Ladies and Gentlemen, To the Gas Chamber

Human struggle and death.

The ultimate human struggle is depicted in this telling of prisoners staying alive to serve the enemy only to see their own people go to the gas chamber. They are also made to clean up the filth from terrible travel conditions forced upon those who are literally on the last leg of their journey.

Taken the dead, adult and human and sending them to the crematorium to be burnt. The German's taking all of the personal belongings that people had brought along with them like gold watches and rugs.

This is the first story that we have read that I feel like there really isn't any other major way that it can be interpreted. This story is straight to the point and makes a person want to just shake the prisoners helping the Germans.

It does bring up an interesting question.

What would you do to survive? Would you help send your own people, those who are sharing in your struggle, off to meet their end?

The Fly

Mansfield's "The Fly" has many ways to be interpreted.  My own personal interpretation is...

Woodfield is Mansfield in the story. She wants the world to remember what happend during WWI. She feels like the people have forgotten about the lost generation already. The Fly in this case is the lost generation. They lost there lives after surviving battle after battle until the end when that bullet with their name on it finally gets them. This is represented by The Boss (The War) dropping ink on the fly over and over again until fate finally catches up with it.

This story focuses on death and loss of life. I also feel that it is really wants people to focus on remembrance. Remember the loved ones that we have lost. Life can be short and you never know when that ink drop will find you.

The Dead

Having an Irish lineage, I was excited to read this story. Unfortunately, none of it took place outside of Dublin. All my family are from a town in the Northwestern part of Ireland called Donegal. It was fun to read all of the cultural aspects in this story. However, I had anticipated a sort of ghost story with the tittle being, The Dead. I was disappointed when I found out that, The Dead was a person that we never get to meet in the actual story. During the part of the story where Gabriel was looking up the stairs at Gretta and the song The Lass of Aughrim was being played by Mr. D'Arcy, I thought for sure it was a ghost playing the song, based on the reaction that we get from Gretta. So far, this story seems to be the only one that I really don't get. I don't see a clear theme. The only thing that I can think of is that you should love those that you have an be thankful that you have them and that they love you back. I think Gabriel, at the end of the story, realizes that he has not devoted himself to Gretta. He also realizes that she feels like she has never had a love like Michael Furey, the boy who dies when she is 18. Gabriel realizes that he has never loved someone so much that he would be willing to die to see them one last time, like Michael Furey. This story really switched gears at the end and went from joyful to downright depressing.

The Metamorphosis

In Kafka's The Metamorphosis, the more and more I think about it, the more I think that Gregor reminds me of my grandmother who had Alzheimer's. We took her in like a helpless thing and the longer she was with us, the more it pained us for her to be in our house. At first we did it out of pure love, but eventually, she became a burden, just like Gregor. Not an actual burden, but an emotional trial. She started to embarrass us on occasion. Forgetting who her own family members were. She forgot I was her grandson and actually hit on me. My grandma for crying out loud! Anyway, Gregor does things throughout the story that remind me of her. Like choosing the picture of the sexy woman on the wall instead of the desk that he put so much thought into saving. Like my grandmother choosing to hit on me. Eventually, after the death of Gregor and my grandmother, the taking a drive part of the story was a type of cleansing, we not only were doing it to get fresh air but to remember her in a way...without Alzheimer's. To remember the woman that we all loved and remembered, before the desease. I think that this story of Gregor is a story of a family dealing with an Alzheimer's patient.