Ainoon Khan

The vignette on page 56 of “The House on Mango Street” made the strongest impression on me. I really enjoy that whenever I read this book, I can always make a connection to my own life. This helps me to better understand the character’s thoughts and actions in the story. When I was around the ages of five-seven, my family and I flew to Bangladesh because of my grandmother’s, my father’s mother’s, death. I remember being in Bangladesh and my dad sitting in the middle of the couch crying so much. All my other family members surrounded him and were crying as well. We flew to Bangladesh from America. I was so little but seeing him cry made such a great impact on me and made me realize what death is. I was standing across the room from him because I did not know what to do or what to say. “I have never seen my Papa cry and I don’t know what to do. I know he will have to go away, that he will take a plane to Mexico, all the uncles and aunts will be there…” (Page 56). I felt the same feeling as the character because I have personally gone through this situation myself. I was able to picture and remember everything again.

The vignette on page three, from “The House on Mango Street”, made the strongest impression on me. After I was done reading that page, I automatically wondered if that is how I sound to others when I tell them where I moved from. I always tell them “I was born in Hyattsville, Maryland, and then I loved to Alexandria, Virginia at four years old, and then I moved to Brooklyn, New York at six years old. When I first moved to Brooklyn, New York, we had the second floor, and then our landlord told us to move to the fourth floor, after a couple of years, our landlord told us to move to the third floor, and here we are now.” I find it interesting when people move from place to place, it was really hectic for my family and me but enjoy having our own space, and a different environment. My family and I also used to live with my cousins for a couple of years, our house was jam-packed!

In the poem “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by Anne Sexton, each of the stanzas shows how important it is to be ladylike and follow the rules of chastity. This poem was more centered around being a pure woman and untouched. As well as, being a quiet girl and saying yes to everything. “The virgin is a lovely number” (Sexton). It is good to not have too many sexual partners, and everyone would be more attracted to you and like you more. Rumors won’t is spread around. When she encounters the seven dwarves Sexton specifically says “..walked three times around Snow White, the sleeping virgin” (Sexton). She says this to show how important it is as it was described to her when saying her name. There could have been other characteristics that she could have been addresses with, but she chose virgin, which stood out the most of Snow White.

This story is about young love. Connie explains throughout the story that she is constantly being compared to her older sister, June, by her mother and her mother’s sisters. They always talk very highly of June and get very excited when they hear her name and that June does a lot more for the family than Connie. June saved money and helped to do chores around the house, which they appreciated so much that they looked at Connie as an outsider in the family and always belittled her. When Arnold Friend came in front of her home, she immediately pushed him away and was rude to him. She explained that she had other things to do instead of going out for a ride with him because he did not want him to know that she was interested in him, as it would his ego much higher. He constantly called her sweet and caring names, had asked a lot of their mutual friends about Connie and explained that he wanted to be with her. Towards the end, she realizes that she wants to be with the boy as well, as it makes her heart pound and she feels that she can finally have something to herself. She says this because Arnold saw Connie for who she was and accepted her. She liked that she wasn’t compared to anyone else, especially her older sister. She didn’t accept it at first because she thought that what he was said was fake and silly and she did not want to be hurt. She was not close with her family and did not grow up with showing love and affection. She did not have a strong relationship with her father, and she wished that her mother had died. She was scared and pushed Arnold Friend […]

I really enjoyed reading this article as it helped me understand the mind of a poet and how the reader can use what the poet is trying today in his or her poem and be able to feel what is being said. I have always struggled with reading poetry, being more analytical in my reading and writing, and putting myself in a poet’s shoes. The article explains that a reader must “complete” the poem, which is when the audience and reader start to think about how the poem plays a part in their lives and to put themselves in the poem. The poem, “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, is about her seeing seven young pool players and telling them that life is short. She explains this writes “We left school.” in the first stanza to “We die soon.” in the last stanza. She writes the word ‘We’ seven times at the end of the line for each pool player that she saw. I am able to complete what the poem set in motion, by putting myself with the seven pool players, having fun and not thinking about what life is about and how it ends so quickly, and Gwendolyn Brooks giving them advice since she is experienced, wiser and older than them because they are not able to see that there is so much store for the pool players. The article states “This act of completion begins when you enter the imaginative play of a poem, bringing to it your experience and point of view.” I did this by putting my selves with them and always hearing advice from my elders about being careful with the things that I do because life is so short and I should not mess it up doing silly things and hanging out with people […]

