I chose The Last Spin, it’s written by Evan Hunter. The story tells about two guys, Danny and Tigo. They are from two different gangs. Their gans’s have a problem to solve and they chose Danny and Tigo to solve it. They solved it gang’s style; alternately they put the barrel to their temple and pulled the trigger. While they were pulling the trigger they talked to each other and started to like each others. When they decided to stop the game and Danny pulled last time, his wasn’t so lucky anymore and he died.

Danny and Tigo ultimately decided that they shouldn’t pleased their own gang members. They realized they should live their lifes like they want not the way what the others wants. So they stopped ”playing” with the gun and do the final round. But their decision never came true.

The colloquial language I could find in the story was slang. For example ”I dig” = ” I like” or ”chick”= ”girl”. Using slang makes the story more convincing because the clubs or any other people usually don’t speak literary language in the conversation between two equal persons. Also that Hunter use the slang revitalized the short story.

Danny and Tigo. Two men in a basement meeting each other the first and at the same the last time. Both of them have lost themselves to a bit wrong environment, in the middle of the gang war. They are not supposed to know nothing else of each other than one of them wears a blue and gold gang jacket and the other has a green and orange one. But the end of story is quite a different. During the cylinder twirles, seeking for a cartridge-fulled hole, ready to being launched to kill other one of the men, the men are not so unknown to each other that they should have been.

The reason to that they meet each other overall is that the blue and gold gang had become to the wrong area last night instead of that there supposed to be a truce between the two gangs. Now it was Danny and Tigo´s turn to prove their loyality to their own gangs, being ready to kill for the higher position in the gang.

Tigo is a volunteer to try first the cylinder because he has more less to lose than Danny. Both of them postpone the first turn so long as they can. In common the two men have the will to leave behind the gang life and start a new one. Both of them are trying to keep up the illusion that it´s going to be OK and they will survive this some way. Danny tries to take thinks out of hard reality and suggests to Tigo going to the nearby lake with their girlfriends, though he knows that it is just utopia. He could have not suggest it any earlier because the situation isn´t relaxed enough to think anything else that the mission in that moment. To make the situation running faster, Tigo adds extra bullets to the gun. Before the men know each other far to well.

Danny doesn´t dare to show his feelings that he is scared, because the enemy is an enemy and thinks that Tigo would laugh to him and if the couldn´t survive away from the basement, Tigo might tell in front of the both two gangs that the blue and gold- gang only has cowders as their members.Tigo doesn´t bother to hide his fear.

The two characters have originally joined their gangs because they had to find a place where to escape the broken family relations and poverty, to earn money as quick and as lot as possible, may because sending a part of it to the family. The gang brought safety to moving on the streets, at least for a while. 

The colloquial language is a good add to bring more underworld athmosphere to the story.

There is a small gun on the table right next to three cartridges. In a basement room two serious looking men are sitting against each other wore in different color clothes.  “The Last spin” is a shot story written by Evan Hunter. The short story tells about a conversation of these two men and the development of their friendship while they are playing pernicious game called Russian roulette. It is a game where is only one bullet in cylinder of a revolver. Cylinder is spun and then the gun is pointed at own head. At this point the probability of staying alive is five against one.

I think the story starts quite steeply because right in the beginning it is said that the men are enemies. Maybe Hunter has wanted to accentuate that so the development of men’s friendship would be seen easier. The Discussion seems to be a little bit awkward at first, but in the end of the first round of roulette men have found something in common. I would find the playing situation uncomfortable or very scary whole time, but nervous climate turns to more relaxed. But there is still fear of death in the air despite joking and nice chatting, of course. They are still playing deadly game.

The only reason why Danny and Tigo are meeting is that their clubs have said so. Clubs have some disagreement with borders of their areas and Danny and Tigo are wanted to settle it by playing Russian roulette.  Like it would solve anything if other one of these men dies! Ultimately men don’t care what their clubs will say and they become friends and plan going to the lake after all this. This proves that men respect friendship much more than their clubs.

