In this section, Foster starts with the statement "It was a dark and stormy night". Everyone should have heard that statment million times because it is a cliche. You could have heard or read in the Charlie Brown comics/ cartoons. I know I heard it as beginning to many jokes or scary stories. Wherever, you heard it you know it is common. Anyway, Foster is sending out the message that it's not just rain. When I think of rain in the story, I think it is associated with the setting or mood of the story. Foster wants us to look deeper into it.
On page 75 takes about how drowning is a fear people have. This statement prompts him to reference to bible story Noah's Ark. He discuss how rain can bring life, but also take life away. In the story Noah's Ark, God made it rain for 40 days and nights therefore almost killing everyone on earth. The rain also force plants and sherbs to grow thus there can be life. He also makes reference to rainbows. God used a rainbow to promise Noah that he would never flood the earth again.
Foster makes other symbolic example like rain can be cleansing. He suggests that rain can change a person's outlook on life. On page 76 he makes another good point that rain can be deadly: "With a little rain and a bit of wind, you can die of hypothermia...".
As for snow, it is similar to rain, but there are differences. Snow can suggested as clean, servere, playful, suffocating etc. (Just a few examples, Page 80). In the story "TO BUILD A FIRE" gave a new meaning of snow being servere. The man in the story found out the hard way.
A Good Man is Hard to Find isn't what I expected just by reading the title. I thought it was going to be about a woman and a man. I was very wrong. Anyway, it turns out to be a story about a very distant family who is on a road trip. On this road trip the grandmother shows the two children the plantations in the area. Long story short, the family gets into an accident. After everyone leaves the car, another car pulls up and executes them. The father and the son first. Then mother and daughter. Lastly the grandmother.
With in this story is alot of religious and spiritual symbolism. Especially, at the end when the grandmother is pleading for her life. She tells The Misfit that he is a good person and that he needed to pray to Jesus. Another thing I notice was the family wasn't connected. There wasn't a strong family bond between them. Everyone was looking out fot themselves.
Like I stated in the entry before this, Foster explain that Communion meant various of things. When I hear the word Communion it makes me think of church. In the section Foster's suggests in a symbolic way that using drugs can be a form of Communion. That probably wouldn't have cross my mind. If you do think of it in a symbolic sense this is true. When people join for Communion they are in a sense as one. If a person smokes a joint (Foster's example, page 11) with another and they are sharing, they are one. They taking each other in.
Reading Foster's Work isn't what I thought it was going to be. I thought the book was going to be boring and something that had to force myself to read.
I was wrong. I enjoy reading the first few sections. It was entertaining, yet educating at the same. In the second section Foster talked about Communion. When I hear the word communion the first thought the comes to mean is church. In this section he explains that the word communion can mean many things. To be continued...
In class, I made some changes. Just testing to make sure the changes have taken effect. MisheilaPellot Weblog