Froggin’ Out

Froggin’ out

As the alarm turned to midnight my dad hit the off button and nudged my arm to wake me up even though I never fell asleep. I jumped out of the hotel bed to get dressed. We left the room at 12:15am and drove to the Tejon Ranch which luckily was only five minutes away from the hotel. Fortunately, I was not driving because I was still getting the eye boogers out of my eyes. While we were pulling up to the pond I grabbed the flashlight from the consul and threw on my chaps. Even though it was 80 degrees and I was dripping sweat when I got out of the truck, I was not going to risk getting bit by a rattlesnake. Meeting my dad at the tailgate of the truck, he was getting the gig and my job was to make sure there were no rattlesnakes around where we were about to walk. After my dad locked up the truck, he walked in front of me with the flashlight to get to the pond. Walking through the bushes and tall grass we were around twenty yards from the pond and my dad whispered, “I am going to point the light into the frog’s face and it will be blinded by the light and that is when you stick the frog right in between their eyes.” I was so pumped to be frog gigging with my dad for the first time. He always told me stories of when he and his dad went hunting and fishing together, and I wanted that as well with him. As we were quietly walking around a big rock, we could hear a few frogs croaking. We shot a look of excitement toward each other and nodded in unison that were both ready to get this frog.  As my dad shined the light onto the rock we saw the frog I focused on putting the three point spear quickly but steadily onto the frog. I quickly struck the frog right between eyes, and I did not move a muscle until my dad had the frog in his hand. I was so excited that I got my first frog. My adrenaline was pumped, and I was excited to keep going. As we walked around the pond all I could think of was how much fun this was, and I get to spend time with my dad. During our walk we whispered back and forth jokes and try not to laugh too loud so we would not scare off the frogs, but sometimes it was too hard to hold it in. When we got halfway around the pond, we saw two frog’s eyes glowing in the water fifteen yards from us. As we approached the frogs, I felt like a lion creeping up on its prey not taking my eyes of the frog. I could feel my sweat rolling down my forehead to my chin. My mind was set on one thing and one thing only, the frog. As we approached the frog, my dad shined the light on the frog and this time I was more confident than the first time. As I struck the frog I became too excited and pulled the gig out of the frog before my dad had the frog in his hand. When I realized we lost the frog I was so mad at myself and was discouraged. My dad looked at me and reassured me, “It’s all good, you took your time and focused on what you were aiming for.” After my dad said that to me I realized isn’t that what hunting and fishing is all about? You are not always going to get your kill. It is about working hard to get the animal or being patient for the fish to bite the bait. At around 2:00am we decided to wrap up the night and head back to the truck. We got a total of ten frogs and couldn’t have been any more excited. While heading back to the truck, I could hear footsteps behind me. I was nervous since it was 2:00am and I did not know who it could possibly be. As I turned around I could not see anyone so I assumed my imagination was getting to me. A few minutes later I heard it again but much louder. My heart felt like it was going to pop out of my chest because I was so scared of what could possibly be behind me. I did not want to look behind me because who knew what I would face. I slowly turned around with my eyes shut at first then slowly opened my eyes and nothing was there. I was certain this time there was something or someone that was there so I tapped my dad on his shoulder and told him,

“Papa, I am hearing footsteps behind me and I am really scared.” He looked at me and to no surprise he said,

“Maybe you’re just paranoid.” I looked at him and told him in a serious voice

“Just stand still and please listen for it because I am certain of it.”

Half of me wanted to hear it again so my dad did not think I was crazy, but the other half of me did not want to hear it again because I was terrified what we would find. The crunching sound appeared again and I shot my dad a glance of “I told you so” he slowly lifted the flashlight to where the noise was coming from and what we found will never escape my mind. As the light reached the noise we saw boars’ eating apples hanging from the low branches from the apple tree. The pigs were eating the apples whole and that was where the crunching sound was coming from. I felt so stupid but was so relieved so my only reaction was to laugh. Pigs have bad eye sight so they did not realize the light was shining on them, but their sense of sound is on point so when they heard us walking back to the truck, they ran away. We continued walking to the truck and laughing about the night. Finally, we got back to the truck and started driving back to the hotel. We instantly started talking about the night we just experienced. By the time we got back to the hotel it was 3:00am and we were ready for bed. I dragged my body into the room and flopped myself onto the bed and fell asleep.

