Yman

I chose the vignette on page 91, it’s called “A Smart Cookie.” This vignette paints a picture of parents transferring their life lessons to their children.  I connect with this because I have it happens to me very often. It actually happened earlier when I was doing some online shopping while watching tv in my living room my dad saw me and started to tell me why I should save up my money. I not going to lie he gave me the whole ten reasons and the look at my cousin’s talk. I know he is right, but I still find it respective. I find that the narrator of this vignette is very good at accepting these lessons of life. I like this vignette because I feel that the same thing can happen to me very often, but I probably wouldn’t see what my parents say the same way that the narrator does.

The vignette that I looked at was on page 28 the title is named ” Those Who Don’t”. I think that this vignette talks about the type of neighborhood that Esperanza lives in and also gives the readers the idea that she knows what other people think of her neighborhood. This shows that she understands the world around her. From this vignette, I can think of a lesson that is a stereotype that a lot of people of the world have on race and color. This made the strongest impression on me because it’s something that happens every day around the world. I think this is a very passive stereotype. I make these stereotypes all the time when I meet someone new. one stereotype that I saw all the time growing up was that because I am Asian that is why I am so good at math. SO like ok so I am good at math is not because I put more work in? but because of my race?

In Bettleheim’s psychologically oriented reading of the story many parts come out to me as interesting. For example, in his analysis of the story he didn’t just view it from the children’s point of view but also different parents point of view.  only from a single parent’s prospective but from many prospective. Bettleheim take from parents think negative of the story “Some parents fear that their children may get carried away by their fantasies” then reply to that view with carful research and he not only gave this one fear but many more like “parents fear that a child’s mind may become so overfed by fairy-tale fantasies as to neglect learning to cope with reality.” is another example that he gave these ideas gave very good contredition to the idea that he was getting at that the fairytale is not all bad for children. I personally agree with him because aren’don’t a lot of religious story take part away from fairtale as well?

In the text “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, I really thought that it was interesting because I thought of it as her parents at home doesn’t see Connie’s real self just the part that Connie puts for them to see. If as a child growing up, your parents are constantly comparing you with someone else, especially a sibling, sure to them it could be a motivation but to any child in the long run is bad for mental health. Before COVID-19 in China, there were always stories on the news about children going suicidal because of too much pressure from parents. Which I connected with Connie having home behavior and outdoor behavior this could be like a mental coping system for her. From my understanding of the text Arnold is bringing out the outdoor part of her. Thus that part at the end that Connie seems to be unable to control her self.

In “How to Read a Poem” the biggest idea I took out of it was that there was no one way to interpret a poem. There are countless ways to understand a poem, and each person can understand things differently. That is what we, the readers, complete I think of a poem as a puzzle the writer gives the outer lining of the poem, but each time we interpret the poem differently, we add a different piece to the poem. For example, in the poem.” The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W. B. Yeats, my first understanding of the poem was a man escaping from the city or just from his normal life to the wilderness and taking in nature. Then on my second read, I thought of it as him comparing two different life of his in the busy everyday life another where he lives freely in his cabin. These two similar ideas are like 2 pieces of the puzzle that I put together.

Before today I thought poetry was the shortest way to write a story. Poetry was something that started a long time ago. While I wasn’t totally wrong, poetry is literature in the shortest form. I learned that in poetry the author has to find many ways to keep the lines short but meaningful. The author often uses similes and metaphors to give the readers a better image of the story. In “Sonnet 18”  by William Shakespeare, we see Shakespeare the entire poem as a whole is a metaphor comparing the person to summer. Also in the poem, Shakespeare also uses even more metaphors to compare the person to summer, but the poem ends by saying the person is better than summer which gives the readers something to think about. So now I feel that poetry is something that you can’t just read to understand, its something that the readers need to analyze to find what the author is saying and thinking.

In my essay, I’m writing about “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara. My thesis is on: In “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the writer uses different Literary elements to present the difference in the life of children and the life of the people in Manhattan. Ultimately, we saw a change in the children after the trip. I feel that secondary source information about African-American lives in the 1960s as well as the lives of new yorkers in the 1960s. Also maybe the chance of walking out of poverty by having an education or not. If these I can’t be found I will also look for information on the differences of the poor and the rich in the 1900s maybe also a biography on Toni Cade Bambara. So far I have only read through the story, but I will have to look through the BMCC Database later on this week. 

In the poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson the author talks about a woman getting married is like giving up a part of her and taking up new responsibilities. The marriage slowly washes away the woman’s youth and views of society. She also mentions how hard it is for a woman to escape this marriage. I connected with “The Story of an Hour?” because in the beginning when Mrs. Mallard learned that her husband had died she cried like how she saw other women do that is how far she has slinked into the sea as mentioned in the poem. But then she realized that she would be free and that she could finally claw out of this marriage which in the poem is symbolized by the sea and how deep a woman has sunken into the water is shown in the “The Story of an Hour?” by when Mrs. Mallard realized she should be happy that she is free even if it was a lie.

After I started to read “Araby” by James Joyce I realized what you mean in activity one that it’s not a love story. I feel that the mood throughout the story was very down, sad, gloomy, and dull. Well, there was a crush, like, love, young boy love. Whatever its call it’s sadly one-sided. He was you can even say obsessive over her and was very desperate for the sister. You can see a lot of that with his gift. While his, at this point let’s just call it a, crush on her, in the end, seem to kick him into some kind of depression “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity, and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” (37)    “

Miss Moore vs Sugar Miss Moore is most likely the teacher for the group of kids. She is the one that took the group to the toy store and her response to the experience was probably the calmest of everyone. She planned the trip out to teach the kids the lesson and has seen this before in her life but she is still in this lower class of people. In the end, she was very happy that her lessons came through for some of the students for example Sugar, who is the narrator’s friend who also lives in Harlem with her family, who spoke up about the inequality she saw after the trip. Sugar started out the trip by asking “Can we steal?” Sugar asks very seriously like she’s getting the ground rules squared away before she plays.” (2). this really showed her thinking process of how stealing is normal where she lived but then she see the boat which made her realize the inequality in the society.

Wyman Siu, Eng 201, Sec 0516 In the text, “Salvation”, by Langston Huges, it is portrayed at the beginning that his younger self was always told. For example, his aunt told him, “My aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside! And Jesus came into your life!”(Paragraph 2). He was told to believe, he never thought about what he was told. Just what was God? Throughout the text, he realized that god wasn’t a person but a belief that many people see. It is not only leaving doubt and questions in his mind and that is what gives into his mindset at the end of the text. It is an irony, a situational irony to be exact, that what’s giving other people including his family (aunt) hope is giving him doubts. I thank this also highlights his change from the beginning of the text to him as a young adult.

Why do you think I might have assigned this as the first story of the course? “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” is a very creative story. The reason I say this is because just my first reading through it I realized that the type of langue that GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ author used was not what I normally see in stories but I think that is what makes this story unique and a good first story for this semester. For example, I can see many points of imagery and symbolism. In my second read of the text, I can see many different ideas coming together and some ideas I can see where they may lead but other ideas I can only catch a glimpse of it. In the case of Esteban in the beginning the children saw him as a part of the game, but to people that found him later in the text, he isn’t such a positive thing. This text makes us really think about the contrast between these ideas which is why I think this is a good first story.