American Literature After 1945 Fall 2014: Week 4

Showing posts with label Week 4. Show all posts

Monday, September 15, 2014

Sonny Blues

As I read this story it brought back memories of my childhood and how my family is today. As a family first of all we were brought up in church and we went every Sunday even to Sunday school. My mother was a woman that took care of the house and the children and my father was the bread winner of the family. There are three children 1son and 2 daughters, with that said my brother is the first born. He was always looking after my sister and I. When in school he would ask me if I had lunch money. He had a car and drove to school in high school I new that I always had a ride home. This story takes me back to the 70's and 80's era with him being three years older then me. When my sister was born she and I are six years apart. And I made sure she was taking care of. Now as we gotten older I think we are like Sonny and his brother. Sonny being the youngest his brother felt like he had let him down. And in Sonny's case he felt like all He let drugs and alcohol rule him. When he was confined for several years I think that is when he started trying to clear his mind and get his life on track. When his mother died that really bought him down and his brother thought it was nothing that he could do to help him. At some point in life I think every family goes through that when we feel like you have grew up and you should be able to stand on your own two feet. I did that with my family and sometimes they just need help on getting started. when him and his brother had a conversation about what was on his mind. Right then he knew that his brother was reaching out to him. The revival was a breaking point as well. I can tell that their mom must have taken them to church as kids, because of the songs that was sung at the revival brought back memories. When he told his brother he wanted him to go and her him play that was truly the day that they became really close. We cannot judge a book by its cover and that goes for people we cannot judge a person by the way they look or act?

"Nothing would sleep in that cellar,"

“Root Cellar” by Theodore Roethke was one of his greenhouse poems. His father owned a large greenhouse and much of his childhood was spent inside it" (http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/can-somebody-tell-me-what-this-peom-about-root-373002).

"Nothing would sleep in that cellar," was a perfect start to this short, but descriptive poem. Theodore's poem, "Root Cellar" along with others from the text include a large amount of emotion and imagination, and allow you to feel as if you are living the story of the person he narrates. As the website mentioned, many of his poems are describing his experiences as a young boy at his grandfathers greenhouse, and "Root Cellar" truly made me feel as if I was walking into a musky old cellar, cowardly opening the door, as I shouted, "hello" into the darkness of shadows reflecting from the walls. Let's face it, children don't like basements! Personally, I still don't like basements.

Sonny's Music

We've had a few stories/poems this week that seem to deal with what it takes to truly view your fellow man as a person. In Filling Station, the narrator at first sees a terrible, dirty gas station and then sees the love and care that's gone into it and realizes a loving family lives there just like hers. In Sonny's Blues our narrator never really understands his brother until he sees his reaction to the revival and then ultimately when he sees him play. What it the spark that sets off this recognition in us to ultimately empathize with our fellow man? What is the edge that we must cross or go over in order to see our struggling brothers or young children sitting at home as human beings just like we are? The narrator has faced many of his own struggles in life, personal tragedies that have shaped his personality. Why though are Sonny's tragedies not perceived until his brother sees him perform?

Rebellion of an Era

Day after Day, the youth trample past the monotonous ivory. A dreary pathway of apathy; hierarchy reticulated like the ever-growing vines entangled on an aged oak. The school holds no enticement to the youth of an inverse era. For African Americans in the 1960’s there was only half the chance of completing high school(digitalhistory.com). Education was of lesser importance, which is of veritable notability when reviewing the writing of Gwendolyn Brooks.

To begin, “we real cool. We left school”(Brooks). The sixties was an era of “flower power.” School was a “drag” (grammar.yourdictionary.com). “Cats” and “chicks” were constantly “bookin” from the insipid corridor(pbs.org). Societal popularity was contingent on opposition from the Man. Brooks describes the connection between defiance of the accepted norm simply the in first statement.

As the adolescents descend into the pool room the deafening chant divides the inundating smog “we lurk late. We strike straight”(Brooks). Billiard was reestablished by two varying events, the first being “the release of the movie, The Hustler, based on the novel by Walter Tevis. The black and white film depicted the dark life of a pool hustler with Paul Newman in the title role”(bca-pool.com). The Pool Room was a place where the conscience of the Man could not be infringed upon by another being. The ideals of the era were simply compacted into a single building, the Billiard. It is only logical that rebellion is centered at the end of a cue soaring across the green oasis.

