Short Stories Summaries

Enzo DeLuca     

Chad Summers

Ms Peifer 

10 IB class 5

6-1-09

In Grace Ogots The Green Leaves the story revolves around a village in Africa.  One night cattle thieves try to steal the oxen from of the men of the village.  The villagers chase him down and injure him to a great extent.  They cover him in green leaves and return to the village.  A man named Nyagar returned to the scene to see if the man had any money.  At first, Nyagar's conscience wouldn't let him go near the man but his greed for money kept him going.  The thief wakes up and assaults Nyagar.  Nyagar, shocked by the blow stumbles backwards and falls. The thief throws the leaves onto Nyagar and runs away.  The next day the people of the village tell the white police people that they have killed one of their people.  When they check the green leaves, they find Nyagars dead body.

Elements:

• Greed and Beliefs-If Nyagar had not wanted to go out to check the man's pocket he would not have been killed that night. The villagers did not kill the thief because of reasons due to their religion.
  
• Imagery-The author describes many situations with detail,
• Setting-The setting affects the story through the white village oppressing the black village.  
• Motivation-The character would not have went to get the money without the motivation of greed.
• Mood- The mood of the story is very gloom and bloody.

In Isabel Allende's An Act of Vengeance there was a girl named Dolce Rosa and she was the most beautiful girl in the land.  Words of her beauty reached a brute named Taedo Céspedes.  Céspedes went to Dolce Rosa's town and raped her and killed her father.  For thirty years Dolce Rosa sought vengeance on Céspedes.  She and Céspedes met again, but she could not bring herself to kill him, she had fallen in love with him and he with her.

Elements:

• Love-Dolce Rosa had fallen in love with and Céspedes and Céspedes had fallen in love with Dolce Rosa
• Vengeance-Dolce Rosa sought vengeance upon Céspedes for thirty years after he had raped her
• Forgiveness-Dolce Rosa forgave Céspedes and ended up falling in love with him
• Blood-Céspedes was plunged into a world of violence at a young age
• Imagery-Allende used descriptive detail to make a setting, and describe what happens to the characters

    

The story A Gray Moon sets place in Japan at night.  A man is sitting at a train station alone waiting to head home.  He gets on the las train and there is a younger man that is asleep on the train.  The other passengers make fun of this young man and they say that he could be either homeless or drunk.  The young man finally awakes and said that he was supposed to get off at a certain stop. The passengers laughed and said that they had already passed that stop and that he was making a "full circle."  The young man said that it didn't matter to him anyways, and that effected the main character.

Elements:

• Setting-Shows how the Japanese people work very hard and late into the night
• Imagery-Author uses images to depict emotion and feelings
• Descriptive Details-uses this to describe the characters and their roles in the story
• Point of View-Author uses this to help the reader feel apart of the story.
• Theme-helps to display a central focus for the reader.

Zong Pu's The Tragedy of the Walnut Tree is a depressing story.  The main character Qingyi was a lonely old woman.  Her boyfriend left her to go to war, and though she waited he never returned.  Her daughter Ahyou could only visit her sometimes.  The only real companion that she had left was a walnut tree in her courtyard.  The walnut tree had become her best friend.  Qingyi could talk to the walnut tree when she was lonely, and the walnut tree would make her feel better when she was sick.  One night men came to Qingyi's house and vandalized it, they also took walnuts from her walnut tree.  Qingyi realized that to keep peace in her home the walnut tree would have to go, she would have to kill her best friend.  Qingyi did not have a permission to cut down the tree and she was fined, but it was a small price to pay for her peace of mind.

Elements:

• Personification-Zong Pu gave the tree human like qualities so that Qingyi would have a friend
• Imagery-Describes the pain that Qingyi was in when she had to cut down the tree
• Metaphor-The tree could have symbolized the missing people in Qingyi's life
• Religion-Zong Pu could have used the Buddhist belief of reincarnation and made the soul of Qingyi's boyfriend be the trees voice
• Nature-As in all chinese literature nature plays a big role

  In Before the Law a man is at a door and proceeds to try to open the door, but the door man stops him.  The doorman explains that there are more terrifying things beyond the door and that he should not enter the door.  The man sits at the first door and contemplates what could be beyond the door.  He however dies of old age and never finds out.  The man never really lived a life for he was afraid of the unknown.

Elements:

• Imagery-Kafka used details to describe the door and the area that the man was in
• Setting-Corresponded with the imagery
• Metaphor-The door was a metaphor for an unknown path, and the doorman could have represented the human conscience showing fear of the unknown
• Theme-Don't be afraid of the unknown, for if one avoids taking risks, then one has yet to actually live
• Point of View-The way the story was written applied to the suspense, and the philosophical thought

  

TAPER!!!!

It's almost that time of year again.  That time of year when TAPER FOR SWIMMING IS IN EFFECT!!!!  For those of you who do not know what taper is allow me to explain.  Taper happens at the end of the season and it is the most glorious thing to hit this planet period.  The two best things about taper season is that you get to finally see the sun and you do less work.

I remember the weeks before taper last swim season like it was yesterday.  Morning practice almost everyday at six in the morning before school, almost falling asleep from being so tired, good times.  Once the hardest weeks had come and gone it was time for the descend in the amount of work.  Eventually the team started to get out earlier and earlier, which was very nice.  I even got to see the sun, which it seems sad that seeing the sun is such a big accomplishment.  However when one has spent the last few months inside and not seeing the sun during the weekdays and then you finally see it, it is so beautiful you cry...or at least I almost cried the first time I got to see the sun.

For one to have a successful taper season one must: do less work in practice and have a big build up of energy, conserve that energy for ONLY swimming, and finally in your races dominate the other swimmers.  I remember last year I had a very good taper season and in section prelims I dropped 5-10 seconds in both of my events and made top 16 in both events which gave me qualification for section finals.  At section finals I did not drop as much time as I had at prelims but I was happy with what I had accomplished.  After my final race I hopped out of the pool and my friend handed me a Jolt (an energy drink) for the sake of destroying everything I had worked to hard to build up throughout the season.  At the end of that day I was a happy individual.

This year I hope for an even bigger drop on my times and possibly another Jolt to top off a great season.