I can relate my work with My Childhood to H.L. Mencken’s quote. I remember spending my summertime reading My Childhood. It was very slow and difficult – just like work. I spent time going over parts I didn’t get, like you would go over the parts of homework you don’t get. Reading My Childhood can be related to the quote because I was reading it to see how the story would turn out: the hen keeps working to see how her chicks will turn out. That is the similarity between those two things. I can also relate Noel Coward’s quote to my band assignments. To enjoy my week, I first have to finish these.  When I was recording with Smart Music, I was able to play familiar tunes with my trumpet. Playing these songs was fun because I kept improving and my tone moved into clarity. I kept trying and trying to get it perfect, and when I finally finished it, I felt relieved. I played some familiar tunes that I never knew I could play, and when I finished, I got the satisfaction of finally finishing this long project. So these two quotes can definitely be related to my everyday work with Mr. Watt, and at school.

Response

“Writing fiction has developed in me an abiding respect for the unknown in a human lifetime and a sense of where to look for the threads, how to follow, how to connect, find in the thick of the tangle what clear line persists.”

I understand this quote as “Writing fiction has helped me respect what I don’t know about life. It also taught me how to look for clear and correct direction in a mess of directions.” I think this means that when Welty writes, she starts to respect what she doesn’t know about the characters she creates. She may have created her characters so well, that when you read it you recognize real people. And since you respect real people, she respects her human-like characters. I think it also means that when she writes fiction, she has to choose carefully how the story will end and what the events will be; because in fiction, anything can happen.

I can relate this to “A Worn Path” because when Phoenix entered the doctor’s office, I expected her to get some kind of medicine for her grandson. But instead, Welty chose to give her no reason in being there – she completely forgot why she walked the entire trail. This shocked me because I expected her to do what most people would do when they go to a doctor’s office (to get medicine). This was a good example of how Welty carefully chose the direction of the book (in the quote “correct threads”).