The party rages. “We sing sin. We thin gin”(Brooks). During the era of the blues, sin was “celebrated”(lit.genius.com). The youth reveled in the sinful nature of the blues. Rebellion during this era is considerably deemed the most imperative means of acceptance. Drugs and alcohol were integers of prominence for adolescents as well. As money was not a relevant eventuality of the free spirited era, adaptations were necessary. Diluting gin with water was a common practice as a means of payment was scarce. The youth had to do what was necessary to find their own version of happiness.

The poem concludes in saying “we jazz june. We die soon”(brooks). Simply, jazzing in June portrayed the importance of the jazz in the African American culture of the sixties. In following, “we die soon.” The blight lifestyle is affirmed. Death is imminent when running with the big “cats.” Do you feel the youth of the sixties lived a fast life? How have adolescents evolved today? Is it a positive change?

A Mother's Love

Gwendolyn Brooks' writing on motherhood is heart breaking in the poem "The Mother" and "The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till". In the mother she tells the story of children never born but unforgotten. Children loved but that have never taken a breath of their own. Her pain in the belief that her children had all existed and she'd chosen to end each and everyone of their lives. "You were born, you had body, you died" (Brooks 2877). She accepts that she believes a fetus is a child and yet she has done this more than once, she has ended the life of her children despite her love for them. "Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you All." (Brooks 2877). This last line powerful, her use of the word 'All' capitalized to emphasize this has happened more than once and it will happen again, despite her true feelings. How could she do this? How could the narrator commit these acts repeatedly? How could she decide in her mind her willingness to commit them again?

In "The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till" Brooks describes those moments, after it's over "after the murder, after the burial" (Brooks 2882). The stillness around everyone. This was hard for me to read. The last time I'd read about Emmett Till was in my senior year of high school in 2010. Immediately the images and feelings from the day we'd watched a PBS document on the incident flooded to the front of my mind. Angry people in the streets begging for justice, mothers crying holding their children close and the look of fear on peoples faces that something so awful could happen to someone so innocent, someone so young. When his face finally showed in the video, I will never forget that image. Brooks talks about mother's losing their children in both of these poems but the circumstances are very different. Emmett's mother is sorry, she is heart broken and she loved her child similar to that of the mother in the above poem but Emmett's mother did not chose this, her son was taken from her, stolen, and she loved him for longer. So is the connection of the mother in the poem "The Mother" comparable to the connection Emmett Till's mother had to her son? Should the two be compared? Should we even feel sorry for the mother that chose for her child to die when we compare that to the mother who's son was taken from her in such a brutal way?

(Image From) http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2013/02/13/lil-wayne-writes-song-disrespecting-emmett-till-family-livid/

Ima

Gwendolyn Brooks A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon

I chose this poem by Gwendolyn Brooks because I found it fascinating that she would write from the perspective of a white southern woman. I initially thought she felt sympathy for Carolyn Bryant. But as I did some research into the background of the Emmett Till case and the history of Mississippis' extreme racial views, I read the poem as a condemnation of the southern white womans' compliance in the evils of racism. The line in the poem that states, "It was good to be a "maid mild." (Brooks 11) refers how the white southern woman was viewed, as a maiden who needed to be saved from the "evil" black man, who wanted only to rape white women. As the poem progresses, it is clear to see that the woman is disturbed by the events that occurred. She seems to be feeling guilty even, "...she could not remember now what that foe had done Against her, or if anything had been done." (Brooks, 51-52) and she feels as though "a red ooze" was spreading from her husband's hands onto her. At the end of the poem she says "a hatred for him burst into glorious flower," she cannot stand to be near him or touched by him after what has happened. I believe she aware of her role in the murder of the young boy and feels guilty but she will not do anything to correct it or change the status quo of her prejudiced world. Is the woman in the poem equally guilty for the death of the boy because she did not stand up to evils of the society she belongs to?

