reaction to suffering by all, yet some eyes were on this one woman expecting her to react differently from the others. Of course some women are extremely sensitive to the suffering of animals and humans alike and would have reacted differently as one of the visitor suggested about his wife.

The purpose of this narrative was to sensitize the reader that suffering does exist in our world today that has been accepted as a must without any feelings for the sufferer. I think having seen so much of it around us, in the press, sometime causes us to lose that concern, that care, that compassion. The question of what is going on is posed by the writer to create a kind of cause and effect twist to the writings. Animals must suffer in order to die and be a part of the delightful meals in the food chain. On the other hand suffering from severe burns for the second time in thirteen years was a good enough story to draw the media's attention to the sufferer's question of "Why does God hate me". Sad to say his query did not ease the pain nor solve the mysteries in a world filled with suffering and pain.

Thirty-Eight saw it... Not one reported it

“Thirty-Eight who saw murder didn’t call the police” (1964) is an article written by Martin Gansberg and published in the New York Times Newspaper. This article describes a shocking scenario in which a woman is stabbed on three different occasions in a thirty minute time span, and none of the neighbors who witnessed it called the police. I believe Gansberg is trying to provoke feelings of shock and overall dismay at the lack of compassion people sometimes have regarding others. The article is written as a timeline of horrible events, which eventually lead to the death of twenty-eight year old Catherine Genovese.

Miss Genovese had only been living on Queens New York a little over a year before she was brutally stabbed and murdered outside of her Key Gardens apartment complex.  At 3:20am she followed her normal route of entering her apartment through a rear entrance. She noticed a man standing at the far end of the lot so she tried to make it to a call box to alert the police. The man then stabbed her and fled the scene as a neighbor yelled out of a window. He returned less than 15 minutes later and stabbed her again. Although neighbors were aware of the commotion, no one called the police. The man returned a third time and killed Miss Genovese. Around 3:50am is when the police received the call that the woman was dead. When the neighbors were asked why they hadn’t called, most replied “I didn’t want to get involved”.

This story may be shocking to many people, however; it is a normal occurrence in many urban neighborhoods. I grew up in a very urban area and there were many occasions where police would knock on our door and ask us if we had information on various crimes that had occurred near us. Fear is the common factor that makes people avoid Calling or talking to the police. It becomes a “Him or Me” situation where you have to decide if helping stop or solve a crime is worth risking your own life. Also in our generation the street slogan “Stop snitching” has caused many people to feel like they would lose respect or street credibility by talking to police. This is a very sad but true depiction of what goes on in urban neighborhoods across the country.

Black Men and Public Space

     Black Men and Public Space (1986), a short story by Brent Staples, claims that just because he is black people fear and avoid him when he is simply walking down a street. The author supports this by giving examples of situations when people avoided him or acted as if he had done something wrong when he had in fact done nothing. The author's purpose was to inform his audience in order to show how people will assume things about him simply because of the color of his skin. The author establishes a somewhat personal relationship with the audience by using personal pronouns.

     After reading this text I found myself not shocked at all. The actions taken by the people who saw him are something I see all the time. Though the actions aren't generally performed against me they are taken against people I know. By simply walking down a street others become intimidated and feel the need to move somewhere else. Sadly, this kind of thing isn't uncommon, at least in my experience.

     The text is written to show the prejudices against black people because of assumptions made. For example, the author gave an example of a time when he was walking behind a woman at night because he couldn't sleep and "after a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest." She had assumed the worst despite the fact that he had made no hostile movements. This text shows how quickly people make assumptions based on appearance.

"How to Mark a Book"

In this story “How to Mark a Book” from How to Read a Book, Revised Edition by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren (1972) claims that there are two ways you can own a book and there are three book owners. Adler also says that you have to read between the lines to get the most out of the book.  He also thinks that you should make notes in the book so you won’t lose the idea of where the author is taking you.

                This story was a little dry.  Adler says that there are two weeks you can own a book.  The first way is when you purchase it.  The last way is when you make the book apart of you are.  This means to make notes in the margins on the ideas the author was trying to convey to the readers.  Then he goes on to say that there are three types of book owners.  The first is the individual who owns wood-pulp and ink not the book.  The second owner have read some but not all of them.   And the last are the ones who own the books.  They have read them, marked them with notes from front to back.

                This article was a little dry for my taste.  It gives you seven ways to mark a book.  It even tells you to read between the lines. I think that i'm book owner two and three.  I'm in the middle.  Some of my books I make notes in and some I just read.

Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall

" Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall" by Diane Ackerman(1990), informs us of the reasons behind the brightly colored process of change that occurs in leaves during the season best known as Fall. It was important to note that the author created a colorful setting earlier on in the narrative by employing every descriptive words she could conjure up, like ' red-winged blackbird ', or a ' goldfinch perching 'producing a great scene. This sets the story up nicely. Several reasons were given for this slow and colorful dying of the leaves. The starving of the leaves by the tree and the redistributing of nutrients to other parts of the tree as the main reason. She also points out the unique change in the leaves because of not producing chlorophyll and the presence of a pigment that is responsible for the bright colors of the leaves.

I got a strong sense of purpose from the author's view point that every thing in life has its own reason for happening. Researching the reasoning behind the causes and effect of what goes on around us will definately give us a better understanding of the beauty of dying, as in this case the dying of the leaves. This point of view was evident in the first four paragarphs of the narative. I felt like a new world of information was now opened to me or any reader because of Ackerman's story. I also felt that it was her intention for the reader to connect other notable stories in the bible when she made reference to Adam and Eve in the garden dressed with leaves. " Leaves have always hidden our awkward secrets", the author stated profoundly to provoke the reader I thought, to want to read more of this narrative.

I was impressed with her careful mixture of poetry and science in presenting a story that had color and contrast which probably was intended for the wider audience and not any specific group. She wrote of children liking to play in falling leaves and pilots doing a maneuver called a "falling leaf" to give us a picture of how wide her topic was and points of interest that covers just about everyone. Anyone who has experienced this happening, the dying leaves,the fading green, slowly drying and finally falling off will see Ackerman's analogy of the leaves to life itself and the unchanging cycle of those things that fall away and cease to exist.