Finally men settle that this round is the last one. There are three bullets in cylinder of revolver and odds to die are 50-50. Last bulling of trigger and men are going to cut the game off but Danny in not that lucky and dies. Tigo’s weeping proves that the deep friendship can be arisen in quite short time.

The dialect of the language what they are speaking is a little bit vulgar, which strengthen the effect about men’s background in gangs. Some words, especially auxiliary verbs, are dropped out from the lines of the men. Here are few examples for the way they are speaking: “Hey, you got to tryin, man,” and other one: “so what’re you gonna do, huh?” They use a lot of colloquial language and it creates certain ambiance to the story.

Alecia McKenzie’s short story ”Full Stop” seems pretty simple when you read it first time. An old but obviously sharp-witted grandmother and her grandchild Carmen are writing short letters to each others. Letters dealt with everyday things like painting a house but also difficult family relationships. The interesting point is that Grandma writes without punctuation. Why is that, maybe she is lazy or she just don’t know how to write right? Carmen doesn’t either use commas and full stops in her first letter to Grandma. Probably she does that because she wants to test how Grandma would respond to it. Well, Grandma writes back wondering “Why are you writing me without punctuation?”. Clearly she can write right. Grandma also remind how she had to worked hard that Carmen would be able to go to school. From this we can deduce Grandma appreciates studying. She seems a little bit ungrateful too as she thanks Carmen for the money yet saying it’s not enough for the painter’s payment so she had to paint the house herself. This part of the text also reveals that Grandma really is a truly Christian. She tells example she prays every night and she wish God Bless to Carmen at the end of the letter.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Grandma has raised Carmen because her own mother has left to England after having Carmen. Women have totally different versions of events. Carmen’s real mother presents that she made an agreement with Grandma but then Grandma broke it. The intention was that Grandma would have been keeped Carmen for a while until her parents get more money. Nevertheless Grandma had been hiding children, because she hates their father who wouldn’t go to church. Whereas Grandma concerned Carmen’s mother is a snake in the grass. And Grandma, a good Christian, believes ”The Good Lord appointed her guardian”.

Personally I do believe more the version of Carmen’s mother. If she really didn’t want to take care of her child why would she be interested all of the sudden when the child is almost thirty-years-old? On the other hand, could be possible that she just didn’t have enough money then. Anyway, Carmen thinks that Grandma is her mother because she raised her. That’s why Carmen wants to take care of Grandma, sending money for her. Carmen ask Grandma to get somebody to put burglar bars over all the windows. Grandma refuses until right at the end of the story. Probably she change her mind because the home island is not so safe anymore. There are thieves who break into everybody’s house. Other reason could be that Grandma is beginning to trust more Carmen. It feels like Grandma doesn’t have many people around her, maybe she is lonely. Carmen’s brother Richard doesn’t keep in touch with Grandma at all. That’s strange because Carmen does. May be that their mother is right, Grandma was really hiding them for their real mother and wouldn’t let them meet her. As a result, Richard would be embittered and angry and never want to meet Grandma again.

It was pretty difficult first read the text without punctuation but it was good to notice how important commas and full stops actually are. The interest and excitement increased towards the end of the story. After all the Full Stop is a good story and I would recommend to read it!

I read Evan Hunter’s short story The Last Spin. I chose it because of the story’s set-up, two rival gangs, two members of those gangs and some good old-fashioned Russian roulette in a basement. 

Two guys sit on the table opposite each other. Our main character is called Danny and the man sitting against him is called Tigo. The Russian roulette is a way to settle differences between the two gangs, to avoid fighting in the streets and getting busted by police, Danny and Tigo were only chosen by coincidence and that’s what Tigo keeps telling to Danny, that there’s nothing personal between them. Danny is new on the block and that’s why Tigo doesn’t recognize him. Danny comes from Bronx so it seems that the story is located in New York, although Bronx is quite known as a place all around the world. The boys begin the roulette and meanwhile start to talk about some really personal stuff, like girlfriends and family. The roulette goes on and on without the gun firing a bullet, when Tigo decides to add another cartridge to the chamber of the gun. Danny is kind of surprised by Tigo’s decision especially after their conversation but Tigo simply explains his action by that the gangs won’t be happy until one of them is ”capped”. The roulette continues without either of the men getting killed. Then Tigo decides to add another bullet to the chamber. Guys talk about taking a boat trip with their girlfriends next weekend and they decide to escape the whole gang situation if Danny survives from the next pull of the trigger. Even though the guys have got to know each other there’s still a small trust issue because Danny doesn’t want to close his eyes during the last shot cause he’s afraid that Tigo might do something to him.

