Reading Response: October 27, 2011

The father is a happy man before he gets married and then becomes distraught and upset when he gets married and owns his own chicken farm. The author doesn't understand the point of having chickens, because they are more work than their worth. The narrator said that he had trouble being happy because he was surrounded by sick or dead chickens all the time. We are supposed to see that the American dream doesn't really exist. The "grotesques" show that the father believes he can make a living and fortune off of them, when really people are just grossed out by them. The father decides he is going to be happy and entertain the people who come through, and he ends up being more unhappy because he doesn't succeed. The statement at the end of the story means that no matter how hard some people try they just aren't meant to be famous or rich people.