The last spin is a short story featured in open road, written by Evan Hunter. Putting it briefly it’s a story about two guys, Tigo and Danny, who have been chosen to settle a fight between their gangs ( which they refer to as ’clubs’ ).  Instead of an actual fight they have been ordered to settle things up by paying a game called russian roulette, a game of chance in which the winner is the one who is lucky enough to stay alive.

There was supposed to be a truce between the gangs, but Danny’s side made the mistake to ignore that, leading to the situation described in the story. The boys are sitting in front of a table in a cold basement room, ready to begin their game. They start out as enemies, not because they had something personal against each other but because that’s how it was supposed to be. Being in different gangs made them automatically enemies. Neither of them wants to show their actual feelings to the other but as they take turns in shooting ( at first with only one cartridge in one of the six cylinders, later two and three ) they start to chat with each other, and each time they pull the trigger they get to know each other a bit better. They talk about their life, family, girlfriends and dreams and soon they notice they actually have a lot in common. Both of the guys start to get reluctant to go on, but quitting now is not an option. Suddenly Tigo asks excitedly if Danny has ever been rowboating on the nearby lake, telling him he should definitely try it sometime. Tigo pulls the trigger once more, staying alive, and as he passes the gun to Danny they agree they were actually lucky they got the chance to meet each other. Grinning they decide to end the game after one more shot and Danny invites his new friend to the lake next sunday. The guys smile at each other, Danny pulls the trigger, and in the few next seconds the explosion rips away half of his face. Tigo rests his head on the table sobbing, and the story comes to an end.

Overall the text was pretty easy to read since It mostly consists of the boy’s dialogue. The colloquial language they used fits well with the atmosphere of the story but was a bit difficult to understand at some parts. (For example the world diddlebop was kind of weird) During the story they realize they have no reason to stay with their gangs. At first both act cool and tough, but later they start to relax. Danny and Tigo realize they only joined the gangs because they were the gangs of their streets, not because they liked their so called ’friends’ there. The gangs were controlling their lives and using them to get power, but together they make the decision to stop taking orders from them. When Danny invites Tigo to come to the lake with him the both of them let go of their roles as gang members completely, and grin together happily and openly as they know they had both finally gotten a friend who they could trust. The ending is what makes the story kind of tragic, it’s a really good ending in my opinion.

”Why, Honey?” is a short story written by Raymond Carver. The story itself is in a form of a letter sent by a concerned but scared mother to an unknown man. The letter is a bit mysterious because it doesn’t reveal any names except for a Mr. Cooper, Fred and Betty Wilks. Mr. Cooper is their neighbour, Fred is the son’s schoolmate and Betty Wilks is a friend of the mother. At first, the mother sounds very concerned about her son but in the end she says she’s afraid.

The mother is implying too much in my opinion. In the case with their cat, Trudy, dying, she sounds suspisious after her son told not to worry and that their cat was very old.
What comes to the wages, she didn’t really think it through. Why would her son lie about getting more money than he actually got? Maybe he earned it due to working overtime or completing some extra task which made him get more money.
I understand the part when the son bought a shotgun and a knife. However, he said he had been hunting. What if he wanted to take up a new hobby with his mates? After all, he did join the marines later.
I’m not really sure whether the mother got the note about field trip a bit late or her son actually was mad. This part really confused me. This seems to be quite convincing evidence.
Why would the mother be suspecting something due to a bloody shirt? She could take her son to the doctor’s in case he had been shot or if he had been in a fight. Other than that, the evidence is not really convincing.
In the kneeling part the son asked her mom to kneel down so he could show something. The mother ran to her room and locked herself up. Why’d she do that if she wanted to hear the truth? Maybe her son was going to tell something important but she was too careless to hear what her son had in mind. On the other hand, why would her son want her to kneel? He could’ve just asked her to sit down if he had something to say.
The surveillance part sounds like the mother is getting mad instead of her son. I think she was a bit paranoid if she thought that someone was spying on her. Maybe she thought that because she herself had been spying on her son.
Altogether, I don’t think her evidence is convincing. The pieces don’t seem to fit together, atleast for me. Some of the evidence is convincing but some not.

