Response Essays

Response Essays

“Senior Picture Day” by Michele Serros

Summary

Senior Picture Day is a story about a young girl who has a personality like an Indian girl. We get to know about different perspectives in this reading like friendship, betrayal, adjusting and coping with our bodies. The story also demonstrates that the viewpoint of being perfect is not always to be perfect in all aspects. This story is all about the girl and the ways her friends and other people criticize her because of her appearance. This is story that demonstrates the feeling of self consciousness in youngsters about their looks.

Theme

The theme of this story is related to the incidents that take place in today's society. The theme is set on the background of college students and the activities and talks they are involved. The main theme of this story involves the discussion about a girl's appearance and her face features that are criticized by her friends. The betrayal that she experiences by her friends hurts her because she did not expect such things from people whom she considered her best friends. The act of betrayal that the girl faces is obvious when her friends talk about her nose and appearance at her back. It is obvious by reading this short story that the core theme of the story is related with friendship and betrayal (Serros, 2000).

Response The story is very nicely written but it does not feel good by reading how the girl was betrayed by her friends, and criticized for her looks. It is sad to read about the betrayal of the by friends, but this story creates awareness among people about these incidents that could happen to anyone at colleges or in the society. This story also has a great significance related to the social and historical aspects. The theme that has been demonstrated in this short story has been experienced in the past and is also demonstrated at various events and places in the present society. The theme and the literature presented in this short story is significantly related to the present society because betrayal in friendship and back biting about different students and people is very common in schools and colleges in the current society.

“Where Are you going, where have you been.” by Joyce Carol Oates

Summary

Where Are you going, where have you been is about a 15 years old beautiful girl named Connie. The story demonstrates that she is opposite as compared to her beautiful mother and her steady and homely sister. This girl had a habit of picking up boys at a restaurant. Then, at one night, this girl gets the attention of a man who reaches her house and wanted her to go with him for a ride. She hesitated to go with him as she realized that the man was quite older than her. But, the man threatened the girl that he would harm her family if she did not accompany him. It was due to these threats that she had to agree to ...