In the beginning, I stumbled through very descriptive sentences; trying to grasp the setting of a sleepy county in a protected pocket of Civil War territory. I realize that what kept me reading through the first bit was the title, “The Sheriff’s Children”. I knew that characters would soon be revealed and given life to, eventually introducing a sheriff and his children. In retrospect, I believe the author, Chesnutt, did a very good job in the introduction because I felt that I was brought into this uneventful community and found myself becoming bored as a reader. What was good about this was I felt I was in the mindset of the people who lived there (a little ho-hum) and was just as excited and interested as the townsfolk were when there was a murder—I could relate to the characters on some emotional level.
When the sheriff was brought into the story, I liked him because he seemed different than the other, more rash characters. He seemed to be a bit more progressive in thought and speech because of his schooling. As the story went on, my opinions of him changed quite a bit. At first, I thought he was protecting the prisoner (his son) from the lynch mob because he wanted to protect him until he had a “just” trial, but then thought he was protecting him to do his duty as sheriff. This obsession of carrying out his duty as a law enforcement officer frustrated me more and more for it became a mental obstacle between the sheriff and his son, leading to his son’s death. The sheriff did come to what I thought was a righteous decision in the end; to see if he could help heal the wrongs he had done to his son and to save him from the noose by finding the real murderer, but he was too late in coming to this conclusion. Damn. I was so disappointed and surprised that Tom died at the end that I had to re-read the section a few times, but it also seemed a perfect way to conclude the tale. Hopefully the sheriff will quicken his thinking in the future when it comes to what is true for himself as a man and not as a sheriff.
One other thing that made an impression on me was the way in which Chesnutt accented the dialogue in a southern, hillbilly-ish drawl. The way each character spoke gave new definition to them for I could guess on their level of education, their gender as well as skin color. Chesnutt’s style of dialogue made the story more interesting for me to read. Just from doing this reflection, I now feel compelled to read Chesnutt’s other story listed on the blog and see if he writes it in a similar style or if it is somewhat different. I will soon find out. This was a good story.
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8 comments:
Good thought about the beggining, I noticed that a lot of people were bored with the intro of the story...I didn't really feel bored with it, but if that was his intention, that's definitely a good hypothesis on why he would do so, when in that mind set, the reader too would get stirred up and excited with a murder.
Your paper flowed very well. You had a great intro and a very good conclusion. I didn't see any errors in grammar or in spelling.
I would have to agree with you about the beginning of the story. It was a little surprising when he died too. However I also thought it was a good way to conclude that story. I hope you are right about the sheriff making better decisions next time. Nice response!
Well, big C, that sounded good, I'd give you some stars....not sure how many. Besides the well written reaction, I agree with some some of your points mentioned such as....
-->Reading more form Chestnut
-->The Accents painting pictures of the characters, really gave them life, And Sam, he didn't have much of an accent at all...one could tell he was educated, further the point Sam made that education wasn't going to change the color of his skin, i could tell he had quite a decent amount. ..hmmm i can't remember the others..let you know if i do.
You thought Chesnutt did a good job because he was boring? This was my first reaction, because although I feel that he did set up the stage for a backwater, rural community, any feeling of boredom simply distracts from the story and does not help the transmission of any of these feelings or ideas (not that being bored is a bad thing... I was a little myself). I liked the mention of the "overly descriptive sentences," because I felt somewhat the same way myself -- they did not seem to fit the overall mood of the story.
I enjoyed reading your paper, it had very good views and flowed very nicely.
Really Good paper, The Sheriff's Children is such an interesting story, although it did drawl out a bit to much in some of the Dialouge. I really liked what you had to say about it. It caused me to revisit some of my own thoughts on the story.
Good thinking on the story...
Did You read the other? I haven't read a ton of Chesnutt, but from what I've read, he must have made it slow at the beginning on purpose--not sure, he anticipated the attention span's of a 21st Century audience.
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