Reading Response to Antonya Nelson's "Lost in the Woods"

  From the title of the essay to the first line, Nelson sets up what this essay is going to be about. She is writing about the cliche story premise of being lost in the woods and it is talking more about the children story aspect. Most people know about this premise or if not I guarantee you've read one before. It is the notion that our protagonist is on a journey and for some reason or another gets lost in the woods. Now this premise is basic and everyone gets the point: protagonist is faced with is first or ultimate struggle.
  Nelson takes that notion and tell us that is it simple, or at least it is to a quick glance. She spends a lot of time in this essay explaining that this "lost in the woods" idea is, yes simple but, tells the audience the ultimate reason behind why the protagonist is struggling and what their background problems were. She goes from kid's story to kid's story explaining a much more complex idea of why they are lost and what the story is trying to show us, the reader.
  Another big thing is that she gets into is the set up for a story with this premise. She says that people think a "happy ending is requirment". She disagrees with that and I disagree with that. The idea of happy endings is nice but it gets boring. The big key point in this article is that these stories are great for kids at a very young age because they don't want to think about plot and character development they want to be happy. But for older individuals, Nelson doesn't believe in happy endings. I don't blame her. Happy endings are a cop out for stories who are afraid to get in someones face and make them see the real side of things. I feel as though her argument for all of this is her going into detail of the story "Folie a Deux".
  All in all Nelson brought up major points on why a cliche premise can be great and brought to light some reasons why novels and stories go for that happy ending.