The mother makes her claims seem portentous so she could defend her opinions. She does this by suspecting the worst in every case. Like in the kneeling part she just runs to her room without saying anything. Why would she do that?

The last paragraph gives me the idea of her needing psychological care or someone to talk to. At first she says she wanted someone to know and that she’s ashmed. So at first she seems grateful that she was written to. However, right after that, she starts asking how the writer got her address and that she’s been praying that no one would know her address. So she’s grateful and then again afraid which after she seems quite neutral and asks how the writer got her address. This doesn’t make the narrator more reliable. In fact it makes the narrator unreliable to tell such things to a stranger who maybe could end her son’s career with the information. But nothing was said about the receiver of the letter so it could be a good letter as well.

I think the mother is writing to her ex-husband or to her son. Starting with the words ”Dear sir” suggests that she’s writing to someone who’s rather old so it also supports the fact that she’s writing to her ex-husband. But how could her ex-husband get her new name and contact information? It might be via the son but it also suggests that she’s writing to her son instead of her ex-husband. Once again, the mother says it’s hard because there’s no father in the house. That would suggest that the father is written to. He might’ve asked how their son had worked his way up all the way to a governor or just how was their son’s past.

I chose to pick Harrison Bergeron because it sound so thrilling after reading a couple of lines. The story takes place to year 2081 when everybody is finally equal. Not only before God and law but also in every way. Harrison Bergerons father George and mom Hazel are starring on leading roles in this story.

In that time people were made equal by putting some obstacles to intelligent people. One of them was putting handicap radio on their heads which would send sharp noise to their ears and scatter their thoughts. Second was Handicap bag which was filled with forty-seven pounds of lead and hanged to peoples neck.

Handicapper General was the one who invented the items which would equalize people. In story Hazel thinks that she would be great handicapper general. She would transmit only chimes on Sunday, nothing more and just on Sundays to honor the religion.

Harrison is the main bad guy in this story. He was taken from his parents and put in to jail.He had to escape from jail to commit one last thing. He resembles people about the time when they weren’t so equal.  He wants to be the emperor and also he commands everyone to do just like he says. Harrison snaps out of all his handicaps on live television and gets shot to death whilst his mother was watching it on TV.

In the story Hazel and George different from each other by that Hazel is perfectly average intelligence while George’s intelligence is way above normal, so only George must use those handicap items. That highlights the theme of the story about what is normal and what isn’t.

In my opinion I think that Harrison was already full of this world and also full of picking out that equality. He didn’t want to be the same as everyone else. He wanted to be more. Even thought he died in the end doesn’t mean that he wasn’t happy. I think that he died at doing something what he wanted and that’s how we are all supposed to pass away.

Full stop is a short story which is written by Alecia McKenzie. It tells about correspondence between grandchild and grandmother. I red it from the Open Road. The grandchild Carmen is almost thirty and the grandmother`s name is Scottie who is pretty old. Scottie raised Carmen and her brother in an island.

Now, grandmother lives there alone and Carmen lives in New York with Normy. Normy is Carmen`s husband which Scottie calls hubby in the letters. Scottie hasn`t seen Carmen for a while so in a letter Scottie tells to Carmen that she would like to see her and her brother Richard before she die. That is Scotties excuse for getting Carmen to visit her.

Carmen regularly sends money to Scottie involved in the letters because she is so old and not so rich. With the money Grandma Scottie is able to buy a new mattress to her bed and a dress to a funeral. Scottie also put the money in the bank and get to buy some paint for her old house, but she hasn`t money enough to pay for a painter. Carmen doesn`t like an idea that Grandma will paint the house herself, but Scottie tells that there is another reason too than money: she thinks that painters on the island are all thieves. And Scottie manage to paint it.

Carmen also send money to Scottie for getting somebody to put burglar bars over all the windows, because on the island there are thieves who are breaking into everybodys house. Scottie says that she doesn`t like the burglar bars and that God will protect her. However, at the end of the story, she decides to put up the burglar bars because the robbers were broke into Scotties friend`s house. I think that her decision is symbolic of changes in her relationship with Carmen in the way that she agrees to change things because of Carmen and in the way that both of them takes care of each other.

