Unit One

        All three works I have selected from Unit One depict the main characters struggling, and ultimately failing, to measure up to expectations. These expectations are set either by themselves, by their loved ones, or by society, and they are met with no small consequences. In the short story, “The Birthday Party,” Gina Berriault writes about a young boy who both observes and suffers himself from the pain his mother experiences after the breaking of an engagement. In “The Soft-Hearted Sioux,” Zitkala-Sa writes of a young Sioux who is unwilling to hunt and kill for food until it is already too late. In “Neighbors,” Raymond Carter recounts a story of a couple who, in the distraction of imagining themselves leading a different life, fail to complete the tasks entrusted to them by their neighbors. While each story involves a struggle and failure to measure up to expectations, they are each unique in where the expectations are coming from and the consequences that result, as well as the people who are secondarily affected by the failure.

"The Birthday Party" by Gina Berriault

        In the short story “The Birthday Party,” Gina Berriault tells the story of a young boy who worries about the well-being of his mother. It is evident through the mother’s words and actions that she is incredibly distressed about something, but it isn’t until the end of the story that the reader discovers what has occurred. In the meantime, the mother leaves her son in the middle of the night, threatening not to come back, stays out until six o’clock in the morning, and leaves him at the birthday party long enough that he worries “her threat for the night might be carried out that day” (Berriault 105). In the end, the boy and the readers learn together that the mother has just broken her engagement with the man who was to be a “more fatherly figure [for the boy] ... than his own had ever been” (Berriault 103). The reader is likely to assume by the mother’s emotions that the engagement was broken off by the man, leaving the woman feeling unworthy and incapable of measuring up to whatever expectations to which the man had been holding her. This failure in turn leads the mother to be negligent in her care for her seven-year-old son—although she does not leave him entirely, as she threatens.

"The Soft-Hearted Sioux" by Zitkala-Sa

        In “The Soft-Hearted Sioux,” Zitkala-Sa tells the tale of a young Sioux boy who has a “soft heart,” meaning he does not wish to hunt and kill animals for food as the warriors of his people are accustomed to do. As he grew up, instead of hunting buffalo alongside his people, he “hunted for the soft heart of Christ, and prayed for the huntsmen who chased the buffalo on the plains” (Zitkala-Sa 407). He eventually returns to his people to preach about his faith in Christ, but faces intense opposition from the community and is viewed as a traitor who cannot take care of his family. The unnamed main character persists in prayer, but continues to resist hunting to provide food for his aging parents. After the first snowfall comes, however, and the family is forced to go several days without any meat, the ill father begins to gnaw at the buffalo-skin robe he is wearing, and cries to his son; “My son, your soft heart will let me starve before you bring me meat” (Zitkala-Sa 410). Finally, the son realizes the gravity of the situation and rushes out of the teepee to find meat. He succeeds in killing a buffalo, also killing a white man in his desperation. Yet when he brings the meat back to his father, he discovers that he was already too late. His father has died from starvation. In allowing his soft heart to dictate his actions and priorities, the young Sioux fails not only to make his father proud, but also to provide for him in the direst of circumstances.

"Neighbors" by Raymond Carver

        In “Neighbors” by Raymond Carver, Bill and Arlene Miller face failure to meet expectations on two accounts. It is evident through their dialogue with each other that they are not living the life they had hoped to lead. Even though they live just across the hall from the Stones, their apartments and life’s activities were considerably different. For, “it seemed to the Millers that the Stones lived a fuller and brighter life” (Carter 86). When the Stones leave for business and/or pleasure trips, they entrust the care of their Kitty and plants to the Millers. While Bill and Arlene have access to the Stones’ apartment, it becomes much more evident that they long for the life the Stones lead. They each linger in the apartment much longer than necessary, admiring the furniture and items, looking through cabinets, and trying on clothes. They lose track of time daydreaming about what their own life could be like, while facing the reality that it is not so. In her distraction one day, Arlene forgets to feed Kitty or water the plants—the sole purpose of her entering the Stones’ apartment to begin with. When she and Bill go back across the hall to resolve their error together, they discover that Arlene has left the key locked inside the apartment. The author describes their reaction to this realization, writing, “They leaned into the door as if against a wind, and braced themselves” (Carter 93). Kitty is now at risk of starvation due to the Millers’ distracted daydreaming about the life they could have lived.