Response Question #2

In the end of story, the women seems to grow deeper into a pessimism within her mentality. She is challenged with reality throughout the whole story. This seems to grow more and more as the story moves on, at first it seems that she is not paranoid with just seeing the wallpaper with patterns that seem to bug her. But as she moves on, she seems to see a person jump out of the wall. Within herself she sees herself as part of the wall, being shackled which makes her more an more deeper in depression. She is a very paranoid person and even mentions once not trusting her own husband and sister in law, her housekeeper. This makes the story very depressing at time, but in the end they do end up leaving the home after their house is complete. At first she hates the home but after awhile she grows to love it because she grows with the women coming out of the wall. So in her own mind she is growing with herself, but in all reality she is losing herself.

In the end of the story she is quoted saying "I've got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!". This is almost the women stating that she has freed herself but really she has shackled herself mentally even farther. It's almost like schizophrenia, with thinking of something that's there like a voice and thinking you can achieve it but in the process you break your families physically and mentally. It's a heart breaking experience that affects everyone and in the end no one wins.

Question #1 "Killings"

The story "Killings" was not told in chronological order, with the burying of Matt Fowler's son, Frank, to begin the story with. After we are told that Frank is buried, we begin to learn of his past and how his death occurred. Richard Strout killed Frank out of jealousy for the woman that he still loved and was legally married to, but Frank was dating. We don't find out until the end that Matt actually kills Richard Strout by shooting him. This changes my reaction so much because we don't find out until the end of how much emotion is going through Matt after the fact that he kills Richard. The end is very depressing to me, knowing that he holds a burden of his son's death and the burden of murder.

If Matt's story would've been told with the funereal at the end of the story we as the audience would have kept guessing as to which Matt's reaction was to the funereal. We know now that he reacted violently and took the law into his own hands as he tried to serve justice to a man that deserved more than a twenty five year sentence in prison. For Matt this wasn't enough to know that he could be out of prison by the time Richard was Matt's age now.

The biggest significance in telling the story the way it was told is the foreshadowing it does to inflict that mood of always guessing what will happen next. The audience isn't told that Richard actually is killed until almost the very end of the story. When we see Frank's past it tells us something is coming that is bad for his future. Richard beating him and fighting him more than once tells us that Richard will not stand to see Frank alive for much longer.