Sonn'y Darkness

In "Sonn'y Blues," the short story by James Baldwin, is full of symbolism relating to light and darkness. The story, which centers on the narrator's brother Sonny, and the relationship between the two over the course of time, uses heavily the ideas of light and dark to portray significant moments in the two brothers' lives. The darkness can be seen reflected in many aspects of the story, such as Sonny's heroin addiction, his arrest, and even the neighborhood the two hail from. One instance, in the very beginning of the story, the narrator is describing kids in his school as living the same way he and Sonny had at a young age. He says of them: "These boys, now, were living as we'd been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities. They were filled with rage. All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness," (2892). The darkness represent one half of their lives, coupled with the light. Light is used by Baldwin to describe Sonny when he was younger, and how he just seemed to be very promising. Baldwin uses this battle of light and dark to tell a tale of caution. Though we all struggle with the light and the dark, we really have to pull through for the best. Even though Sonny struggled with the dark, in the end, he not only seemed to have found his light, but he shed light into the narrator's life through his music as well.

Theodore Roethke Elegy

I chose this poem because of Roethke's no-nonsense tribute to Aunt Tilly. His poem clearly conveys the admiration and respect people felt toward her by the amount of flowers at her funeral, "and enough flowers for an alderman," (Roethke, pg 2711). The amount of flowers indicates that many people cared about Aunt Tilly. He portrays her as a very good person who is disciplined and selfless. He says in line 5, "Between the spirit and the flesh, -what war? She never knew;" Which I took to mean a reference to Matthew 26:41, "...the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." She does not seem to deal with the battle of wanting to do good and actually doing it. She just does good. She sits with the dead, feeds the poor, cares for the sick and insane, and accepts her impeding death with a "hash rasp of a laugh,". She saves the best peaches for pickling to give away to the poor and keeps the misshapen for herself. He also states,"And yet she died in agony," ( Roethke, pg 2712) Perhaps, suggesting because she was so good of a person she should not have had to suffer at the end of her life. The end of the poem is a very nice way of seeing Aunt Tilly. She is in heaven doing her shopping. She is serenely picking out produce yet, "Bearing down, with two steady eyes, On the quaking butcher." (Roethke, pg 2712) Is Roethke suggesting that because we do good here on earth that maybe God should take our suffering from us? Or maybe Aunt Tilly was "saintly" because she accepted all that was given to her without complaint?

The Mother's Tragedy

The poem “The Mother” brought tears to my eyes. “You remember the children you got that you did not get.” (Brooks 2). This poem was very moving to me not because I have ever had an abortion but I am a mother and I can understand the regrets in this poem. She talks about the live of her babies that were never born. She stole their birth and their right to life. She is remorseful of their unfinished lives. The babies “never giggled, planned or cried” (Brooks 33). You understand her pain and that she did not decide to have abortions because children were inconvenient but that the decisions might have been made out of necessity and love. She loved all her children. It makes me realize that people make difficult choices and mourn those painful consequences.

I am just guessing but maybe she is a mother already burdened with more mouths than she can feed and the father who cannot or does not take responsibility for them. So rather than bring more babies into the harsh world; she views that it is kinder to abort them. She is a woman overwhelmed by life and rationalizes that the babies are “damp small pulps with a little or with no hair. “ (Brooks 3). She is haunted by her babies’ unfinished lives. At the end of the poem she beseeches the reader to know that she knew them and loved them “All.” (Brooks 35).

The Mammoth

I’ve forgotten what it was that was supposed to be "mammoth." But the misprint seemed meant for me. An oracle spoke from the page of the New York Times, kindly explaining New York City to me, at least for a moment.
One is offered such oracular statements all the time, but often misses them, gets lazy about writing them out in detail, or the meaning refuses to stay put. This poem seems to have stayed put fairly well – but as [Thomas] "Fats" Waller used to say, "One never knows, do one?"
from Elizabeth Bishop, "On ‘The Man-Moth,’" in Poet’s Choice

I was confused by the footnote in our book so I looked up more information on the typo. Bishop saw an ironic typo and created something entirely new. As a writer I'm even more intrigued by her ability to immediately find inspiration in such a small thing, something as readers we've been trained to overlook and fix in our own mind.

Then he returns

to the pale subways of cement he calls his home. He flits,

he flutters, and cannot get aboard the silent trains

fast enough to suit him. The doors close swiftly.

The Man-Moth always seats himself facing the wrong way

and the train starts at once at its full, terrible speed,

without a shift in gears or a gradation of any sort.

He cannot tell the rate at which he travels backwards.

