University of San Diego Not Here to Make Friends & Beautiful Monsters Essays

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University of San Diego

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Write an essay that argues a specific interpretation of a story/stories—no more than two. You will use three (3) or more essays on short fiction that we’ve used as class readings, as well as examples from the relevant short stories to make your point. An argument you can fully support in just five to six pages will be fairly small and nuanced.

the three essay: 1) Not Here to make friends 2) Epiphanies. 3) omniscience

two stories: 1)Gordon, “Ugly” (Story) .3) “Beautiful Monsters” (Story)


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Qualities of POV 1st Person POV The issue of trust always comes up—should we trust this person? How far? How are they twisting the information? It is limited with where it can go—can’t travel into others’ minds, others’ homes, without permission or without supposing a good deal. In general, all things realized in the story must be realized by the character /narrator. Is immediate, engaging and instantly convincing. You create a distinctive voice, a character, a personality, with the first words of the story. When told in present tense, there is one “I.” When told from past tense, there are two “I” characters—one from past and one telling. Always need to decide on the spectrum for the “I”—How different it will be from past “I”; how accurate or distorted the perception will be; how involved/aware of another character(s) “I” will be. If the “I” is to be distorted, writer must be constantly and reliably signaling to the reader that the “I” is distorted. 1st Person Plural—“We” can demonstrate a variety and an intensity of experience, shared experience, within a group. It invites the reader into the group. Very good for “solving mysteries,” creating a playful element to stories 2nd Person POV Brings reader into the story. In fact, it pushes the reader into the story the author has created for him/her. This can create a resistance, it can seem too pushy. Needs to be delicately handled, often joined with humor. Often, in some way, it is about ego—either the lessening of it (taking away the “I”), or the increasing of it (“I” is too big, needs to be a “you,” too. Ex: “You’re a rock star. You got it.”) Helps to achieve a relatively disembodied tone, and create a widely shared feeling. Can be used to invite readers to be someone they clearly are not. Demands the reader be someone instead of observing someone. 3rd Person POV (Close, Distant, Roving) Allows description / scenery to be elaborate without needing to be filtered through a narrator who loves scenery. The reader must trust the voice / the narrator. The third person POV should not deliberately mislead the reader. There can be revelations beyond the character: the character can go on, living as he/she otherwise did, but the reader has an epiphany. A close third allows the immediacy of first person, but doesn’t limit perceptions. Particularly good for a short story because of the economy and concentration. Omniscience A very fine line between a nimble third person (switching from person to person) and omniscience. It can reveal things, describe things beyond any character. It must deal with a “mystery” that is beyond personal: it must not be just “keeping a secret” / “playing tag.” It needs to deal with “mysteries of life.” Narrative voice can become distinct, almost like a separate character. It can comment on the social customs of the period, make generalizations about behavior in the culture, and speculate on causes. Notes from Boswell’s “On Omniscience” General Idea: In literary fiction, the “half-known world” must be created. “To accomplish this, the writer must suggest a dimension to the fictional reality that escapes comprehension. The writer wishes to make his characters and their world known to the reader, and he simultaneously wishes to make them resonate with the unknown” (5). Boswell gives twelve “planks” on the effects of omniscience. Here are a few: -the narrator must be definitive, and consistent in tone, not wishy-washy -the narrator’s voice, by what it chooses to include, shapes the narrative -the mystery of omniscient narrator lies in the “fullest and earliest revelation of all relevant detail” (75). -omniscient voice is useful to make “reader question her life” and to raise questions that “cannot be readily resolved” (89). From Roxane Gay’s “Not Here to Make Friends” Our Questions: *What are the advantages and/or dangers of writing “unlikable” characters? (“Unlikable” meaning characters who behave badly, characters who aren’t trying to make friends.) *Why are women more likely to be called into question for being unlikable? 84--“Even from a young age I understood that when a girl is unlikable, a girl is a problem. I also understood that I wasn’t being intentionally mean. I was being honest (admittedly, without tact), and I was being human. It is either a blessing or a curse that those are rarely likable qualities in a woman.” 84--“They are freeing themselves from the burden of likability, or they are, perhaps, freeing us from the burden of guilt for the dislike and eventual contempt we might hold for them.” 85--“Why is likability even a question? Why are we so concerned with whether, in fact or fiction, someone is likable?” 86—“I want characters to do the things I am afraid to do for fear of making myself more unlikable than I may already be. I want characters to be the most honest of all things— human.” 86—“That the question of likability even exists in literary conversations is odd….Certainly we can find kinship in fiction, but literary merit shouldn’t be dictated by whether we want to be friends or lovers with those about whom we read. Frankly, I find ‘good,’ purportedly likable characters rather unbearable.” 88—“In literature, as in life, the rules are all too often different for girls…. An unlikable man is inscrutably interesting, dark, or tormented, but ultimately compelling, even when he might behave in distasteful ways…. When a woman is unlikable, it becomes a point of obsession in critical conversations…. Why are these women daring to flaunt convention? Why aren’t they making themselves likable (and therefore acceptable) to polite society?” 89—[Claire Messud’s response to interviewer] “The relevant question isn’t ‘Is this a potential friend for me?’ but ‘Is this character alive?’” 