The Colonel and A Story about the Body

When I first read the assigned stories, I took both, “The Colonel” and “A Story about the Body” to be really confusing and hard to gather any significance or meaning.  It was like one of those stories that was almost frustrating to read because the meaning was so eluding, sometimes questioning if there was even a deeper meaning or if I was totally overthinking the point.  After reading a few times though I began to see some connecting themes.  Even though I’m not sure if this is exactly what the author intended this is what I got from each story.
In “The Colonel” one can easily see that the setting is located in another country, probably during a time of war or struggle within the government.  This is seen as the colonel states how hard the country had become to govern.  Another important point is the statement “as for the rights of anyone.” The most important part of the story that the author wants to convey is that of the human ears in relation to the opening statement, “WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD is true.” The story is trying to be informative about a certain issue dealing with people’s rights and how we choose to listen, representing the ears that have fallen up on the ground, or how we have ignored the cry of those in need, the ears that have fallen pressed to the ground. 

This story was a lot easier to decipher for me.  The main connection that can be made is that of the Japanese painter and the bowl left on the man’s door step.  The way the man treats her in the story is representative of the contents of the bowl.  The bowl itself represents the woman, and the rose petals, her outer beauty that he thought she had before finding the truth about her breasts.  The dead bees are a harsh reminder of how worthless and dead she now feels.  It brings up the question of morally was it right to act in the way that the man did.  It is hard to justify his actions because it almost feels shallow but also I think one should look at the fact that he looked her in the eyes before he walked off, showing a sense of dignity and maybe remorse.