“Accident” by Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers short story, “Accident,” describes the scene of an accident between the narrator and a car full of three teenagers. Eggers chose to tell his story in the second person persepection so the reader can fully understand the emotions. The narrator seems lonely to purposely hit the teenager’s car. The narrator states, “You pulled in to an intersection, obstructing them, and their car hit yours. They have every right to be upset, or livid, or even violence-contemplating.” I like this short story because the narrator is concerned about the teen’s safety even though it was his fault they had a car accident. The narrator feels remorse. When I read this short story by Amanda Holzer, “Love and Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape”, it struck me by how genius this story was about by only using song titles. Amanda Holzer’s showed the cycle of our love lives and how we feel sometimes. I like how she reached out to the audience by using music. This short passage actually tells a story of a typical relationship, beginning to end. Love can be so sweet and then it can turn on you and get worst.

It helped understanding the message by knowing some of the songs the narrator mentioned. My most favorite short story was, “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid. The story really hit the big message of mother-daughter relationships. There are high expectations your family has for you especially if you are a female child or the only child. The mother in the story showed tough love so that the girl will know how to become an adult and teach her the same things her mother taught her to live by. Having the right set of parents can still make you feel like a failure because of the accusations, “On Sundays try to walk like a lady and not the slut you are so bent on becoming.” I almost felt the narrator’s pain for what she’s going through with her mother.

I most definitely can relate to this story the girl is telling. “Buffalo Soldiers” by ZZ Packer was my least favorite short story. It was too informational and not detailed enough. I couldn’t make the connection in what the author was portraying. I honestly didn’t care about reading the rest of the story because of how boring and how long the passage was but I still read it and while I was reading, only some parts stood out. The story only caught my attention at some points. For example, when the author mentioned Heyl calling out to the soldiers, “This is it, Niggers,” “This is it.” I was not expecting to read that in the story but the words seem to just jumped off the page and open my eyes. The story was thought out and great at catching some attention but I personally didn’t have a connection. When you can’t really relate to someone’s story, it makes it tough to see through their perspective.