Stephanie Flores

The vignette from The House on Mango Street that affected me the most would be “Beautiful & cruel” by Sandra Cisneros because it has a strong meaning behind its short lines. It expresses how Esperanza sees herself as young and without any growth or learning but instead wants to put herself like the love movies that she sees. “I am the ugly daughter. I am the one nobody comes for” (Cisneros, page 88). She sees that the world is impossible for her to be able to grow as an adult and time is taking too long for her. However, as a mother, her mom keeps on telling her that the time will come at the right age and you will experience the most beautiful and harsh experiences in life. This short Vignette resonates with me because since a young teenager when I was 13. I also wanted to be an adult and be able to do things older people used to do and experience. I couldn’t wait for my time to come like Esperanza, just wanted to feel loved with all the love stories and movies I used to see. “In the movies, there is always one with red red lips who is beautiful and cruel. She is the one who drives the men crazy and laughs them all away” (Cisneros, page 89). This vignette demonstrates Esperanza’s importance of being like a grown woman from the movies. Esperanza has decided not to wait around for a husband to take her away. Instead, she wants to be like the females in movies who drive the men crazy and then refuse them.

The vignette that surprised me was “Boys & Girls” from “The House on Mango Street” because it has a great meaning that explains how both genders are defined and seen. Its seem as boys and girl live in separate worlds, where they both mind each other’s business. However, the vignette that intrigued me was “My Name” because it is a strong and interesting story behind her name. She defines herself as not liking her name after all it came from her grandma and remembers it as a special part of her. Lastly, “Our good day” has me puzzled because I’m not sure what the narrator is trying to say, is she saying that friends can be your friends if you pay them or more like they won’t last forever?

I compare the pared-down writing style of Raymond Carver to the style of Toni Cade Bambara-The Lesson because they both have that easy-going language in their articles that makes the reader understand and read it as if they are talking to you face to face.In other words they use natural language in the simplest form with expressions that are used in present tense. A phrase from the lesson “she was black as hell, cept for her feet, which were fish-white and spooky. And she was always planning these boring-ass things for us to do, us being my cousin, mostly, who lived on the block cause we all moved North the same time and to the same apartment then spread out gradual to breathe” that uses similar language to Raymond Carver is “This blind men,an old friend of my wifes,he was on his way to spend the night.His wife had died .so he was visiting the dead wife’s relatives in Connecticut.”They both have the same style of energy that describes the thoughts,point of views and opinions the author is trying to point out for us readers. Expanding a connection of social life class and real-life feelings.

The topic I chose is Vanity will not take you far, but kindness will for my research essay, and will be using snow white as one of my fairy tales to back up my ideas. I chose to explore this particular aspect of fairy tales to expand my thoughts and explain how young children can view fairy tales in many ways and learn positively or negatively. I’m yet to finish but I already figured out my topic and fairytale, have to get a little more information and key ideas to support my evidence. Looking forward to using some related stories or points of view about how child development is impacted through fairy tales like snow white or Beyond.

Bruno Bettelheim’s psychologically oriented reading of “Little Snow White” focuses on the way child development can be based on their understanding of negativity or positivity through each fairytale they are opposed to reading. He argues that the story is based on how this young girl describes what she has been through and expands by showing her growth/weakness points while developing. “They do not realize that fairy tales do not try to describe the external world and “reality.” Nor do they recognize that no sane child ever believes that these tales describe the world realistically.”Bruno Bettelhiem expands that children at a young age shouldn’t even be told fairy tales at all because they are so used to believing things that are not correct and later on develop them accurately. However, Anne Sexton’s retelling of the fairy tale, titled “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” offers a bright and wonderful poem with powerful, meaningful words that play a big role in adolescent growth. The poem has many lines that explain how young girls face many obstacles in life through thick and thin.It symbolizes Snow White who “dies” and comes back to life as a metaphor for the development of young girls.

I believe that this quote “Reading a poem is part attitude and part technique” means that poems have true meanings and always reflect on our daily emotions, thoughts and feelings that attract readers to understand and connect to those emotions.The attitude in the poem by Patricia Jackson’s “My Muse” expands a great love this person has for someone and instead of getting hurt ,it was better to let it go with all the memories that stayed within the love. “I’m thinking of all the reasons you would leave.I let you go before our love could take hold.”This line explains how her emotions have gotten her thinking negativity but positivity about her love towards her own happiness.I can connect to both poems “My Muse” and “How to Read a poem” with a personal experience.I remember when i was in high school i felt in love with this boy,he was smart and everything,one of a kind as a person can be described but i always use to get distracted with school work and homework,so there was me one time thinking.I have to look out for myself and part of that was my attitude and technique to balance however it was better for me to let go of all the love I had towards him and to settle it down like friends so at the end of the day,no one would get hurt.

The greeting card lyrics “Why Do I Love You So Much” in relation to the Browning sonnet “How Do I Love Thee” have common elements of poetry that express the love and attribution for someone however they are both quite different in sense to the emotions and feeling such as the tone towards there expressesions.In one we see how  the speaker’s love is so deep and true that it will continue after death and in the other one we see how the memories of life will always be in someone’s heart no matter what happens, moments that you will cherish forever.Love how the poem connects to love with different point of views and feelings about one.