Reflection

I decided to write “Froggin’ Out” because not only is it a true story, but I love reliving hunting experiences. I have been hunting for about ten years and hunting will never get boring to me. Each experience is like a snowflake, because no hunting experience can be the same. In my story I wanted to write my experience in first person to give off a more personal story. The two stories we read that brought me back to this specific experience was “A Small, Good Thing” written by Raymond Carver and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” written by Flannery O’Connor.  In class we discussed how in “A Small, Good Thing,” there was a lot of minimalism. As readers we were able to make guesses on what we thought was going to happen. For example, when Scotty was hit by the car in the beginning it never said who hit him so I automatically thought it was the baker. Throughout the story our imagination took ahold of the story. It relates to my story, because while my dad and I were walking back to the truck I heard a noise behind me and my imagination jumped from it being something small to a killer behind me. In the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the suspense of what the killers were going to do to the family also led me to writing my paper. During my experience of walking behind my dad and being terrified it reminded me of the grandma hearing the gunshots and not knowing what was going on. Even though I did not hear gunshots, the footsteps reminded me of the feeling of the not knowing. To me the anticipation was the scariest part of the whole experience. The thing we fear the most is the unknown.

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Comparative Analysis

 

Life decisions are usually the most difficult decisions, especially when you have to make a decisions consulting someone else. In the following stores; Russell Banks’, “Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat” and Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants”, we see in both stories two different couples struggle with the same problem, both women are pregnant. In each story, the roles are reversed. In Banks story, we see the woman wants to get an abortion and the man is against the procedure, but in Hemingway’s story the man wants Jig to get an abortion and Jig does not agree. Throughout both stories all four main characters want to please one another, and does not want anything to change within their relationships, but soon to find out that won’t happen and life decisions have a cause and effect.

In both stories, the women are pregnant, but no one ever bluntly says the words “pregnant,” “expecting,” or “with child;” however, we can tell that the women are pregnant due to context clues. In Banks’ story, the woman says, “I’m already putting on weight” (64). As readers there is nothing before or after that statement that recalls any other meaning, but that she is definitely pregnant. There is a mood of secrecy in the way she announces her pregnancy. Why not be blunt about the situation? It hints to the readers that if she proclaims the truth out loud she may not want to go through with the operation. Especially the dialogue that follows after her statement. Hemingway’s story has the same way of hinting around their ‘problem.’ The first place we see in the story of her being pregnant is when the man states, “it’s really an awfully simple operations, Jig” (417). He is trying to talk her into having the procedure and not worry that something wrong may happen to her. In both stories there is a character who wants to keep the baby. They cannot change the other person’s opinion, but they try their hardest to sway their opinion.

Focusing on setting, both are set in a form of transportation. In “Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat,” the setting is in a rowboat in a middle of a lake. Their conversation about the “procedure” is in a private setting where no one is around and they can talk freely. However, during their conversation there is still a sense of awkwardness and tension. For example, after she told him she told her mother about her being pregnant it says, “He started rowing again, faster this time and not as smoothly as before.” This gives us the sense of him becoming uneasy with her mother knowing what is going on and how she will handle the situation. Hemingway’s story is set at a train station stationed in Ebro heading to Madrid. This symbolizes their current relationship position. Literally they are waiting for their train to take them to Madrid, but figuratively they are at a standstill in their relationship due to Jig not wanting to get an abortion and him wanting her to get one. Then when they get on their train they are going to move either forward in their relationship or move in separate directions.

In both Hemingway’s and Bank’s story there is a male dependency, but the difference in Hemingway’s is Jig is dependent on the American and in Bank’s, the woman has a dependency on her father if he was still alive. The woman states, “If Daddy were alive, it would be different” (64). Talking about their relationship the woman would know her dad would not approve and may possibly not be with the black man. The death of her father gives her the independence and the ‘ok’ of being with him since her mother approves of them both being together. However, in Hemingway’s story, Jig is dependent on the American by listening and doing everything he says she should do. She cannot pick out her own drink for herself. She has to ask him what he thinks she should do. Talking about the procedure with the man she then states, “Oh, yes. But I don’t care about me. And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine” (418). Her focus is what can keep them both together and not jeopardize their relationship, even though they both know, but have not come to terms that nothing will ever be the same. The dependency on both the male roles shows the authority the male figures had/have in their lives.