Carmen has a mother too, who live in England, but Carmen doesn`t want to meet her mother because she have seen her only once and she hasn`t forgive her it. Mother`s story what happened once is a little different than Grandmother`s. She blame Scottie almost everything, but Scottie says to Carmen that don`t believe her.

Carmen`s brother is Richard and he lives in California. He doesn`t write very much to his Grandmother because of his work, he says. Someone could think that Richard is just like his mother, who just leaves and doesn`t care her relatives, instead of believe him. In the other hand, some believe him because they have themselves been in the same situation where they hadn`t no time to keep in touch their relatives.

My opinion is that Grandmother Scottie is caring, sense of humor and polite, because already at the beginning she says:”Thanks for the money.” When Scottie upbraids her grandchild of her way to write, I think that she says it a bit joykingly. Scottie also prays for Carmen every night and sends the letters to her so, that means me that she is caring.

My opinion of a question ”Is Grandma a good Christian?” is that I can`t classify who is a good or who is a bad Christian because all people are equal. Only which means is question that has a person accepted Jesus as your personal savior or in other words, is a person believer. The only one who knows the answer to the question, is a human believer or not, is Lord. What I can see on the text, Scottie prays, so she must to believe in God. She also tells points from the Bible, so I would assume that she is a believer.

I think that Scottie speaks the truth of that why she raised Carmen. Of course, I can`t be sure, but I think that if Scottie is a believer how could she lie to her own grandchild that her mother couldn`t take care of her? Carmen`s mother says that when she came back for her children, Scottie refused to give them up. But who could take the mother`s children away from her?

I chose a short story by Alecia McKenzie, because it seemed quite interesting. Full Stop is a story about Carmen and her Grandmother Scottie, who has raised Carmen and her brother Richard. It’s also a story about the ice cold relationship between mother and daughter. The story consists of letters which Carmen and Scottie send to each other. Through letters reader can form an image of the characters’ lives.

Carmen is almost thirty years old woman who is married to Normy. In her letters Scottie writes about “hubby” referring to Normy and asks Carmen to give regards to him. Carmen and Normy live in New York. Carmen is raised by her Grandmother because her parents weren’t able to do it by themselves. Carmen’s parents were really young when Carmen was born, so this arrangement was quite necessary. Nevertheless, Carmen’s mother is stubbornly trying to contact her daughter. Carmen isn’t happy about that because she doesn’t consider her as a mother and her mother is completely strange to her. That’s also the reason why Carmen by herself doesn’t want to contact her mother or in any way be in touch with her.

Scottie is Carmen and Richard’s Grandmother. Scottie and Carmen write letters to each other quite a lot. Carmen sends money enclosed to her almost every letter for some specific purpose but Scottie spends the money always to something else or puts the money in the bank. For example, Carmen sends money to Scottie for getting a painter, but Scottie decides to paint her house by herself because she thinks that painters can’t do the job right and she would have to do it anyway. Carmen also sends money to Scottie for putting up some burglar bars, but Scottie needs a dress to funeral so she buys a dress instead of the burglar bars. Scottie asks Carmen to visit her in almost every letter she sends. Scottie is a little worried about her time in the earth and she would like to get to know Carmen’s husband before she passes away.

Richard – or Richie – is mentioned in the text a couple of times. He is Carmen’s little brother. Grandma Scottie is waiting a letter from him but Richie is too busy to write. When he finally sends a letter to Scottie, he writes that he has worked overtime and just moved into a new apartment. However, Scottie is a little doubting about the reasons why he hasn’t written earlier. I think that there may be many different reasons why Richard doesn’t keep in touch with Scottie. Maybe he is telling the truth and he just simply is too busy to write. Or maybe he isn’t that much into writing. But I think it’s more likely that Richard has just never found his relationship with Scottie close enough to be in touch with her.

