The School by Donald Barthelme

“Of course we expected the tropical fish to die, that was no surprise.”

                Among the many experiments that the teacher does with his students, all of which unusually fail, one is experimenting with fish. I personally have never been able to keep a fish past a few days and I know many people today have gone through the same experience. It seems that the students are young and have already been through enough death with all of their experiments, so why put them though an experiment that will very obviously end in a tragedy? Is this year’s lesson plan all about death? 

“[W}ill you make love now with Helen (our teaching assistant) so that we can see how it is done?

                                      Barthelme’s The School is line after line of plants, animals and an adopted orphan dying. This interjection by the children is extremely out of the blue. At first, the reader might think that when the teacher says that “life is that which gives meaning to life,” that maybe the children see living life as making love and reproducing another life. But then, after reading Saunders “The Perfect Gerbil” it is clear that Berthelme’s purpose throughout the entire story is to lead us a continuous climax of death and then a random interjection to keep the audience interested. 

“There was a knock on the door, I opened the door, and the new gerbil walked in.”

                First, how does a gerbil knock on the door? Second, why introduce the children to another animal that will more than likely die shortly? Possibly, after the passionate kissing between Edgar and Helen, Berthelme felt that there was a turnover and now every experiment would stay alive. The idea of living like by making love with the teaching assistant changes the forces within the students and the classroom allowing future animals such as the gerbil to live.

distemper- a disease for dogs, caused by an unidentified virus and characterized by lethargy, fever, catarrh, photophobia, and vomiting

      to derange physically or mentally

      to discontent, to disturb(The School, 60)

datum- a single piece of information or fact (The School, 60)

sound- free from injury, damage, defect, disease, etc.; in good condition; healthy; robust: a sound heart;      a sound mind.

financially strong, secure, or reliable: a sound business; sound investments.

competent, sensible, or valid: sound judgment.

having no defect as to truth, justice, wisdom, or reason: sound advice.

of substantial or enduring character: sound moral values.  (The School, 61)

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

“[T]his is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely;”

                As the mother in “Girl” continues to advise her child on what to do and what is appropriate, she explains how to smile, whether fake or real. She tells her daughter to smile at everyone because that is what a lady does, no matter what terms of the relationship may be on. She clearly does not want her to be the slut that the daughter wants to become. She wants her daughter to be a prominent woman within society that everyone respects, a woman who follows her duties and does them well. 

“[T]his is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn’t fall on you”

                Throughout the mother’s entire rambling on being a lady and not becoming a slut, the mother teaches her daughter how to do something only boys do and yet when they are very little and immature. She teaches her daughter how to spit in the air and dodge it before it splats on her face. This is odd because the mother scorns her daughter for her behavior and demands of her daughter to behave respectably. Spitting in the air is not proper behavior especially for a lady.

“[B]ut what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?”

                The baker gives the young girl a look as if she is not worthy to touch the bread, therefore forcing the advisor, possibly a mother figure, to ridicule her daughter for being socially out casted by the public. Throughout the short story, the main narrator tells the young girl to stop trying to become a slut and the baker proves exactly what she has been thinking. The main narrator becomes so angry with the young girl that the ending questions create awkward and uncomfortable silence at the end, which will lead the young girl to resent this person.

benna- calypso like genre of music (Girl, 1)

wharf-rat- concert goers (Girl, 1)

okrbafar- must grow okra far from the house (Girl, 1)

dasheen- a tuber from China (Girl, 1)

doukona- a kind of pudding made from starchy food which is sweetened, spiced, and traditionally wrapped in plantain...or banana leaf (Girl, 1)

The Flowers by Alice Walker

“Myop carried a short, knobby stick…and worked out the beat of a song on the fence around the pigpen.”

                Myop’s young and carefree mind allows her to see the good present in everything. She has neither worries nor concerns. She is able to see the beauty in a piece of wood and turn it into a musical instrument. She is able to sing and dance around her parents’ farm feeling safe and secure. She is playful with animals and sees all the good that is present around her, unaware of the danger that is present in the outside world. The ten year old is in her own peaceful world that she has created where there is no bad.

“The air was damp, the silence close and deep.”

