"The Things They Left Behind" Part 1 (1-31)

Eddie DiTolla
Mr. Thomas
English 10
9 December 2013
Stephen King
C. There were many things that were confusing to me besides that I didn’t like the book because it was confusing to follow. One question that I have is why at the beginning of the story he tells us of the story with the air conditioner unit and how he fixes it? Another one is once this idea reminds him, not the ac unit, but, the one about how the first feeling was shame and why would the first idea or story would be him of almost getting caught masturbating, why can’t it be like something h did in school or anything else? I found that to be a little weird of why that was the first idea and how does that even remind you of doing that thing remind you of shame?
D. Once I read deeper into the story I figured out what the sunglasses and the other items were from the victims he knew from 9/11 and he has to return them. One set of lines I liked from this book is “In addition to the sunglasses and baseball bat with claims adjustor burned into the side, there was a Howie’s Laff-Riot Farting cushion, a conch shell, a steel penny suspended in a Lucite cube, and a ceramic mushroom (red with spots) that came with a ceramic Alice sitting top of it. The Farting cushion had belonged to Jimmy Eagleton and got a certain amount of play every year at the Christmas party. The ceramic Alice had been on Maureen Hannon’s desk – a gift from her granddaughter she’d told me once. Page 15” I liked this set of lines because it told me of all of the things his friends had and has to return to their families because he was still alive and how he should have been in there with them. Another thing I liked is that everyone had something left behind even though they died in 9/11.
E. I’m safe, I said. Haven’t attacked a woman in over a year. I used to attack two or three a week, but the meetings are helping” page 3.” My reactions toward this quote from page three is that why would you tell anyone that you attacked a woman especially if you are talking to a woman like what he did. Lastly, this gut is crazy and I would never talk to this guy ever again.

Martin Steffens
Mr. Thomas
English 10
December 9, 2013
C) I was confused at a couple things in this passage. The first is why does King have to use narrative drift in this piece. Every page or so he just goes off and talks about how much the people talk about baseball in New Yak or whatever. My next question is when this was written. There are a lot of similarities in the way this was written but there are also a few differences. The flash disc is something that I recognize but I have never seen in use. On the other hand King uses today terms so I am a little confused.
E) As a non-believer in ghosts I do not believe this story one little bit. I think he may have misplaced the sunglasses a while back and the bat turned because of the wind. I liked reading this story because it kept me in suspense but I do not believe it one bit.
H) When I was reading this I was only able to visualize Seinfeld. I feel like all of the people would be able to fit the characters of the show. Since Seinfeld was airing before me, it was old school New York, just like this story. If I were to make this story as a movie or a play I would choose Seinfeld as the base.

Nicholas Leong
Mr.Thomas
English 10
12/9/13
Discussion board
E. One thing that I found sick and disgusting was that Scott was trying to pleasure himself with his sister’s panties and some magazines. It very disgusting in my opinion because I could never see anybody doing that to their sister. I could reason for doing that, but not to your sister . The thing I found pretty interesting was how he kept referencing to “beat the clock.” As sick as it was, I thought that reference was pretty cool.
H. When he hears the moms car rolling into the street and when he hears his mom calling him to come down, I could imagine him just being sprawled out on his sisters bed and just freezing, trying to listen to see if it was really his mom. After realizing it was her, he jumped off the bed in a frantic way and just barely put his clothes on.
I. I agree with Chris Noble where he says “I didn’t like the use of Narrative Drift in some parts of the story: “I admitted that it was although I didn’t add that I was still quite new to it. Nor did I ask her to call me Scott- that would have spooked her all over again. And I certainly didn’t tell her that I was trying to forget all I’d once known about rural insurance. That I was, in fact, trying to forget quite a lot of things, including about two dozen faces” (page 4). I didn’t like the use of Narrative Drift because it doesn’t really have a major importance to the story. A small comment would have been fine, but I think a couple of paragraphs are too much” I agree with him because It almost made me not want to read it because it seemed very boring.

C.) In the very first page, he talks about how attractive Paula Robeson is. It sounds as if he likes her. Does he actually like her? Another part in the book that kind of showed that he found her very attractive was in page 2 when he says “and I remember the glance she gave me – those cool, assessing grey eyes.” I’m also wondering as to why he said that joke when she asked him, “are you safe?” He replied, “haven’t attacked a woman in over a year. I used to attack two or three a week, but the meetings are helping.” I also noticed that most of his jokes are like this. His jokes are witty and weird.

E.) I don’t like it how there is quite a few narrative drifts in this book. I see them all over the book. Sometimes, he also adds a lot of unnecessary details. For example, “The bed was scattered with pictures I’d clipped from the magazines I’d found in the back of the garage – the previous owner’s stash of Penthouse and Gallery magazines, very likely.” To me, he sounds like a very odd guy. He kind of reminds me of Christopher from the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

I agree with Anthony. I also like that quote from page 5. It quote that gets people thinking and realize that it’s true. I also agree with Nick. I found that scene where he used his sister's underpants extremely disturbing and disgusting. The worst part is that I have a sister myself and that thought never came across my mind before. Im gonna kill myself now.

C) What was the whole point of the story? I found it very confusing and hard to understand it just seemed as if he rambled on the whole story. Why did he think that all these things were popping out, out of nowhere? Who owns the sun glasses that he is showing the door man? It seems really confusing because he names at least three people. Also he says that there was a jokes shade. Is the whole point of the story to tell about the people of his job at 9/11 that were killed and that he is telling their story through their stuff? That’s all I really got from reading other than that it was confusing.
A) It seems as if Stephen King shows a lot of narrators drift as he goes through talking about some objects in his house and things that happened in his life. This reminds me of The Odyssey because Homer had lots of narrators drift. But I think that the narrator drift in this reading wasn’t as long as The Odyssey but it still did mess with me and my understanding of the reading.
E) I feel as if Mr. Staley was going a bit crazy remembering all the people that he knew that were dead. I also thought that he was right to have been surprised when he saw all the stuff back in his house, if it was me I would have felt the same. I also think that he is a very talkative person and that he has a very vivid imagination.