Tuesday May 31st:

Sarah Jewett’s “A White Heron” describes the life of a young girl that has transformed from a city girl and enjoying nothing about nature to a girl that has obtained a passion for it. Throughout the story Sylvia, the little girl, talks of how pretty the landscape outside is and she has obtained a passion for it. When Sylvia has an encounter with a man who is interested in hunting birds she doesn’t like it. She can’t seem to grasp why the man, who claims he loves birds would kill them. The main object that has taken over the story is the fact that the man is on the hunt for a white heron and has been tracking one for a bit. He learns toward the end that Sylvia has seen and know where the bird is and he offers her money. Sylvia exclaims “I cannot tell the heron’s secret and give its life away”. From this Sylvia has developed and maintained her passion for animals and outdoors that she once never had. In this story, Jewett attitude toward nature was very pleasant in a way because the way she describe things made it seem very real and peaceful.  

“After Apple Picking” by Robert Frost is portraying his everyday life as an apple picker. Frost becomes so entwined with his job he feels as if he can’t get rid of it. Frost says. “Upon my way to sleep before it fell, And I could tell what form my dreaming was about to take. Magnified apples appeared and disappeared’ (15-18). It seems as if Frost likes his job but he can’t seem to get it out of his head and rest. From this he has become very tired and worn out. I think that Frost likes nature until it consume his life and he just wants to erase it out of his head so he can relax and be a normal person. The relation to nature in this poem is his slight reference to the seasons changing. Frost mentions that “An held against the world of hoary grass, it melted and I let it fall and break”(12-13). I think he is explaining that his time for picking apple is almost over because the grass is dying and with frost on the ground, it hints as winter is coming.

The first poem by Emily Dickinson is “Some keep the Sabbath”. This poem expresses that as many people go to church on the Sabbath, Dickinson goes to her dome. Dickinson dome is an orchard or the outside and the birds are portrayed as her choir. I think that Dickinson meaning is that you just don’t have to go to church to be able to have a relationship with God and just by going to church doesn’t get you in to Heaven. Overall her point is that you can have a healthy relationship with God no matter if it is at church or in your back yard.

The second poem by Dickinson is “I taste liquor never brewed”. In this poem Dickinson compares the outdoors and nature to that of being drunk. “When landlords turn the drunken bee out of the foxglove’s door, When butterflies renounces their drams, I shall but drink the more. She uses a way a person feels when they are drunk or when drinking to describes how she feels about the outsides. I don’t think that Dickinson was really drinking in this poem she just knew that many people knows how it feels when you are drunk and she wanted to create the same feeling for people when they are outside.

The third poem by Dickinson is “There’s a certain slant of light”. This poem was a bit different with the relationship to nature than the other two. In this poem Dickinson is hoping for the arrival of spring just as she is hoping for herself to understand some difficult things. I think she is using light as a sense of hope that no matter what comes our way once it passes things are okay and the light is scene again.  In this poem there is a reference made to the light of winter (1-2) , I think that this anticipates the changing of seasons because each season is different and you can observe this by the way the earth changes with them.

These different articles portray nature as something that can be good or bad but no matter what you can find the good and overcome once the “storm” passes. These articles are used to show how people have changed and developed their lives from what nature has to offer.

I find it wild that nature can be pleasant and yet destructive in times. After reading this I can see how nature reflects our lives because there are times that are good and we rejoice in them, and then there are times that are bad and we overcome them and succeed. I think that we all need “storms” in our life so we can be thankful for the times that are good!

Questions:  Do we take the time and really appreciate nature and what it has to offer?

What is your favorite type of nature setting- camping, fishing, farming etc?

Connection: These articles reminded me of my sister in a sense because when we were younger she absolutely hated being outside but as she has grown and is now the teaching atmosphere it has changed. She is required to be outside or teach about outside things because she is an agriculture education teacher- this has helped her change her view toward nature and actually appreciate it.

Monday May 30th

Throughout the story Blanche faces many situations that causes hurt to her. I think that Blanche was the main cause of all the hurt she consumed because of the way she handled things. Throughout the story she continuously refers back to her first love, which she cannot get over, and talks about how she wants to love like that again. From this she puts every man on a petal-stool to Allen. I think this hurt her because the whole time she lies to men, especially Mitch because she wants to seem innocent and act like she has never loved before but yet she focuses on finding a love like Mitch. Blanche states that the previous men she has had encounters with have taken advantage of her but I find that hard to believe because of the way she acts throughout the story. I think that Blanche “thinks” she has been taken advantage of but in reality she was freely giving it out to other men. When it comes to Stanley, I think that Blanche takes her anger out on him that she has for other men because she is constantly trying to tare him apart and he does the same to her. I find it unusual that as much as the dislike each other Stanley rapes her but they could be her punishment in his eyes for being so mean to him and trying to tear their marriage apart.  To me this is where Blanche becomes destructed and her aftermath comes with being placed in a mental hospital.