I was really struck by her describing what I read to be running from place to place, but getting nowhere. Running to the subway, only to then have to sit or stand, waiting on the pace of the train. Waiting for stragglers who hold up the train. We rush across the street before the light has changed in our favor only to then get caught in impassable foot traffic on the next block. Those who drive quickly still have to (or at least should) adhere to traffic lights. Are we simply too anxious due to the cities we've found ourselves in? Have we been spoiled by the speeds we know we can reach and the average pace is now now enough? Or are we so enclosed by skyscrapers, fences, walls, and the claustrophobic amount of other people that even the briefest moment of running, that moment of feeling like we're catching something or outrunning something else is that little thrill we need to get through the day? Only to be reminded of course of how trapped we are. After all, moths fly towards light and flame, and without fail, it gets them in the end.

Bishop and Roethke Poems

The two poems by Elizabeth Bishop that spoke to me were “The Fish” and “Filling Station.” I interpreted the fish as a survivor and the hooks and lines caught in the fish’s mouth were “like medals with their ribbons” (Bishop 61). The first part of the poem seemed to describe the fish as ugly “battered and venerable and homely” (Bishop 7-8). But as the reader reads further in the poem the fish makes a transformation of not homely but proud and tattered. The reader sees the struggle for survival and how the fish continues to fight and suddenly the fish is a symbol of a worthy vanquished hero. The fish is set free to continue the good fight.

The poem “Filling Station” represented the grey common everyday existence of a family that is nondescript and colorless. The only color is provided by comic books. Everything is monochromatic, and covered with a greasy film of dirt. The last part of the poem indicated that someone cared enough to embroider a doily, water the plants and arrange the cans to spell out Esso. “Someone loves us all.” (Bishop 42). Everyone’s life has meaning and everyone seeks out beauty and order in their life no matter how drab it appears to the outsider.

Roethke” poem titled “Elegy” was like a poem describing my Aunt Annie. She was an independent feisty old woman who fought for the underdog. I loved that you could tell so much about the poem’s character in the fact that she used the misshapen fruit for herself but the pick of the crop was saved to be pickled and then given to someone less fortunate than her. Her place in heaven’s supermarket was assured and her character remained true as she terrorizes the butcher. No saintly hymn singing celestial being is she but a determined righteous fighter even in heaven.

Ulysses

All in a days work is how I would describe this poem. It starts out (to me) up beat and positive, like this is a happy do well family, then the truth is told about the family, then it ends with a depressing "and we sing Hallelujah".
In a weird way I enjoyed this poem, because it tells a tale of so many people and families who are completely fake. "Then we go into the real world" is the line where the family shows who they really are. People find ways to shield who they really are, but for what. Acting one way to make themselves feel better doesn't make up for who they really are. Why not embrace who you are and live truly.
Or on the other hand, maybe this family absolutely needs prayer in order to stick together because of the lies they are living. I think the author is basically bashing religion in general, showing that they can be fake and act holy together but then the parents go cheat on each other and the kids are delinquents, and then when it is time to reunite they are back to their fake selves.

The fish

As I read, The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop, it encouraged me to think about childhood memories that I shared with my sister, and my father.
When the author explained the fish by saying, "and the pink swim-bladder," I began to think of when my father took my sister and I fishing. If we caught a fish, we would dissect it before cooking it. My father would quiz us to see if we knew the different parts of the fish for educational purposes.
The author also said, "I looked into his eyes which were far larger than mine." As a young child, it was hard killing anything or seeing the dead fish. I remember never being able to remove the fishes eyes and would often leave the job for my sister to do. She didn't like it either, but would do it to make me happy. This story is very touching too me, because it triggered such special memories. These are memories that I haven't thought about it a very long time, and truly memories I will cherish and hold onto forever.
"A green line, frayed at the wens where he broke it, two heavier lines, and a fine thread still crimped from the strain and snap when it broke and he got away." This caused me to think about our brave soldiers, and their constant fight for survival. Today, I turned on the news to a story about a young solider that is being held captive by Serbia, and this quote brought me hope that he too can be like the fish and break free.
Overall, Elizabeth Bishop's stories were very rewarding to read, because with though her poems had a particular focus, they aren't limited to only that focus. The Fish, triggered different thoughts and memories, and allowed my imagination to run freely. The power of a poem is truly amazing! After reading this poem, do you ssimy just see a fish, or something more? Was there ever a time in your life where you had to fight or should courage , such as the fish did in this story?

