Matthew Hui

The vignette that made the strongest impression on me is “Minerva Writes Poems”. I chose this one specifically because I can closely relate to it. Growing up without a father figure puts a lot of stress on the mother. My mom when I was growing up gave me the best life she could have under the given circumstances. Reading this vignette I can sympathize with Minerva because she is trying her best. As much as she wants to resent her husband she still has to take care of the kids that she had brought into the world. “But when the kids are asleep after she’s fed them their pancake dinner, she writes poems on the little pieces of paper that she folds over and over” This quote specifically drew me into the story because although she does not have much she still hopes that her children do good and prays for hers and their success.

The vignette that had the strongest impression on me out of the many in “The House on Mango Street” was “Those who don’t”.  I chose this one because I can somewhat relate to it. When I was reading it the one thing that stood out to me most was the feeling of safety when you are in your own neighborhood with people that you can trust. As an Asian American living through COVID and seeing what it has done to my community, I feel the safest around my own people. As I see more and more Asian hate crimes happen on the news I feel wearier and wearier as the days go by. The quote that got me thinking about this most is “All brown all around, we are safe But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake” This specifically made me think of the fear that people may face when they are in a environment that seems hostile or in an environment that has caused others harm before.

The story of Snow White is a story we all know very well. From a young age, we are exposed to this story of a beautiful young lady living out in a hut with dwarves. Following them as the story goes along the dwarves take her in as a part of their own. The story till I read Bettleheim’s psychologically oriented reading of the story was the innocent and rather light-hearted story. One of the best examples that Bettleheim talks about in the beginning is “Here the problems the story sets out to solve are intimated: sexual innocence, whiteness, is contrasted with sexual desire, symbolized by the red blood. Fairy tales prepare the child to accept what is otherwise a most upsetting event: sexual bleeding, as in menstruation”. I had never thought about Snow White in such a way where sexual innuendos would come to mind. As a kid, I did not have that active of imagination but as people get older and learn of these things I can see how these stories become significantly less innocent.

Throughout my years of reading literature and specifically poetry has been a struggle to understand fully. In the article “How to Read a Poem” written by William Carlos Williams, He tells us about how difficult poetry often is to read and that to fully understand a poem we have to “complete” what the poet began. He tells us “This act of completion begins when you enter the imaginative play of a poem, bringing to it your experience and point of view.” The poem that I have chosen to “complete” this week is “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks. On the surface, it seems like a really simple and to-the-point poem with it being so short but it tells a deeper story. I completed this poem by putting myself into the shoes of one of the seven boys in the poem. The lines “We Left school. We Lurk late.” and “We Die soon.” stuck out to me the most because it does not say explicitly in the poem that they were kids rebelling against what they should do and that it could come with serious consequences such as death. But when I put myself into the position they were in it seems much clearer that Brooks was trying to portray this message.

Reading poetry and really understanding the deep meaning of them was something that I had always struggled with. After doing the Week 11 assignments I have learned to not only see the base purpose of the poetry but to dive deeper and understand what the author is really trying to tell us—specifically reading the poets.org post on how to read a poem and breaking down the process of reading a poem to understand it deeply. Talking back to the poem and asking all these questions back to it was something that I had never thought of till reading this. It gave me a better understanding of how the poet wanted us to read their poem. Knowing the context of the poem was also something that I had never thought of, I had always read poems as a stand-alone piece of text but now I see that it is important to read between the lines and see what’s not right there in front of you.

My research paper will be on “The Most Handsome Drowned Man in the World” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The main points that I am focusing on are the villager’s perspective on life and how they want to change their lives for the better when they see this drowned man wash up in their village. My thesis is “The arrival of this mysterious man displays to the reader that it does not take much to change oneself rather it is a deeper want for them to want to change for the better.” The kind of secondary source information that will support my thesis is physiological studies on how other people may change your mindset and life and also a biography on Gabriel Garcia Marquez to understand the way he thinks. I would get these articles from places like JSTOR and the BMCC library. I would also add other articles where people have similar ideas on how and why Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote this and thinks that it takes a great person to change others.