I think that out of Stanley, Blanche, and Stella, Stella is the most likeable. I think that Stella senses something is wrong with her sister throughout the story because she is always so nice to her and gets very upset with Stanley makes a comment to try and hurt or tear her apart. I think that Stella is trying to preserve what is left of Blanche because she has a feeling that Blanche will soon be long gone- in the sense of her mind and emotions. I think that Blanche is somewhat likeable and dis-likeable. Blanch is likeable by trying to please everyone and make them happy by hearing what they want to hear- they just don’t know it is all lies. She lies to Stella about why she came to town; she lied to Mitch about her previous relationships. The way that I think Blanche is dis-likeable is how she treats others. Blanche has many friends that care for her throughout the story but she abuses the relationships because she always wants it to be about her and make her happy- she would always make Stella do what she wanted and take care of her as if she was her child but in reality Blanche should be taking care of Stella because she is pregnant and needs more help. I feel badly for Stella in the story because she is caught between two horrible people and she should be the one that goes insane. I think that Stanley is the least likeable person because he is very mean to Stella and he always makes up excuses for his actions. He in a sense takes advantage of Blanche (and punishes her by raping her- I think this because he does it out of meanness and I think that he figures he can get rid of her once he rapes her. I think that Stanley knew he would push Blanche over the edge once he raped her.

In a sense justice is served because Blanche hurt many people and lied to many people about how the type of person she was. Blanche had many people ticked to believing the lies she told and by the end they had all caught her with her and turned her into something bad which resulted in her going to the mental hospital. I don’t like all the things that happened to Blanche nor all the things that Blanche did to other people but I guess that is her punishment for all the trouble she caused. I think that by the ending the resolution is that Blanche has severely gone crazy and they are able to get her out of their house by finding a mental hospital. I think this was really hard for Stella because she feels as if Blanche has never had a chance in this world- by being left to take care of the family, her husband killing himself, loosing Mitch because she had filled his head with lies- but I think she realizes it was the only good thing to do for her sister. Blanche had completely demolished her sister’s household setting because she came to town to only visit for a few days and stayed almost 5 months.

I don’t think that Blanche should have become mentally ill due to all the heartache and problems that she caused. I think that it would have made more sense for Stanley to have gone ill because I think he was just as bad a Blanche in the story. He never really treated Stella like he should of, he focused more on bowling and playing card games, and he cheated on his wife. Though you may read this and thing that Blanche did the same thing, I think that they way Stanley went about it was at a much worse extent. Maybe both of them should have become ill but then that would have left poor ol’ Stella by herself.

Questions:

Did Stella ever find out about the rape?

Do you consider yourself to be like Stella, stuck between two people that in a sense abuse you by the way they treat you?

This story makes me think of Monsters Inc. because in the movie Randall has built a relationship with many other monster based off lies, stealing and hurting other people and in the end he is punished for it by being placed in a trailer park with a woman who beats him with a shovel and his door is shredded.

For those of you that haven’t seen this movie… here is a link that tells you about it http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/inc/tale.html

Friday May 27th:

Eliot poem “The love song of J.Alfred Prufrock” tells the life of a man who lust over a woman. The poem simply tells about a certain mistress that Prufrock would like to “force the moment into crisis” by pursing their relationship. Purfrock doesn’t want to approach this woman because he is scared of life itself and he can mentally hear comments from others that are being made about him and this relationship that he wants. Purfrock condemns himself to isolation because he is scared of not becoming a hero. As the poem changes the scenery and continues on Purfrock comes to the conclusion that “I am not Prince Hamlet”. I think that by this he means though he is not someone as important as Hamlet he yet is still important to himself.

 Through this Purforck lets the woman stand in his way of accomplishing what he wants and he become doubtful.  Through Purforck life I think he really wants to feels as if he is someone important to people as he did by referring to Prince Hamlet because he was an important person. I think this idea consumes Purfrock and he because so discouraged because he is not the person he wants other people to see him as but as time progresses he finally realizes that it’s not important to be the most important person to a bunch of people as long as he is important to himself.

