Paper on the African Meeting House in Nantucket

September 11,2011

Open response #3

I thought the first story that I read from the comp journal was sad, but I thought it was well written and it made me feel like I was there in the hospital room with the narrator. The story “fear is what we learned here,” was about a the narrator who knew her mother had cancer, but finds out that it has spread into her liver and is getting worse. She goes into great detail of the way her mother looked laying in the hospital bed, lifeless, weak, as if she hasn’t left the bed in months. The narrator then goes on and describes her nightmares, snakes, and then how she talks about how she feels very alone when the only person that talks to her is a social worker who doesn’t talk to make her feel better, but talks to her because it her job. At the end of the story she drifts back into her own thoughts and sings a song under her breath.

The next story that I had to read was called “I’ve been everywhere, man” It’s about a man who talks about how he just quit the army. He goes about how even though he is 23 years old he has been everywhere and seen everything. He goes on talking about his many different journeys and different experiences he’s been through weather they were good ones or bad ones. At the end of the story he tells the readers how this is the only paper that he has of all his experiences.

I really enjoyed both stories. They made me think of my own journeys around the world and what I’ve seen, and it also made me think of some sad memories such as when my mother passed away. I didn’t get to be with her in the hospital, my dad just got a phone call and then had to break the news to me. It is sad, but it makes me realize I’m not the only person that has to go through tough times like that, everyday people have to deal with sadness and touch situations like that. Once I was done reading the sad one the next short story made me in a better mood because I thought about all the places I have been and all the new places I...