Sonny's Blues
"Sonny's Blues" is a short story of two very different brothers. The younger one, Sonny, is a jazz musician who has gotten involved with heroin and been sent to rehab. There is an article about it in the newspaper and I am pretty sure that the story takes place in New York City or another large urban area. The older brother is the speaker of the story and the two brothers are much different. The older one is the more responsible one, being a teacher, while the younger one is obviously irresponsible and involved with drugs and is a musician. The older brother goes through what seems like a period of realization in the story and his perspective on many things change. He changes his idea of children's laughter from being joyous to being mocking and questions why he ever gave Sonny's friend money on the streets. Later in the story, he also remembers his mother's advice that although he may never be able to stop Sonny from doing bad things, he can always be there for him. In this moment, the story seems to turn and the older brother realizes his importance as a brother.

Lost in the Funhouse:
"Lost in the Funhouse" was an interesting piece that was confusing and hard to understand for me. The speaker begins by talking about a boy named Ambrose and his family vacations to the beach three times a year. He questions what the funhouse is, and because he never gives an answer, I also wonder what the funhouse is. This piece was written in an odd way because for a minute the author will discuss Ambrose and his family and then interrupt the story with different facts about literature and writing, such as when to use italics and Freitag's triangle. The story does not really have a very good flow. In the end, I came to the conclusion that these may have been a look into Ambrose's thoughts as a writer because he would tell parts of the story, then interject with writing tips or instructions. He also asked questions that were never answered, which led me to believe that he was writing for himself and that this was his true thought process. I liked this reading because it was interesting to try and decipher.

Videotape:

This writing is very interesting. It is not necessarily a short story, and it could be a poem. The speaker seems to be undermining the family video, saying things like "it is just a kid..." and "this is just another game..." etc. The tone of the speaker makes him seem like he does not have a family or that he is bitter about family life. Before long, the story takes a very negative turn. It ends up that this videotape is a recording of a murder. Apparently it is a special occurance because it was recorded by a child and the murderer had murdered several other people, therefore this videotape was perfect evidence. The author of this story describes the death in a very gruesome way that left me feeling that the author had a sick and twisted mind.