The vignette that surprised me the most was, “Four Skinny Trees.” This vignette surprised me because of the description of trees. The way the narrator admires them and speaks of them, almost like the trees are sacred and important. Trees are magnificent and they carry life and fresh air and they provide beneficial aspects to our everyday lives. People may find this weird if you tell them but, talking to a tree isn’t entirely stupid or idiotic. “Their strength is secret. They send ferocious roots beneath the ground. They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger. This is how they keep.” To read about the way trees are being admired in this sense, I rarely get access to reading things like this, especially when it’s provided by class. The vignette that intrigued me the most was, “Sally.” The way the narrator portrays Sally and is beautiful and almost “popular”. However her personality and aura changes as she’s away from the environment that keeps her uplifted. In reality, she is none of the things the narrator stated about her when she is away from everyone. She’s quiet, lonely and doesn’t seem to be living the happiest life or have the happiest home life. I can relate to this in a sense where when I was a young girl, school was a distraction for me, an escape almost. When I was surrounded by a person who made me “happy” or I was in an environment where I was surrounded by joy and distraction, I would be sad knowing I had to go home in the end, and to a life that was dark and quiet and not enjoyable. The vignette that puzzled me […]
Celine Ghany
Of all that we read this semester, ‘On Her Own Work’: The Element of Suspense in ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find.’” had the most meaning to me and it was one I enjoyed reading this semester. My mind tends to drift off and I zone out sometimes while reading something. However, when this was assigned to read for class, it kept me intrigued and invested in what will happen next. The twist of events and how things turned out for the old lady and her family, followed by sudden choices and the ending kept me on track and I truly enjoyed it. I enjoyed House on Mango Street as well. Certain vignettes were relatable in terms of “never finding a home”, to live in a place that is not so great and the living conditions aren’t the best, and the narrator’s perspective on life. The reading that was my least favorite was Oedipus. Though it is great story and Oedipus finding out about his fate and the true state of his life was a great twist of events and plot of the story, I read this in senior year of high school. To be able to receive it as a reading was memorable for me. However, I had remembered what happened as I first read it in high school, so the events weren’t surprising or shocking to me.
The three prior assumptions I made during and after reading the poem, “The Mother”, I assumed that it was going to be a simple poem that I can easily understand and know exactly what I am reading about. ” Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get, ” Through this sentence I knew what I would be reading and thought to myself “I have a clear vision and explanation about what the meaning of this poem would be.” However as I continued to read I fell off track and thought to deeply and assumed that maybe it won’t be a simple poem that I would understand and that there could be another meaning that I was unaware about. However as the lines as the poem continued, ” If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths, Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate. Though why should I whine, Whine that the crime was other than mine?— Since anyhow you are dead.” After reading I understood this poem clear after not overthinking and reading with a clear mind with deep understanding because I struggle with interpreting poems.
The specific observations Of the story “Little Snow White” that strike to me as relevant is the womanly feeling of insecurity, empowerment and jealousy. The stepmother is obsessed with being seen as the most beautiful that she will go through great measures to make sure her only competition and the only girl to be seen as beautiful as her is dead. “The queen took fright and turned yellow and green with envy. From that hour on whenever she looked at Snow-White her heart turned over inside her body, so great was her hatred for the girl. The envy and pride grew ever greater, like a weed in her heart, until she had no peace day and night.” To feel such hatred for a girl only because of her beauty is a shallow, insecure thing of a woman to do. The position of a woman and her role compared to a man is relevant and seen in this story as well. The way the dwarfs allow her to stay because she is so beautiful, they expect her to do her womanly duties such as clean and cook while they do their jobs outside in the world. “The dwarfs said, “If you will keep house for us, and cook, make beds, wash, sew, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay with us, and you shall have everything that you want.” It also brings into light how beauty in a girl can affect her life in beneficial ways where she is more likely to receive help and how it can be negatively affected in a sense where other woman would be jealous where they will wish bad upon you or do bad to you themselves.
The vignette that intrigued me was the first one, The House on Mango Street. It intrigued me because I can relate in a sense where a person can feel as if they have no place to truly call “home”. I can relate to wanting and dreaming of living in a better place and wanting more for yourself and your family, space for everyone individually and especially thinking and assuming that when you hear of a possibility that you are going to get what you wished for, it turns out to be a disappointment. The vignette that surprised me in some way was, Boys and Girls. It surprised me in some way because of how easily I could relate to how to she explained how she hoped to have a best friend, one that can understand her and who she can tell all her jokes too. I’ve said those exact same words at one point in my life and I became grateful when I did find that one good best friend. It surprised at how exact the words I was reading and the way it correlated with how I once felt when I was much younger. The vignette that puzzled me was, Louie, his cousin and his older cousin. The scenery reminds me of the neighborhood I used to live in, in Brooklyn when I was barely a little kid. The way those kids could’ve been in danger or in harms way and the way boys can act idiotic sometimes, can sometimes be triggering and makes me question.