89—“Perhaps, then, unlikable characters, the ones who are the most human, are also the ones who are the most alive. Perhaps this intimacy makes us uncomfortable because we don’t dare be so alive.” 90—“It is a seductive position writers put the reader in when they create an interesting, unlikable character—they make the reader complicit, in ways that are both uncomfortable and intriguing…. Freed from the constraints of likability, they are able to exist on and beyond the page as fully realized, interesting, and realistic characters.” 95—“[Unlikable women] accept the consequences of their choices, and those consequences become stories worth reading.” Qualities of POV 1st Person POV The issue of trust always comes up—should we trust this person? How far? How are they twisting the information? It is limited with where it can go—can’t travel into others’ minds, others’ homes, without permission or without supposing a good deal. In general, all things realized in the story must be realized by the character /narrator. Is immediate, engaging and instantly convincing. You create a distinctive voice, a character, a personality, with the first words of the story. When told in present tense, there is one “I.” When told from past tense, there are two “I” characters—one from past and one telling. Always need to decide on the spectrum for the “I”—How different it will be from past “I”; how accurate or distorted the perception will be; how involved/aware of another character(s) “I” will be. If the “I” is to be distorted, writer must be constantly and reliably signaling to the reader that the “I” is distorted. 1st Person Plural—“We” can demonstrate a variety and an intensity of experience, shared experience, within a group. It invites the reader into the group. Very good for “solving mysteries,” creating a playful element to stories 2nd Person POV Brings reader into the story. In fact, it pushes the reader into the story the author has created for him/her. This can create a resistance, it can seem too pushy. Needs to be delicately handled, often joined with humor. Often, in some way, it is about ego—either the lessening of it (taking away the “I”), or the increasing of it (“I” is too big, needs to be a “you,” too. Ex: “You’re a rock star. You got it.”) Helps to achieve a relatively disembodied tone, and create a widely shared feeling. Can be used to invite readers to be someone they clearly are not. Demands the reader be someone instead of observing someone. 3rd Person POV (Close, Distant, Roving) Allows description / scenery to be elaborate without needing to be filtered through a narrator who loves scenery. The reader must trust the voice / the narrator. The third person POV should not deliberately mislead the reader. There can be revelations beyond the character: the character can go on, living as he/she otherwise did, but the reader has an epiphany. A close third allows the immediacy of first person, but doesn’t limit perceptions. Particularly good for a short story because of the economy and concentration. Omniscience A very fine line between a nimble third person (switching from person to person) and omniscience. It can reveal things, describe things beyond any character. It must deal with a “mystery” that is beyond personal: it must not be just “keeping a secret” / “playing tag.” It needs to deal with “mysteries of life.” Narrative voice can become distinct, almost like a separate character. It can comment on the social customs of the period, make generalizations about behavior in the culture, and speculate on causes. Notes from Boswell’s “On Omniscience” General Idea: In literary fiction, the “half-known world” must be created. “To accomplish this, the writer must suggest a dimension to the fictional reality that escapes comprehension. The writer wishes to make his characters and their world known to the reader, and he simultaneously wishes to make them resonate with the unknown” (5). Boswell gives twelve “planks” on the effects of omniscience. Here are a few: -the narrator must be definitive, and consistent in tone, not wishy-washy -the narrator’s voice, by what it chooses to include, shapes the narrative -the mystery of omniscient narrator lies in the “fullest and earliest revelation of all relevant detail” (75). -omniscient voice is useful to make “reader question her life” and to raise questions that “cannot be readily resolved” (89). Notes on Epiphanies “Suddenly I realized”—The language of literary epiphanies naturally has something in common with the rhetoric of religious revelation. The veil of appearances is pulled aside and an inner truth is revealed. A moment of radiant vision brings forth the sensation if not the content of meaning.” (55) Comes directly from religion—the awe felt at seeing Christ child. --A moment of radiant insight. A result of intellectual and spiritual discipline. --Joyce pulled the term into secular use. About “Araby”: It’s as if the outer world gradually shuts itself off switch by switch, echo by echo, leaving the boy in his one burning isolated spotlight on his small diminished stage. He becomes visible to us and to himself. (57) All these epiphanies, regardless of context, begin to seem stale, rotten. “However, in contemporary society almost anything can be mass produced, even insight. Especially insight.” (60) Insights depend on an assumption that the surface is false. (61) Insights leave one stunned. Immobile. “A belief that one is a victim will lead inevitably to an obsession with insight.” (62) In everyday life, most large-scale insights turn out to be completely false. Insight is difficult to capture on film, and radiance is worse. Has more to do with class, though, how the middle class needs to know how things work and how they may be controlled. “Bingo moment” (66) Obvious point: Short stories end before novels do and therefore have a more critical relation to the immediacy of closure and what might constitute it. Arguable point: Characters in short stories, unlike the characters in novels, do not, as a rule, make long-term plans. They tend, instead, to be creatures of impulse. (67,8) -- A story can be a series of clues but not a solution, an enfolding of mystery instead of a revelation. It can contain the images without the attached discursive morality. Alternatives to epiphany (some): Ending story with action—not insight. Ending on a scene that seems frozen. Suspended metaphor. Literature is not an instruction manual (77) (Connection to Gardner’s concept of moral fiction. From Charles Baxter, “Against Epiphanies”
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Surname 1
Interpretation of Stories
Student’s Name

