Please post your blog response to the story here. You can feel free to respond in any substantive way you choose (that means going beyond superficiality: likes, dislikes, summary, et cetera; none of that will be acceptable or given credit), but some starting points to consider are the style of the story, the way in which it uses repetition, the effect and themes of the story, the language and craft, et cetera.
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ReplyDelete“Somehow Form a Family” is the perfect title for this story. The narrator has a consistent theme of things falling apart in his life. There were many incidents throughout the story that talked about how his family life was rough. While he was young, he imagined his family as a cute bunch and he considered his family “the good kind.” He said that his family was clean, they worked, had meat at every meal, and went to church. However, as he started to get older things started falling out of place around the house. His dad moved out and moved back in several times. As this happened, the main character started losing respect for his father, basically removing the father figure in his life. He also mentioned that his mother stopped taking him to church which at the beginning he seemed proud to go every Sunday. Towards the end of the story, when the young man was a freshman in college, his sister Shelly died. He makes it a point to say that going back home was strange. Not only was his family life messy, his neighbors that seemed important to him were all passing away. Things were not the same for him anymore. The main character went through many tough situations and the only way he felt that his family was brought together was if they were sitting in front of the television with each other. This time was spent not talking, just enjoying the show and ignoring the other things going on in life. I think that was his way of somehow forming a family.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of what you wrote about. I think the part about all his neighbors being gone when he goes back to visit was important because essentially all of what was left in that tiny town he grew up in was gone.
DeleteI agree that he used the television shows as a way of forming his family. I think he had such a non-consistent life that TV was something that he always had and was interested in.
DeleteI really like the last comment you made. They spent a lot of time watching TV instead of talking about their day and connecting with each other. It reveals a lot about the family situation without explicitly stating that there were issues that they kept ignoring as a collective.
Delete-Ryan Telford
Throughout this story, things are constantly falling apart in the narrator's life. At the beginning, I thought his family sounded like the perfect suburban, country family, but soon I understood they were very far from it. It was interesting to see how objects played a pertinent role in this story. For example, the boy wanted to live in this split ranch style house because it meant rich to him, but when his house was finished his dad moved out and from there things kept falling apart. Another example is with the colored television, the narrator explains before they were a clean, good family that went to church every Sunday and had meat at every meal, but once they got their colored television their momma stopped taking them to church every Sunday. It is interesting to see how different objects can have different effects on families. I feel like the dad may have gotten the television as a way to distract the narrator and his sister from him moving out. Maybe he did not want the kids to be angry with him or lose respect for him which is essentially what happened with the narrator because he mentioned that he was always on his mom’s side, while his sister usually took his dad’s side. It was quite odd in my opinion he married someone that rarely watches television because this guy literally sounds like he lives for television and that he also ended up seeing Alice from the Brady Brunch. Those were just two odd things from the story I did not totally understand.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that the narrator met Alice perfectly ends this story. Because the narrator met Alice from The Brady Bunch, he is finally realizes that all his dreams of being in the world of the television is just a dream. It finally clicks for him that needs to stop living for the television and start living for himself and his family.
Delete-Kyle Post
I agree with Kyle. He seemed to use TV as an escape of what was happening around him. He saw its as the life he could have had. But by "meeting" Alice, he finally saw that that isn't how life is. He saw that she is just an actress and nothing more. It seemed to me that this idea that life is hard and difficult and you need to work through problems instead of run away from them finally clicked in his brain.
DeleteThe author of this story uses simple vocabulary and a complex sentence structure. He has a variety of sentence lengths to represent different times in his life. When he is watching TV, the sentences are longer and filled with details, but when is isn’t watching TV, the sentences are short and sweet, almost like he doesn’t remember a lot about his time not watching TV. The second-to-last sentence in this story reveals the entire plot of the story, in a way. “I grew up in front of a television.” The way I read this story is almost as a social critique. The author relays his own childhood, most of which is spent around a television. He breezes over what most people consider to be important on one’s life, such as their parents splitting up or getting married. To him, most of his childhood memories came from a television screen and not actual experiences. I think the author hyperbolizes how little his family life affected him to prove a point that when something bad happened, he could escape to the safety and comfort of the television. As I was reading his accounts of how he wanted to escape to the world in the television, I could relate to him on a personal level. As a child, and even to this day, I often imagine myself as one of the characters in a television show. This critique could be applied to today’s society where instead of children growing up in front of a television screen, they are growing up in front of a cell phone or computer screen. I know from my own experiences that I spent a lot of time in front of a screen, whether it be a television screen, a computer screen, or a phone screen. I wouldn’t say my phone is my best friend, but it is one of my top friends.
