During this semester the reading that had the most meaning to me is “Salvation” by Langston Hughes. This reading had the most meaning to me because Young Langston was forced to lie and sit at the alter with the other children. When I was young, I remember going through something like this. My mom loved going to church and would drag me along. She would get really upset and hated that I refused to participate. A few times my mother called me into her room, just so I can listen to her read the Bible; I always fell asleep, and she hated it. One day I told her I’d take the Bible and will read it, from that day on she calmed down a little. She wanted me to believe in God and Jesus just to make her happy, but it made me miserable; that’s when I came up with a way to make her happy without making myself sad or mad. This goes to say that “Salvation” by Langston Hughes is an example that sometimes adults will force kids to be religious when a child can care less.
lalique gordon-george
For this week’s discussion board “The House on Mango Street”, I found that the vignette “Papa who wakes up in the dark.” resonated with me the most. My mother passed away in 2010, this was the worst experience of my life. Between getting the call that she had to go to the hospital to when she did pass was a terrible feeling. It broke my heart when she passed, and I got that call that morning. Being a teenager and losing your parent or just being any age and losing your parent will have you feeling lost and alone in the world. My family still expected me to continue with my life as if nothing happened and it was very difficult. But till this day I try to make her proud. And the phrase I feel like Esperanza used to indicate she feels more American than Mexican is “They will have a back-and-white photo taken in front of the tomb with flowers shaped like spears in a white vase because that is how they send the dead away in that country”.
My observation in Bettleheim’s psychologically oriented reading of the story that stroked me as insightful and relevant to “Little Snow White.” was realizing that there is a pattern of people not being able to let things go. In “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by Anne Sexton, and “Little Snow White,” even though they’re the same story one is a lot different for children. the step mother wouldn’t let Snow White live, the step mothers jealousy couldn’t let Snow White live. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, the grandmother refused to shut her mouth and let the serial Killers do what they intended to do but instead she had to prolong it because she couldn’t fathom the fact that they would kill her. that goes to say people don’t know how to accept things for how they are. I would like to include my observation from Bettleheim psychologically oriented reading is “all children are jealous, if not of their parents, then of the privileges the parents enjoy as adults.” I do believe all children are jealous of their parents, I feel like it stems from the children not being able to do what they want to do when they want to do it but they watch their parents do any and everything they want and it can me a little upsetting until you get older and/or have kids of your own then those children start to understand life isn’t what is seems.
The short story “where are you going, where have you been?” is very dark and sad. To my understanding this reading is life from Connies perspective and explaining the relationship between her and her mother which wasn’t a healthy one at all. Connie expressed herself through her clothing being as she felt like she was hated at home her mom, and her father wasn’t always there when he was around so she had no support. Connies choice of clothing.seems to have caused her to end up in this horrible situation since she had a stalker that she did not know about. her stalker is a grown man preying on a little girl. I really wish the story didn’t end the way it did i was hoping she would have gotten away from them. but unfortunately they stabbed her and I know she most likely dies since they didn’t plan on taking her to a hospital.
After reading “How to Read a Poem” by Edward Hirsch I have more knowledge on how to understand reading poems, in the past I have always like I understood how to read poems, but the article helped me understand it a lot more. it helped me to understand what it means to complete a poem. I have chosen “White Lies” by Natasha Trethewey. in “White Lies” I thought it was funny because throughout the poem she explaining she only lying to feel good about herself by saying things like “I could easily tell the white folks that we lived uptown, not in that pink and green shanty-fled shotgun section along the tracks. I could act like my homemade dresses came straight out the window of Maison Blanche.” was able to enter imagine the play of the poem due to it being something like movies I’ve watched and it being like what people do daily.
my research essay is about “Salvation” by Langston Hughes my thesis statement is about the range of emotions by the young boy on the path to his epiphany going in with expectations and leaving with disappointment. I will be using Langston Hughes biography as my secondary source to help with my research summary. Langston Hughes was one of the most talented writers of the Harlem renaissance in the 1920’s they weren’t very religious which can show how much that experience in church has had a major effect on Langston hughes which I will be mentioning in my research summary.
The theme of Emily Dickinson Poem”The Wife” related to Mrs. Mallards Emotional State in “The Story of an Hour” based on both is the time period, they both were based in a time when women had to depend on men. In “The Wife” the first stanza was “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife.If aught she missed in her new day”. I feel like what was said shares a similar meaning in “the story of the hour” when the wife said ”There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.” they both realize being with a man you feel tied down and like your life isn’t your own anymore. The only difference is one just got married and the other thinks she just became a widow.