The theme of the Emily Dickinson poem “The Wife” is closely related to “The Story of an Hour?” because both speak on the jobs or requirements of a wife when they go into marriage. Wives are expected to drop what they have in life and conform to what their husband wants. In the first section of the poem it says. “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife.” This directly tells us that she would not have a life of her own anymore rather she is a sort of entity attached to her husband. Working for the husband and that being their only role. It relates to The story of an Hour because when she found out that her husband had been in an accident she was ecstatic that her husband had passed and had gained back her life only to find out that the news was false and the husband was still alive. The last section of the poem also mentions “It lay unmentioned, as the sea Develops pearl and weed,” The way I view this line is as long as a woman is married their own personality is buried deeper and develops weeds that shroud their own personality which is separate from their role as a “wife”

While reading Oedipus the King there are mentions of timeless human experiences and behaviors. One of those would be the societal fear of killing their father and marrying their mom. Most people in society would think that it would be one of their greatest fears for that to happen. In all cultures, there’s an incest taboo that this story would relate to in the real world. Another behavior that is mentioned in the passage is that we would not have control of our own lives rather a more significant and greater force is making these things happen. The fear that we do not control our own lives is something that most people would be afraid of. I myself think that if I didn’t have control over my own life what’s the point in doing anything if it’s all predetermined and you wouldn’t be able to choose for yourself. There are other behaviors that are exhibited in the passage but these are the ones that I have seen.

“25 out of the depths, out of the bloody surf. 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, ” This whole passage speaks of death and the toll that the city’s citizens are facing. They had come to Oedipus hoping for help. The belief in their gods that they would be saved was something that they had sincerely believed in because everyone loved Oedipue so much that they had no doubts about him and they saw him as a great leader. A focal point in the play is finding out who killed the king before Oedipus his late father. When he comes and finds out that he was the one that had killed his own father and married his mother he is appalled. As the plague that is affecting his entire kingdom is caused by himself. I chose this passage because it exemplifies exactly what he is causing to his own people. Blight is a rapid spread of disease. That word alone tells me that the people of Oedipus is suffering and they are looking for his help, showing their undying loyalty to him.

The story “Araby” by James Joyce isn’t a love story but rather a story about a child that is infatuated with Mangan’s sister. The boy constantly keeps a distance from her but always is close enough to keep watch of her and admire her. When he was finally able to talk to her she mentioned if he was going to Araby. He had all these ideas about how magnificent the event would be. He went as far as wanting to buy something for her because his “like” was so deep for her. But when his uncle comes home late and gives him some money, as he rushes off to go to the Bazar and arrives he notices that it was dark and most of the stalls had already been closed. This disappointed him as he had told Mangan’s sister that he would go and buy something for her. At this moment he realizes that his expectation of the Bazar was not what it is at all. At the end of the story, he is mad that he was not able to buy anything for her but he also realizes that his expectation was too high and the hope he had was no longer there. The story was about a coming of age of sorts realizing that his obsession lead him to go this far for someone that would not really have noticed him in the grand scheme of things which had led him to become disappointed and upset.

When reading “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara there is a clear distinction between two characters and their experiences in the FAO Schwarz toy store. These two characters are Mercedes and Sugar. From the very start once they get out of the taxi they see all the white people in their attire. They head to the toy store and see a toy that catches their eyes instantly but once they know the price they are in awe. Mercedes seeing all the fancy stuff shows from the start that she is more educated on certain things and is more fortunate than the others seeing that she owns a stationary and that she would go back when she got her birthday money. On the other hand, Sugar tells us that even saving up all the allowance money they would have already outgrown the microscope that they had seen in the window. The clear separation of social class and education shows that they have completely different upbringings. Mercedes isn’t fazed when she finds out what stuff costs at the store and wants to come back when she gets money, while Sugar knows she isn’t fortunate enough even if she saved for some time.

“Salvation” by Langston Hughes is a short story about his coming of age. He starts the story full of faith believing in a god that his aunt had spoken of. Days before his “saving” his aunt had preached about a greater god that would come and save all the sinners. The older generation also preached and believed so with their age young Langston thought they had more legitimacy and knowledge. By the middle of the story he had been sitting at the bench waiting while all the other kids had already gotten up and seen the light of a greater being, That was not the case for young Langston he saw nothing and as time went on he had taken the advice of the boy next to him and to get up and lie that he had seen god. By the end of the story he had realized that there was no physical manifestation of god but rather a belief that everyone shared but now since he did not believe Jesus was real anymore he cries, never being able to see him and not receiving the help his aunt had promised him.

I believe Professor Conway chose “The Handsomest Drowned Man In the World” as our first story of the course because it uses a variety of Symbolism and allows the reader to really think about what something at first seems so insignificant can have a major impact on people’s lives. When “Estaban” came into their lives from the ocean he had come tattered almost not recognizable as a human being but as they kept taking care of him, they noticed more and more human aspects of him although he was larger in every way. They sympathized with him without knowing him at all and saw the world in his eyes as they would,  The end of the short story paints a picture for us about them having a wonderful funeral for a man they never knew or met alive. They even went ahead and made their town more accessible and made the whole town a memorial to Estaban. This completely random man that floated from out of nowhere had a major impact on a town that he would never see and therefore changes it for others in the future completely