The Bees by Dan Chaon

http://danchaon.com/biography/

This is the official website of Dan Chaon. This would help someone understand the type of work that the author does. It will help a reader discover the kind of writer that Dan Chaon is.

www.nativeremedies.com/ailment/overcoming-fears-info.html

Fear is something that comes up very frequently in this story. It is more or less one of the themes. Looking at this website cold help you understand where fear comes from. Everyone has fear some point in time, but do we know where it comes from? How we get the feeling of fear? This could better explain fear to us.

psychcentral.com/disorders/sx37.htm

This website has information about the symptoms of paranoia. The reason that this website would help a reader under stand The Bees is because Gene acts weird in the story. He will space out at random moments. He also woke up naked on his living room floor and had no idea how he had gotten there.

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/157163.php

This website is about alcoholism. From the flashbacks in the story, we know that Gene is a alcoholic. Everyone has an idea about what an alcoholic is. Usually it is just someone that drinks, A LOT.  This website give the medical definition of what an alcoholic is and what alcholism is.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141164708

This website is about brain maturity. The reason that this website would help a reader better understand the story is because when Gene was 19 he got a girl pregnant and when their son, DJ, was five he left his family. I believe the that a big part of the reason was because he wasn't mature enough to have a family and he felt that too. Some of the maturity was in his brain. His brain was not mature enough to handle with everything that was going on, and this website could explain how mature his brain was.

http://sonswithoutfathers.wordpress.com/

This is another blog about sons without fathers. It could give us a look at what DJ must of felt like when Gene left the family. When parents leave their family, it must take a big toll on the kids. They have no idea where one of their parents went and they don't kow why. When they are older, they will probably feel like it is all their fault that their parent left the family and it could bring depression and all sorts of things for the kids.

http://www.changecompanies.net/trauma-in-life.php

This website has to do with life changing trauma. This webiste would help with better understanding the story because when Gene's son screams throughout the night, the doctor asks if he has gone through anything that could traumatize him. Both parents say that everything is fine at the home and they couldn't think of anything that would do that. But it gets to Gene and that's when we learn about his ex-wife and son. It could help us understand better what he is going through.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002486/

This website is about teenage depression. The only teenager that we know in this story is DJ. Gene doesn't talk about him as a teenager. He talks about him as a little boy. At the time the story takes place though, DJ would be 15. He could be going through depression from when his father left, so this way we could learn how DJ thinks and acts if he really is going through depression.

http://www.aa.org/subpage.cfm?page=287

This website is a website about Alcoholics Anonymous: Frequently asked questions. This could help us understand Gene a little better. He went to AA meetings to get sober and brings up thinking about going to them again even though he hasn't drank in a few years. This will give us an insite to Gene's mind.

http://www.child.net/articles/marriage/

This website is about teenage marriage. Gene got married to a girl that he got pregnant at 19. The only reason that they got married was because she was pregnant. This could help us understand the story because it explains the responsibility of being in a marriage as a teenager and it would explain what a responsibility it was for Gene and his ex-wive.

On the Rainy River by Tim O'Brien

On the Rainy River is a short story about a young man that gets drafted to go to the Vietnam war during 1968. He is completely against the war and doesn't want to go. Instead of going, he thinks up the plan to go to Canada. For awhile the plan is just stirring in his head, but then one day at work, he decides to execute it. For awhile he is just driving as far away as he can get. When it gets dark and he starts to get tired, he finds a place called the Tip Top Lodge. The owner lets him stay for six and even has him working around the lodge. On the last day, the owner, Elroy, takes him out fishing. During their fishing trip, Tim has a hallucination. When the hallucination is over with, he knows that he has to go back and go to the war because he doesn't want people to think badly of him, or that he is a coward. 

Tim is confused about whether or not he should go to the war.

This is the Vietnam flag. The story take place during the Vietnam war.

In the story, Tim comes across the Tip Top Lodge. He works for the guy that owns it. This is where a big chunk of the story takes place.

During this time, Tim is looking back on himself in 1968. He is writing a letter to his parents about how he is sorry that he never found the courage to tell them about him running away to Canada.

Tim worked at a pig declotting factory over the summer, even though he hated blood. This is an example of irony.

Since it was during the Vietnam war there were draft cards. Tim didn't want to go to war when he received one.

Instead of going to the war, he had thought about making his way to Canada.

Elroy Berdahl gave money to Tim for helping him around the Tip Top Lodge.

Tim and Elroy went fishing, and during this time Tim had a hallucination and a choir with bright purple robes was there.

To try to escape from going to the war, Tim ranaway and headed towards Canada. He was stuck between his two choices.

Elroy took Tim fishing and this is were he realized that he needed to go to the war even though he was afraid of dying.

Tim mentions the Gobbler Café. He didn't want people to think badly of him, this is one of the main reasons why he decides to go to the war.

This picture represents courage. The cowardly lion stands for Tim. He didn't have courage and that is why to started to run away to Canada.

This street sign stands for the two ways that Tim can go, either to the war or Canada where he is headed.

 

In the beginning of the story, Tim tells us that he has never told anyone this story before so we can pull from that, that he is a secretive character.

The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore by Sherman Alexie

DEVELOP A CREATIVE FOLLOW UP TO ONE OF THE STORIES

Over the weekend that Lucy girl had a game. Adrian and I decided to go. Adrian was right, she really is a little warrior. She could be better than that Julius Windmaker by the time she gets to his age.
After the game, we headed back to my house and sat on the porch.
"Do we have any beer left?" Adrian asked.
He had forgotten again that we have been trying to stop. I just handed him a pepsi and didn't say anything.
"I told you that she could play," Adrian said.
"Yeah, I know. I didn't think that you were lying."
"Whatever," Adrian said. "Hey, do you ever think that they are going to get that traffic light fixed?"
"Probably not. It's not that damn important anyway. Nobody ever comes around."
"Yeah."
Around nine the two of us decided to go to Spokane. I figured that Julius would be drunk again tonight so I decided to leave the door unlocked.
Like I suspected he was there in the morning.
"Again? Get out of here, this isn't your house!" Adrian exclaimed.
He had started to wake up.
"Last time I remember, this wasn't your house either. You can't tell me what to do," Julius said to Adrian.
"Sure as hell I can't."
"Could you two just shut up! Julius just go home, where you belong." I told them.
For a second he looked like he was about to say something but he didn't, he just got up and left my house.
"I always knew that that kid would turn crap," Adrian said.
"Well we didn't turn out so hot either, Adrian."
"I just hope that Lucy girl doesn't turn out like everyone else."
I then looked out through the window facing the road. The street light still wasn't working.

Chef's House by Raymond Carver

http://www.classicalconnect.com/Ensemble_Music/Merula/Ciaconna/1656

Chef's House is a story about a woman, Edna, who goes back with her ex-husband, Wes, over a summer to help him recover from being an alcoholic. During the story, Edna talks about her summer with Wes and how simple and fun everything was for the two of them at the beach house they are staying in. 
The link above is a classical music link. The piece of music is by Tarquinio Merula it is called Ciaconna. The reason that I picked this piece of music was because I found it very fun. If there was a song to describe how well Edna and Wes's summer was, I would imagine that this would be it.