ENCW 202 Spring 2020
Posted in Disappearance on Jan 22nd, 2020
“The Room in the Attic” gives us a great story about a boy chasing a dream he didn’t know he had. It all begins to make sense when we take his two friends, Ray and Dennis, who talk about their girlfriends at every chance they get. He sees other girls on the beach that he […]
Posted in Animals on Jan 21st, 2020
“Cat ‘N’ Mouse” is a fun story that portrays the intense relationship between a cat and a mouse. This story reminds me of Tom and Jerry, a popular cartoon usually played early mornings when I was a child. The scenes in this story are clearly unrealistic. “The mouse, dressed in a bathrobe and slippers, is sitting […]
Posted in Animals on Jan 21st, 2020
By: Olympia LeHota In this playful reading, the reader finds herself alone in a room, looking into a reality where a cat and mouse have it out for each other. You fell that the reading has become repetitive and someone the story changes every new paragraph. It took a while but the pattern revealed itself […]
Posted in Animals on Jan 21st, 2020
In “Cat ‘N’ Mouse,” the reader witnesses the true side of hunt and prey. The hunter, the cat, and the prey, the mouse, are constantly going after one another. It is obvious that they are running in the house as wild animals would in their natural habitat. Millhauser writes: The cat is chasing the mouse through […]
Posted in Animals on Jan 20th, 2020
In “Cat’N’Mouse” by Steven Millhauser, there lies a certain familiar feel to the work. The work follows the antagonist, the cat, trying to capture (or, rather kill) the mouse that lives in the same vicinity as him. However, the mouse outsmarts the cat’s attempts to kill him. The cat and mouse duo can be seen […]
Posted in Disappearance on Jan 20th, 2020
In Steven Millhauser’s “The Disappearance of Elaine Coleman,” Elaine is a quiet woman who is dependable about paying her rent and never misses work. She is quiet and likes to stay to herself, according to the landlady, Mrs. Walters. Elaine has disappeared, leaving all of her belongings behind, including the key to her apartment, creating a […]
Posted in Animals, Disappearance on Jan 20th, 2020
Though one short story deals more directly with disappearance, both stories involve the idea. “The Disappearance of Elaine Coleman” deals with disappearance throughout the entire story, while “Cat ‘N’ Mouse” only brings it up at the end. In “Cat ‘N’ Mouse,” we get to see both the cat and the mouse vanish from not wanting […]
Posted in Disappearance on Jan 19th, 2020
The life and fate of Elaine Coleman are stated in the story’s first paragraph: “Gradually the posters became rain-wrinkled and streaked with grime, the blurred photos seemed to be fading away, and then one day they were gone, leaving behind a faint uneasiness that itself dissolved slowly in the smoke-scented autumn air (Millhauser, 21).” […]
Posted in Animals on Jan 17th, 2020
Steven Millhauser’s “Cat ‘N’ Mouse” is not a work of the fantastic so much for the unbelievable behavior of the animals but rather for the sense of uncanniness throughout the story. The term “uncanny” often refers to something that is strangely familiar or both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. This can most definitely […]
Posted in Disappearance on Jan 17th, 2020
As someone who has always been extremely introverted, I feel like this story is much more disturbing for me than it would be to a more outgoing reader. For me, the truly terrifying part of this story is not the “how” of Elaine’s disappearance; rather, it is the fact that the disappearance means so little to […]
Posted in Transformations on Jan 16th, 2020
The stories “Beast” and “Fatso” have many similarities. These stories can be related because both present characters whose physical appearance changes at night; however, there is also the shared theme of an internal confusion or unhappiness within the protagonists. At the beginning of “Fatso,” the speaker is explaining how his girlfriend seeks self-validation: I’m a whore, they […]
Posted in Transformations on Jan 16th, 2020
Salt Slow: “Mantis” by Julia Armfield By: Olympia LeHota “Mantis” is an interesting short story that keeps the reader wondering what was to come of the flaky, otherwise ugly young teenager. Though the title gives us a clue to what we should expect at the end of the story, I couldn’t help but think to […]
Posted in Transformations on Jan 16th, 2020
The focus on transformation is apparent in both of the following stories: “Fatso” and “The Metamorphosis.” Both stories focus on a physical transformation, not the meaning behind it. Transformation is physical, emotional, and mental, though the transformation does not have to have all three characteristics. In “The Metamorphosis” Franz Kafka presents the transformation of a man — Gregor — […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 16th, 2020
In Samantha Hunt’s “Beast,” we are introduced to a narrator with some serious problems: her brother died, she doesn’t talk to her sister, and she’s recently slept with a man other than her husband. She also turns into a deer at night, but that really isn’t as important to the story as you’d think. The […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 16th, 2020
In “Mantis,” the traditional sense of transformation is taken to the utmost level of odd, yet, it seems to fit in the criteria of “fantastic in fiction.” Usually, a transformation story begins with an “ugly-duckling” that turns into a swan or an ordinary caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. Whereas her differences, or imperfections, are expressed, […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 16th, 2020
The surprise in the stories “Fatso,” “Beast,” and “Mantis” is that no one notices or appears to be shocked in the stories about the changes that take place. In “Mantis,” it appears that the girl is going through puberty along with her other classmates. They compare their ugliness and flaws with each other. When faced with […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 16th, 2020
The stories “The Metamorphosis,” “Fatso,” “Beast,” and “Mantis” all have the shared element of transformation. In each story the main character experiences or witnesses a drastic physical change. Now, of course, this isn’t possible in real life, which makes it incredibly easy to brush off a story as something that doesn’t feel real or carry […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 16th, 2020
Samantha Hunt’s piece “Beast” is written on the ‘fantastic’ of a transformation of the physical metamorphosis from human to animal during the night. The result of the emotional and mental conflict that the character deals with after cheating on her partner. Hunt’s work showcases the parallelism of leading a double life, from the sexual cravings […]
Posted in Transformations on Jan 15th, 2020
From the very beginning of “Mantis,” a sort of transformation of the protagonist is presented. It simply isn’t the type of transformative experience expected from the fantastic in fiction. The protagonist’s mother and her attempts to cover up the protagonist’s “problem skin” are the first bit of their relationship to be seen at all. There […]
Posted in Transformations on Jan 15th, 2020
With Samantha Hunt’s “Beast” being started off with the main character reading the newspaper at night, which shows that she is trying to stay up late for some reason, as most people read the newspaper in the morning before they leave for work, while they are eating their breakfast. While she is lying in bed […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 15th, 2020
While the horror aspect of the short stories “Mantis,” “Beast,” and “The Metamorphosis” entice the audience to continue reading, it is merely a distraction from the human experience and reactions of the characters. In Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor is transformed into a giant beetle, a monster in the eyes of his family. But it is […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 15th, 2020
“Mantis,” a short story in Julia Armfield’s collection Salt Slow, was definitely a suspenseful read. The entire time you’re curious as to what the fate of our narrator will be. You’re aren’t expecting her to actually transform, which is one of the elements of the fantastic in fiction, and certainly not into a mantis. It never flat […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 14th, 2020
After discussing “The Metamorphosis” in Tuesday’s class, I have begun to think more about metamorphosis and how it relates to Thursday’s stories. Usually, metamorphosis is a positive thing; it is a transformation into something greater, something more evolved. When considering Gregor Samsa’s transformation, however, it doesn’t seem to be anything but negative for all involved, […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 14th, 2020
While a woman may turn into a deer in Samantha Hunt’s short story “Beast,” that is not what the story is about. Rather, it is about a woman and her internal struggles with her domestic life. In the early pages of the story, we learn that the narrator and her husband were high school sweethearts. […]