As an ending to the stories there is no definite answer to whether the women go through with the procedures. In “Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat” the story ends with a form of action. The girl, “Step carefully out of the boat and walk to where she lived with her mother” (67). Due to the fact that earlier in the book she told him that her mother was going to take her to the operation we see that her heading to her mother’s house is showing readers she is getting the operation done. The ending can give us an opportunity to make our own ending, because it ends before we actually know what happens. In the end of “Hills like White Elephants” it ends in dialogue. There is awkwardness of knowing their relationship is on the rocks, because when the man returned from the bar he asked her, “Do you feel better?” “I feel fine, there is nothing wrong with me. I feel fine” (419). The mood she gives off is a sense of hesitance and trying to cover up her real emotions to please the man. Again, in this story we never see if she ever goes through with the operation, but given the way they act toward one another it gives readers the sense of them not having a future together in the end.

Work Cited

Banks, Russell. Black Man and White Woman in a Dark Green Rowboat.1981. Print

Hemingway, Ernest. Hills like White Elephants.1927. Print.

Explacation Paper

Girl

            In Jamaica Kineaid short story “Girl” the name of the title says it all. The daughter is just a girl who is given no name and almost seems unimportant. Yet, her mother who is also given no name orders her around as if all she is good for is work and doing “girl” tasks. The only information given to readers is there is a mother and daughter and the mother is talking throughout the whole story except for two times where the daughter tries to defend herself and to ask her mom a question. In the story the mother is very direct in giving directions to her daughter. The mother is harsh and expects so much from her daughter. The mother speaks to her daughter in orders. The first two lines given by the mother gives readers a set tone for the whole story, “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don’t walk barehead in the hot sun…” (530). Due to the fact that there is no periods shows the list of demands she wants her daughter to remember. The mother wants her daughter to grow up and become a woman.

In Jamaica’s short story, the mother vocalizes the importance of housework mainly focusing on food. The mother tells her how to set the table for all three main meals. Giving tips on how to bake pumpkin fritters to soaking fish overnight (530). The mother emphasizes how important it is to know how to cook and bake because it is essential to being a woman. Throughout the story, tips on cooking and baking randomly gets brought up. A detail in the story that cannot be overseen is the line, “This is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona” (530). In this statement it shows that they are from a different culture. In fact, they are from the West Indies. In their culture, food is very important especially for woman who would share and pass down recipes. Knowing that they are from a different culture gives readers an understanding of why this mother is pushing her daughter into becoming a wife type women. Her advice on how to survive if she becomes a wife, mother, or even a single woman.

Appearance is another major aspect of the story as well; “This is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like a slut I know you are so bent on becoming…” (530). Her mother is obviously worried for her daughter’s appearance because she does not want her daughter to be disrespected for how she is portraying herself in what she wears. Throughout the story the mother makes sure her daughter knows how to wash clothes, iron, and to sewing because that is how they are defined. In the story it is never said if they are poor, but as long as the daughter is well groomed and knows how to hold herself together no one can recognize her status by her appearance.

Throughout the book it is hard to see the compassion the mother has for her daughter. This is because the mother does not use encouraging words like, “daughter, the way you walk or dress is not ladylike” or “You are showing disrespect toward yourself by wearing this or saying that..” instead she calls her daughter a slut three times in the story. We do not know how old the daughter is, but we know she cannot be any older than her teens. Assuming this because she would need to know this before dating and marriage. Trying to raise a daughter into becoming a respected woman is no easy task and I could not imagine how difficult it must be in another culture. In this story the mother knows how difficult it is to be a young woman and the struggles girls go through. As the mother has that in mind it confuses me why she treats her daughter as if she is a failure when we know the mother’s intension is to care for her and guide her, but acting as if her intensions are to hurt her daughter’s feelings. A problem we all face and especially the daughter in this story is how will she learn true respect and love if she does not receive love and respect from her own mother.

Work Cited

Kincaid, Jamaica. Girl. San Francisco: San Francisco Examiner, 1991. Print.