The Gift of the Magi

To continue with the theme of the last 2 posts I will talk to you about the third and last short story that I enjoyed growing up.   Any guesses?  The answer is of course The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. What about this story appealed to young Kyle you might ask? Well I've always been the loyal type to my friends and the romantic type to those that I'm interested in  even back when I was younger.  *Spoiler Alert* but the fact a couple sacrificed things they held so dear to them for the other one was very touching to me. The man sold his watch that was passed down thru his family to buy a set of combs for his wife  while the woman sold her hair for a chain for the husband's watch. Not only does this tell you how well they know each other but also shows you the love they have for each other to willingly  give up something  to show how much that person means to them not to mention the fact  they weren't even mad at each other once they found out what happened. The knowledge they gained that day was the true gift and that is priceless.

The Tell-Tale Heart

To continue with the theme of the last blog I will talk about another story that I quite enjoyed growing up. I mentioned there are very few stories that I was "forced" to read during school that I actually ended up liking a lot. Sleepy Hollow  and the other being The Tell-Tale Heart.  Maybe I like it because it's a very short story but the Psychologist in me really enjoys what Edgar Allan Poe tried to share with his readers with this story. It's basically about the narrator who throughout the story tries to convince the reader that he's not crazy when what he talks about in the story is completely contradictory to that statement and he is in fact very crazy due to his extreme nervousness condition. The part that intrigues me is not that he is trying to lie to us by saying he's a sane man but the fact he actually believes he's not crazy.  Probably one of my favorite lines from the story is when he says " ...observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story" It's odd to me because this tells me by him saying he will tell you what happened "calmly" meaning what happened doesn't bother him in the slightest which to me gives further evidence that he isn't completely sane and I shouldn't trust what he says to be truth.  I don't want to spoil the rest of the plot for those who haven't read it yet  but I genuinely suggest you do so and let me know what you thought!

Sleepy Hallow

I've been really sick for the last 3 weeks almost and since I've been sick I've been really limited in to what I've been capable of doing. However with that being said I've been fortune enough to keep myself busy with things like Netflix and TV shows that are currently airing (apart from doing my homework of course!)  One TV show that I've been very excited about watching every week is a show called Sleeping Hallow that airs on Fox.  The funny thing about that is when we read The Legend of Sleepy Hallow in my American Literature in my college class  not even a few days later I saw A commercial online that showed a new show coming to Fox called Sleepy Hallow. I laughed because honestly what are the odds of that happening? I've known of the story since I was a kid and honestly was one of the few stories I ever cared to read about so when I found out about the show I was happy. I must say I haven't been disappointed so far.    The show is set in present year in the town of Sleepy Hallow however one of the main characters is none  other then Ichabod Crane himself from the past. He was basically sealed by magic and placed into a hiding place until finally be "awoken" to the present where he finds the headless horsemen who is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.    It's very different from the literature story but it's still great that they based a TV show based one of my favorite stories of all time.

American Lit intro

I've never done anything like this before at least not involving a "school subject" so we'll be interesting to see how this blog transforms my thinking and enhance my abilities to reflection easier on all things American Literature .