Sissy

In reading Sissy, I found that this kid broke the mold of any American child we've read about this semester! Sissy defies the 'normal' American boy in so many different ways! He's the all American woman in so many ways! "The school boys went to him as at home they went to their mothers or sisters" (546). Here is Sissy, a boy who is not mischievous or ambitious in the way we saw Dick or Tom act this past semester. But the boys don't even give him a hard time for being the way he is! I feel like Sissy would be the typical character in a movie who would get bullied because he is different from everyone else.

At the same time, I think that's what makes him so intriguing, "he made no effort to conceal his tastes and preferences, but openly pursued his girl-work and good naturedly maintained that it was more respectable and enjoyable than getting into the dirt "to mumble the peg", or than hopping about o none foot, and kicking a bit of china or brick across lines, as in "hop-scotch" (546). What is normal isn't appealing to him which I think makes him awesome and puts a new spin on the American child. This invites in the idea that people can follow their dreams and don't have to fit into this mold. Isn't this what the American dream is? Success and making things happen for yourself and Sissy does both. He is successful in things such as sewing, "Sissy was as expert with scissors and needle as if he had been born with them in his hand" (549) which alone gives him the tools to success but he also is well liked and is a loyal and obedient child! I feel like Sissy in a major way raises the bar behaviorally for the American child.

Short Story vs. Novel

The way I read novels, or longer stories, verses short stories are very different. I tend to find that when I read novels, it is easier for me to skim over the smaller details so I can get go for the bigger picture of what might be going. In short stories, I see the need to look further into what is being presented because what is being presented is a fraction of what we encounter in longer pieces. I also find that in short stories, the details grip you more. In The Yellow Wall Paper the woman describes the paper as having "a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down"(507). While this might seem like a trivial detail, it is the little things I find grip me in short stories. However, in longer novels such as the Wide Wide World, it is so easy to skim over the details especially when Ellen is crying...again. Missing out on the smaller details in the bigger scheme of things is not as big of a deal but in short stories, the it is in the details that the richness of the stories are found. Because of this I look for the details more carefully and therefore read more into the stories to seek out the details so that there can be richness in the plot lines. I feel like it is easier to get lost in a exert from a long novel where as because short stories are short, my attention is able to be kept for that short amount of time!