My own understanding of this story is the dark, evil subliminal flow throughout the story along with the realism that is brought out by the life of Connie and how something as your family life and the way a parent cares for their child or treats their child, or harmless intent decisions a young girl makes can create an outcome of men behaving sadistically and disgustingly towards a girl as young as 15.Connie is a shallow girl who is uncared for by her parents and who is often compared to her sister, obsessed with her looks she is fully aware of how beautiful she is. Having parents who do not typically ask where you are going will lead a young girl to involve herself into dangerous, but “fun” things that young teenage girls typically should not involve themselves in. Being a girl that beautiful and easy to talk to, men will think this is a easy target. Unfortunately for Connie, this man was very demanding and was very serious and was relentless in the fact where he really wanted Connie and targeted her weak, shallow thinking mindset and targeted her physically and mentally. The article states, “Since Connie so values appearances, she holds others to these shallow standards and uses what she sees on the surface as her criteria by which to judge them. This superficial view of the world leads her to embrace the drive-in restaurant, where older kids hung out and where Arnold Friend marks her with his X. Then, because at first she liked the way he was dressed, she does not immediately urge Arnold Friend to leave her driveway, and she stays talking with him, thus allowing him the time to create a physical space of psychological terror from which she cannot escape. ” The men […]
The greeting card lyrics and the sonnet “How Do I Love Thee?” conveys two ideas of love that can be compared and contrasted. The greeting card lyrics shows love as an emotion of trust and warmth, a directed expression towards someone that is specific, clear and simple, yet deep and emotional. The rhythm of the greeting card lyrics is calm and there is slight rhyme such as “Because you’re a part of my favorite memories as well as my most important dreams.” The mood and tone is very romantic and passionate, stating lyrics such as, “Why Do I Love You So Much? Because I trust you more than anyone in the world.” The Italian sonnet follows a different structure in which it follows a Petrarchan sonnet pattern, consisting of 14 lines and a significant rhyme scheme. This sonnet conveys a formal, sensual, deep and soul-filled love. The repetition of the speaker saying “I love thee” brings to light the rhythm of the poem. It is also a hyperbole in a sense where it is an exaggeration of the phrase, used to further show readers the emotion of how strong her love that she is trying to convey through her poem and the usage of this phrase. The speaker states in her poem, “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight.” This shows a significance in her expression of love being that she is comparing it to something spiritual. Love expands through her soul and body.
Within the readings of this week, Story of an Hour was the most intriguing to me. I feel as a woman in that era, it was common to rely strongly on a man and feel that when they pass or they are gone, it’s as if your entire world is gone even. To have that shift where Mrs. Mallard is in a deep state of sadness and then a deep state of happiness is funny and realistic because sometimes in relationships women tend to lose themselves in a sense where we are not the independent and “free” girls we were before our relationships. To have her husband’s death not turn out to be true and causing her death afterwards was even more intriguing because of that unexpected outcome towards the end. The story that surprised me the most was, The Necklace. I certainly did not expect that tragic ending. Learning that such an event like that can make two people’s lives change and live like that for ten years is something to consider when you do something and need to think about your choices and how it can or will affect you. Madame Loisel should’ve been grateful enough of her husband and what he did for her. That small irresponsible move influenced years of torture and unnecessary debt and if I was in that position I’d feel so many negative emotions I would not know what to say or do, I’d just be speechless. The Cult of Womanhood and the short youtube video puzzled me in the right ways. It puzzled me because I rarely hear or get access to stories or excerpts that involve a meaning of womanhood and the role and positions a woman plays in society and in a family. To hear and read about it is […]
I believe the interior of this story is to show transformation between two characters and how compassion and grace can come into play. The grandmother is a selfish, hypocritical woman who is unaware of her behavior, she is flawed just like everyone else. The misfit is a criminal who shows very little emotion, yet he is an experienced man who is aware of his behavior and what is right or wrong. He knows the power of Jesus that the grandmother makes aware to him constantly, however he doesn’t have much belief, he doesn’t need nor want the help of Jesus. Both characters show a potential for receiving grace. Both characters show how you can change in a spec of a moment and how that affects a person differently. The misfit became egotistic as the grandmother had the realization of acceptance and seeing the good in someone and relating that to your own life, a soft moment. The interior can also be about how selfishness and fate can come into play.