Elizeabth Bishop and Theodore Roethke

As I read about these two authors, they both had amazing poems that I had to narrow it down, I chose the poem" Big Wind " , as I read this poem it was really touching as it started off you would of thought it was talking about a greenhouse a place where you grow flowers. Or maybe it was a Stem boat, or it even could have been a train as well. But with the wind high it pushes the boat down the waters. this boat was hitting the waves, so hard it sounded like cracked glass. The boiler was steaming up just as a pot soup cooking on the stove. If this boat was really a green house the flowers would have really grown to the top. The waves was so strong and high that it just pushed this boat down stream. As it moved it started calming down in the middle of the night to the wee hours of the morning. The sail was flying high as well. Could this be a greenhouse to grow flowers or is this anhouse that was blown away in a storm?

Man Moth

I really found The Man-Moth fascinating. Every aspect of it. Even the structure and how the stanzas are set up is interesting. Every stanza has 8 lines, and the first line is always the shortest and indented. The reasoning behind it eludes me, but since it's a pretty specific structure I feel like there has to be a reason that's just going over my head. The poem's specific style of surrealism just happens to click with my personal interests really well, with the kind of old school pulpy sci-fi horror idea of a both man and moth creature that lives underground and only comes out at night, but at the same time being incredibly innocent and hopeful and not really a creepy poem at all. I liked how the Man-Moth has a dream, knows he'll fail, but tries again every night with the same results, and get's discouraged by it, but never lets it beat him. His dream is physically impossible, flying through the moon that he sees as a hole in the sky, yet his dream is that important to him that he can't just let it go without some sort of fight. I'm not totally sure what I think about the final stanza though, but it really stands out and makes itself important to the rest of the poem by acknowledging that this creature lives in our world and how it would interact with you. I'm not totally sure what I think it's saying, but what I've got right now is that the tear is kind of the innocence and hopefulness that keeps the Man Moth going every night, that if it can get away with it, the Man Moth will always work for it's dream, but if caught and pressured the other way, the Man Moth will surrender the thing that's most important to it out of the shame of dreaming so big and working so hard for such an impossible dream. But I'm still processing it and deciding how I feel about that part. I just really wanted to talk about this poem since it stuck out so strongly to me compared to really anything else this section so far, which although has been fine, also hasn't been what I've found the most interesting this semester.

The World Around Us

Sometimes we forget that life doesn't revolve around ourselves. That's the feeling I get after reading Elizabeth Bishops poem "Filling Station". "Somebody embroidered the doily" (Bishop 2707) this line specifically gave me the feeling of the moment you notice another family in a restaurant, people whose lives have nothing to do with yours. People that most likely will never have an impact on you and yet you notice them, you see them. Who are they, what do they do? At first the poet only sees the filling station for what it is, she doesn't truly notice the people, they have no bearing on her life but then she looks closer. She sees their personalities, she sees that to them this isn't just a filling station. It might not necessarily be relevant to her life but it is to theirs and she sees that, she questions it. She wonders who these people are, what their world consists of and in truly seeing them she appreciates them, she has a love for them and their truth. I think this is beautiful, to stop thinking about your own life for a moment to really see someone else's. To see their reality and to value that. I think when she questions the filling stations decorations on the porch she's relating it all to herself and that's why to her it doesn't all seem to make sense. But it's important to remove yourself from the surroundings and just observe without personal judgment. Once she does that she sees the reason behind the decorations that she thought seemed odd. She understood that this filling station is loved, these people are loved and it has nothing to do with her. And that's beautiful. I wish more people could see the world and things around them like Bishop does in this poem, to take a moment to remove yourself and appreciate someone else's life despite it having nothing to do with them. But is this possible? Should people see the world through such innocent eyes? Was the poet wrong to not question the living conditions of this family, these children that the comics belonged to? Is living somewhere that could catch fire and explode an adequate living situation for kids? Was Bishop's original assessment still valid, or should her realization that this isn't just another gas station negate her previous feelings and observations all together?

Celestial State of the Human Soul

The bleakness of gray constricts the hushed air; the mind’s inclination being a hazy mixture of ashen dismay. Desolation veils the on sight of creation. Is there transcendence beyond the bleakness of physical reality? As the fisherman sails, the resplendent helm of “Elohim” imparts the bleak eclipse(www.agapebiblestudy.com). With the dispersion of the metaphysical twilight breaking, “one seal particularly I have seen here evening after evening [appears]. He was curious about me” (At The Fishhouses Bishop). The fisherman captivates the being with a hymn of consequential importance. “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” lingers over the desolate waters..... “That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth; The spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth: The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever”(nethymnal.org). The soul goes beyond the life of the human body. Although it at times appears humanity is the thin “tendril” in the boundless hands of a maleficent world, there is hope(Roethke). The seal sanctions the theory of life after death. With each emergence from the deadening waters, his presence heartens existence of Heaven.

