J.A. Williams

In my continued reading of “The House on Mango Street”, I found that the vignette “What Sally Said” resonated with me the most. The theme of this chapter is child abuse, and the subject of this abuse is Esperanza’s friend, Sally. In the Vignette “Sally” we are introduced to the title character.  Sally is described as a raven-haired girl whom all the boys think is beautiful and is Esperanza’s only friend. We also learn that Sally comes from a very religious home. Esperanza informs the reader that Sally displays two different personalities. When Sally is at school, she is outgoing, she paints her eyelids in the style of Cleopatra. But, after school, she removes the blue eyeliner she wears, pulls her skirt down, and no longer laughs; Like Connie in ‘Where are you going, where have you been” by Carol Oates. In “What Sally said” We learn that she is physically abused at home by her father. We also learn that her mother does not stop the abuse. Sally bares bruises caused by the beatings and covers for her father stating they are due to falls and other mishaps. The reason this chapter resonated with me is that when I was in junior high school, I had a friend named Jamal. Jamal transferred into the school in the middle of seventh grade. One day he came to school with a black eye. Jamal told everyone he got the injury from running into a door. Another time, he said the burn on his hand was because he touched the radiator when it was on. Then one day, Jamal didn’t come back to school. Sometime later we had an assembly where the staff played videos that spoke about abuse, explaining what it is and the different kinds from verbal to physical and […]

Upon reading many of the vignettes in “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros. I feel that the one that resonated most with me is “My Name”.  In this chapter, we learn that the main character’s name is Esperanza. The name belonged to her great-grandmother. Esperanza says that the name means “sadness” in Spanish and reflects on how that meaning rang true for her Great-grandmother. Esperanza describes her great-grandmother as a wild woman who would not be tamed until she was forced into marriage by Esperanza’s great-grandfather. This union filled her great-grandmother with sadness because it stripped this once-strong “horsewoman” from the potential lives she could have led. Embodying the sadness that her name represents. While applauding her great-grandmother’s wild spirit, Esperanza does not want to end up living in sadness as her grandmother did, the meaning her namesake holds. She instead wants to carve her own path with a name that befits her true self. My first name (Joseph) is also the name of my grandfather, Joseph Wiggins. During my teens, I sought to distance myself from that name. My reasoning was that I saw it as plain and boring so, I went by a slew of nicknames; “J”, “JA”(A combination of my first and middle initial), Daze, Turtle (a name bestowed upon a friend who no longer dwells on this planet, R.I.P. “Black”). During my 20’s in my professional career, my co-workers knew me as and addressed me by Andre, my middle name. In my 30’s, I still go by Andre. The idea of my name being “plain” no longer bothers me. I do it for other reasons. Joseph Wiggins was driven, fashionably savvy (despite being color blind), and a successful entrepreneur and businessman. During the 1950s, my grandfather and his brothers began buying property. They brought […]

It was intriguing to read Bruno Bettleheims comparison of Snow White to Oedipus, but it makes complete sense. It’s interesting how the events of both stories are set into motion by parents who are jealous of their children, one being biological (King Laius Oedipus father) the other being Snow Whites stepmother (The Queen). In the end this becomes the undoing of both. That same narcissism that brings forth the King and Queen of their respective stories’ demises; It also is the obstacle that kills Oedipus and almost kills Snow White as well…Twice! With Oedipus it comes from his disbelief in his fulfillment of the prophecy. Snow Whites narcissism is shown when she opens the door not once but twice after the first time, she is nearly killed by her stepmother and being explicitly forbade from letting anyone in by the Dwarves. It’s interesting that this same narcissism is the driving force in “Where are you going, where have you been?”  Connie (The protagonist) Is vain and narcissistic, we know this because she compares her sister to herself by calling her older sister “plain looking” in comparison, she only looks into the eyes of others to see her own reflection. This Ironically is her undoing as well. Connie is set upon by Arnold Friend because of how she looks. Noticeably she tries to make herself look more “mature” when she goes to the teen diner and is spotted by Arnold. When he appears at her house instead of instinctively going into her home and calling for help when Arnold appears at her home, she instead entertains his presence until it’s too late and the threat of danger becomes more eminent. Snow White does the same. Despite being poisoned the first time she fails to recognize the danger by falling into the […]

Rena Korbs’ article states that “The loss of Connie to Arnold Friend is thus not only the story of one girl’s fatal misperception of appearances but also a representation of a loss of innocence.” I could not agree more. Our protagonist (Connie) is described as a vein 15-year-old. Through the story, we learn that she is a little boy crazy as well (Frequenting the drive-thru of the older kids eagerly leaving her friend to spend time with a boy she felt attracted to, even spending time with him in his car in an alley {possibly engaging in promiscuous activity} spending her summer thinking/dreaming about the boys she met). We also learn that she displays two separate personalities depending on where she is. At home, she shies away to avoid her mother’s criticism. When out in the world her demeanor is one that garners attention, even her style of dress differs (“She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home.”). She is teetering on the cusp of maturity, hiding behind the guise of innocence at home. To me, Arnold Friends arrival marks the collision of the two worlds she attempts to keep separate. Arnolds’ request for her to come outside can be seen as a metaphorical representation of temptation (mature desires), beckoning her to leave behind her innocence (represented by her home and the personality she shows her family) to embrace her “womanhood” (the personality she exhibits to the world). Arnold speaks in a way that is supposed to sound comforting but is threatening. This can be viewed as a warning to Connie about the falsehoods that exist in the world she’ll embrace if she chooses to go with Arnold aka the embodiment of Maturity/loss of […]

