What happens after the story of “The Killers”ends

The story called “The Killers”, by Ernest Hemingway has an open ending. Here is my suggestion of what George, Nick, Ole Anderson, Max and Al do after the story ends.

First, I think George will continue to work in the restaurant as usual, but he and his colleagues may discuss the incident with "The Killers" during future lunch breaks. Second, Nick will start to look for a job out on the country side as he feels that he have had enough of his life in town, saying; “I’m going to get out of this town”. Third, Ole Anderson realizes that his life will end very soon as he probably has double-crossed somebody in Chicago, and know that somebody traces him down. Max and Al will manhunt Ole Anderson until they find him, and then they will kill him, easily, as he lies on his bed waiting for the vengeful bullet.

This ending will release the tension and and give the story a proper dénouement.

Personal response to “The Epic of Gilgamesh”

In order to give my personal response to “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, I discuss different attributes of the story.

My first impression of “The Epic of Gilgamesh” was that I liked the story and the way the unknown ancient author writes. The author writes concise and in forms of short verses, which I appreciate. He uses a lot of repetition in his writing style like when he repeats “Your form are not different, you are just like me”, “…Sleep like a fog already breath over him” and “At twenty leagues they broke bread, at thirty leagues they stopped for the night”. I also liked that the author uses a lot of similes and metaphors like when he compares sleep with a liquid that spills over; “No sooner had sleep spilled over me, than forthwith you touched me and made me awake!” Further, he also uses a lot of similes. One example of this is “The ocean grew calm, that had thrashed like a woman in labour, the tempest grew still, the Deluge ended.” Here, the ocean is compared to a woman that gives birth. What I liked the most about the unknown author’s writing is that he uses imageries to describe things so that I can imagine how things in the story were like. Finally, the author uses symbols like the number seven and snake which makes me think of stories from the Bible.

What I did not like so much about the story was the abrupt finish and the ancient language. I believe the reason why the author suddenly shifts to describe Gilgamesh’s hometown is that the author wants to convey to the reader that Gilgamesh realizes that he, eventually, will not live for ever. The language was sometimes hard to understand as some words were old-fashioned and unknown to me.

To sum up, I liked the story and the way it was written, but I found the ending a bit difficult to understand and some of the vocabulary ancient.

Interviews about writing

In order to find out other people’s writing habits and use of social media, I interviewed four persons on the West Mall on October 3, 2011.

The first respondent I interviewed was the Canadian boy named Alfred. He told me that he kept a personal paper diary in which he wrote weekly. Alfred did not use any social media, which I found surprising based on this young age. Further, he told me that he did some reflective writing on a monthly basis. When I probed him about this, he explained that he usually was at home when he wrote and that it helped him learn things about himself.

My second respondent was a Canadian girl named Sarah. Like Alfred, she kept a paper diary, but she wrote in it every second day. She did not have a blog herself, but she frequently followed her friend’s blogs. She told me that she did reflective writing every second day, whenever she wrote in her diary, and did so because she thinks it helps her organize her thoughts. She even told me that, sometimes, when she reads something she has written, it makes her change her mind.

The third person I interviewed was a Taiwan lady named Chin. She also kept a paper diary in which she wrote weekly. She did not either use social media, and seldom did reflective writing. Nevertheless, she told me that whenever she did, it helped her improve herself.

Finally, I interviewed Julia from Canada. She told med that she posted in social media on a monthly basis but and that she preferred using instant messaging to communicate with friends. Further, she said she does reflective writing on a monthly basis and that she does this when she is at home. She told me that it helps her to sort her thoughts and that it helps her to evaluate pros and cons to a decision.

To conclude, I was surprised of my respondents’ high rate tendency to keep a paper diary and their low use of social media. It seems that people do reflective writing at home and that the frequency varies a lot.