Brittany Coppinger - Extra Credit

For extra credit I read "Job's Jobs". In this story, every time the man starts to enjoy something God threatens that he will kill the man if the man continues. So the man is forced to stop doing what he loves immediately and find something else to do instead. He goes from being a writer to being an artist to being an actor and so on and so forth, but every time he starts to enjoy what he does, God threatens him again. It goes on like this for some time until God has told the man no to speak, or open his eyes to move. At the end, God binds and gags the man and places him in a box with no windows or doors, and the man is forced to sit there and do nothing.

I really enjoyed this story. I think that it carries a very powerful message. Every time the man excels at something and enjoys it, he is forced to stop, until all he has left is what is inside his head. The story ends where the man is sitting in the box, thinking about all the things that he had enjoyed over the course of his life, and God does not come this time. I think that Bender is trying to tell us that even if we have nothing in our lives, we still have our memories of good times that no one, not even God, can take away from us. And it is these memories and thoughts that will help us through the darkest of times.

Allison Shubert Post # 7

In class last week we read the stories "Ironhead" and "Motherfucker" by Aimee Bender. Both of these stories dealt with characters who were outcasted because of who they were, and what they looked like. Ironhead was about a small boy who was born into a pumpkin head family, with an iron head. No one really liked ironhead and included him into anything because of his physical differences. It was a rather depressing story because even though Ironhead looked much different than the other kids on the outside, he was still a little boy on the inside. Unforuntaely this disappointment and rejection led him to "burning out" and dying at the end of the story. I found that to be extremely symbolic. Literally he died because the weight of his head was too big for such a little body to support, but metaphorically I think everything was so overwhelming for him and the sadness within him was so great he ultimately gave up trying to support his head.

In the story "Motherfucker" the title basically is the gist of the story, it's about a man that likes to have sex with mothers. To him having sex isn't really an emotional thing and he just does it for self pleasure. He preys on the single mothers because he believes they are easier to get with and take advantage of. Ultimately he does develop feelings for a one woman named Starlet, but ends up losing her due to his lack of having real emotions for someone. Although he seems incapable of falling for someone, it did seem like he genuinely liked her but in the end he just couldn't sustain the relationship.

Allison Shubert Post # 8

I found that Ocatavia Butlers writing was a style I haven't really ever seen before. She comes off to me as extremely metaphorical. She likes to you use strange themes and scenarios to tell her stories, and I think that makes them more captivating.

The one story we read The Evening, the Morning, and the Night was my favorite. She used illness and conflict in life to share the story about the main characters struggle. The main character Lynn was plagued with an unfortunate disease called DGD, which ultimately ended the life of her two parents. This disease makes people violent and spin out of control. This disease seemed to outcast her in society, and she seemed to be very alone. She found happiness though when she found others with the same disease as her and they all lived under one roof. I think this story by Butler was very metaphorical because she used illness as the major theme of the story and what an individual has to go through while trying to blend in with society.

Hannah Lutley

Octavia Butler wrote the stories; The Morning the Evening and the Night and Speech Sound both having to deal with illness and distraction of life. In the first stories we see these people who have caught this illness being treated like absolute crazies. The second story we got a glimpse of what life might be like if we either lost our ability to speak and understand language or the ability to read and write.

In both of these stories we see Butler comparing these to real life events and problems that we have in our world. Butler seems to be trying to show us that diseases can be overcome with faith and hope. If we continue to run away from problems and people with "issues" then the problems in the world will never be fixed and overcome. Like in Speech Sounds , if we learn to talk about our problems then things could be resolved faster then if we don't talk.