In the play “Oedipus the King ” expands on many themes that come across today’s society. The themes that Oedipus shows are selfishness and blindness towards the people in the play and the way he acts to hide things from them through many situational times .He keeps on lying to everyone and  Jocasta tries to expand his thoughts on it, “JOCASTA: Do not concern yourself about this matter; listen to me and learn that human beings815 have no part in the craft of prophecy” In other words as Oedpidus refuses to listen to him while Jocasta goes on by saying, that he is worth to know what’s going on as a right and have faith in his opinions.

During COVID-19 many people suffered through lot and went through the worst tragedy which caused many citizens in our country to act in many different ways of behaviors. Which impacted many of us around with the fellow actions being done. The pandemic has affected the public’s mental health and well-being including through isolation and loneliness, job loss and financial instability, and illness and grief. In the play, Oedipus displays many types of behavior, but the behavior that he demonstrates during key points in the drama presents the type of person he is. He puts on display acts of stress, arrogance, and confidence, Oedipus behavior analyzes each action every citizen demonstrates each day. He wanted to be seen as a hero and solver through everyone’s problems but wasn’t able to when it came to an action that affected the people. This connects to when we all wanted to help each other during the pandemic but couldn’t instead had to help ourselves through the problem and thrive through it.

Reading through all the quotes,I chose-” literature adds to reality,it does not simply describe it.”(C.Slwels) because literature expands into many different understandings around society today. In the the story “The lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, Syliva plays a big role in how society is seen from two different perspectives. she sees the way Miss Moore describes the social classes in front of the kids and expands her thoughts about the rich and poor people. She goes on by saying “What kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain’t in on it?”..In other words, she finds that society is unfair and people who work hard get everything they want while people who struggle still try and can’t get what they want or need. Miss Moore describes these locations herself, as well as the differences in how the children behave while there- to express and have the kids think more about lifting themselves out of poverty and experience life outside of the projects.

The theme in the nineteenth century, Emily Dickson’s poem “The Wife ” echoed in “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin through the conception of thoughts and emotions women have towards their independence. Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble at the news of her husband’s death. She expressed her emotions and liberty as a result of how she felt about her husband limiting her rights “There was a feverish triumph in her eyes and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of victory”(paragraph 18)In other words, Mrs Mallard’s wasn’t happy and didn’t have the deepest love for her husband. therefore, his death did impact her emotionally but made her realize that she would be at peace through her independence. In Emily Dickson’s poem it states “to take the honorable work of women and of a wife” isn’t always an easy outcome because Mrs. Mallard cried out her pain and relief of the negativities she had to go through in her marriage.

The quote “Literature adds to reality; it does not simply describe it” by C.S. Lewis embodies “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara because it shows a comparison and connection of real text to real-world affection that takes place in society as of the present. In this story we see how the woman -Miss Moore comes across Saliva and other kids who aren’t wealthy and takes them to a toy shop, leading them to want an expensive toy. As a lesson from Miss Moore, she begins to expand her thoughts about how young children should earn expensive/wants from working hard. Including that, she mentioned how stealing isn’t the right way but to work for what you want so you can obtain anything you see. This shows a connection to the real world as a kid because you can’t always have everything you want at a certain age but if you work hard for what you want, one day you will reach to have it and even more.

In a post of at least 150 words, please respond to the following two questions: In what way did you connect with the narrator in “Salvation?” Why? Refer to specific scenes or language in the story. Salvation has a strong meaning of how the narrator loses his faith through a wish he wanted to see and never had the chance to experience.In a way i could connect with the narrator in ”salvation” by Langston Hughes because when i was small around 10 year old i’ve always had the wish and faith if visiting my grandma in another country ,while i was told from my dad “i’ll take you soon to visit her” id never got the chance to see her besides our amazing calls we had.In other words,when my grandma passed away at a certain age i had already lost my faith of believing my father in promises and i had grudge with him because my dream never came true.When you want to see something and experience an amazing wish you will always remember that faith it key but not promising . In what way did you connect with the narrator in “Araby?” Refer to specific scenes or language in the stories. I connect with the narrator in the article “ Araby” by James Joyce because he is a young boy with disillusionment that is full of excitement ,fun and with imagination .The narrator of the story believes these feelings will carry into his budding adulthood, but instead, he is disillusioned.This article connects with me because i’m a believable person that always get delusional for the smallest things and i agree that it does carry into your path way of growing such as adulthood therefore when you believe and get very excited over man things that you wish to happen […]

I think that the teacher assigned us to read short parts of the stories by GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ because his thoughtful stories have a meaningful background that identifies the irony of the plot. Example in the story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” we see that the working and upper classes see the old man differently & directly treat him as someone who isn’t worth it but is in pain… On the bright side, people in the community still understand his pain.“The Handsomest Drowned Man In the World” has a similar plot realizing the narrowness of their dreams to do better. Gabriel Marquez has similar plots to his stories that expand the understanding of the unbelievable to believable as a way of seeing things to be done in a better way.