I like the narration and the use of gang-related terms, although the word ”piece” is used a bit too much, how about using ”gun” sometimes? At some points the text gets a bit repetitive when the guys are just passing the gun to each other. Things start to get interesting when Tigo adds another bullet to the chamber, that’s the moment when the characters really start to have some depth and character when the tension rises to a whole new level. Narration describes the scene very well and every emotion is well described.

 Written by aseilori4

The story ”Why, honey?” by Raymond Carver is a letter which the mother has written to someone. In the letter she tells a story about her son who always lies to her and gets outbursts. The mother’s and the son’s relationship isn’t very close because of a lying son and at the end of the story they don’t even keep in touch anymore.

When the son was fifteen their cat disappeared. A couple who lived near them told to the mother that they had seen the cat coming their backyard to die and they thought that her son had caused it with some other boy. The mother could’t believe that her son could do something like that.
When the son got a job he said that he had drawn 80 dollars’ check but the mother found the stub from his job and it was for 28 dollars. The son kept on lying without any reason. The mother thought that if she would ask her son where did he go last night he wouldn’t tell the truth. Once the son was supposed to have gone on a field trip but the next day she got a note from school which said that they wanted permission for a field trip. The mother even found a bloody shirt from the trunk of her son’s car and also a shotgun and a knife. The son gave a bad explanation to the shirt as he always did regardless of what the mother asked him.

Finally one day the mother asked the son why he was always lying but he just stared at her until he moved over alongside her and told her to kneel down. That was the last time the mother saw him except for at his graduation. The mother heard about him from somebody and noticed that he had became famous. She found out his address and began to wrote him a letter every few months but he never answered.Then she thought that he could find her if he wanted and took an unlisted number and changed her name. The mother saw once a car on the street with a man inside and knew he was watching her. And after that she answered phone but nobody talked to her. She was very afraid of everything.

I think that the mother’s claims were always right. The son was always so mysterious and the mother found out many times that he was lying like about his field trip or what he had earned from his job. She had many valid evidences which told much about the son’s honesty.
The mother wrote the letter because she wanted someone to know the story of her son and probably because she wanted to talk about it with someone and get advice.

The Last Spin is short story written by Evan Hunter and it has been published in Open Road Course 5 in year 2009.

The story tells about two guys, probable gang members, solving their problems by gang’s methods. The guys, Danny and Tigo, are members of rival gangs and their groups are expecting them to solve the dispute in a way which will end up fatally, Russian roulette. While pulling the trigger the guys had a conversation which brought them closer to each other. They nearly became friends and they even planned founding a new group together. However, Danny’s pull was his last act, he shot his head off with a pull that they agreed will be the last.

The language used in this short story has some gang slang words and expressions. For example  “pieces” , “chicks” and  “I never seen you neither”. Also, Danny is from Bronx where is a lot of gangs and which also has an influence to the language. The particular language causes that the story feels more like a underground or mafia story. The language also makes the story more interesting.

Danny and Tigo are enemies just because they belong to different gangs. They hate each other even they have never met which tells something of the power of a gang. They don’t know life outside a gang but they started thinking that things could be different. While pulling the trigger, the guys discussed about their feelings of belonging to a gang and it seems that they are just used to be part of a gang and neither of them are happy. It seem that both guys fears but they don’t want to show it. At first they wanted to look tough and harsh but step by step they are revealing their emotions. They even talked about their girlfriends and planned a Sunday trip on the lake together.

In my opinion the short story was nicely written and interesting. It ended dramatically which suits this type of story. It feels that this could have been a real life story.