Name : Ridhoni Akbar (1810117210927)

Class : Extensive Reading

So the story from the Wednesday until Sunday I like all the stories.
The shortstory of Wednesday I read is A Jury of Her Peers, the part I like
about this story is Male Obliviousness to Women's Importance: while society and
individuals oppress women throughout this short story, another theme in the text
is the unexpected power of women have within the domestic sphere. This power
is unexpected because the male characters repeatedly overlook the potential of
the trifles that concern women. Ironically, the two women discover the evidence
that men seek among the domestic items that the men dismiss. The men are
unable to see the importance of the domestic sphere because they are unable to
see the importance and intelligence of the women in their lives. By placing the
solution to the murder mystery within the domestic sphere, Glaspell empowers
the woman with the very information the men unsuccessfully seek. The male
characters are oblivious to the domestic sphere because they take for granted
their own self-importance. A society with distinct gender roles that oppresses
women has also taught men to value and trust their own opinions and minds
without question. The men cannot recognize their need to consider the potential,
or the threat, of the women near them, as when the county attorney assumes
that anything Peters would take to Minnie Wright must necessarily be harmless,
simply because she's a woman.

On Thursday, I read The Outcasts of Poker Flat. The part I like from this story
is Morality vs. Immorality, In Bret Harte The Outcasts of Poker Flat, a committee
of citizens from a struggling mining town in the Gold Rush-era California
banishes a group of undesirable residents: John Oakhurst (a gambler), Mother
Shipton and the Duchess (prostitutes), and Uncle Billy (a drunk). Society firmly
brands these four outcasts as immoral and thus deserving of whatever fate may
befall them as the dangerous journey through the mountains to the next town
over. And indeed, tragedy does strike: at least three of the four outcasts die in
the mountains, as does an innocent couple that falls in with the group. While it
may seem like justice has been served, the deaths of these two thoroughly
innocent people (one of which, Tom, is literally nicknamed The Innocent)
complicate notions of morality and punishment, as they clearly did not deserve to
die. Likewise, although Harte doesn't exactly portray the outcasts as heroes, he
also doesn't show them to have done anything to deserve their deaths, either.
Thus, through the tragic end that befalls the outcasts and innocents alike, the
story suggests that people can easily be pinned down as moral or immoral, and
that punishment is not always deserved.

On Friday, I read A Rose for Emily. What I like about this story is The Power
of Death, Death hangs over "A Rose for Emily," from the narrator's mention of
Emily's death at the beginning of the story through the description of Emily's
death-haunted life to the foundering of tradition in the face of modern changes. In
every case, death prevails over every attempt to master it. Emily, a fixture in the
community, gives in to death slowly. The narrator compares her to a drowned
woman, a bloated and pale figure left too long in the water. In the same
description, he refers to her small, spare skeleton — she is practically dead on
her feet. Emily stands as an emblem of the Old South, a grand lady whose
respectability and charm rapidly decline through the years, much like the
outdated sensibilities of the Griersons represent. The death of the old social
order will prevail, despite many townspeople's attempts to stay true to the old
ways.

On Saturday, I read The Big Sleep, the part I liked about this story was The
Corruption of the American Society, Branching out of the cynicism of the Great
Depression, Chandler chooses not only to represent a world of money-hungry
people, but also choose to make this world dark and corrupt. No one, not even
the law, is exempt from corruption in this novel: newspapers lie and cops can be
bought. This corruption is reflected in various ways throughout the novel. First,
The Big Sleep is dark in that it is a novel in which rain pervades. It is also a novel
in which Richness is juxtaposed against the grime of deserted oilfields. The
oilfields themselves including the deserted one with empty pumps and rusted
remains in which Carmen attempts to kill Marlowe and in which Rusty Regan is
lying dead are symbolic. These oilfields are what made General Sternwood his
millions. It is important that the luxury of the house, which has come out of the
oilfields, is beautiful and gaudy; yet the place where the money came from is
"dirty." Moreover, these oilfields imply a degradation of morality and a corruption;
we sense that Sternwood's business was not always "clean."
And Sunday, I read The Devil and Tom Walker. who likes from this story is
Greed: that means this story focuses mostly on the theme of greed and its
negative effects. Tom Walker is known throughout the Charles Bay for his greed,
and it is this greed that leads him to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for
money. Tom's plight is meant to color readers not to let greed blind them, for, as
is the case in "The Devil and Tom Walker," it can have disastrous consequences.