Christian Alvear

On page 108, “A House of My Own” is the story I can relate to the most because Esperanza envisions a home not owned by anyone else but her and she can do whatever she wants to it. Esperanza focuses more on the contents of inside the house that make it her own and not the size or area. When I used to visit my grandparents out in Utah, I always tell them this is my dream home and somewhere where I feel at peace. The inside of the home is very simple and organized, just as Esperanza describes “clean as paper before the poem”. I remember reading out in the backyard once and it was completely silent which made me wonder if I was dreaming because of how much I’m used to noise living in the Bronx. My grandparents’ home is a representation of who I am and how I want to live. In this vignette, a home is a symbolic image representing independence, pride, and a stable life to Esperanza, the same feelings I want to have when I own a house. 

On Page 53, “The First Job” is what I related to the most because just like Esperanza planning to get a job to pay her tuition, I did the same. I also went to a Catholic high school and know that it wasn’t always easy for my mother so I decided to get a job early on to help pay for college. Esperanza lying about her age is the same thing I did, being 18 and working with older men doing a job that requires heavy lifting and lots of hours means I usually have to do all the work. I prepared myself before I got the job to grow facial hair and work out as much as possible to make myself look older and it worked for a while. Only my boss knew I was 18 but he was never around so the other employees didn’t know I lied about my age. Until one day he comes around and see’s the oldest guy moving bricks and says out loud, “Why don’t you let Christian do it, he’s the youngest here so he has more energy”. At that moment I became very nervous because now all my employees know how old I really am and they just laughed asking me why I had lied so I told them the truth. Afterward, I did end up having to the most of the work.

Bettelheim states, “The answer to the puzzle may be found in the fact that psychoanalysis also revealed the child’s ambivalent feelings about his parents. It is perturbing to parents to realize that the child’s mind is filled not only with deep love but also with a strong hatred of his parents. Wishing to be loved by their child, parents shrink from exposing him to tales which might encourage him to think of parents as bad or rejecting.” I want to compare Bettelheim’s quote to Connie in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, the tension between Connie and her mother. Although Connie’s mother tried to look out for her, she also insulted Connie in ways that distanced each other instead of building a friendly relationship. Connie’s mother saying, “Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you’re so pretty?” is showing the mother’s jealousy towards her own child and Connie knows this so she tries to distance herself from her mother in order to be independent and do what she pleases. Connie completely ignores her mother’s criticism but importantly ignores her mother trying to protect her from getting into trouble with boys at such a young age. Connie doesn’t realize the reality and she lives in her own fantasy based on her attitude if she had just listened to her mother, her turnout wouldn’t have happened. 

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, the beginning makes me think that Connie is at the edge of adulthood. Just like any teenager, she sneaks out, wants to meet boys, and compulsively checks her reflection in the mirror. I’m pointing out Connie’s obsession with her reflection because of its emphasis on her beauty which gives her a sense of power. Having a bad relationship with her mother and being criticized for being obsessed with her appearance, lying where she goes, and being very interested in boys at fifteen years old is showing Connie being vulnerable and the mother wanting to protect her. To me, Rena Korb’s interpretation of “feminist allegory” best describes this story because Connie identifies herself heavily through music and films of romance. Compulsively checking her reflection in the mirror is only a reflection of how people see her, Connie knew she was pretty and it was everything to her. Arnold staring at her and his sunglasses is a reflection of Connie being vulnerable and not being able to stand up to him. He controls who she is and she obeys him sadly in the end, walking down the path to the car and images her not coming back. 

The poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” describes Innisfree as a peaceful and tranquil place the poet wants to go to. It’s a very quiet place and that is the main reason the poet wants to go there. “Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade” the poet is explaining the landscape and knows for sure he will be at peace living there. In the second stanza “And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings” describes the peace and positivity that would come as if the dawn is coming out of the veil. When the morning comes, it carries calmness into the place where the crickets were singing which is why the poet wants to be there. The poet wants to be around nature and doesn’t want to hear unnecessary noises. I completed what the poet set in motion after reading “How to Read a Poem” is how it can sound very lonely and miserable way the poet wants to live but I see it as being at peace with himself. The poet pointing out nature and the environment shows he doesn’t want to hear unnecessary noises but wants to hear nature, something that gives him peace. 

