Melissa Cordero

The vignette that stood out and left the biggest impression is ” Rafaela who drinks coconut and papaya juice on Tuesdays.” Although the book so far is relatable in a lot of ways, this part of the story triggers memories of my own childhood and my own inner-city “Rapunzel’s.” The description resonates with my own childhood. The visual of Rafaela hanging by the window day dreaming about the life she wishes she could have. Those kids downstairs waiting for her to appear at her window, can feel like a fun routine to look forward to every Tuesday. But for Rafaela its her little moment of psuedo freedom. As I got older, I realized my mom was one them. It almost feels like I was reading a memory of mine. Rafaela was a beautiful woman and desired the life she knew beautiful young women could have.  Instead she ended up with an insecure man who kept her locked away.  It feels like a small part of the story but it had a big impact on me because it helps pull together all the relatable moments the explained the experience of growing up on mango street, almost like growing up in my own neighborhood.

Something that stood out to me in the analysis by Bruno Bettleheim, when he explained that fairy tales aren’t really about possibilities, they’re more about their desirability.  The connection between the 3 readings, “Where are you going, where have you been?” by Joyce Carol, or the poem ” Snow White and the Seven Dwarf’s” By Anne Sexton, is the desirability.  After reading the analysis, it became the easiest thing to spot because it was my own desires. One was to watch evil fail and good to prevail.  I found myself day dreaming about entering the story to protect snow white too. In the day dreams, I was in full knights uniform ( I like to fit the part) and stood hundreds of feet tall.  But in reality, would I have wanted to be there? absolutely not. Would I have been the knight who took down the witch? no, that’s terrifying.  However, I loved the idea of being in this world of a family of dwarfs who were wholesome and caring and brave enough to offer Snow White sanctuary from her evil step-mother.

At the beginning of the story, it developed as typical teenage experiences.  She liked boys and wanted their attention. I know a ton of ways how that can lead to something bad at the same time I knew it wasn’t uncommon for developing girls.  I didn’t feel as though that contributed as much as someone might think, to the events that took place at her home.  It doesn’t take a genius to realize a child acting like a woman doesn’t make her a woman. A predator will want to pursue her either way.  In this case, Arnold Friend, was the predator. A charming predator. It almost seemed as though he could’ve been a professional predator with how he knew Connie’s parents weren’t home and weren’t coming back during the time of his arrival. His confidence showed me he’s done it before.  When he began to describe what the family was doing in the moment, it came across more like a psychic ability. Even my daughter mentioned how his name was similar to Arch-fiend, which is some sort of demon lord in their Yu-Gi-Oh game, however I can’t imagine assuming that this man had powers. But for a child? Im sure manipulation in that fashion is quite simple. He made her believe he knew so much that she wouldn’t be able to outsmart him.  He was able to send her into an entire panic of fear simply by talking to her.  He maintained her curiosity with childish conversation about the design to his car and joking around about his friend.  Unless the story tells of the car floating away in midair or creating a portal to her parents to show what they’re doing, I would never have believed it was supernatural.  She was a young simple girl and with that premise […]

In the article, “How to Read a Poem” by Edward Hirsch, he describes the act of completion when reading poetry, is to step into the imaginative play of the poem.  So as I read, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W.B. Yeats, I took part of this imaginative play was by first reciting the poem at different tempos. To see if there was a rhythm I needed to find so I can find the flow of the poem.  I tried different ones, like from how I would read ” Mary had a little lamb”.  I kept trying until there was a flow connecting the words that rhymed, which was every other line.  I also found myself searching for a theme. I noticed there was a lot of mention of things that create sounds from nature. For example, “Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet’s wings.”  or ” Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee; And live alone in the bee-loud glade.”  As I re-read it, I found myself playing the sounds of nature he described, in my head to create the atmosphere. I, without trying, played along with the visuals given to me in the poem. Trying to bring it to life to see what about it felt peaceful. Every sound they found pleasant were low, fluttering and from nature.  It almost felt like a picture puzzle in my head as I tried to envision the meaning. and feeling, through visualizing.

What I found interesting was the video explaining the differences between Italian sonnets and Shakespearean sonnets. Both are made up of 14 lines, however the way they are sectioned is very different.  Italian sonnets are made up of two sections, the octave and the sestet.  The octave is usually used to express a problem or argument while the sestet is used for the remedy of the issue.  However, in Shakespearean sonnets it is split up 3 sections/ 4 lines each, usually on the topics of love or the effects of time on physical beauty and the last 2 lines are reserved for a summary of the message in the poem.  I initially felt it might be difficult to understand how to differentiate the two styles but, the couplet is what will give you a quick guess to whether it’s an Italian or English sonnet. That’s because Italian sonnets do not have couplets.  For example, in Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare, the entire poem describes a woman and how unconventional she is and how she doesn’t exactly resemble a desirable woman, although still managing to become someone’s mistress. The very end of the poem or the couplet, takes a turn by explaining that despite all those flaws, she is rare and describing her as his love in the same instance. Knowing they have different structures helps me know what to look for so that I may understand poem better.