                As Myop walks through the forest, a mile away from her home, the atmosphere is not as bright and exciting as it was shortly before. The damp air directs the idea that something bad is approaching and the deep silence creates a scary mood. The silence represents the transition of Myop growing up. Her turning point in life to grow up is near. It will be quiet and quick when she sees the realization of what people in the world are truly capable of, the darkness that is present among her.

“Myop laid down her flowers. And the summer was over.”

                Alice Walker’s main character Myop is a young ten year old girl who has no cares in the world and is free and joyous. She is innocent. Never has she done horrible wrongs or witnessed anything wrong. However, after coming upon what seems to be a lynching of a man, her eyes have become open to the violence of humanity within the world, particularly racism. She processes the dead corpse in front of her and at that very moment she begins to grow up and see the world in a different light. She must leave her carefree childhood behind.

golden-bright metallic or lustrous like gold

              full of happiness prosperity or vigor (The Flowers, ln 3)

rooted-to become fixed or established

                to pull tear or dig up by roots (The Flowers, ln 11)

haunts-a place frequently visited (The Flowers, ln 19)

Photograph of My Father in HIs Twenty-Second Year by Raymond Carver

“my father’s embarrassed young man’s face.”

                Raymond Carver observes a picture of his father when he was twenty-two years old. Most people would expect twenty-two year old men to be very proud to the point of arrogance. However, Carver’s father is more of the reserved type. Those who are shy, normally turn away from the camera or become embarrassed easily, just as Carver’s father. His father might want to appear manlier or proud which may indicate the embarrassed look upon his face.

“Father, I love you/ yet how can I say thank you”

                The narrator loves his father for who he was then and who he is now. He does not want a manly man or a resourceful man, but rather a man who is there. Clearly, this father has been present throughout the son’s life or he would not have so much love and respect for him. This father raised his son well and this son is proud, not in a cocky way but rather a selfless, educated way. He is proud of his father and who he has become as a man. However, following in his father’s footsteps he unable to stand proud and express his appreciation and love towards his father.

“But the eyes give him away”

                One can tell a lot by a person’s eyes. The eyes can always tell us the emotion of a person. The narrator’s father’s eyes tell the son how delicate of a person his father was at twenty-two. He may have wanted to act tough, but by looking into his eyes one is able to look into his soul. Deep down his father was a timid young man unsure of himself and unsure of his future. These feelings portrayed though his eyes, letting the son know that it is okay for him too to be unsure and shy.

dank- unpleasantly damp and chilly (“Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year”, 1)

sheepish- embarrassed or timid

                  meek or stupid (“Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year”, 1)

limply- lacking in stiffness or firmness

             unsteady, lacking rigidity (“Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year”, 1)

Daddy by Sylvia Plath

“You do not do, you do not do/ Any more, black shoe/ In which I have lived like a foot”

                Sylvia Plath writes about her life as a child growing up with her father, who appears to have fought under the reign of Adolf Hitler. Just as most soldiers fighting under Hitler’s tyranny, Plath’s father may have been strict and harsh therefore forcing Plath to live an obeying lifestyle. The shoe represents the shoebox in which she lived. She could not disobey her father nor disappoint him, which may have been difficult. By beginning her poem “Daddy” with this line, she is immediately expressing her resentment for father and the way he treated her as a child.

“Daddy, I have had to kill you”

                Sylvia Plath has to repress any memories she has of her father. She is distraught and enraged for the way he treated her as a child. She can no longer linger over these memories because they infuriate her even more. Her father passed away while she was still a child but her fear of him still remains. To free herself and her misery, she can mentally “kill” the memory of her father, forgetting everything he was and everything he did.

“So black no sky could squeak through”

                As Sylvia Plath continues to express her abhorrence for her father, she uses words such as black to illustrate how dark of a person he was on the inside. Black represents the evil emptiness within and the inability to show any affection towards Plath. She feels there was no emotion, no love for her. His feelings would act as the sky and he never associated feelings with anything, especially not his own daughter. Any emotion is long gone once he becomes a soldier in Hitler’s army. Her father becomes a beast and his humanity will be gone forever.           

Panzer-Man: the most feared military machines, an armored tank producing a mind-chilling sound when approaching its target. (“Daddy” 2)

Aryan eye-Hitler wanted a pure race with blue eyes. (“Daddy” 2)

stuck- power of adhering

            to puncture with a pointed instrument

            to fasten into place

            to attach with an adhesive material (“Daddy” 2)