We are just starting to learn about short stories in my intro to literature class. I had to read three short stories: "The Use of Force" by William Carlos Williams, "A Visit of Charity" by Eudora Welty, and "Sleepy" by Anton Chekhoy. All three stories were interesting and I found that all of them did not have an optimistic ending:
"The Use of Force" is a story about a doctor from the early 20th century and his visit to a patients home. When I read this story my first reaction was, why is this child being so stubborn? I am not used to doctors making house calls, and I have only heard and seen it in the movies. Apparently this child, Mathilda is very sick. Diphtheria is going around to children and it is possible this child may have it. If I were the doctor I would have been very frustrated if this child did not listen to me. All he wanted to do was look at her throat. If this child have the illness then she could die, why didn't the child understand this. So by force the doctor had to get this child's mouth open. So it's understandable where the author get the name for this short story. The child did have Diphtheria. I liked the way the author ended this story.
Eudora Welty's short story was a very interesting story. The child seemed very shy and she did not like elderly people from what I could tell. She was a "Campfire Girl" and was taking flowers to a home for the elderly to receive points. The women in this story were very amusing and very talkative. The child seemed scared of them as well. I did not understand the ending though. Why did the little girl run when the elderly women asked for money? Why did the little girl leave an apple by the bush and not bring it in with her? Was the little girl scared of the elderly or just of the two women? This is probably why I enjoyed this one the most because it left the most unanswered questions.
"Sleepy" was a story about a servant and nanny to a very rich family. She was always busy and never found time to rest. The family she worked for was very demanding. The woman would find herself drifting to sleep when she was rocking the baby to sleep. Was she dreaming about real events about her dying father? If she was, then did she have to work for this family because it was the only way for her to make a living? It seemed like she never got any sleep. The sleepiness must have caused her to go mad at the end of the story because she killed the baby in order to get sleep. The most interesting part of the story was the last sentence. It really made you think about things.
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