ReplyDelete-Kyle Post
Throughout this story you could definitely tell that the television brought him comfort in a home that wasn't very much complete. His behavior, just as you said in your blog post, changes when he talks about his favorite TV shows and characters within them. On a side note, the sentence structure and vocabulary of the story made it easy to follow. However, I did realize that there was very little, if any, emotion used during the story. For example, when he told us that his sister died, the only comment about his feelings was when he told us that it felt strange coming home from college. I feel that he hides his feelings because he has no one to go to which could be another reason why he loves TV so much... it is his only way of connecting with other people (characters).
Delete"Somehow Form a Family" felt too fast to me. I very much disliked the constant spew of information and the repetition of the listing of the television shows. Much of the listing felt unnecessary to me and I felt as if the author was using it as some sort of fluff. Otherwise, the overall outlook of the short story felt intriguing. I kept on thinking about whether he had a mental health problem or not. What it seemed to be to me was that at different times in his life he had different mindsets which changed the way people saw him or how he acted. To me he wasn't mentally challenged, he was just so deep into the world of television and shows that he lost who he was and didn't enjoy the life he was living. It seemed to me as if he wanted to live in some type of fantasy world. One where he could be rich as represented of his repetition of the type of house he lived in. One where it felt like nothing could ever really go wrong just like in a television show. It also felt as if throughout much of the story the narrator was looking into others life a little more than his own life. Much of the theme of the story was an escape from reality. The repetition although much more than I feel was needed could have represented this in a way. In summarization I like the end of the story compared to the beginning of the story in ways that it tied it all together.
ReplyDeleteSee, I liked the repetitive use of the TV shows. I feel like it reinforced the importance of what the TV shows meant to the author. I also thought he might have had a mental illness. The way he would watch TV was almost obsessive and how he would incorporate it into his own life was strange. I wouldn't say, based on your interpretation, he was mentally challenged wither but there was definitely some sort of obsession almost.
Delete-Kasey Mentzer
I thought that the repetitiveness and the listing of the TV shows was unnecessary first as well. However as the story continued I think that the repetitiveness is a key part to the story. These shows have became his world, possibly because he would like to escape the problems of the real world or due to a mental illness.
DeleteThe writing in this story is very casual but also very specific and provides specific details about setting and other important things. By providing these details, the reader can put themselves in the position of the author to really interact with the story and have a better understanding. It is a very easy and interesting read. The author does not use complex words or phrases, but keeps the reader intrigued. He tells about how he had a simple life and was poor and got into great detail about his new colored tv that he had never seen before. When he explains his viewing of the television, he discusses not only what is on the TV, but also what is going through his head. He explains every one of his thoughts in full detail during and after he watched the television. Everything seemed to revolve around the TV as the author says that his college basically shut down when The Thorn Birds aired. He references how life changes by saying how his dad left them and when Mrs. White died, Mr. White left for the nursing home. His dad is not very emotionally stable it seems. The television had a huge impact on his life and it seemed that his life revolved around it. He gives the perfect amount of detail in his life and not too much. He put a big chunk of his life into a little summary and it was not confusing to follow at all. To me, it seems like he used the TV shows as a way to connect with his family because that is what they constantly did.
ReplyDelete-Brooke Koster
I agree with you on the importance of the TV in showing the narrator's emotions and setting up the connections with his family. I also think it is interesting how the "casual" writing was able to portray such strong detail. The simplicity in the writing helped carry the complexity of the meaning of the story as a whole.
Delete-Courtney Swarthout
Casual is a very good word to describe the writing. I also agree that is was an interestingly easy read.He did use the TV to connect everything in his life and by doing that, he was able to use a lot of detail to describe a lot of time, but in a short amount of writing.
