Another Two Short Stories

Yesterday we went over two short stories, Split Cherry Trees by Jesse Stuart and Man From South by Roald Dahal. Split Cheery Trees has two themes: one is the clash between generations, from Dave and his father Luster who is 65 sixty-five years old. The other is about the differences between old education and the benefits of new types of education. The story is about Dave, a 14 year old boy living in two world separated by old time and new time, his father Luster, and Dave's high school teacher, Professor Herbert and how Dave is growing academically but still living far from from school and in an old way of life. Luster says near the end of the story, "School has changed from my day and time. I'm a dead leaf, Dave. I'm behind."                                                                                                
Our second story, Man From South, is a 1st person story about a young man who is a U.S. naval cadet and in Jamaica and meets a short man, Carlos, who has "...pale, almost colorless eyes with tiny bright black pupils" and makes a bet with him. The story consists of Carlos betting the naval cadet if he can light his cigarette lighter ten times he wins Carlos' Cadillac, but if he losses, he gets a finger chopped off. Both of these stories were great, but the Split Cherry Trees was considered the best of these two. On Friday, we will read what is brought in by any of us, and receive next week's stories.