Magical Realism Short Story

Dorthy's Poem, My Mother

Yesterday we laughed as we went over A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings: A Tale For Children by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The short story is about a Colombian family that surprisingly finds an old man with wings like an angel in the sand in front of their house, and then later a female spider with head of a young woman comes into the story. This story is similar to Eva Is Inside Her Cat, since it's full of unrealistic characters that have a major impact on the story itself, and it keeps the reader wondering what is going to come up in the next sentence. It is an outstanding short story that is part of the Magical Realism genre. After going over the short story, Cathy and Dorthy shared what they brought in. Cathy brought in a beautiful picture she made which is of Jesus' last super with His twelve disciples. It's a beautiful piece of art. And Dorthy brought another wonderful poem, and this one is about her mother who was with Dorthy regardless of life's hard ships and how her mother's love has impacted Dorthy's life. Dorthy expresses herself quite well in her poems, and this is her third one she has brought in so far. Lastly, we are reading The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck as our next week's short story.

Cathy's Beautiful Picture

     

Eva Is Inside Her Cat by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Today we went over Eva Is Inside Her Cat and we all were taken back by the obscure short story written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The story has many images that are difficult to say whether they are real or a fantasy. In fact, this story falls into the genre Magical Realism which pertains to accepting magic in our real world and has magical and unreal elements that are accepted in our everyday, realistic society. Everyone in our class had different ways of describing what actually did take place in our story and had no real answer to how it began and ended. We all agreed that it was much better to share our ideas and what we thought took place throughout the story. We also pointed out a few of the stand-out images. When I asked what they thought of the story from one to ten, our lowest number was six, but all the others were from eights to nine. On Friday, we will go over A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings: A Tale For Children by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

 

We Love To Read, but also Love to Share

On Friday, we went over On the Gull's Road by Willa Cather one more time and touched on how we learn more about what the narrator is feeling deep within himself and less about what Alexandra Ebbling was going through with her illness and how this affected her actions in the story. We considered how the narrator's experiences he tells us about were twenty years after his trip on the cruise ship and how memories change as years pass by. We also read two poems and a short story brought in by three of us. Dorthy's poem, Shadows, is what she wrote for the boys in her family after her husband died. Cathy's poem is about how everyone in her kin are different, but they are still a family. Cathy is the young girl on the left side at the bottom of the page. I brought in Josh's Creation Myth, a short story that tells us how our world was brought into being. Next week we have two short stories written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings: A Tale For Children and Eva Is Inside Her Cat. 

Cathy's Poem

Dorthy's Poem, Shadows

On the Gull's Road by Willa Cather

Today we went over the short story, On Gull's Road by Willa Cather and a couple of short story questions. It is a narrator's story of a woman he fell in love with twenty years ago on a cruise ship that was headed to New York City from Italy. We all enjoyed the story and had quotes and images and actions to share with each other, and we all agreed others would love to read it like we did. The descriptions Willa Cather uses to describe the places they travel by are stunning, and we all had imagery that stuck with us as we read the story. This sentence is one of my favorites used to describe the coast of Sardinia: "A narrow strip of beach glistening like white paint between the purple sea and the umber rocks, and the whole island lay gleaming in the yellow sunshine and translucent air." On Friday, we'll read a two-page short story and also share a few bits of writing we bring into our session. 

A Day of Sharing

Dorthy's Poem

Clyde's Poem, Mountains

On Friday, we shared writings we have held on for years. The writings consisted of poems and a short story. Each poem had a completely different tone and Clyde, Dorthy, and Cathy told us stories about what inspired the poems and why each one was special to them. Clyde wrote his poem, Mountains, when was 13 years old and he told us of stories that he experienced and what inspired to write his poem. Dorthy's poem tells us about her love and affection she has for her seven grandchildren and what they did together. Cathy's poem is very touching and was written to her by her boyfriend. And I brought in Enchanted Island, a short story about two dear friends of mine, Joshua and Alanna. Joshua and I shared many reading reading classes at SDSU, climbed classic routes in Joshua Tree National Park and surfed whenever we could. Alanna and I were close friends and took many writing classes together at SDSU. Joshua and Alanna are married and live near South Lake Tahoe in California. Next week's short story is On the Gull's Road by Willa Cather. Enjoy! 

The Open Boat by Stephen Crane

Today we went over The Open Boat and shared what we thought about the short story. The discussion went very well because everyone supported his or her response with specific examples from the story and also personal experiences. We went over a wide range of ideas and likes and dislikes of the reading before we answered the questions for short stories. What's most interesting is that The Open Boat is about Stephen Crane's personal experience, thus he is able to tell the reader about the endurance and unity of characters, and the conflict between man and nature. On Friday, we'll read a few writings brought in by a couple of us, and then pass out our next week's reading.

Our First Reading Club Session!!

Our first day was fantastic. Everyone was thrilled to have a book reading club at the Brigham City Community Center. Each member has his or her own reason why he or she loves reading, and in fact, there are a few that read ten times faster than me and it seemed like I opened the door to those who are obsessed to reading. I must admit: I feel like I started a new club to avid readers who are way beyond me and my reading experience. We went over an outline of what we will go over in our sessions, read The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin to practice what we will do after we finish each reading, and passed out The Open Boat by Stephen Crane and a list of questions they can mull over while they read the short story.