Jack And The Mad Dog Analysis

The first chapter from How to Read Literature Like a Professor explained “there’s no such thing as a wholly original work of literature” (24). Foster referenced many books that pull stories from the bible, a very widely read book at is filled with many studies that stand the test of time. Another place we pull themes from from old folk tales that give insights of life lessons. This week the story “Jack and the Mad Dog” very obviously warns too much of a good thing almost always turns bad. From week one we read the Cherokee myth “The Uktena And The Ulûñsû'tï”. This story also can be seen as warning of too much good. The “good” of the Uktena can be seen in the quote, “Whoever owns the Ulûñsû'tî is sure of success in hunting, love, rainmaking,

I will start with how her connection to her home and the Appalachian mountains impacted her. One major way the land impacted her was in her love life. Anneth loved the mountains more than anything else and this kept her from fully loving a man until she found Bradley who shared her passion for the mountains. Anneth loving the land was a key point in her leaving her second husband, Liam. Since Liam was the foreman of the Almont Mining Company she left him after finding out the company planned to take her family's land and strip mine the mountain. “She couldn’t believe she had married a man who was going tear up the land she had loved all her life, a man who was too stupid to see that she loved that land more than him” (242). Anneth and Bradley had a very short relationship since he was going off to fight in the Vietnam war. Yet within the two days they had together they fell deep in love. “‘I can’t understand anybody doing that’ he said, when she looked at his face she saw that sadness lived there. ‘Tearing up the land like that. It just kills me. And it was that easy, that instant. In that moment she loved more than she had ever loved anymore else” (270-71). Anneth is also very connected to her sister Easter. Anneth finds that she can rely on Easter more than anyone else in the world. Through this connection, it becomes apparent that Anneth feels the most safe and happy when she knows her sister nearby. This fact also keeps Anneth from being able to stray far from home as others might think she wishes to do. Anneth is like one of the birds she so admires, she leaves and sees the world, but she always returns to the same place which she knows will always be her home no matter where her house sits. Anneth and Easter both were not just fighting for a land mass, but rather a living breathing member of their family. The memories the girls had with their grandmothers taking them to the field of wildflowers spreading