Kevin McGrath's X084 Intro to Lit Sec 002

To start, I must say that this reading assignment was by far the easiest and most enjoyable to get through. First of all, the short number of pages covered in Nella Larsen's "The Wrong Man", "Freedom", and "Sanctuary" was a relief to see, much less daunting than the 70-to-80 page excerpts that were required for previous blog entries. However, even the smallest number of pages can be taxing if the content is uninvolving and uneventful (see, for example, the first and much of the second chapter of "A Farewell to Arms"). Fortunately, since we are dealing with short stories, there is less room for trivial details, leaving only the basic story (something that would have helped "Saturday"). And the basic stories in these three short stories were interesting enough to keep my attention.
The first of the three, "The Wrong Man," begins less than promisingly, appearing to just be a femme-centric story about a restless, dissatisfied woman. I immediately assumed that this story would be high on inner monologue and low on actual occurrences. But much to my surprise, Larsen takes a different path, putting the characters and events of Myra's party into a suspense story that slowly unravels itself as the story deepens. Larsen just lets us know about the seemingly random things that are so troubling to Julia Romley – the “Indian chief” standing with Myra, his history with Julia’s husband, etc. – and doesn’t reveal their seedy connection until the closing scene.
“Freedom” is an initially humorous story that soon evolves into a dark and more complex character study that reminded me of “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. At first, I felt that our narrator’s funny way of constantly second-guessing himself and overthinking to be reminiscent of the type of thought process that I often go through, with even the most miniscule of occurrences. Seeing his shift through numerous emotions even at brief hypothetical thoughts instantly felt realistic and believable. However, I didn’t relate to the second half of the story, where the narrator sinks into his own paranoia and guilt, or his sad eventual suicide.
“Sanctuary” is the most socially “important” of Larsen’s three short stories. It deals with several of the usual hard news topics: race, crime, the law. Though at first I had trouble grasping the intended meaning of the character’s butchered use of the English language (“a-gwine,” “hyah”), it eventually became easier, even if I had to move through this story more slowly than the other two. But ultimately, despite an intriguing buildup, I was disappointed by Annie Poole’s final action, letting Jim Hammer go free after killing her son just because he isn’t white. Overall, I appreciated Larsen’s slow-building, suspenseful stories, and hope that the same will be seen when we read “The Passing.”