Stephen Dixon's Writing Style

Question--To what extent is setting (region, living conditions, economic status, or other determinations) influential on how 2 or 3 of these authors write?

When we signed up for this class, we weren't sure what to expect; after the first, day we both realized that this class would be very interesting. We enjoyed meeting in a small discussion group because it helped us think more creatively about the stories. The small groups also helped us create discussion topics, which made us more prepared for the large group discussion in class.

At first glance of these books, we weren't sure if they were going to interest us. Judging by the titles, these books don't seem to fit together at all, but after we read certain stories from each book, we were able to understand how these stories were alike, but yet different at the same time. I guess that's why you can't judge a book by its cover. Each author has a different writing style, but they were all able to depict a picture in my mind.

After reading the first page of Streets, by Stephen Dixon, we came to the conclusion that we didn't like the how the story was written. Dixon's writing style has a lot of detail and description in it, which makes it very easy to get a mental picture in your mind. But at the same time, it is very frustrating to read because of all the short sentences. The people seem to argue over petty things, such as who should call the police or if the young girl was trustful. It seemed very odd to us that no one in the crowd would just pick up their cell phone and call the police, but we didn't realize that this story was much before the cell phone era.

One common theme that we noticed in the Stephen Dixon stories was the region that the stories took place. Stories such as Streets, Security Guard, and Ann From the Street all took place in a larger city. We can tell they took place in a large city because of the amount of people on the sidewalks and the traffic. Other clues include characters riding busses and living in large apartment complexes. Being from a small town in Iowa, we know that bus systems and high traffic on the roads isn't very likely unless we are in a bigger city. After talking in class, we found out that Dixon Lived in New York, which most likely inspired setting for his stories.

One story that interested me was Out of Work because of the setting that was depicted in the story. By assigning stereo types to people in the story, Dixon made the reader believe that all people in the Midwest like to hunt, fish, and drink. He also made correlations to how bad our winter blizzards are. This story almost made us angry because of all the untrue statements made about Midwest people and