William Carlos Williams states that in order to understand a poem, a reader must “complete what a poet has begun”. The article from Poets.org states that in order to do so you must use your imagination to connect it to your experience to see it from your point of view. For this discussion I’ve selected “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks. After reading the poem a few times I really examined it and broke it down.  Gwendolyn Brooks states that the poem was inspired when she passed a pool hall one day and noticed some teenagers inside cutting school. Using “imaginative play” I interpreted the poem as a summary of the life trajectory of the 7 teenagers (as established in the subtitle). The first stanza “we real cool, we left school” establishes the rebelliousness of the group foregoing their education, viewing this act of defiance as cool. Stanza 2 the author uses the word lurk. To lurk means: “To lie in wait in a place of concealment especially for an evil purpose.” Which is followed by the line ‘We strike straight.” To strike is to hit with force. I interpreted this stanza as a representation of the dark path the kids are travelling down, staying out late being menacing. This Stanza is followed by “We sing sin, We thin gin.”  I don’t interpret this as singing of sin but enjoying sinful acts or showing unruly behavior like drinking alcohol (the act of thinning gin). The 4th stanza brings the poem to an end “We jazz june, We die soon”. Gwendolyn Brooks states that “June” represents the establishment (Authority). “Jazz” was once considered rebellious music. So I interpret the line representing the teens rebelling against authority. The outcome of their behavior culminates into their early demise or the behavior ending sooner […]

After reading the material It was interesting to learn that there are both Italian and Elizabethan (Shakespearean) sonnets considering that the latter is the most popular I had no idea that the former existed. Also, how the structure of each differs, with Italian Sonnets consisting of an 8/6 composition (8-line Octave and 6-line sestet) while Shakespearean sonnets have makeup of 4/4/4/2, (3 quatrains and a 2-line rhyming couplet at the end) both equating to a 14-line makeup. Also, the ambiguous nature of poetry, we often read poetry and try to interpret it at face value when actuality the meaning behind the poem is often hidden with colorful language. Sonnet 18 is considered one of Shakespeare’s most romantic works, leading the reader to believe it is an ode to someone he fancy’s when in actuality the subject is that of a young man known as the “Fair Youth” who is handsome and widely sought after. The poem is in reality one of admiration rather than romantic notions. 

For my research paper I will be writing about the story “Salvation” by Langston Hughes. In the story, a young Langston believes he must lie about being saved to appease those gathered in the church, where the story takes place. This lie is so detrimental to Langston that it causes him to lose faith in Jesus Christ. My research paper will explore the significance of social culture and how it plays an influential role in his decision to lie by examining both the setting and secondary characters. My secondary sources will be Langston Hughes biography to gather knowledge on the familiar and cultural upbringing of Mr. Hughes and various articles pertaining to Lev Vygotskys theory of social culture to provide a clear point of reference to what social culture is and its effects on the human experience. I have not explored the BMCC database yet, I have been using external sources from google searches and textbook infromation. 

The theme of “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson is that of a woman’s duties by societies standards in the role of wife during that era and the sacrifices she is forced to endure. The poem is from the perspective of a woman who is trapped in her duties as a wife. In the first stanza, Ms. Dickinson speaks of the subject letting go of the things that bring her joy to conform to her role as a wife (“She rose to his requirement, Dropped the playthings of her life to take the honorable work of woman and of wife”) The second and third stanza to me touch on the woman reflecting on missing aspects of her former self/life (“if ought she missed…”) in this perceived higher station as a wife (“in her new day of amplitude and awe..”) and dealing with those emotions by burying them deep away within herself to never address (“It lay unmentioned as the sea develop pearl and weed…”). To me the relation I get between theme of The Wife and the emotional state of Mrs. Mallard’s in “The Story of an Hour” is that they are complete mirror opposites of one another, but they can be looked at as two halves of the same whole. The wife in Ms. Dickinson’s poem can be seen as Mrs. Mallard right before she got the news her husband had died. She feels trapped, bound by the rules of social culture. interpreting the poem, we can speculate she may have been experiencing depression, feeling caged in her societal station. Continuing this train of thought, Mrs. Mallard would represent the perceived emotional response the wife in Dickinson’s’ poem upon finding herself unchained from the shackles of her marriage would exhibit. The woman while saddened by her husband’s death because it […]

I feel Like that the interior of “A good man is hard to find” is one that focuses on the true character of a person. The Grandmother who refers to herself constantly as a “lady” (she even dresses in a manner that in the event that there is an accident those who come upon her will know by her dress that she was a lady) is anything but, she’s shallow, and judgmental. She looks down on her family and others, seeing herself as better, she also prideful (even after realizing that she had the address wrong she allowed the family to continue (thus sealing their fate). The “Misfit” while appearing (by his way of speaking respectfully showing some sort of warmth towards the mother when asking if she’d like to join Bailey. and his embarrassment of being without a shirt in the presence of women) comes off as a southern gentleman is in reality a murderous monster who is unfeeling. 

