A Writing Exercise: Once you have read the three stories, write your reaction to them off the top of your head, spending at least ten minutes on each. For each story, note any personal experience affecting your response as well as one or more questions that you have about the story even after you have finished reading it.
The Use of Force: What a peculiar story. It was interesting how fast the doctor's attitude and emotions changed as he got more angry at the little girl. At first, he was intrigued, describing her striking features and what she looks like, even admiring her. He did not have a mad attitude about her at all until she started struggling with him, making his job harder to do. I can't say I know what I would do if I were the child because I would be young and not understand what is going on anyways. Yet, that girl did. She so desperately wanted to keep the secret of her sick tonsils, but why? Children had already been dying from other diseases. That sort of gives me a bad feeling. A personal experience that could go along with this is just doctor visits in general, I suppose. I always remembered hating them when I was young, but not exactly understanding why I ever went. I did not throw a tantrum as this girl did, though. Why was she trying to hide her tonsils? Did she want something bad to happen to her? Perhaps if we knew more of a back story it could help us understand her motive.
A Visit of Charity: Okay, I thought the last story was peculiar... This one was, too, but more just bizarre. It was sort of creepy, too. I felt like something bad was going to happen to the campfire girl. I knew from when the Old Ladies' Home was described that something was not right. The two old ladies the campfire girl visited fought the entire time she was there, making the girl scared. The old lady in the bed was constantly disagreeing and screaming at the other old lady, giving the story an odd tone. The campfire girl also brought a plant. I wonder if the plant had any meaning, or if it was a symbol of some kind? It was mentioned more than once, so maybe it was. I was even more creeped out at the very end when the other old lady not in the bed caught a hold of the girl asking for a penny. It just scared the little girl, and me, even more. I was imagining this place was a sort of scary place that draws in people to do test on them or something... I don't know. I don't have a personal experience that can contribute to this story at all. Too bizarre... "A visit of charity" is an ironic title.
Sleepy: Reading this story made me extremely sleepy. The way it described her wanting sleep so bad and how she imagined she would be sleeping, getting herself into trouble. I feel bad for the girl, she's only 13. I mean, I think it's bad when I get five hours of sleep a night, but she's getting zero. It reminded me of Cinderella, getting all the orders, but ten times worse, adding a baby in there. The death of her father does not help the situation at all, making her life even worse. The girl finally decides that the baby is the source of her problems, the baby is the enemy, even though it is so innocent and doesn't know any better. So, my question is, besides the master and mistress, who is the antagonist? The girl or the baby? Could there have been another way to deal with the problem of the baby? I was not exactly surprised that the girl went to lengths of actually taking the baby's life, but it was still terrible. It makes for such a sad, sad ending. I definitely don't have a personal that will affect my response for this story. I think it is all agreed that it is just terrible, personal experience or not. Honestly, I'd hope there is not a personal experience tied to this story at all. That could not be good...
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