 Ginsbergs poem “Howl” expresses the frustration of his generation that he felt was being suppressed b a dominate American culture that valued conformity over artistic license and opportunity. Ginsberg states that people were breaking from the habit of conformity to the virtues and ideals of the American civilization and expressing a vision of free expression.

Ginsberg states in his first sentence “ I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night” . Ginsberg says this in reference to his friends and everyone who would become associated with the beat generation and they are referenced to as the protagonists in the story. During the story Ginsberg refers to the “best minds several times” In order for the “best minds” to be heard they howl at the moon at night.  

Ginsberg focuses on being pessimistic because he expressing his antagonism to show his views on life and Eliot is also pessimistic because he feels as he has no place in this world due to all the aesthetics that are around. I found both of these articles to be very confusing for me to understand but overall the express in two different ways how people shouldn’t have authentic individual lives.

Questions: Do we have authentic individual lives?

Do we worry too much of what other people think of us and live our lives accruing to that?

Connection: The connection I made from this is Lady Gaga’s song Born This Way. It makes me think about how she describes individuality and how you should be who you are and not something you aren’t!

Thursday May 26th:

Individuality is a gift that we all have and it’s something that individualizes us. In Emerson’s story “Self-Reliance” suggest that one should follow their on instinct and common sense rather than following the popular crowd or what other people think to be right. As reading this article I found a couple of parts that I really enjoyed.  The first one was where Emerson states “ I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency” “ Instead of going for dinner, let us hear a whistle from the Spartan fife”. I think this means that forget what is popular or common and go your own way, develop something new and start a new habit instead of doing the same thing over and over. I think that he just used the description of going for dinner because that is something common we all do and more people could relate to it. The second part that I really liked was “Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession. This line is very powerful because Emerson is telling us to look upon ourselves and find what defines us from others, pick that out and put it to use instead of looking at what others have and wishing we had that. We are all made different and are given different talents so we should cherish this and use what we have. This story really makes me realize how grateful I should be with what I have been given and make the best out of it!

The second reading for today was by Walt Whitman “Story of Myself”. Whitman expresses that we should all stay true to ourselves and uses our individuality. Whitman thinks that there is nothing better that being yourself and staying true! Whitman quotes “ I resist anything better than my own diversity. This is a very interesting line because Whiteman is saying that anything that comes his way, he lets pass because he only wants to use what he has to offer. I found this to be a little tricky to understand but I think that overall Whitman really wants us to be our own person and be true to ourselves.  

“The Story of an Hour” seems to get better every time I read it. Louise, a woman with heart trouble has discovered that her husband was killed! She immediately is saddened but after a few minutes she begin to realized the freedoms that she will now how. She continues dreaming about how things will be different because she says “Free! Body and soul free!” I find this very ironic because in most cases people would be quite depressed with the loss of a family member but in another way I understand Louise because she has felt as if she has never lived due to the way Brently treated her. I think that Louise realizes that she will be by herself and she doesn’t want to continue to live.  Louise has spent so much time lusting over the fact she is finally free from her husband, when she sees him walk in the house and he isn’t dead she is shocked and immediately has a heartattck. I find it ironic because Louise lived her life as a free woman for one hour and then it came to an end. I think that Chopin affirms the notion of individuality because she sees herself and the things she has and then looks at life in a different perceptive when she determines how life will be without Brently.

Questions: Do we sometimes look past what makes us an individual and lust someone else’s individuality?

How hard would it be to focus on what separates us from others and start being our own person?

These readings remind me of 10^th grade because we spent a lot of time reading short stories and I remember reading these passages in class.

Wednesday May 25th:

The American Dream certainly relates to America in aspect that it is a land or foundation for all of us and we are able to achieve anything that we want as long as we have the ability and mindset. The picture of Brittany Spears wearing “I am the American Dream” t-shirt is quite hideous. To me it seems as if it’s a joke because yes she has at the opportunity to live in a free country she has yet thrown her life down the drain. Brittany seems to be able to broadcast there is an American Dream but I personally do not think she should consider herself to be that dream. Spears has not faced the many hardships that most Americas has- besides not making number 1 on the charts for two weeks in a row but I don’t think that counts J I guess what I’m trying to get across is that the real America Dream is suppose interpreted to be in a way that you have been given the opportunity to achieve many things if you are able to and this is something you should value because there aren’t a lot of countries like this.