I have chosen for my research essay, ” A good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor.  My thesis will be focused on southern femininity and the deceptive image of wholesomeness through god fearing and charm, which allowed the grand mother to constantly maneuver every decision to suit her wants. Through out most of the story, she uses her overbearing charisma to manipulate every outcome or get a pass for inappropriate speech and behavior.  Using past southern teachings as the standard and imposing herself and her beliefs onto everyone else in the story.  I initially explained how I found the grand mother harmless. In the beginning I thought she was trying to gain ground on how her upbringing is important and was using certain tactics to get through to stubborn grand children, including her son. She wanted to feel important. Which means I also fell for her southern charm.  Her moment of grace was short lived and didn’t redeem the grand mother at the end. However, her ignorance didn’t seem to be harmful until the very end and it seemed easily missed by me because of the image she portrayed as a southern god-fearing woman who only wanted to share her roots with her family. I will be using  the BMCC Library to collect information on white southern womanhood.

In the story, ” The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard, while grieving by the window in her bedroom, found that a thought beyond the grief was creeping into her mind and growing stronger than the sorrow she felt from the news of the death of her husband. She describes the resistance of the emotion by saying ” She was striving to beat it back with her will.” However, the smell of the rain and the clouds in the sky, gave her a sense of new beginning and her life being her’s again. While the sister, Josephine and the husbands friend believed she was mourning, It was  frowned upon for her to express the extreme happiness that came with the thought of her freedom. The poem ” The wife” by Emily Dickinson, speaks on the depth of a feeling only known by the person themselves, “but only to himself is known the fathoms they abide”, how far thoughts and reach that sit in our minds without being able to express them. ” If aught she missed in her new day, of amplitude or awe, or first perspective, or the gold in using wore away.”  expresses to me how the wife, in both the poem and the story, longs quietly, for who she was before she was married.

When speaking about the interior of the story, I found it helpful to re-read and consider what was being displayed passed the dialogue.  Initially, I found the grandmother to be persuasive and charming and even harmless.  However, after reading the entire story, her so-called harmlessness is what lead to the demise of the entire family.  I went back to the beginning of the story, and realized her persuasive charm was more of manipulation all for self-serving purposes. For example, she insisted on visiting Tennessee over Florida and went as far as to try to scare her son using the escape of the Misfit from jail to instill fear in him. Also, using guilt by saying, “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.” Her willingness to exploit her sons fears to get him to adhere to her wants, displays extreme selfishness and lack of consideration for her impact on him. Again, her responses seemed harmless during my first read because it is common for people to make comments like that.  Towards the middle of the story, when the grandmother told of the old house on a plantation with hidden silver in the wall panels, the way the children began to impose their wants onto the father, was very similar to how his mother treated him, only with less grace. It showed how her overbearing treatment of him turned Bailey into a push over even by his own children. On the surface the children just seemed like regular kids who, ” say the darndest things.” a bit rude but it isn’t uncommon for kids to test their parents, especially in public. Again, after re-reading the story and seeing beyond the surface of my first […]

While reading the second half of the assignment, my view of Oedipus shifted. The timeless human behavior/experience that stood out for me was his curiosity in seeking the truth.. Especially the truth that tells where we comes from, our lineage, our family history.  His wife had begged him multiple times not to follow through in his search.  Ignorance is bliss but, it seemed that as a king, he needed to know the truth not only for himself but to be worthy of his position and the admiration and love of his people.  I gathered that point of view towards the end of the play based off his extreme expression of disappointment and the actions he took out of the shame he felt.  Knowing the truth  creates an irresistible urge to do so no matter the costs. Scientists trying to make new discoveries, detectives solving a murder, etc.  In Oedipus’ case, he knew the possibility of the rumors being true would lead to his possible downfall, yet he could not stop until he knew for sure.  He left his home out of fear that the prophecy would come to pass, he took actions to avoid what he feared the most.  He could have easily stopped the search and continued to rule Thebes. However knowing the truth was stronger than his desire to keep his title.

