"Since you express no preference, I shall select a poem at random."
I think it is interesting that the house takes no response as someone is still there, but they are not responding instead of maybe no one is there.
26 Matching Annotations
- Jan 2024
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www.btboces.org www.btboces.org
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Five o'clock. The bath filled with clear hot water
As if preparing for someone who will never come.
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Behind itwhirred angry mice, angry at having to pick up mud, angry at inconvenience
Suggesting that with technology everything is perfect, and reality is messy.
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If a sparrow brushed a window, the shade snapped up.The bird, startled, flew off! No, not even a bird must touch the house!
Possibly suggesting the house is preserving something or avoiding anything without technology.
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The dirty dishes were dropped into a hot washer and emergedtwinkling dry
I imagine this house as if it were a human, doing everything a human would.
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"Today is August 4, 2026,"
Very interesting to grasp the author's idea of 2026 looking like this when we are actually only 2 years from 2026.
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In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight pieces
Like the kitchen is alive despite no one actually living in the house.
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In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up, time to get up,seven o 'clock!
Very interesting how the first line went straight into setting the idea of this make believe future.
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biblioklept.org biblioklept.org
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He had had a habit throughout the twenty-seven years of making a narrow remark which, like a plumber’s snake, could work its way through the ear down the throat, half-way to my heart.
Did not seem like a healthy marriage. He would insult her to make himself feel better. Then leave her to feel all those emotions alone.
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I’m doing well this year and can look forward to better. But as for you, it’s too late
It seems he thinks himself higher and better then her.
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my father was sick that Friday, then the children were born, then I had those Tuesday-night meetings, then the war began.Then we didn’t seem to know them any more. But you’re right. I should have had them to dinner.
It seems as if nothing is enough. "Then the children were born", seems like such an important time span in someone's life, yet she continues to the next thing. As if there is always something more important.
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inst-fs-iad-prod.inscloudgate.net inst-fs-iad-prod.inscloudgate.net
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you mean to say that after allyou are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?!
The mother seems to imply that her daughter will develop a bad reputation.
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and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slutI have warned you against becoming
Again, the mother is shaming her daughter, whilst giving her advice.
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so to prevent yourself from looking like theslut
The mother seems crude. She is insulting her daughter as a means of protection?
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; you mustn’t speak towharf-rat boys, not even to give directions; don’t eat fruits on the street—flies will follow you
The mom seems to be giving her daughter instructions on how to look and what to do in public to avoid criticism.
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- Dec 2023
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americanliterature.com americanliterature.com
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And the first free breath since her marriage seemed to restore the pleasant liberty of her maiden days
May be hinting towards a sense of relief and freedom. Maybe she feels tied down, and that break reminded her of her youth.
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as white as the couch she lay upon
simile
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He pushed her hair back from her face that was warm and steaming. Her lips were as red and moist as pomegranate seed. Her white neck and a glimpse of her full, firm bosom disturbed him powerfully.
Imagery. Good description of her features.
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The rain beat upon the low, shingled roof with a force and clatter that threatened to break an entrance and deluge them there.
Imagery, very descriptive. Creates a great picture for the reader to better understand what the setting looks like.
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She had not seen him very often since her marriage, and never alone
Foreshadowing? or hinting towards a negative relationship between the two?
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archive.vcu.edu archive.vcu.edu
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When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.
In the end you start to realize that the extreme relief she had due to her husband's death resulted in her own. She was overwhelmed with joy.
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There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.
She is starting to realize that it would be just her for the rest of her life. She wouldn't have that sense of comfort coming from another human present in her life. She has a realization of loss and yet, a type of freedom she may come to realize.
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She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
Here the reader can really get a good image of the story. With great description it is almost like you are in the story yourself.
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www.gutenberg.org www.gutenberg.org
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It is the strangest yellow, that wallpaper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw—not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things.
This is an example of a simile. The woman is comparing the wallpaper color yellow to other yellow things, more ugly and negative items with that color yellow.
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I am getting angry enough to do something desperate. To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong even to try.
The reader can notice the woman's thoughts starting to get darker. She is hinting towards something detrimental. Her mental state is worsening and her ability to think straight is starting to vanish.
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He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another. He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.
John is a very controlling husband. Even in the decision for the bedroom, typically the woman would have as much say as the man, but in this story, John would not listen or even consider what she would be most comfortable with.
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