Emily Fan

The vignette that made the strongest impression on me was Marin. Marin is a figure that is like an older sister or could possibly actually be an older sister. She is someone that a young girl might look up to and admire. This reminded me of my cousin that I looked up to growing up because I didn’t have a sister. This is different from a parental figure because she would probably tell you things and teach you stuff that a parent would never say to their child. I feel like someone like Marin would prepare you for the real world instead of sheltering you and they just seem so much more older and mature. My cousin was someone that I really looked up to and I wanted to be just like her. She taught me many things and Marin really reminded me of her when Esperanza said, “She is older and knows lots of things.” It reminded me of all the close moments I shared with my cousin when I was younger even though we have drifted apart.

Based on Bettleheim’s psychologically oriented reading, the child’s presence is what causes parental problems and in Snow White’s story, her stepmother hates her out of jealousy. Bettleheim further explores this idea by mentioning how Snow White being a little girl would only think about her father’s love without a thought to how that might affect her stepmom. I think this relates to Connie from, “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates because in the first paragraph, in Connie’s eyes, her mother is always complaining about her caring so much about her beauty because her looks have faded, and she comes after Connie because of jealousy. Bettleheim also talks about how the hunter/father figure in the story tries to placate both sides and in doing so he fails to take care of both of them. This compares to Connie’s father who is never around resulting in Connie and her mother’s disagreements.

The story “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is a good reflection of the evil that is present in society with Connie being an average teenager and ignorant to the evil of the world around her. I like the comparison that Rena Korb made in her critical review comparing Arnold Friend to the devil as well as mentioning the vampire aspect of him not entering the house. Both have strong connotations to darkness and evil. Connie starts out as this shallow person who only cared about her looks which is evident throughout the story with her mentioning how she looks and being conscious of her beauty. She uses her beauty to her advantage by frequenting places where older guys hang out probably as a way to cope with the neglect of her parents who don’t sound like they are really there for her. She is able to form two different personalities one for her home life and the other for when she is outside. When she goes to Arnold, she is giving into sin as he represents the evil and darker parts of life.

I used to think that poems were just an easier way to tell a story but after doing the exercises, I can tell that a lot of thought is put into it. In “How to read a poem” it says that poems are often difficult and that a lot of it also has to do with the reader’s own interpretation of what they read. There are many things to consider when writing a poem such as whether the poem should be long or short and what kind of poem it is, whether it rhymes or not. Poems are a much more complex thing and as a reader it doesn’t have to be understood by the first read it takes effort from both the writer and the reader to piece it together and give meaning to it. Poems are more of a everyone has their own interpretation thing rather than a one size fits all.

I think, “A good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor is about how there is both good and bad in everyone. The grandmother is someone who was described as caring about her appearance and wanted to look good on the outside but she was also racist because of her upbringing and she just didn’t realize it. Meanwhile the misfit is described by the grandmother as looking like he’s a good person but in reality he’s a murderer. Throughout the whole story the grandma was trying to find the good in the Misfit by saying things like maybe they locked up the wrong person and telling him that he looked like a good person. The grandma is someone who wants to see the good in people which is why she kept calling people good like when Red Sammy was telling her that he got ripped off of gas. 

In the play Oedipus showed many emotions but the one that stood out to me was his curiosity and strong will to find out the truth about his birth even if he knew it might end up badly. In the play his wife Jocasta tries to stop him from going any further to seek the truth after he learns that he was adopted by Polybus. She says things like, “O be persuaded by me, I entreat you; do not do this” at this point she probably already knew the truth and didn’t want Oedipus to find out since it was such a bad thing. Oedipus however was too curious and fixated on the truth of the matter that he disregarded Jocasta’s care and in the end she was resigned to telling him that he was, “…unhappy Oedipus…”. He wasn’t satisfied with what he already had/knew and ended up destroying his family for it.

those children that are born lie dead on the naked earth unpitied, spreading contagion of death; and gray-haired mothers and wives everywhere stand at the altar’s edge, suppliant, moaning; the hymn to the healing God15 rings out but with it the wailing voices are blended. From these our sufferings grant us, O golden Daughter of Zeus,16 210 glad-faced deliverance. In the play, it speaks of a disaster that they face with many babies dying and everything is just kind of dead, “spreading contagion of death…” everyone is just kind of sick and they are praying and giving offerings to the gods to help them through this time. I chose this quote because it shows what the people are going through and it paints a picture of how bad it was that they were turning towards the gods for help. It shows that through the suffering they all gathered at the altar to ask for blessings from Athena, “golden daughter of Zeus” to help stop the god of war, Ares as they think it is him that “…burns us” They attributed their suffering to Ares and want the other gods such as Zeus and Athena to help them. 

   Araby is a coming of age story where the main character changes his way of thinking by the end of the story because in the beginning all he really had on his mind was the girl that he liked but because of the bazaar he ends up realizing that reality wasn’t all he thought it was. He has a crush on a girl but by the end he grows up in a way when he realizes that his imagination and reality conflict with each other. This is shown when he goes to the bazaar expecting for it to be this amazing place where he’ll find something to give to his love after she mentions that she wants to go but is unable to but when he arrives at the bazaar he ends up finding it to be a somewhat empty and lonely place with rude people. Which was nothing like he thought it would be. At the end he realizes that he wasted his time by going to the bazaar instead of having a fairy tale view of the place.

     In “The Lesson”, Flyboy is someone who comes across as more mature and way more talkative than the others. Based on what he said and did he was someone who understood a lot about the things around him like how to manipulate the adults into pitying him by saying things like how he doesn’t have a house. He also spoke up more and was more confident with himself even though he might be wrong at times.      In contrast, Junebug was way more naive about things and it shows how she said she didn’t have a desk at home and then questioned if she was right by saying “do we?”       Although they were both different in terms of personality they both seemed to understand that the toys in the store were for pretty wealthy people and were able to see the financial differences even if it wasn’t at a deeper level than others might have.

   In the beginning of “Salvation”, the author Langston Hughes came across as innocent and naive, anticipating the event that his aunt told him about as well as other older people. He expected this bright light to shine and to meet Jesus but by the end, he ends up questioning his belief and even states that he didn’t believe in Jesus anymore. He also ends up feeling bad that he lied about having the experience because he felt like he had to after how all the church members acted when he was still sitting waiting for something to happen. He waited so long that he started to feel ashamed and got up just to get it over with. This really speaks to the follower mentality that people usually have because they feel pressured to be like everyone else just like how Langston Hughes was singled out by the minister for still sitting down so he just got up to have it done with. This led to him losing his faith since he didn’t experience what many people told him he would and only did what everyone else did out of the feeling that he needed to conform with everyone else.

I think “The handsomest drowned man in the world” was chosen as the first story because with the appearance of Esteban in the villager’s lives, they changed their view of the world and learned to empathize with others which could possibly mirror the course and how it is interactive, allowing for ideas and views to bounce off each other like when one of the women decided he looked like an Esteban or when the women who went to collect flowers and would bring back neighboring women. They would make their own conclusions about Esteban and who he was. As stated by Dean Radar, while the villagers are making an identity for Esteban they are also creating one for themselves from the reader’s perspective. One could conclude that it perhaps alludes to how the course will shape us as people and how our ideas will help to shape our experience in this course.