Biblical References

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? is possibly one of the more depressing stories that I have read. It didn't seem so depressing at first, I just thought the girl wasn't the brightest for following some 40-year old man into his car. I mean, come on. Girl + male stranger will never result in love. Try pain and suffering. However, after going over it in class, I realized that she had been raped in her own home. That's just sick. Home is commonly thought of as a safe haven from the rest of the world.
At first a simple story about an unlucky girl, with a few readings, it can be turned into a religious representation. The old man is clearly painted as the devil, while the girl is seen as humanity as a whole. This leads to some disturbing thoughts. Does that mean all humans pretend to be tough when they're outside? And if this was a biblical reference, why is humanity abandoned?

Bank Robberies

The other day in class when we discussed "Hills Like White Elephants", people had no idea what operation the story had been talking about. I thought I had figured it out, but I was completely wrong. It was a highly embarrassing experience, considering how right I thought I was. A lot of people in class agreed that the operation the couple had been talking about was abortion. Yeah...not what I thought. My bright idea was that the lady had robbed a bank. Both Beccas wasted no time in making fun of me. How could someone get bank robbery out of a talk about abortion? My argument with them would have had a lot more logic if the couple had been even more vague, but no, I was an idiot. I misread possibly the most important line in the entire short story. Instead of reading that the man was saying, "It's a simple operation, Jig", I saw "It's a simple operation," Jig said. Two totally different things. I ended up thinking that Jig was the man and the woman remained nameless. I just wanted to clear that up in case anyone in my class started to think I was a complete weirdo.

Theme: An Enigma

Theme has always been one of the more difficult things for me to identify. A teacher can ask me to find plot, characters, main idea, or any other part of the story. Bam bam bam. I'll find it. Straight up. Tell me to find theme. I'll be sailing out on an wave of confusion. That's not to say I can't find the theme; I just get something different. I'd be fine with getting something different than what was normally seen, but I usually end up in the complete wrong direction. If there's a theme about trusting in friends, my theme will probably be about keeping everyone at arm's distance. I have no idea why this happens. I remember studying about Romeo and Juliet and how their lives fell apart. Other kids mentioned fate, love, or something else profound. I talked about how I thought it was a warning for others. You know, not to fall too deeply in love or something. I mean, the two did end up killing members of each of their families.

Sad plot endings

I don't think there's a real reason to have a sad ending to a story, unless there is going to be a sequel. In that case, I think any kind of ending is fine because you know that the ending you just read isn't really the ending. There's going to be more of the story afterwards. A prime example of that is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius dies and that sucks. However, you know that it'll get better because there's a sequel where Harry cheers up.The Destroyers was just odd. The ending was terrible. The old man's house fell down and that's all. You don't even get to know if the old man discovers who broke down his house. I know that it's literary fiction, but what's the point in even writing literary fiction? Books are made for people to read them. If no one reads your book, what's the point of writing it?