Just as Bishop deliberates the theory of life after death, Roethke, too, mulls over ambiguous meaning of the soul’s transcendence beyond the human body. In construing the death of an aunt, Roethke relates “who sat with the dead when the relatives left, who fed and tended the infirm, the mad, the epileptic, and, with a harsh rasp of a laugh at herself, faced up to the worst”(Elegy). A reoccurring query of post existence consumes the minds of humanity. Is this the only chance to live or do we simply experience liberation at the end of the physical body’s life?

Unlike Bishop, Roethke conceptualizes the afterlife as a similar desolate state of being. From one entrapment we emerge into another. In the final narrative of “Elegy” Roethke states “I see you in some celestial supermarket, Moving serenely among the leeks and cabbages, probing the squash, bearing down, with two steady eyes, on the quaking butcher”(Elegy). Do beings simple move from from one monotonous state to another? Does Bishop portray veracity with her depiction of God’s all mighty arms securing humanity? Is Roethke merited in his findings of a mundane afterlife?

"A Mighty Fortress is Our God" really stuck out to me in the reading of "At the Fishhouses". Here is a version of the Protestant hymn.

My Papa's Waltz / The Fish

My Papa's Waltz

Roethke's 1948 poem, "My Papa's Waltz" follows the pattern of a three beat per line waltz, I'm assuming to match the content/title. Yet, instead of being a poem about a father dancing, I feel Roethke intended on other interpretations. The first line starts by noting the father has whiskey on his breath, more or less implying he's an alcoholic. Roethke then describes a romp between his father and himself, which is another word for playing roughly. This works well in conveying that he is young, and that to an outsider it looks like rough play, when in all honesty, I believe it's referring to Roethke's abuse he suffered from his father. One line which I feel supports this claim is how his "mother's countenance / Could not unfrown itself" (p.2711, 7-8). Countenance is another word for facial expressions; this is Roethke displaying his mother's frown, the sadness that she feels in witnessing the scuffle. Saying his father "beat time on [his head]" (2711, 13), keeps the idea of a waltz (keeping beat/rhythm) but also displays the abusive actions of his father.

The Fish

"The Fish" tells the tale of a woman who catches a fish one day while out on the water. This poem, while seeming very plain and ordinary, speaks a lot through it's simple descriptions and straight-forward presentation. Bishop creates a scenario so beautifully strange, that one cannot help but fall in love with this. In "The Fish," the narrator pulls the fish up to the side of the boat. She details all of the fishes' attributes, describing him as being very old, yet very majestic. The reader later comes to find out the fish has many strings in its lip, showing how many times this fish has either escaped his predators, or witnessed their mercy towards him. Bishop declares these strings medals, and in that, accepts victory over catching such an amazing fish. The part of the poem that is extremely interesting, is the occurrence of rainbows. Rainbows, symbolically, have always stood for many things. I believe her inclusion of rainbows in the end, coupled with her releasing the fish, go hand in hand. The oil spills from the fish, and the rainbows appear once the sunlight hits it, symbolizing achievement (in catching the fish/in being released), life moving forward, and even maybe connections between animals. It's as if Bishop shares this immense respect for the fish, as they are both victorious creatures.

Filling Station

Elizabeth Bishop was a little more hidden or discrete in these poems than the other authors we have read so far. The poem I liked the best was Filling Station. I interpreted it a little differently than the presentation hinted at, but there were still similarities. I like how different the poem ended, compared to its beginning. "Oh, but it is dirty!" changes to "Somebody loves us all". I like how it basically went from "this is a crappy station with disgusting workers" to "it's kind of nice here". The first glance made this station seem not properly maintained, and the workers themselves were gross. But by the end when the viewer had seen it all and realized "this is how it is", they realized it wasn't as bad as first thought. Is the filling station a way that people look at other people? Instead of judging someone within 5 seconds of meeting them, take the time to get to know them and you might have a different opinion.

American Literature After 1945 Fall 2014