Journal of American Progress: Short Stories

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• Journal of American Progress and other short stories?
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Sign in via your Institution. Sign in with your library card. Show Summary Details Summary and discussion of the literature added, updates to the section on the early 21st century and the further reading list. Updated on 28 August The previous version of this content can be found here. His mother clapped her hand across his mouth. Such visions might have had no effect on the reader and his reading but for their striking coinciding with what actually happens at the level of the diegesis. Second, the readers identify the officials with the policemen of the first dream and the flying monster of the second and can anticipate what is to come: Our reading is thus programmed by such a foreboding and we will look for signs that confirm or infirm it.

Indeed already in the incipit, the reader who has some knowledge about Indian folklore can see the monster as being the embodiment of one of the most cruel mythical figures, Raven, well known for its abductions of women and children. And when he had the chocolate down inside him and all licked off his hands, he opened his mouth to say thank you to the woman, as his mother had taught him.

But instead of a thank you coming out he was astonished to hear a great rattling scream, and then another, rip out of him like pieces of his own body and whirl onto the sharp things all around him. This time the dream actually fuses with the reality of the diegesis to become the diegesis itself. His story is history in so far as it belongs to the cycle or spiral of time.

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The fact that the plot has progressed in between these two sections prevents us from seeing the story as a perfect circle but clearly as a spiral form whose end is not yet known because not yet written, whose end remains open as it is not part of the textual space and time of the story. As Albertine is getting ready to face Harmony, she is suddenly overcome by the memory of an anecdote that took place in her childhood.

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Albertine straightened, threw her shoulders back. The light powerful feeling swept her up the way she had floated higher, seeing the grass below. It was her father throwing her up into the air and out of danger. This theme thus enhances the spiral or cyclical representation of time in the story. It hints at the numerous patterns of regression to be found in the narrative but also refers to the notion of progression and continuity.

But her trip does not stop there on the grass on which she is lying.

The last image Buddy has of her invites us to see Albertine as traveling towards the center of the earth:. She was stretched flat on the ground, on her stomach, and her arms were curled around her head as if in sleep. One leg was drawn up and it looked for all the world like she was running full tilt into the ground, as though she had been trying to pass into the earth, to bury herself, but at the last moment something had stopped her. Whether she is dead or not does not really matter.

Mother and son are going in two opposite directions but which belong to the same spiral. The link between them is thus not severed as a first reading of the story might have implied. The figure of the spiral thus points out the significance of filiation and of the individual's historical background. The individual is not isolated but belongs to a continuum which determines who he is and what is to become of him. Albertine saw the pattern of tiny arteries that age, drink, and hard living had blown to the surface of the man's face.

She saw the spoked wheels of his iris and the arteries like tangled threads that sewed him up. She saw the living net of springs and tissue that held him together, and trapped him.

She saw the random, intimate plan of his person. The description results from a particular way of seeing, which also stands as a guideline for the interpretation of Erdrich's short story. The tiny arteries that have surfaced on Harmony's face are the visible marks of the more complex inner reality of the man; they are the superficial marks of his history. The selections represent a variety of children from diverse countries of origin and include standard prose as well as the poetic "Pickup Soccer" and the musical "Cubano Two.

While these stories offer an interesting cross section of the Latino experience, there is a preponderance of sad and serious tales with topics that include a sister who bullies, an epileptic seizure mistaken for a criminal attack, and the death of a parent. Spanish words are sprinkled throughout and defined in the back, and refranes sayings introduce each piece. The author's mixed-media portraits accompany each entry, and the original articles that inspired each offering are listed and discussed.

We Are Latinos is a solid addition to libraries and would also add much-needed diversity to classroom study. No one's rated or reviewed this product yet. Skip to main content. Short Stories About Young Latinos. A collection not to be missed. Turn the pages to experience life through the eyes of these boys and girls whose families originally hail from many different countries; see their hardships, celebrate their victories, and come away with a better understanding of what it means to be Latino in the U.