Instructor

Institution

Date

Interpretation of Stories
In his text “Beautiful Monsters,” Eric Puchner portrays a world where grown-ups are
driven out of society. An existence where kids control society and live forever. It is the clash of
the "Senescent" and the "Perennials" that gives life to Puncher's argument. Mary Gordon's
"Ugly" is a long, excellent narrative about a refined Human Resources employee who winds up
in a remote part of the country managing individuals she would most likely have rejected in her
day to day life. The two authors contend that individuals regularly classify people and exclude
them from society through the bogus qualities that have been implemented within their
communities.

In Eric Puchner's world of "Beautiful Monsters," there are usually no grown-ups. The
story begins with a boy preparing breakfast for his sister and himself when he sees a grown man
plucking and eating apples from a nearby tree. The boy has never come close to a grown-up male
since commonly the law enforcers round up these "Senescent" before they can mess up the
accepted, child-like individuals, known as the "Perennials." However, rather than reaching out to
the law enforcement, the boy and his sister choose to hide the man, and the three individuals

Surname 2
proceed to explore this illegal relationship, gradually returning to the sort of father-child
relationship the audience is customarily used to. Eric Puchner's "Delightful Monster" paints the
image of an unlikeable grown man who is “inscrutably interesting, dark, or tormented, but
ultimately compelling, even when he might behave in distasteful ways” (pp. 88). The two
children start as unlikeable characters by describing the older adult as grotesque. Their first
impulse is to get rid of him, even though the man is busy looking to feed himself and minding his
own business.
Mary Gordon’s “Ugly” sees the lead character, Laura, dismiss a woman called Lois,
whose appearance and demeanor was different from what she was used to seeing. At first, Laura
comes off as an unlikeable character because of the harsh manner in which she dismisses Lois
because she dresses and acts differently. “I certainly knew she was odd,” (Anderson et. al, pp.
136) Laura says. In the long run, Lois turns into her patron, her parental figure for about a month
and a half while she is in the area from New York city ensuring that she completes her primary
mission of putting the employees in check. Gordon causes us to comprehend that the idea of ugly
takes numerous forms. However, even though the lady acts differently in contrast to what Laura
is used to, her convincing nature persuades Laura to buy into her stories and also move into her
basement for the duration of her stay. This in turn demonstrates to the reader just how much
Laura’s character grows while she’s embracing her new surroundings.
In her essay, Roxane Gay argues that “unlikable characters, the ones who are the most
human, are also the ones who are the most alive” (Gay, pp. 89). The grown man in Eric
Puchner’s “Beautiful Monsters” is preoccupied with finding a meal for himself and keeping safe
in a world full of “Perennials” who are out to kill any grown adult they come across. However,

Surname 3
the two children see him as a threat, and their initial decision is to grab a gun and shoot the
strange man. They are not interested in making friends, and this somehow gives them an
unlikeable aura. However, their curiosity gets the best of them, and they decide to take the man
in and feed him. During his stay, the man teaches the two kids how to play like real children and
shares his memories with the boy and girl. Eventually, both children open up to him and begin to
see the man as just another human being. This, in turn, humanizes the two main characters, as the
reader is slowly reminded of the reality that they are only children who happen to be existing in a
dystopian world.
At first, Mary Gordon’s “Ugly” depicts Laura, the protagonist, as an unlikeable character
due to her attitude towards her reassignment to what she considers to be a horrible and boring
city outside Missouri. During her stay, she meets a storekeeper whom she describes as not being
a “good advertisement for the beautiful things in her window” (Anderson et....


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Just the thing I needed, saved me a lot of time.

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