New York Day Woman reminded me of
some of my relatives. I had an Aunt Annie
and she was from Czechoslovakia. She traveled all over the city using public
transportation. She was also very
frugal. I think that this woman has also
been tested by poverty and knows the value of saving and not being
extravagant. She is confident in a quiet
way. She knows the world and is comfortable being who she is. The daughter however, is ashamed of her
mother. ...
Friday, October 31, 2014
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Acclimated to Death
I chose this poem because it was one of the very first things I ever read in a college course and since this is one of that last college courses before my first degree I thought it's would be interesting to analyze a piece of writing I read and analyzed about 4 years ago. (Geesh this took far to long to graduate) The first time I read this I remember loving the set up, and I still do. The poet isn't simply reciting a poem, they're telling a story, giving the facts. There's very little...
Forche
The choice of word hands at the end of the section of The Country between Us, by Carolyn Forche was interesting to me. The last line in the poem reads, "Tenderness is in the hands." What a true statement. The government held the power of life and death in their hands and did not seem to show much tenderness. Both poems depict graphic images of human cruelty and serious human rights violations. The government of El Salvador had the power in their hands to...
The Colonel
The
colonel that Forche describes in the excerpt from “The Country between Us” is
like a third country despot. The colonel is an omnipotent man who enjoys his
power and cruelty with relish. The
contrast between the house and the veneer of civilization is striking. “Broken
bottles were embedded in the walls around the house to scoop the kneecaps from
a man’s legs or cut his hands to lace.” (Forche...
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
The Colonel
In this shocking, yet brief piece, "The Colonel," by Carolyn Forché, the reader is brought into the shocking realities of the human rights violations taking place in El Salvador. Forché brings the reader right into the scene, with her great descriptions. One feels as if they are sucked into El Salvador, watching the cop show on tv, seeing the daughter filing her nails. Forché also instills the same unsettling fear she herself felt when the colonel spills the sack of ears onto the table....
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Born a Victim
The poem "Apprenticed to Justice" by Kimberly Blaeser is some deep stuff. She describes a torn, burnt surrounding. Completely destroyed and ashened, and talks about how "no dustbowl wind can lift this history of loss" (3415) and you're just struck with the imagery of this poem. Children born to not trust the people they share a country with, to be completely seperate from this thing around them. Feeling the need to protect thier names because of fear they too will be stolen from them,...
Either You're With Us or Against Us
It was hard at first for me to get into this story, I hardly ever enjoy when a second language is used in literature but isn't translated. I understand it has meaning, but I don't know spanish so I don't know what that meaning is. It's as if I were talking to someone and just rambled a phrase in German knowing they didn't understand me but never bothered to tell them what I said. Not a big deal though, just a pet peeve that it wasn't a footnote or anything. I'm also not Catholic, nor have...
Red Convertable
This story was insane. I loved it. I thought the car was supposed to be Henry. But I also thought that was a pretty straightforward metaphor. Lyman loves that car for the times he had with his brother in it. It takes seeing the car broken down and destroyed to give Henry not only some kind of purpose, but a purpose in hopes that it might somehow redeem Henry himself. But he can't get it quite right. It still isn't as whole as it used to be, no matter how hard Henry tries, just like Henry...
The Red Convertible
I first read this story a few years ago in a short story class and the impact is similar. One thing I find interesting is my reaction to Lyman and remembering my classes reaction to his life post-Henry. When my class read it then my teacher and then the students all made a big scene out of pointing out that Lyman was drunk and stoned when he tossed the picture in a bag and then in the closet. They, and I think I went along with this, made it sound as though he was on...
The Red Convertible
This story was fantastic. One thing I picked up on was the how the convertible seemed to reflect Henry. Lyman describes when they first saw the car, it looked "reposed, calm and gleaming," which reflect Henry at that point in the story (3388). When Lyman damages the convertible, Henry doesn't just see a dented up car; instead, he sees a reflection of himself in the dented metal, as if it signified his own pain and suffering. Henry begins repairing the car, but realizes he cannot fix himself...
Bless Me, Ultima
In the excerpt from Rudolfo Anaya's novel, Bless Me, Ultima, we are presented the narrator, Antonio (aka Tony), a Mexican-American boy, around the time of ash Wednesday. As the days progress towards Easter Sunday, Tony is filled with this excitement, that everything will be made well again, and that his first communion will make everything right. As it progresses, he does not seem to feel any better. When he is made priest by the other children, and refuses to give penance to Florence...
The Red Convertible: Lyman Lamartine
The story has several incidents of magic realism in it. Lyman's ability to make money so easily and not worrying about being called up for the draft. But the incident that stood out for me was in the end when Henry drowns. It starts out in an ordinary way with both of them sitting on the bank. Then Henry suddenly decides to jump in the river. But the scene unfolds in an otherworldy way as Henry says so calmly, "My boots are filling." (3394) an then, "He says this...
Saturday, October 25, 2014
The Death of Henry Junior
The light begins to dim. The crimson convertible is at a halt beyond the gray flowing waters of the Pembina and Red Rivers. The air is silent. The mood is overcome with disparagement. The two men encircle the warmth of a fire created by hand. The river is almost still although ever flowing none the same. It is as if the river itself derives from the source of Acheron(www.theoi.com). The darkness of the landscape as the sun sets entails death; the death of men. Can the soul of...
Penance: Reconstructing of Youth
As the doors open, children race to be first into the church hall. A building seemingly encompassed with peace and forgiveness is simply a fallacy, a game. Antonio and his friends are taught in a means of fear. For every sin, there is a punishment. The children delight in their sins as they desire to see who will receive the largest penance. After Florence depicted his view the children bellowed “make his penance hard... make him kneel and we’ll beat him... yeah, beat him.. stone him!......