DeleteThe story was set up in vignettes different than those in The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, it was more of a continuous story rather than very different times in the author's life. I liked the continuity of the story, having the story keep going instead of breaking it up into mini chapters like the last story we read was easier to picture what the author was writing. The repetitive references to the TV was a constant throughout the story; the author's life revolved around the TV. The TV was a symbol for the author's childhood, for his laziness. Every free moment the author had was spent sitting in front of the TV. The writing was very detailed, the descriptive writing made tracking the story easy. I liked the flow and descriptiveness of the story, how the author described growing up, what shows him and his sister would watch on the TV, the emotions the author felt when his family got a color TV, the way he talked about his neighbors and their lives. The style of writing the author used was intriguing and entertaining. The story wasn't based on the emotions the author was feeling rather his reactions to certain events, but the hinting at what he was feeling or not feeling or what he was thinking was engaging, like when he was talking about how his died he seemed so emotionally detached. There seemed to be no emotion at all. When the author talked about thinking of jumping into the Ohio river so casually, as if it wasn't a big deal he was thinking about committing suicide, made me wonder if he was mentally ill. Also, the first time I questioned his sanity was when he was younger. He would spend all his time watching TV, almost obsessively, that he wouldn't stay awake in class. The author's weird connection to the TV characters was odd.
ReplyDelete-Kasey Mentzer
I agree with your opinion on the difference in this style of vignettes. I think that it flows more and is viewed more as a story rather than a series of snapshots as it was in The Largesse of the Sea Maiden. The universal theme of the television was definitely very important and helped to provide the meaning for the entire story.
DeleteThis story was very interesting. In the beginning, there was a lot of sentence variety going back and forth between simple and complex sentences. However, when the television arrived, there was a lot more repetition and every sentence was very similar to the ones around it. There is a very obvious theme throughout the story. As time went on, more and more things were going wrong in the author’s life. His only escape was through his television. It became very clear that he didn’t want to live his own life, but he wanted to live the lives of the people that he was watching on television. He fantasizes about being included in the shows and living like they do. At one point he takes it so far as to consider jumping off a bridge and ending his own life. As he got older, things continued to fall apart and I don’t think that he was ever truly happy unless he was sitting in front of a television. Even when he goes back home to visit his parents, everything that he had ever known in his neighborhood was completely different. I think that the title “Somehow Form a Family” also goes along with the themes of falling apart and television. His family is literally formed around the TV. He watches it with all of his family members and that is the way that he grows up. When he gets his first Christmas bonus, the first thing he does is buy one for himself, and then buy one for his parents. Even dealing with the loss of so much, including his sister, he finds happiness in watching his television.
ReplyDeleteMadison Neylan
This story was interesting in that, to me, there wasn't anything specifically being written about, but it tells almost his whole life story and in telling that, the author gives us an immense amount of detail. The detail given to us in what was happening around him. Sometimes he would share his age, or the time of year, but the biggest factor of time change was given by the title of the TV shows. I've never seen a story where the author had no problem writing out every single TV show title, in fact I feel like if I had written this story and turned it in, most of my teachers wouldn't have liked it. What's also really interesting about this story is that like "The Largesse of the Sea Maiden" there's a sense of emotional detachment from the author and the writing. Like he's writing about his life, but from the outside. I do think that this story is much more put together as it's not written in strict vignette form. You get the fact that his life seems like it's gradually falling apart and it's told to you instead of drawn from assumptions. He tells us about his suicide thoughts, and how he knows he was raised in front of a television. He tells us about how his sister died, and he tells us about his mom and dad constantly splitting up and coming back together. Most importantly I believe, is that he took the time to tell us everything that happened to his neighbors and he went into great detail as he did when he first described them.
ReplyDeleteThrough a vignette style of narration, a boy is able to tell the story of his family, and what form it took. A central theme in the story, is the repetition and meaning behind the TV. The TV holds significant value for both the family as a functioning unit and the boy himself. The reader is frequently informed of the setting when watching TV, and what exactly is being watched. This is significant because it sets up a lot of the emotion of the narrator, and how he copes with those feelings. We know how he feels in a moment, and what is going on around him. The TV is also used to help develop the changes that are occurring throughout the story, such as the change in neighbors as they die and are replaced, and the relationship between his own parents. How can repetition, something being repeated without change, be used solely for the purpose of developing change in this story? I also think it is interesting how the television has almost created a false reality for the narrator and his sister, and how they are able to recognize that by the end of the story. I think through the vignette style of writing and use of sentence variation, the author was able to successfully place us in the narrator’s shoes. I also think that the repetition was utilized to convey change in a very unconventional way, and that is what makes this craft of writing so unique. It was interesting to read a vignette where a reoccurring idea was used to show development.