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor I believe the story’s interior is about the fact that no one is good in this story where everyone is supposed to be good. Which leads me to discuss information about the grandmother and the misfit. The fact that the grandmother is ignorant, hypocritical, selfish and, manipulative. She is the reason they ended up dead in the woods. The Grandmother refuses to enjoy the family trip she had to manipulate her son and grand children to go on the family trip to another state. She asked them to make a detour which led them right to the misfit. Now I’m not sure if they would have gotten help and gotten out safely if she would have kept quiet but because she thinks she can get herself out of everything, she just kept going, and got everyone murdered because of her ignorance. Now for the misfit he is clearly stuck in his ways and is on a killing spree. He let the grandmother go on and on as if he really cared about what she had to say he knew before he got out of the car that he was going to kill the family. The interior is definitely about a woman who thinks she can manipulate people and she tried to manipulate a murderer ,and not understanding the misfit is to far gone and there’s no saving him.
In the second half of Odepius The King Sophocles there are many timeless human experiences and behaviors. a couple that stood out to me was when the mother hung herself when the marriage came to light. Suicide is sometimes a human behavior when someone becomes severely depressed due to pressure from society, a lot of people tend to think about suicide. a great deal don’t attempt and try to find a way to figure out their problems but sadly for her she successfully committed suicide. The kids felt like a disgrace and felt like no one would want to marry them being as they are Odepius kids, and everyone viewed him as a monster. I understand why they would feel that way. Anyone that would want to marry them may be treated badly due to Odepius incestuous history with his mother and no one wants to be judged which is definitely a timeless human experience.
In this weeks reading “Oedipus the King” the passage I chose to analyze is “A blight is on the fruitful plants of the earth.” (Line 28), “A blight is on the cattle in the fields,” (Line 29), and “A blight is on our women that no children.” (Line 30). The reason I chose to analyze this passage is because the priest is claiming a disease if on the plants on the earth, a disease is on the cattle, and a disease is on the women that cannot bare children. I believe the priest is saying they’re being punished for something and they’re asking the god to help them. The priest is asking for his city to be lifted and saved. He called himself and everyone else “mortals” he also mentioned only the greek god Oedipus can help them through this situation. The priest feels as though since Oedipus saved the land they call him their savior so he must help them.
After reading “The Lesson” By Toni Cade Bambara. The two characters I will be choosing to compare during their visit to F.A.O. Schwartz are Sylvia, and Sugar. As sugar entered the store she expressed how everything is expensive and was upset about the $1,000 she wasn’t really fond of being there. When Ms. Moore asked “what did you think of FAO Schwartz?” sugars response was “I don’t think all of us here put together eat in a year what that sailboat cost”. Sylvia who I believe is the protagonist in the story reaction to Ms. Moore question was her feeling embarrassed because Ms.Moore gave her a shrilly look. After M.S Moore asked “did anybody else learn anything today?” she walked away because she didn’t like the fact that Ms. Moore brought her them to that expensive toy store. but overall I feel as though they both had the same feeling but sugar was more vocal and nice about the whole ordeal and Sylvia did not speak about it she chose the rude approach and walked off.
“Salvation” by Langston Hughes is a good read chosen by Professor Conway. I feel as though the narrator is noticeably different from the way he was in the beginning of the story since at the end of the story he said “I didn’t believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn’t come to help me”. The narrator thought the comment from his aunt “you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul”. literal after his aunt told him he will and it ruined his beliefs because of it, and I believe he understands it as an adult now. According to the video that was assigned, this story falls under dramatic irony. I believe it falls under dramatic irony since the narrator believed everything that he was told but ‘we’ the readers know the aunt did not mean it literally but he doesn’t understand she meant figuratively because he was 12 years old.
I think you might have assigned “The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World” as the first story for the course because it can give insight on how people think and assume what people are like when they haven’t gotten a chance to get to know a person, and sometimes it can make them look at their life a little different. For example there are plenty of people that have never left America or have never lived in a diverse area in America. so when they see someone that looks different they are curious and their mind starts to wonder. Some people come up with their own ideas of how a person is, what their life is like, and sometimes start to think maybe their life isn’t as interesting as they thought. In this case the women in the village started to assume the men in their village weren’t man enough because of the corpse that they were looking at and the stories they created in their minds of what his life was like. It just shows that people shouldn’t look at their life differently because they’re assuming what another persons life is like.