The way that Grandma Scottie writes her letters is rather interesting. She writes everything without any punctuation. It isn’t explained in any point why is she doing like that. Maybe it’s something in her personality. Maybe she just isn’t interested enough to pay attention to them. Or maybe she is not that educated to know how to use punctuation. That’s why it’s really weird that it’s so huge a problem to her when Carmen writes her first letter without any punctuation. Scottie even seems to be a little disappointed in her because of that. But why should Carmen use punctuation if Scottie doesn’t use them by herself?

Grandma Scottie writes a lot about God and she uses phrases from Bible. She strongly believes that The Lord will take care of everything. At first Scottie seems to be a good Christian. She believes in God, she prays, she knows phrases from Bible, etc. But is that enough? Are you really a good Christian if you know Bible by heart? I don’t think so. What about charity and forgiveness? I think that those are the most important Christian virtues. Nevertheless, Scottie is comparing her own daughter to “a snake in the grass” and she even seems to be a little disappointed in her. Scottie didn’t like Carmen’s father either. However, she tells Carmen that she should forgive “seven times seven” like God has said. So why isn’t she doing that by herself? I think that Scottie has a little bit different values that Christianity represents. That’s why I think that Scottie isn’t a good Christian.

It’s quite obvious that Scottie doesn’t like much her daughter. I get a feeling from the text that Scottie is trying to manipulate Carmen against her mother. Scottie keeps telling Carmen that she can’t trust her mother and that Carmen’s mother is a liar. Despite that, Scottie always tells Carmen to write her mother. Is she trying to make amends for something? And who is right in the end? In the last letter Grandma doesn’t explain properly what has actually happened between her and her daughter. I think that Carmen’s mother has some point in her accusation. Why would she fake all that? Because her guilty conscience? Yes, maybe, but not entirely. There must have been some disagreement in some point. But if Carmen’s mother would really have wanted to have her kids back, she would have worked harder because she does have a legal right to her own children. I believe both stories partly and I think that there is something true in both versions of events. Grandma Scottie has probably done something wrong but Carmen’s mother must have some faults as well.

Carmen takes a really good care of her Grandmother. She writes several times that Scottie should install the burglar bars for her own safe. However, Scottie refuses to do that until right at the end of the story. Scottie promises to install the burglar bars right after Carmen has asked her about her mother. Maybe she is trying to draw Carmen’s attention to some other things instead of her mother. That can also be seen as a symbol of their relationship. In the beginning Scottie is Carmen’s trustworthy guardian but after Carmen’s mother’s visit, everything changes. Carmen starts to question her and Scottie approves Carmen’s insistence to install the burglar bars. Maybe that’s some kind of atonement.

All in all, I think that Full Stop is quite an interesting story even though it was really hard to read the text in some points because there was no punctuation. I also found the ending a little weird, the story just ends. Nevertheless, Full Stop is an impressive narration of the relationships between three women.

Full stop is short story in Open road. It was written by Alecia McKenzie. The story is told by letters.

Short story telling Carmen and her grandmother. Carmen living in New York with her husband. Carmen woks a doctor in local hospital.
Cramen’s grandmother living in Scotland. Grandmother never use commas and full stop in letters. Grandmother cites every letter about God because she is Christian.

Carmen and her brother Richie are crown up with them grandmother. Carmen and her brother parents were not able to care of them. That’s why Carmen and her grandmother are really close to each other. They write each other quite often.

Carmen send money to her grandmother. Grandmother is writing Carmen that thieves have broken houses in there. That’s why Carmen wants that grandmother put burglar bars the house windows. Grandmother don’t like that idea.

Grandmother wants that Carmen write her mother in England. Carmen doesn’t want to do that but soon she agrees to do that.
She write her mother and get hear that her mother has a cyst in her eye. Her mother also told that she wants to come in New York for the operation. Carmen doesn’t like that idea.

Soon Carmen’s mother arrives to Carmen’s house. Carmen’s mother told her that she and her husband gave Carmen and Richie to their grandmother to short period of time to stay. Because they went to work in England. But the grandmother refused to give them back to their parents.

Grandmother told Carmen that her mother and dad didn’t go England to work. They doesn’t ready to raise Carmen and her brother. That’s why they live with her grandmother.
Carmen believed her grandmother.

I like this short story. But grandmother’s letters is hard to read.
Because commas and full stop missing. Still I like the story.