ReplyDelete-Courtney Swarthout
I found “Somehow Form a Family” to be an interesting narrative. For one, throughout the story, there was this sense of childlike wonder. It seemed that no matter the narrator’s age, life itself seemed as a dream; everything was larger than life. And in retrospect, his attention to detail and bluntness toward otherwise touchy subjects mirrored that of a child as well; his depictions of television characters contrasted with topics that most people would tread softly around. For instance, there is one point in the story where the narrator while listing television shows throws in the fact that his father left them and simply continues to list show. Another moment is when he blatantly states that his sister died. No softening the blow or gradual build up to the news. It was short and concise. I think that TV shows and television in general impacted the narrator’s life the way it did because while it started out as a way of entertainment it gradually became an escape of the life that was falling apart around him. But as the story continues, we see the shows began to mirror his own life: actors were leaving and growing old much like his neighbors. Initially, it seemed the narrator was obsessed with TV because it made him feel rich, but it soon became the life he wish he could have had. The narrator also throughout the story repeats this idea of living in a “split-level ranch-style house” that I feel is his way of rationalizing the way his life turned out. It originally symbolized his “new and improved” life, but now it stands as a reminder of what he once was. I really enjoyed the ending because the narrator seems to finally realize that life isn’t like TV. It’s real and doesn’t have happy endings.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Santos
“Somehow Form a Family” does an excellent job of layering the story one paragraph at a time. In the beginning, they describe the different neighbours that the family lives beside, as they are important characters in the story. As the story unfolds, different events occur in their neighbours lives and reveal different themes in the story. The theme of innocence is prevalent, in that the children are blind to different events happening at a young age, but this goes away as they grow up. The characters develop through the use of the different TV shows they watch as they grow up. As the kids get older, the shows become more mature in theme and content, reinforcing the theme of innocence. They begin to develop crushes on certain TV characters and show signs of growing up. Themes of modernization are displayed through the transition from the black and white screen of the Admiral to the red, green, and blue display of the Zenith. The language used in this story is very descriptive and is rich with imagery. The dialogue reveals many traits about the mother in this story. Although there is not much dialogue, it’s clear that she is a very strong and independent character. Interestingly enough, the fact that there is not much dialogue and the fact that most of the time is spent around the TV leads me to believe that this family might have a lot of issues they are dealing with. In addition, our main character spends a lot of his time fantasizing about living a different life than his current one. He seems detached from reality and lives as more of an observer than a participant in life. All in all, this story is an interesting transition from boyhood into adult life.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Telford
I completely agree with you and your interpretation of the story. The theme of modernization are very apparent in the story as the narrator and the television both evolve as the story progresses. I also think that boy uses the television as a means to escape the troubles and pain in his everyday life.
DeleteThe story "Somehow Form a Family" was a very interesting take on the story of a young boy's life. In a series of vignettes, the boy told the story of him and his family, while keeping the T.V as the central topic in the story. The boy was very infatuated with the television, and in a way, it served as a way for him to escape life's troubles. I also noticed that the boy was very interested in money, and how he and his family appeared to others. This is evident when the boy concludes that he and his family were poor due to their television being in black and white. However late in the story when his house is updated to look more like a ranch style home, he believes that the house looks "rich". The boy’s life revolves around the T.V, and as a result, everything he sees on the screen, he hopes will translate into real life. The boys obsession ultimately reaches a high point, when he and his family own a colored TV for the first time. When Shelly, the sister of the boy, dies in the novel, he very briefly mentions it, almost not being phased by it at all. This illustrates how television serves as not only an escape from life, but a way for the narrator to achieve happiness. This happiness is one he continues to remember throughout his adult life, as he often recollects memories of his happy family from his childhood. Even whilst dealing with the loss of his sister, he continues to watch T.V, hoping his life could be as perfect as what is appearing on screen.
ReplyDeleteElijah I completely agree with you! Everything that the narrator sees through the screen he wishes it would translate into his real life. In a way, growing up in front of a television caused the boy to glorify what life should be comprised of and strive towards a rich and indulgent life style which, for his family, was unattainable. I also agree with your comment about his sisters death and how he didn't really have a strong reaction to it. Great job!
