Response to Kody

            The story was about a man named Thomas who lived in a small town where the preacher has recently stepped down to take care of an ill family member. After much deliberation the town, along with Thomas, decided that Thomas would take over as the preacher of the church. After his first few weeks in the church his wife tells him that she is pregnant. After finding this out Thomas turns to the bible to help him understand or better know what to expect from being a father, however he seems to be disappointed in a lot of the stories he finds about fathers. He turns to a few friends as well as his wife about the issue as he is trying to help others deal with their issues. One boy in particular from the football team approaches Thomas and tells him about his family problems at home. After having this talk with the boy, Thomas basically loses all the faith he has left in what he is preaching. He realizes he does not have the strong faith that he thought he had and steps down as the preacher ready to become a father, but uncertain as to what his family’s future has in store.

            I was definitely interested throughout the entire story, and I think a lot of that had to do with the great descriptions you give throughout the story. Your images were so clear and precise, especially when it came to the description of the church. I also liked that the story was a bit different than some of the others we have seen in this class. It had a very particular southern ring to it, which I liked very much considering I was born and raised in the south, and it dealt heavily with religion, which is something I feel like we haven’t really read about in this class so it was a nice change. I thought your story had a nice voice to it, and as I said before, your descriptions were well done.

            The main suggestion I have would be to give us a little more about why Thomas goes through such a drastic change. I realize that he didn’t really seem to be accepting what he was preaching, but for someone who has most likely grown up with a strong Christian background to all of the sudden completely lose faith in what they believe, I feel like something a little more drastic should have happened, or maybe not, but if not then I would just like to see more about why he went through the drastic change he did.