All the poems and activities in week 11, helped me to view a different standpoint on poetry and the way it is written from the author’s point of view. I was never a fan of poetry and thought that it was always silly. This was because poetry was introduced to me in school and there were always questions that I needed to answer. Multiple-choice questions and short responses taught me to see poetry the way test makers saw poetry. I felt dismissed when it came to how I felt and what I saw in poetry. Poetry has such deep meaning, much deeper in passages, because of the way the stanzas are written, the personification, the time that the poetry was written, and even the author shows us how all these details really helped to impact the way the poem was created. It is interesting to know that poetry is such a huge part of the English Language because you gain something so much more that you won’t be able to gain when reading an article, essay, and/or passage.  

I chose to do my research essay on the short story “Salvation” by Langston Hughes. My thesis is “During the course of the story, the character undergoes a great change and is a very different person by the end.” For my secondary source, I am choosing to do a biography on him. This will explain will more about his childhood life, since in this story he was twelve turning thirteen. By researching, I am hoping to find out why he wasn’t able to see Jesus in the church, and I think that his early childhood may have had an impact on that. I am choosing to go more into his personal life and find deeper meanings in his childhood because it will show how one course of the event led to another. The BMCC database that I explored is the “Gale Literature Resource Center.” I found this database interesting because it explains how he saw his “home” in another church. 

In the story, “Of An Hour”, Mrs. Mallard is heartbroken when her sister breaks down at her the death of her husband. She feels her environment start to change negatively and that life was not the same for her anymore, she had lost a huge piece of herself. Her husband then comes and her mood is suddenly lifted. This shows her husband playing a huge part in her happiness in her life. This passage discusses how a character can feel a change coming into their environment. She repeated the word “Free” to persuade herself that things were going to be okay and that she needs to move and do more. The poem “Wife”, by Emily Dickinson, explains how she is willing to sacrifice her life before being married, and giving it up for her husband. She realized that she wanted to become to a standard for her husband, where she would have to do different things, and how her life was going to change and not be the same anymore. She did not want to miss any day with him to help him out. They both show how marriage plays a significant role in wives’ lives. It gives them control and wanting to be accepted and validated.

In the story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the interior is more about the Grandmothers characteristics, and how she plays an important role in the story. The story’s interior is more based on her traits and actions in the passage. I think that a story’s “interior” is what it is mostly more than what it seems. I would compare it to an iceberg as how we only see so little, but if we were to look at the bottom of the ocean we would see so much for what it is. The Grandmother has a lot of negative characteristics as she is very racist and disrespectful. She shows her family that she is good and that nothing will happen, but then they end up being murdered. This is not a coincidence, it is on purpose, as she wanted all of it to happen. She tricked the family and is very selfish.

I agree with Aristotle when he explains that “poetry is a higher form than history.” This is because in poetry so much is able to be explained with such little words. We are able to see how people were able to feel using the figurative languages. The audience is also able to understand different points of views. History is much more biased and may only focus on one side instead of all of them, just like today.   Oedipus, wants to find the truth so he sees anything in his power to do so. He is very curious and knows that he takes control and gets the best of him. I understand why he wants to find the truth out because when I look at it from his point of view I am able to see how important it is and why he is so determined to do so. Even thought he had many obstacles he still wanted to do whats best for him, because he did not want to keep it hidden from him.

