The stories we read for today, “Mothers” and “One Arm,” are both centered in worlds that don’t hold up to the laws of reality that we would expect from them. In this way, the reader has to find a different way to anchor the emotions of the story. I could be wrong, but I think that one way we try to understand the emotion and the message of the story is through the action that takes place. We look for common patterns that allow us to predict and understand the choices made during the story, which lets us judge the characters. I think the stories we’ve read for today take us out of that easy equation by throwing us in situations that we don’t fully comprehend, and we therefore don’t know what to expect next. It’s discombobulating, and I didn’t really know what was going on, but I think it makes the sensations more important to the story. For example, I don’t know what the meaning behind “One Arm” was, but I could understand that there was an importance between the duality of hard and soft, and of lust and innocence. I could tell that purple seemed to be an important color, but I didn’t necessarily see it as a symbol. And I think flowers helped create a theme of wanting to treat things gently. In “Mothers,” the time periods were out of order, but I think this helped create a stream-of-consciousness that conducted the emotional flow of the story. It starts out that she’s handed a baby, and while she’s talking about learning to take care of it, she’s also learning about her relationship with “Bad.” The emotional journeys are connected (I’m guessing) which is why they proceed together, instead of separately. At the end, the main character arrives at an old house where their older children have come home, and seems to feel out of place in the house. The time lines feel crossed at that point, and it’s hard to tell what is going on physically, but it’s almost like the narrator has disappeared into the story she’s telling and can’t find her way back out of it.
I totally agree with your point about being thrown in with no understanding on what is really going on with both stories. While they were both great, I too found it very hard to understand the meaning behind them. I found myself having to read some sentences over and over. I think that this couLd contribute to the meanings perhaps, we aren’t supposed to understand or comprehend it.
I also found it interesting that the use of color in “One Arm” seemed to be significant. However, I had a hard time trying to make sense of it (among other things) in the story. The flowers were only used in reference to being gentle with the woman’s arm, or how delicate it was, and I like that you pointed that out.