DeleteThis story, Somehow Form A Family, was complex but easy to read and understand. From the beginning, it was clear that the author was going to list a lot throughout his story. The listing of the TV shows for example seemed unneeded at first but then I realized to the author, all of these TV shows have meaning to him. Because the Tv shows have meaning to the author, they have meaning in the work. In a way, I feel like this story relates to more of us then we realize. To me it seems like the author, while talking about his own life, is portraying the lives of many others. Throughout the story the author includes how he hoped his family would be like and then contrasted it to the real-life version of family. Many people today have the same kind of family life that he does, where everything around them falls apart as they get older. The television and the list of TV shows is the thing that was a distraction for the falling apart around the family. The dad seems to use it as a way to ignore or cope with his daughter moving out of the house. It may have also been his way of not taking an opinion which is known by the family, instead seemingly ignoring the situation all together with the TV shows. However, the use of television in the story is also a critique on his society. While we grew up with a ton of electronics and our heads in our phones, they grew up with their heads in the TV. The critique is about how everyone uses the Tv to escape the world when they should be ready to face it.
ReplyDelete-Isabel Tomsich
“Somehow form a Family” was a very interesting passage. It followed somewhat of a loose vignette format in that the stories were separated by increments of time and seemingly random, yet all came together to tell describe the life of the narrator and his family. I noticed that the description of the narrators time watching tv was a lot more vivid and detailed, while the description of his time not watching tv seemed to be vague and hazy. This adds to the idea that he “grew up in front of a television” as he states at the end of the passage. It almost seems as though he values those times where he was watching television with his family more than he values the times which he was not watching television with them. The sentence structure was varied and complex, while the vocabulary that the narrator used was simple and easy to comprehend. I feel as though this was a critique on society in that most kids today experience life through a screen more often than not. The narrator had little to no vivid memories that did not involve a television. I can relate to this because as a millennial, I also spent a lot of my child hood growing up in front of a screen. Whether i was watching tv, face timing a family member, or just simply scrolling through my phone. I think the message that the author of this passage was trying to convey is that children of today need to have more real life experiences rather than experiences and memories through a screen and this is a very relevant still in society today.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I noticed in my first read through that the narrator focused more on the television than of his actual life. My interpretation was that he just chugged through his life, so it's interesting that you brought that up and it modifies a bit of my understanding too.
DeleteI agree with Madeleine. The style of the the story does show a very loose vignette form. Also, the sentence structure is very long and complex, which makes it even more loose, yet interesting.
DeleteThis comment^ is by Victoria Dumornay
DeleteIf I were to describe “Somehow Form a Family” in a word, it would be: nonchalant.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the author’s home life is slowly and tragically falling down from him, he seems to focus on other things, mainly the television shows that he watches. Also, despite people exiting his life (e.g. father leaving, sister dying), he seems to continuously go forth in life so long as a constant is always there for him to fall back on (the constant being the television set).
An interesting point is that the narrator seems to be fixated on the superficial. He takes time to differentiate between “middle class poor” and “dirt poor.” He is explicitly fixated on how they lived in a split-level ranch-style, a zenith television set, and a matching Channel Master. His fixation on such materialistic objects could be interpreted as superficial. However, a counterpoint is that he could have been fixated on such because it is what kept his family together. In the last paragraph, the narrator mentions that when the television set was on, no one in his family raised their voice. Although the narrator seemed superficial with the television shows and such, it holds a deeper meaning once he has gone through introspection of his own life.
Another interesting point is that the events that preceded his marriage follow the title of the short story, “Somehow Form a Family.” The narrator seems to just stumble through life, taking in the bad, the good, and the ugly only to somehow start a family.
“Somehow Form A Family” is about a man (the author) who describes his journey through his life. In the story, he uses television as a way to show how his life went through many changes and, TV shows as milestones and points of references for those who have lived through those times. His ability to connect the ideas on TV to his own personal life really made an impact on how meaningful the book was. For example, one part of the story was about how he referenced the moon landing and how the quality in viewing the landing was not the best quality and then went to his neighbor’s house to watch it and view it from the telescope. The author also made it high school experiences and explains the shows he enjoyed, the experiences he wished he had, and how he turned down meeting girls and going out with his sister to watch his favorite show The Rockford Files. The author also discusses his meeting with his wife and how unlike himself, she only watched TV during special occasions. He ends the story telling us how he met Ann B. Davis, and how he only wanted her to act the way that he saw her on the show and to smile as if she loved him. The events that were described in the book were very detailed and to-the-point. However, one part of the story that I did not enjoy was the part where he talks about his college experiences and how he would go to the basement to watch shows with other avid watchers of Guiding Light and scream at the TV. I thought that this part in the story was very irrelevant and gave little help to the story overall.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post^ is by Victoria Dumornay
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