When the play opens, Oedipus and the Priest are speaking about the sickness that is plaguing the city “The town is heavy with a mingled burden of sounds and smells, of groans and hymns and incense…” (Lines 3,4 spoken by Oedipus), a Blight is on the fruitful plants of the earth, a blight is on the cattle in the fields, a blight is on our women that no children are born to them; a God that carries fire, a deadly pestilence, is on our town (lines 26-30 spoken by the priest). Sickness is a timeless human experience to varying degrees from individual influenza to the l typhoid fever outbreak of NYC in 1906 lest we forget our own recent pandemic outbreak of 2020 from the year of 541 to present day humans have always experienced some sort of plague/epidemic or mass sickness. Another experience is death and murder. Murder is the oldest crime in history, and we’ve all been exposed to it either via firsthand experience or secondary through media such as news. Death takes many forms including suicide (which has a yearly average of 800,000 deaths documented globally). Death is the only constant in life. In the play Oedipus Rex kills King Laius, Oedipus’s Wife/Mother dies by her own hand after she learns of the incestuous relationship she had with her son.  

“Who is the man proclaimed by Delphi’s prophetic rock as the bloody handed murderer,545 the doer of deeds that none dare name? Now is the time for him to run with a stronger foot than Pegasus, for the child of Zeus leaps in arms upon him 550 with fire and the lightning bolt, and terribly close on his heels are the Fates that never miss. “    To me this passage poses the question as to who the murderer is. Also, it warns that they should leave the kingdom as quickly as possible to avoid the inevitable outcome of them being brought to justice for their crime, “Now is the time to run with stronger foot than Pegasus” In Greek mythology the “Pegasus” was a winged horse capable of swift and speedy travel via flight. “For the child of Zeus leaps in arms upon him with fire and the Lightning bolt” Zeus was depicted as the King of the Greek Gods Upon the death of Laius his essence returned to the God he worshiped “Zeus” and because of his servitude the “Lightning Bolt” or Justice of the Gods will be done because the Fates(fate) deems it so and the Fates are never wrong, “Fates that never miss.” 

I believe “Araby” is a coming-of-age story centered around the narrator’s infatuation induced naivety. In the third chapter the narrator finds themselves inexplicably smitten with the older sister of their friend Mangan. The narrator spends the remainder of the story consumed with this girl.   This is shown when the narrator explains that they spend every morning watching her door waiting to follow behind her enroute to school. It is further illustrated when the narrator states, “Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance” all the while not truly understanding the source of these emotions “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand”  When the narrator is presented with an opportunity to impress the holder of his infatuation, they eagerly seize it. Their immaturity is displayed by the narrator’s expressed delusion of going to this “magical place” and finding the perfect gift that will cause the girl to fall for them of We see the main character become frustrated when their uncle doesn’t arrive in time to take them to the bazaar and fear when they arrive to see the place closing. upon arriving late to the bazaar, the narrator finds most shops have closed and the one shop open does not contain anything they feel is worthy. In his failure the character comes to realize that he did not love the girl and in realizing that he realizes what he has become something of  a mockery of himself   His attraction represents his maturing, his disillusioned fantasy of going to Araby and getting the perfect gift that will make her fall in love with him represents his childlike innocence that lingers. 

The story “Salvation” tells the pivotal point in the narrators (Langston Hughes) life when he loses his belief in Jesus. In his youth the narrator is told that when he is “Saved” he would see a light and experience a change of sorts followed by an appearance from Jesus. Initially the narrator is optimistic about receiving salvation. Having a clear idea as to what he will experience in that moment he awaits his “salvation.” As the evening goes on, we see that his faith slowly begins to waver. As he watches the other children leave the bench and be saved, his naivety is on full display which is expressed by his genuine belief that there would be visual cues for his salvation. The narrator soon experiences fear and shame. Fearful that he would be the “only lamb left in the cold.” Thus, failing congregation. He becomes ashamed that he had not experienced the “change” alluded to by his aunt. His belief comes into question even more as he hears Westley use the lord’s name in vain and (in his outlook) feign salvation without consequence. Although he does not experience the phenomena he was informed of, he chooses to act as if he does to appease his aunt and the rest of the congregation. Due to his adolescent innocence, he finds himself stricken with grief due to his dishonesty. At the end of the story, it is clear to the reader that the experience has left the narrator crestfallen by the lie he told to the point that he no longer believes in Jesus.