The timeless or human behaviors I found within the reading Oedipus is the uncontrollable and unknowing of your fate. You can believe yourself to be a strong and grand person. As Oedipus is this personality he doesn’t believe he’d live the life of a societal fear and how broken a man can become as he learns the truth of his life. Learning that his wife has been his mother all along, learning that he in fact had killed his father, In knowing this, Oedipus is faced with the reality that we are not in control of our lives and our destinies. We can be manipulated by bigger forces than we understand. As Oedipus believes he is doing the right thing when he was not at all regarding something he did not know and while his efforts were in good intentions of his people, he failed them, another mundane and human behavior we can relate to.
Lines 471-475 shows a slight importance and role that the chorus plays in this reading. The build up towards this scene is a plague has struck and the citizens are dying. Oedipus learns that this has happened because the death of a former king Laius needs to be avenged. The killer must be found and banished or executed. Teiresias is a prophet. He and Oedipus begin a conversation that turns into conflict and an exchange of words that increases the anger of Oedipus and Teiresias. He learns of the truth, though he is hesitant and unwilling to tell Oedipus. The chorus then intervenes and states, “We look at this man’s words and yours, my king, and we find both have spoken them in anger. We need no angry words but only thought how we may best hit the God’s meaning for us.” The chorus’ opinion takes into effect. They remind us readers and the king at the same time that even they know this argument and new found conflict is worthless and unnecessary, to focus on what his means for the people and to not speak words of anger but of understanding and solution.
The words I would use to describe the protagonist of the story is, he is a young boy who lives in a home in Dublin, Ireland, located on a dead end street, detached from the other homes. He enjoys playing with his friends in the street and he still attends school. In the beginning of the story he seems to be a innocent young teenager that has a crush on one of his friend’s sister. He becomes obsessed with her, truly believing he is in love with Mangan’s sister. He’s imaginative He begins watching her through her window. He admires and expresses into detail of her looks and his attraction towards her. His mind becomes clouded and he can no longer think of anything else but this girl. As he hears the girl is not going to the baazar, he has the idea of buying a gift for his “love.” Along his journey, as he arrives he is hit with the hard reality. He did not love the girl. In fact it was only physical attraction and nothing more. As he searches he learns he knows nothing about her.
.Two characters that stood out to me was specifically Sylvia and Mercedes. The comparison between these two characters are completely different in how they act towards the lesson Miss Moore is trying to teach these group of kids on a trip to the toy store. Miss Moore is attempting to show these young kids the economic and social impacts on prices and the economic system issues generally. Mercedes is the only child who is different from the rest. The others kids truly come from and know what it’s like to not have rich privileges or rich things. However, Mercedes is well familiar and expresses that throughout the story. She seems to be proper and unbothered or unshocked by the pricing of the toys and does not show she has learned anything from Miss Moore’s lesson in the end. Sylvia is quite the opposite. She is well aware of the lesson that is trying to be given by Miss Moore. In fact she is more angry throughout this trip and she shows her hatred and attitude toward Miss Moore any chance she can get. She fights and battles with Sugar over which toy they want. Sylvia does not want to give in to Miss Moore’s lesson and what she is trying to show these kids from this trip. However, Sugar betrays her friend by agreeing with Miss Moore and showing her true potential by not letting Sylvia take control of her.
I would analyze and describe this character as curious and trying to sustain his religion and respect the beliefs that come along with it. He’s excited and almost skeptical of what is about to take place or what it really means to be saved and to see Jesus as everyone around him is telling him. It started to become a thing where it was intense pressure as all the other kids were in fact being “saved” while the boy was the only one left. Langston begins to feel doubt, lowering his confidence of seeing Jesus and his mind shifts. He doubts the truth of it all. Under the pressure of the women and the people of the church he finally stands. He started off happy and looking forward to something and realized maybe it all isn’t true as he had to lie about being saved. His beliefs were then struck and he no longer believed there was a Jesus to see or to help him.
I believe you assigned the reading “The Most Handsome Drowned Man” because it is an interesting and, in a way realistic, understandable and relatable story that is great to start off with because it gave a great first impression to the class and what the future readings may look like or seem like. It gave a realistic, but still keeping that ominous and magical tone to it, of bringing in a stranger and showing us readers how people can be quick to make assumptions about one another, good or bad and how that can affect others as a whole. As the first reading to a new class it seems that there could be a relation as to how we as students can make our own assumptions and opinions off on any little aspect. I also believe it was a great story, author and genre introduction to get a familiarization with wording, grammar and the plot in general.