After watching the short clip from The Pursuit of Happiness it is evident that only can let someone keep you from doing something. One reason why it was so hard for the younger to accomplish their goal is because they were too worried about what other people would think. Walter showed this when he became obsessed with buying the liquor store and the first thing out of him mama was No! I will not have my name associated with liquor. Though Walter wasn’t going to mean any harm with the store he simply wanted it to better his family because he knew that it would bring lots of money in for his family.  I think that this hindered Walter some for continuing with the liquor store but then after he invested all the money they had into and his friend ran off with it Walter knew it was time to take action in what was going on and stop letting other people ruin it for him. Though he never actually go his liquor store I think that he learned more about himself and family by seeing the struggle that was created for them and when the issue arose about moving into the white neighborhood Walter knew that he had to do what was right for him and his family so they didn’t back down and moved in!

The poem “Harlem “uses unrealized dreams to create “A Raisin in the Sun”. I think that is poem was great to use to create this play. It simply tells us that the dreams or things that we would like to achieve are put on hold or we let something come in the middle of them, what are the dreams or things we would like to achieve suppose to do. In one sense that means if we have a thought to do something and decide not to because we are scared to take the step forward and initiate it or we are letting something hold us back then we are going to have to deal with that for the rest of our lives. A prime example of this is the last part of the play when Walter is faced with giving up hope and staying in his comfort zone being the apartment or taking a step forward and dealing with the things to come so that he and his family can have a fresh start in something that is theirs.

Throughout the story there is a constant battle between the families for the use of the life insurance that mama is getting from her husband. Mama wants to use the money to buy a house so that they can’t stop paying rent for something they could have owned 5 times already and she also wants to put some up for Bennies school. Walter worries himself to death because all he can think about is buying a liquor store so he can become rich- Mama does not approve of this because she does not want her name or her family’s name linked to a liquor store. I think that Ruth also wanted a house like mama but she never got caught up in the money because she knew it was mamas and she wanted mama to enjoy it.  You see at the end the theme going from just being about money that is supposedly going to make things better to sticking for what’s right and what you want rather than how much money they have at the end of the day.

The ending of the play ended quite differently then what I expected it to. I figured that Walter was going to give in to the white people and take the money sense he was trying to make up for the money he lost to his friend. I was very surprise to see Walter do as he told others and “keep his eye on what he wanted” I think that the ended does fit the story because through the story we get to witness the hardships that the family faces and when they are faced with another one and have control over it, they do the unexpected and in the end get what they want.  If a sequel were to be made of this move I think that Walter, Ruth, Travis and Mama (Lena) would all be living in the white community -406 Clybourne St. Clybourne Park Chicago- with their new baby! I think that Walter would eventually save enough money so that he could open his liquor store and have more money then he knew what to do with. Travis and the unborn child at the time would both be in a public school I’m sure with a bunch of white children and would probably feel discriminated upon but they would enjoy it and continue with their lives. Ruth would be a stay at home wife and do all the duties that is required of her and Mama-Lena would have the entire yard landscaped and have it full of her favorite flowers, since that was what she wanted most. Bennie would be in Africa with Joseph dancing in her famous dresses that Joseph gave her in her spare time from being a doctor.

I think that after reading this play all that is needed for one to achieve their American Dream is determination. You create the American Dream you want for yourself and the only way that you can achieve it is to push through anything that comes your way and succeed if you don’t do these things then you are setting yourself to fail in the things you want. I have let a few things do by that I wish I would have pursued and there is no getting that back so from now on when I make up my mind that I want to do something I need to complete it no matter the obstacles that I have to cross.

The connection that I made from this is when the first settlers came to America and push the Native Americans off their land. I don’t think that how the whites in the play acted were right because they didn’t want Negros as their neighbors because they were scared what would happen but it makes me wonder how the N.Americans felt when the settlers came and took over their land.

Questions: Do we sometime send the wrong impression of the American Dream to other people?

Can we ever get past the race issue and try and be a civil country?

Tuesday May 24th:

“If We Must Die” tells the story that through hardships death will approach. If death seems to be overwhelming and consume your body then you need to die fight for what you believe in and make sure that you lived your life virtuously so that you will always be remember by your enemies. McKay makes certain that we all grasp that point of view because when he ended the poem he said “Like men we’ll face the murderous. Cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back. I think that McKay was struggling with his peers because he was a noble man when he came to America but I gather in a sense that he was consider a “nobody” once he arrived. This could have had something to do with him being colored and also have intelligence and he was looked down upon due to those reasons. McKay uses firm punctuation to prove the impart parts in his poem; he makes sure that he punctuates the fact that we should die fight back because he ends with a firm punctuation.

