Starting With "River of Names," man oh man was this story sad. From the very first paragraph of this story the reader knows it's going to be graphic depressing, because at eight years old the speaker witnesses her cousin Tommy committing suicide who is also only eight years old. This should be a clear sign to the reader that this story in particular is not going to be happy in any sense if an eight-year-old child is committing suicide, I mean I don't even think I knew what suicide was that young, let alone did I EVER think about taking my own life. This story just breaks my heart because the life the speaker lived in was absolutley tragic. So tragic that basically every family member she had was killed, raped, or died in some capacity trying to escape the hell they were living in. On page 5 the speaker has a powerful quote saying, "I set my teeth at what I do not want to remember and cannot forget." I feel like this quote could be strong for most people. A lot of times there's something from our past that we just don't want to remember but seemingly we can't forget because somehow that event/person defines us somehow. This girl inescapably was defined by her upbringing, just like most everyone is, can't escape it. She tries to fake the fact that it bothers her but she won't express it. She says, "I rolled away, but I didn't cry. I almost never let myself cry" (page 6). She's trying to subdue it and lie to her lover Jesse about it, but it haunts her. I feel like this is the underlying reason why she became a lesbian, because she wanted to end this curse of abusing children. Even her sister who just had a child feels like she's ready to kill it when it keeps screaming, "Oh no' she moaned, ' I wasn't going to bre like that. I always promised myself.' She started to cry, holding her belly and sobbing. 'We an't no different. We an't no different" (page 11). It is actually quite admirable, in my opinion, that the speaker refuses to let life get so bad that she takes her own life and that she's going to stop the cycle of abuse by being with a woman. She's sure she won't be abusive if she can't have a children, yet she's still tormented by her past.
"Cathedral" by Raymond Carver had a little bit more of a happier tone than the previous story. The husband in this story definitely has many preconceived notions about the way people act, prejudices if you will. He's not thrilled at all about a blind man coming to his house because, "I'd always thought dark glasses were a must for the blind," and "I remembered somewhere that blind men didn't smoke" (page 113-114). But this blind man was extraordinary because he did all of these things. The speaker had a hard time opening up to this man because he didn't want to give him a chance. He knew this different man was his wife's friend but he was in no way interested in getting to know him. But, they ended up bonding over the description of a cathedral. Being a sappy girl myself, I thought this was quite cute because the speaker was trying his hardest to describe what a cathedral looked like to Robert, but he was having much difficulty. I thought about this as I was reading, how would I describe different images and places to someone who is blind. Because you can't just say, "oh it looks like ____" because they don't know what that looks like. I don't know, I guess just some food for thought. So they decide to draw it together while the narrator keeps his eyes closed (oh, another cute thing is Robert immediately has a nickname for the narrator "bub" which is what I call my brother sometimes, so I liked this). The interesting part of this story is in the end when Robert tells him to look at what he has drawn he keeps his eyes closed and says "It's really something." (page 124). I feel like this symbolizes that they have become so connected that somehow the narrator is like Robert in a deeper sense by not choosing not to see even for those brief minutes. This was quite heartwarming.:)
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