Mining For Meaning

Prose Exercise 2

1) The narrator's view is that they are very hard to comprehend, in a way, very hard to please. As shown in the passage, "Men are difficult, so hard to understand" and "Instead you have to put up with whatever state ther're in-unwelcome attentions or hurtful silence". In the evidence as quoted, "Men are difficult, so hard to understand", it shows the narrator's displeasure of men in general, as she feels that if you want to fully understand them. Secondly, in the evidence quoted "Instead you have to put up with whatever state ther're in-unwelcome attentions or hurtful silence", it shows that you will have to accept and put up anything that they give you. Therefore, she finds that men on a whole, is very hard to comprehend.

2) The internal conflicts that the narrator has within herself is that she finds that it is impossible to comprehend 'men'. She even mentions and gave a comparison on how long she took to try to figure out them. She uses "Sometimes, I feel I've spent my whole life trying to work out how to handle him". This is how she shows her displeasure towards men as she feels that no matter how much time she spends, she wont ever reach a point where she can 'comprehend' them. The external conflicts she has, is the ones she has with her ex-boyfriend. She got sick of the cycle, having to put up with things, doing the same mundane things over and over again every week. She just coldn't tolerate how things were going & eventually took the iniative to break up with him.

3) The narrator is feeling and showing her sorrow of how she really tries to comprehend men, but fails. Similarly, she uses the word "I" and this is first-person narration, the narrator focus alot on how we view the events of the story to show her displeasure towards men.