Short story for cultural/historical analysis.
The short story I have chosen to analyze is Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield.

The theme of the story is the loneliness of an old woman who got herself involved in a routine of outing to park every Sunday. This habit of visiting the park each Sunday help her to face the loneliness she was going through. She was happy with that and she did love it because she felt as if she was part of this world. But at the end she found herself not living but just watching how other people are living their lives. I t is revealed to her by a young couple who felt annoyed by the present of a the old lady while they wanted to make love or something.
The story was written in 1922 and I couldn't see any historical connection between the text and that period of time. Whether woman decided to be singles by choice or it was difficult to find a perfect match, is something that had to be mentioned in the story by the author. But I know is that she definitely did not want to be lonely because if she were, she wouldn't be escaping the loneliness and looking for spot where she could find herself doing something.
The story doesn't really mention something that people usually did in that period of time but from the text I am guessing that it was odd to be lonely. As the author mentions, almost all the people the old lady saw in the park were accompanied by their partners.
I do not have any cultural/historical clue about the story but what drew me special attention was the way the narrator described people and the way they were dressed(dreadful panama, velvet and lace...etc). I think those kind of special dresses had to something with the season or it might just be the way people dressed back in that period of time when attending special events.
If were said to do research, I would focus on those colored dresses and the way people got married in that era.

Jean Toomer’s “Becky”

The main theme of this poem is Becky and her two fatherless sons. Not quite sure what figure does Becky ans her sons represent in the story, but my instinct is telling me that she might represent an American prostitute or something.
The story is told by somebody else who as I believe does not live in that neighborhood but they are aware of Becky and how the community(back and white people) treat her.

• Robin Hemley’s “The Holocaust Party”

I think the main theme of this poem is the holocaust that took place in Europe during world war II.
The story is told by a survivor of the holocaust therefore she is narrating base on her outlook.
The event took place in the period of time from 1941 to 1945 during which many people (specially Jews) were killed by the Nazi. Not sure when the story was written but from the lines we can see that the narrator has overcome the emotions and she can tell as if it were a normal story.

Jean Toomer’s “Becky” (CR 274-276)
I think the story is about a mad white woman who was isolated by the rest of the people because her madness. This practice was very common but still remain in some places around the world. When somebody becomes mad they usually do crazy things and they becomes dangerous. In advanced societies they usually take those people to asylums where they will have special treatments. But I guess in this particular town, there was just one mad woman so they decided to build her small tiny house near the railroad.
But there is a figure in the story that has not been revealed by the narrator either because it is not known or he wants to make the story more interesting:The guy who got the mad white woman pregnant. I didn't hear anything about that guy throughout the story. But I think he plays an important role in the mad woman's life. who ever he was I think that is a sign of being not responsible and not looking down for others. I'm sure he made her disappear as well so that she would not reveal his identity.


Claude McKay’s “America”
The speaker in the poem is appreciating what this America (America) has done to him. Even if the treatment was not fair as he said in his lines, he consider it as test of his youth. He really sounded like he was a slave to me then i remembered that back in time no slave could appreciate what they suffered.


“If We Must Die”
In this poem, the author is encouraging his men to stand up for themselves and not to give up. He claims that they must die with honor and if they do, even dead they will constrain the enemy to respect them.
This two poems give evidence that the author was either slave or a victim of racism because the fight here represents what he mentioned in the first poem as bitterness. So in order to test his youth he had to fight against oppressor. The cultured hell help him to unite his party and fight like one person.

• Junot Díaz’s “How to Date a Browngirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie”

This story sounded kind of funny to me when I was reading it. But i came to realize that the whole point of the story was not about just the boy and the girl he was taking out. If we examine carefully some of the aspects the author was pointing out about the ethnicities and some of their behaviors, we will see that the story matches with what is rally happening in the real life. I don't know a lot about dating American girls or something but the story did not stray me from what I have heard about dating a sister, a white or a halfie American girl.



Maxine Hong Kingston’s “No Name Woman”
This whole story is about Chinese tradition. well, I don not have much to say here the story was somewhat interesting maybe for those who care about tradition. It is something that kept people blunt for a long time. But it is good to tell the new generations where we came from so that they can establish the difference between the past and the present moments.
The mother is telling the story to the daughter so that see can be aware of where the family is coming from and what they have overcome. For some reasons, she wants her to keep it secrete, I don't know why... The aunt's story was in my opinion the main point of the story. There might be something important about the aunt's story that the mother would like the daughter to know.

Randall Jarell
I think the main reason Randall is writing poems about war is because he was enlisted in the army therefore he had some experience about war and military. It is not surprised that he could write a poem like that... he was not pilot though I wonder why does he know a lot about aircraft and ball turred

The word war means essentially fight between opposite parties.
war involves dangeur, blood shading, killing people, anger, crime.
colors: red, green,yellow,

Gunner simply means someone who uses guns to shoot.
Attack has to do something with invading or striking the anemy ini a war context.

World war II associates me with the period of hostility between many countries around the world 70 years ago, i'm not sure.