Activity 8 “What My Lips Have Kissed and Why and When” is told by a speaker who can’t remember her lovers in the past but only the happy state of mind she once had. This poem has two stanzas but gives a descriptive idea of the speaker, which has opened my mind to poems and how much information can be given in something so short. For example, in “what arms have lain Under my head till morning” the speaker is unsure why she has forgotten her romantic past or if it’s because it wasn’t serious so her mind wasn’t paying attention. Just a simple line has a descriptive meaning behind it which communicates the speaker’s mindset. My favorite line from this poem is “summer sang in me A little while, that in me sings no more” this tells me the speaker’s emotional state, summer standing for her feelings of happiness and fulfillment. Summer “sings no more” for the speaker because she knows she won’t have the feeling of happiness summer would bring her and is deeply sad in conclusion. Reading this poem showed me the unique language used and uses my imagination to interpret what the speaker is meaning, making me think more openly to figure out what she means. 

For my research essay, I picked “Salvation” by Langston Hughes. The reason I chose this story is that the young boy lost his faith in Christ due to misunderstanding what his Aunt said about being saved. The narrator shows how the pressure of his aunt and the crowd add to his distress. This reflects my thesis of the character undergoing many shifting emotions and is significantly changed by the end of the story. My secondary source will be Langston Hughes’s biography where he talks about the hardships of who he was, especially in the early 1900s, and also his famous “Harlem Renaissance” explaining the path that led to Hughes’s determination to understand religion, although often from a critical perspective, and incorporates his experiences going back as far as his childhood. His experience relates to my thesis on how Langston lost his faith in Christ when he was young because of his disappointing experience of not being saved. 

The theme in “The Wife” and “The Story of an Hour” relate to each other of the women wanting to have an internal sense of being good enough and worthy of love. Both poems shine the light on how yes in society it is respectable if you’re married but being a wife can cause suffering, especially for the women in both poems who value their independence life. In The Wife, “If ought She missed in Her new Day, Of Amplitude, or Awe Or first Prospective Or the Gold In using, wear away,” analyzes the women’s new married life she can’t express the old life she misses when she was independent, using the world “Amplitude” to show the change she’s going through. Her married life has more responsibilities and pressure she may not be able to handle. In The Story of an Hour, when Mrs. Mallard finds out about her husband’s death she says “She said it over and over under her breath: ‘free, free, free!” this tells us that she’s discontent with her husband and is a benefit to her being free now. Usually, when someone finds out about the passing of someone they love, their first reaction would be to become emotional and ask questions but Mrs. Mallard just sits motionless on her chair and doesn’t seem to be phased by it, opening her arms means she’s comfortable now. In both poems, the women will have a new journey of them being independent and don’t have to worry about the pressure marriage can bring.

In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, the interior is about morality and hypocrisy. Focusing on the grandma, she claims she’s a good person and sympathizes with what goes on in the world but yet she doesn’t do anything good. She thinks her moral qualities are self-evident and doesn’t even ask herself if what she is doing is right or reckless. Not only rationalizing bad behavior, she has no moral integrity. When the criminal gets introduced, shows integrity even though he can’t remember his crime, actually admits to his moral standing and has honesty. Although he is a murderer which is immoral, he is honest which separates him with the grandmother. When the criminal meets the grandmother, she becomes affectionate and comforts him, something she wouldn’t do for her son. This brings out another side in grandma instead of being judgemental and manipulative to the family. Ultimately as grandma says, “it’s a fallen world” but she’s wrong thinking she’s not part of it. With the Misfit, at least he’s honest and knows he’s not a good person, it doesn’t erase the burden on him but it separates him and the grandma in honesty.

“Oedipus the King” is considered timeless because it shows us a sense of control we feel we have of our lives but can cause us problems. In this story, Oedipus couldn’t escape his destiny even having the best intentions. Oedipus lesson can apply to us also with our curiosities, if we figure out the questions we have it doesn’t mean it can change our viewpoint. We can decide how to act and go on with the consequences. Oedipus seeks out knowledge finds the truth out and bears the consequences with dignity and personal responsibility. Oedipus suffers the consequences but it’s what comes with knowing ourselves. This story also tells us we can’t always control our destiny but we can steer it in the right path. We as humans are blind to the truth because we are afraid of facing and dealing with reality. Sometimes the truth can have a positive or negative impact on our lives.