“O generations of men, how I 1370 count you as equal with those who live not at all! What man, What man on earth wins more of happiness than a seeming and after that turning away? 1375 Oedipus, you are my pattern of this, Oedipus, you and your fate! Luckless Oedipus, whom of all men I envy not at all.” –   What I gathered from this reading is Oedipus, the king of Thebes, was watching his people suffer from some kind of curse or plague brought upon by the murder of a King.  Oedipus discovered that not only was it him who murdered the king but, the king was his biological father and Oedipus’ wife was his mother and this misdeed was the cause of the curse in Thebes.  In the beginning of the play, Oedipus arrogantly proclaimed his status among his people as ” Great” he spoke of his people almost like beggers and he seemed to pity them.  After being made aware of all the unfortunate events that were surrounding him and how he made it to be king, he stated that had he not survived in the wild after being abandoned, all of the humiliation and punishment of his people could have been avoided.  Although seemingly inexorable, the chrous describes him as luckless and even the only man they could not envy.  Oedipus couldn’t see the truth and his blindness was what plagued them.

This story was intensely emotional.  When the boy describes his environment, it seems to revolve mostly around how it effects him. He describes dark/night as gloomy and lonely. When the evening arrives, he describes the homes in his neighborhood as sombre. It feels like he is looking for something that brings him joy.  In the beginning, he explained how he liked a book, “The memoirs of vidocq” not because of it’s literary content but because of it’s yellow leaves. When there is mention of light, whether it be through windows or the light that created the shadow of Mangan’s sister, the tone of the writing seemed more uplifted.  It’s almost as though he associated the girl he was infatuated with, with the light. With a positive feeling. As he walked through the market area’s with his aunt, he explained that he imagined that he had bore his chalice safely through a throng of foes. Which sounds to me like he was able to maintain his sanity while strolling the amalgamation of sounds that he didn’t find pleasant or enjoyable. He seems to be very in tuned with his senses. I felt as though he may have been going through anxiety, loneliness and connected his feelings to the world around him.  He seems to have felt a rush of intrigue and admiration for Mangan’s sister. The excitement he felt when thinking about her or seeing her. gave him a rush  that he was almost dependent on it to feel happy.  I found it strange, considering the ability to describe his surroundings and pair with an emotion, that he did not describe Mangan’s sister.  He mentions the rope on her hair and the sway of her dress when she moves but did not describe her as beautiful, he did not mention her […]

In this story two of the characters seemed to have had different experiences at the toy store.  Sylvia, the main character, was observant and put on a false bravado through most of the story.  Despite having a dislike or “hatred” for Miss Moore, she seemed to absorb all the information she was giving to the children.  Even reciting it back with a cynical tone. The story reminded me of myself as a child. I was bold and loud and aggressive. I remained in my comfort zone which were the borders of my neighborhood. Like Sylvia, I was confident when I was there. It was familiar and everyone lived similar to how I did; In poverty, in the street with friends misbehaving.  Going into the toy store she expressed a feeling of shame. She said she’s never felt shy before and she didn’t know why she was feeling funny about being there.  The experience for her friend Mercedes was very different.  Mercedes seemed comfortable and assured that she could even come back to this highly expensive toy store and possibly buy something for her birthday.  Immediately I could separate how Sylvia and Mercedes life experience was very different. Especially after all the children shared the lack of study space and furniture because they were too poor to afford a luxury like that even though Mercedes explained how she had a nice study desk with personalized stationary gifted to her by her god mother.  I believe the shame Sylvia felt was the feeling of not belonging. Not being part of that world where a toy clown that merely flips and does pull ups on a bar could be equal to the expense of a household bill.  Unlike Sylvia, Mercedes pushed her way passed everyone in the entrance to the store and did […]

The first sentence of the story, Langston Hughes describes the experience as being saved from sin, but not really saved which expressed little credence in the notion of salvation through Jesus.  As an adult, It seems as though his beliefs had shifted.  When describing the events from when he was a child, he followed along with the traditions taught to him.  However, he also took a lot of it literally. His aunt described the encounter with Jesus as one that would involve all of his senses, seeing, hearing and feeling Jesus in your soul. For a young boy raised within a family of deep faith, so much so his aunt and the congregation at church all wept during the ceremony,  there was no reason for him to doubt or question the description of the events that they were preparing him for.   According to the video that we were assigned to watch, I believe this part of the story falls under dramatic irony.  Where ‘we’ the readers know more about the events of the story than the character.  Although it is being told through first person narration, he explains his expectations of actually seeing Jesus and as the reader we already know that is not what would happen.  Otherwise, it would probably fall under crime/horror genre.