I felt that this play was very interesting because of the Monarchy and how the citizens loved Oedipus. This is because, from my past reading and history in general, people have always wanted to overthrow the King, and they did everything in their power to do so. Oedipus was a king that was loved by the people in Thebes. They wanted him to find the Laisos’ murderer. It seemed that the people trusted him dearly with huge actions and they believed in what he said. He was very defensive and stood his ground with Teiresias. He was being taunted and started to get angry. I feel that he was worried about how he looked during this encounter. I wonder if there is a real reason behind Creon using Oedipus’ weakness against that. I found that very disrespectful and today I feel that people use a person’s weakness and insecurity to power over them. I think that he was jealous and envious of what he had. I felt that Oedipus was kind and always willing to help the people in the city but I felt that he looked into Social Validation too much and he had a very boosted ego. In Lines 255-264, he takes initiative in what he thinks will help the people in the city.

When I first read the title of this story, I thought that it would be more about nature. I thought that “Araby” was a very interesting piece, because it discussed love, but it wasn’t all around it being a love story. His surroundings are very gloomy and melancholy. He explains and describes that he is not happy in his environment. The narrator is in a very dark environment, however, the girl gives him light in his life. The narrator is very observant of this girl and admires her a lot and is very passionate about her. He becomes overly obsessive with her that whenever he hears, sees, or thinks about her, his dark life just disappears. She is like a distraction for him or even more so, a drug. Her presence is temporary but when she is there he craves it. He thinks about her and makes her do things that are very weird and creepy, it changes his behavior and body language.

The passage, “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, teaches children about the different viewpoints in the world, and how in certain circumstances we all see different things, more specifically our financial circumstances. The children in the passage were taken to the FAO Schwarz Toy Store. The prices in the toy store were remarkably high, which taught the children to learn more about money and purchases, that not everyone has access to everything, and more importantly, to be grateful, because what may seem a reasonable price to you, may not seem the same way to someone else. Sylvia is the main character in the story, she explains to the readers what she sees, hears, and thinks. Sylvia is a very observant young lady and kept detailed notes in her head about the people she comes into contact with, as well as what she does. She explains her hatred for Ms. Moore at the beginning of the passage by explaining how she always assigned them boring activities. When she arrives at the toy store, she immediately belittles the prices and was stunned by the items that was being sold. She kept on complaining about ridiculous they were. On the other hand, Mercedes was another student that did not seem too bothered by the prices and the items that were being sold. She explains that she would like to pay a visit to the FAO Schwarz Toy Store again when she can get her birthday money. This immediately explains that, financially, her life was more stable than the other children’s. Her family had money, and whatever she asked for she had probably gotten without any hesitation.  She immediately stood out to me, because of her enjoyment and agreement at the store, while other students were complaining around her.

The young narrator is different from when the story first started because he was a lot more naive and gullible. He wanted to be saved and thought that this was going to happen, as this is what the people in the church have discussed with him. He was waiting to be saved. and was upset that there was no symbol of light that he could see, he was very doubtful of what is going on. When his aunt convened him to come and sing he decided to because he wanted what was best for him. Towards the end of the story, the setting was very happy and you can truly feel everyone’s joy and relief. They wanted to be free of sin and wanted to know that God was going to forgive them, it was very important to them. However because Langston did not see the light he had to pretend with them as well, He was very disappointed to know that he did not revive help and that help was not coming for him.

The Professor assigned this story because she wanted us to understand the imagery that is used in a writing, how we can incorporate it into our own, and its significance of it. There is a lot of expression and emotion in the story to discuss how they felt when they saw the man at first, and when he was put back in the ocean. Even after not being told what his name was, they felt that his name was “Esteban” from how he was described and how he seemed to the people of the village. Imagery helped the reader to understand the environment that he was in, how he looked, and how his appearance had an effect on the villagers. In the story, it explains how “he had the smell of the sea about him”, and that, “he was the tallest, strongest, most virile, and best-built man they had ever seen.”