Readings for 03/11/18

Richard Ford's "Rock Springs" was a really great story that I enjoyed reading. Earl, Edna, and all the other characters were very well developed and portrayed. I loved the way Ford worded the story, it really put you in the mind of Earl seeing his thoughts and hearing his emotions and take on things.  I feel like Ford especially did a good job on Edna's character.  The story about her and accidentally killing the monkey was such a fantastic development moment for the character.  Her sharing of the story and subsequent looks to Earl tell me that she was judging herself and seemingly wanted Earl to judge her too.  I say this because his response, trying to make her feel better and sympathize with her about the matter, evoked a negative response out of Edna, as if she was disappointed in his support.  I also like how she sometimes competed for attention from Earl with his daughter, Cheryl, and was seemingly jealous with catty comments like, "I suppose my questions come last here today," and things like that.  But then at other times, we see Edna being tender to Cheryl, and we as readers get an even deeper look into Edna and she becomes a more complex character.  The same for Earl and his situation.  He is on the run for writing bad checks, yet he loves Edna and his daughter and just wants to take care of them and spend his days with them.  He's devastated by the fact that Edna is going back to Montana but doesn't want to show it.  He robs at times but doesn't rob when he easily could have when the older black lady let him in her house to use the phone.  We have a lead character who is full of flaws but also many redeemable qualities and many traits which we all can related to.