Section 4. Lines 963-967:   “Pride breeds the tyrant violent pride, gorging, crammed to bursting with all that is overripe and rich with ruin—clawing up to the heights, headlong pride crashes down the abyss—sheer doom!”   This conversation on the outcomes of pleasure happens when Oedipus is rapidly discovering extra small print about his two-edged curse and does no longer quit making an attempt to locate the truth, notwithstanding pleas from Jocasta. The sentiment of delight being Oedipus’s downfall is one that is repeated at some point in the play, with Tiresias being the first to point out it. Oedipus is a proud man, he is praised as the King of Thebes and the defeater of the Sphinx, however, it is his pride, his very own trust that he is a proper man who is liked by the gods, that leads him to unravel this very belief. In his strive to discover the historic proof to show he liked the gods, he solely proves to himself and those around him that he suffers from a merciless fate.   Section 5. Lines 1188-1190:   “I count myself the son of Chance, the great goddess, giver of all good things—I’ll never see myself disgraced”   These lines are spoken using Oedipus earlier than he is conscious that the prophecy he tried to keep away from has come true. However, this quote is simply as authentic as the end of the play, the place Oedipus is aware of and accepts his horrible fate. In Greek mythology, Fortune is the goddess of destiny and she is depicted as veiled, as to be impartial to those to whom she was once distributing suitable or terrible luck. In the state of affairs in which he says this line, Oedipus is dealing with the newfound truth that […]

“Araby” isn’t a love story but it’s about frustration and disappointment. The young boy had a huge crush on Mangan’s sister and wanted to win her heart by buying something. She brought up the bazaar and he liked the idea just because she mentioned it. As he arrived late, he was immediately disappointed with what he saw with most of the stalls being packed up and ended up buying nothing. This boy is losing himself because of his immaturity, he believes he’s inferior and is blinded by lust which the girl takes advantage of. She sees how obsessive he is with her and she sees the opportunity to obtain gifts from him without any commitment. At the end of the story, the boy feels disappointed with his behavior, firstly realizing Araby is a trade show and not a magical place. Secondly, he’s annoyed with himself for how obsessive he became with his crush and knows that he was just blinded by her, realizing she doesn’t care for him. 

Two characters that caught my attention in “The Lesson” are Sylvia and Mercedes. Firstly, Sylvia doesn’t want to go to the store at all and doesn’t even know why she’s going as she knows she doesn’t belong there. She has a feeling of shame when Miss Moore urges the children to go inside and has the shame of being lower class, hating Miss Moore for even taking her. Sylvia doesn’t understand why people buy such expensive toys as she sees such an expensive one but then sees one that’s $35 that she likes but realizes the money used on it can help her family instead. On the other hand, Mercedes wasn’t surprised by the prices of the toys and she’s already an upper-class girl and it’s normal for her. She knows more of the items than the other kids as she has expensive things and it’s nothing to her. She wants to come again with her birthday money and buy more toys and it’s like a shrug on the shoulder for her, nothing expensive really. 

“Salvation” by Langston Hughes recalls an experience that left the narrator deceived by Jesus. Starting off, it seems as if Langston is ready to be brought to Jesus as he believes what his aunt is telling him about the whole celebration. All around the church are moans and shouts for these mourners on the bench to come and see the light of god, but it’s as if they are forced to do it. Langston states a man said “Won’t you come? Won’t you come to Jesus? Young lambs won’t you come?” which caused the little girls to cry and go meet Jesus right away. What Langston describes is that the adults are acting obnoxious to these kids and the experience sounds forceful for them to meet Jesus. After some time, Langston was all alone on the bench and he states that he just couldn’t see Jesus, even while being pressured by his aunt and the minister to come and be saved. Finally, he rises up and gets led to the platform as everyone shouts and rejoices as the celebration comes to an end. Importantly, Langston states that he had a sense of guilt because he didn’t see Jesus or even felt his presence, meanwhile his aunt thinks he met the Holy Ghost. 

I believe the professor chose “The Handsomest Drowned Man In the World” to show the symbolism of inspiration, beauty, and dignity. When the man was washed up, the villagers saw him as a hero inspiring them so much that they decided to fix up their houses and village to be exquisite with themselves. The drowned man was hidden and basically nothing to the world but all of a sudden when the villagers find him, they want to live a better life. When the man Esteban is found, the story says he looks perfect with an excellent physique, tall, basically gorgeous, which is why the villagers imagine he lived a magnificent life so we can too. The women started comparing him with the men in the village and how he looked nothing like them, he was” god-like” and fantasized about how he was. This stranger was inspiring the villagers to have their surroundings be beautiful and keep it that way by introducing something new.