The second poem that I read was also by McKay. “America” starts off and it is like McKay is comparing America to mother qualities because he says “she feeds me bread of bitterness” a mother feeds a child and in a sense America feeds the world. As the poem ends McKay states “Darkly I gaze into the days ahead. Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand”. To me this means no matter what excitement comes your way, your daily task and life will sometimes come at you as a struggle.  I think that McKays complicated relationship with America is that due to the current time setting things are quite a struggle for people in America though they may be face with new and exciting things they still have to remember at the end of the day what’s really going on.

Hurston’s “ How it feels to be colored me” is a short story that explains the life of Zora. Zora was a young girl that grew up in a all black community and didn’t really see the different in blacks or whites until the age of thirteen. She was sent to school in Jacksonville and everything started to change. Zora then started to notice and feel what it really was to be black because before then she was never judge by the white people that passed through her town. Zora says that “ I feel the most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background”. This indicates that she feels equally the same as long as she doesn’t have a white person condemning her of the slavery that was once knew by her family. I think that from this the biggest thing that Zora was to achieve is to be treated equally no matter where she is. Zora last statement “Perhaps that is how the Great Suffer of Bags filled them in the first place” means that we are all created the same by the same person being God and he doesn’t look down upon us due to our color or belief. I think the moral of this story is that no matter our race, belief, appearance we should all still have the same love for each other that God has for us.

“Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is quite the poem. Hughes demonstrates in her poem that she has been faced with many defeating things and hardships but she has thrived on and still accomplished things. Hughes wrote this to pass on or show people that no matter what comes your way you can continue to push on and survive. I think that this is a major downfall for people today because they let one thing discourage them and that’s it they simply give up. The last line of her poem states that “ And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” which means that her life hasn’t been an easy street for her but she put all other things aside, did what she had to and came out on top!

Hughes poem “Theme for English B” relates back to what we have read today and yesterday. Today’s focus is basically the same as yesterday but we are dealing with race and equality at the same time. Hughes was a color lady and she is simply describing that though she is colored she still has values of equality and simply likes to do the same things as any ordinary person. Hughes says “I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races”. This is an amazing line that I should relate to daily because sometimes I find myself questioning others actions just not because of their race but just because they aren’t me.

Cullen’s poem “Yet Do I Marvel” allows the reader to see what it’s like in someone else’s shoes. Cullen makes the poem seem real to person so that they can understand where he is coming from. The problem that Cullen faces in this poem is trying to understand Gods reason for the cruelty that is placed upon African Americans and the racism that is seen during this time. This poem seems real to me because I’m sure we all haven’t been faced with discrimination but I’m sure we all have felt tired or exhausted after climbing stairs. I think that Cullen did a really good job at making this poem seem real to everyone just not to one culture because he was formal with stating relevant facts and things that we are all familiar with.

Cullen’s other poem “ Incident” simple states that no matter all the good things that happen once something bad occurs you simply remove everything and continue to remember the bad- “ of all the thing that happened there that’s all that I remember”. The rhyme scheme that is in the poem gives it a since of ownership. It lets you hit right on the important words in the poem and it kind of is like the theme of the poem. I say this because as I come to words I easily remember the ones that rhyme together and erase the other words that I read through.

The similarities that I sense among these four writers is that they are all looking for that since of relief as being a  colored person during this time. Each poem or story relates to how they have had troublesome experiences with being colored. McKay states this in “If we Must die” because during that time many African Americans were killed because of their race, Hughes says this in “Mother to Son” because she is letting the people know that just because her life hasn’t been pleasant like some she is still going to live it to the fullest and not let anyone drag her down. I think that one why these poems differ is that they all use different things in their life or different ways of getting the same message across. Cullen talks about a trip to Baltimore and from that he was discriminated upon and that’s what he takes with him, Hurston explains that she though of herself as being equal until she is surround by white people who look down upon her. I think that overall no matter the way of explaining the issue they all believed in having a life that was equal with others through beliefs, race and color!

Connection: After reading these poems and short story I keep thinking back to “Finding Nemo” It may sound dumb but Nemo was discriminated upon due to his deformed fin, Nemo faced many mean fish because of this and even his dad babied him. It took Nemo going off to find himself and actually prove people wrong that just because of one minor thing didn’t mean that he was any different than them and he still enjoyed the things that they do.

Questions:

Have we all had the experience of being discriminated upon due to our race?

What would things be like if race and equality were still as big of an issue like they once were?