Power: Rhetoric and Poetry
To express oneself is the greatest form of freedom. To question oneself is the worst. Poetry depicts our rawest emotions buried deep within the bosom of the soul. It frees the mind as the lead of the steady hand releases the anguish intertwined within the beating heart; swirling through the ever flowing veins of crimson. Audre Lorde depicts the foreshadow of events to come. The twelfth jury member, a woman of African descent, “lined her own womb with cement to make a graveyard...
Friday, October 24, 2014
Freeing the Virgin (DRAFT)
I apologize for this being so late. Freeing The Virgin: a mental assassination Reading Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Welcome to the Monkey house" you feel betrayed. The author takes the reader on a journey, filled with dark humor and satire that brings a smile to your face. Floating on this cloud you enjoy the dystopia...
Thursday, October 23, 2014
The red convertible
The
Red Convertible: Lyman Lamartine was a sad story about two American Indians
whose life on the reservation was idyllic but the white man’s war (Viet Nam)
interfered with their lives. Henry was a strong confident carefree young man who
alongside his brother made a road trip in a red convertible. The convertible became a symbol of their
freedom and self-confidence. It was a link to happier times for both Henry and
Lyman. Their road trip was far reaching
and they even went...
Bless me, Ultima
I
understand the thoughts of the young Catholic boy about to receive his first
confession. Sin is very real and damnation is only a sin away. That is how Catholic religion was in my time.
The nuns and priests were infallible and
their word was law. For one of the boys,
Florence to claim that he never had sinned was blasphemous. “I don’t have any,”
Florence said softly.” (Anaya 3318)....
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Bless Me, Ultima
Antonio and his friends are afraid to break customs and traditions within the Church because, "I knew that eternity lasted forever, and a soul because of one mistake could spend that eternity in hell." (3313) They learn their catechism by rote and it makes no sense to them as anything meaningful. It is about obeying rules to stay out of hell for all of eternity. They all follow the traditions and are excited to make their first confession. They are looking forward to being a...
Monday, October 20, 2014
Some Women Wait
This poem said a lot to me, the poet begins by inferring or better yet stating that "some women love to wait" (3375). Lorde then starts to list the things women "love" to wait for, some things that shouldn't be waited for like someone else to make them whole again, somethings that you're expected to wait for like a marriage proposal. She talks about waiting, or not living isn't always worth it. That "the opposite of living is only not living and the stars do not care" (3376). What you...
Power
Audre Lorde's poem, "Power," is quite an incredible piece. Detailing the killing of a ten year old black child, Lorde creates a nightmarish landscape. "I am trapped in a desert of raw gunshot wounds," Lorde writes, setting the scene as she continues: "a dead child dragging his shattered black/face off the edge of my sleep" (3372). The opening two stanzas are so full of this raw, powerful energy, that really seem to make obvious how tragically Lorde feels for this child. In the little...
Sunday, October 19, 2014
(Very) Rough Draft
**Please let it be known I have this vigorous writing agenda. This is the first step, which is essentially a stream-of-consciousness form; and also a skeleton of a draft.
————————————————————————————————————————
When one pictures the idea of a true
American, the first thoughts that pop into their head will be the different
symbols we chose to represent ourselves, such as the cowboy. However, if that
person is Jack...
Draft
In the Bible, Jesus calls to the disciples they put away their jobs and material things to follow him: "And Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.…" (Mark:1:17-18)
They cannot have these things if they want to fully devote themselves to Christ. The grandmother must put away her affectations and air of Christianity before she can truly accept grace. Throughout the beginning...
Power
The difference between poetry and rhetoric
is being ready to kill
yourself
instead of your children.
Even after reading the rest of her work, much of it for the third or fourth time, I keep coming back to this stanza. Thea idea of the destruction that can be inflicted using either form of writing/speaking is what makes me stop. The idea that putting yourself down on the page, your true self and pouring over these words can be equated with laying down your life is a...
Signs
The scene showing Twyla's response to Roberta's "MOTHERS HAVE RIGHTS TOO" sign is an interesting insight into the influence each other their mothers had over them. Roberta emphasizing the mother's rights in a school case remind us of her god fearing mother. A woman who would have been probably a strict, structured mother to her daughter had she not been so ill. We also see that Roberta's opposition to busing has nothing to do with the racial implications, she's simply...
Rough Draft Essay 1
In Jack Kerouac's essay entitled, The Vanishing American Hobo, he uses the words hobo and bum but not interchangeably He has created a hierarchy of hobos to symbolize the difference between individuals who through non-conformity to society remain healthy and spiritually enlightened and individuals who go along with the prevailing beliefs without questioning anything. The hobo is depicted as healthy. He lives out of doors, camps under the stars,...
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Recitatif
In Toni Morrison's "Recitatif," it is difficult to discern which of the girls, Roberta and Twyla, is black and which is white. I did pick up on what I thought were certain clues as to which is which, but even still I am not 100%. One of the instances that made me think maybe Twyla was white was early in the story, when Twyla notes "it didn't matter that we looked like salt and pepper standing there" (3542). I thought this implied that Twyna was white and Roberta was black, as people generally...
Recitatif
This weeks assignment-to determine the race of each girl-was difficult. I read Recitatif, by Toni Morrison several times to make a determination about who was Black and who was White. I thought Twyla was Black and Roberta was White. The first sign of racism was when the girls' mothers met at the shelter. Roberta's mother, "...looked down at me and the looked down at Mary too." (3545) She grabs Roberta's hand and walks to the back of the line. The inference to me...
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