Kiara

The vignette that surprised me the most from “The House on Mango Street” was “My Name”. This vignette surprised me because the author showed a higher level of maturity and awareness of the life, she wanted to live away from Mexican culture stereotypes. For example, she was explaining how she got her name from her great grandmother but also explained the story of the original Esperanza. The author goes on to explain how her great grandmother lived a life of unhappiness after being forced to marry and she then says, “I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window” (Cisernos 11). This surprised me because the author is a child and has an understanding of gender roles and cultural stereotypes that most children don’t understand to that extent. The vignette that intrigued me was “Marin” because the author shows admiration for Marin, which is expected because she is a child and usually children idolize adults no matter how our lives are. It intrigued me because while reading the details of Marin, I took her to be a boy crazy kind of girl, but the author shows more empathy towards Marin. I was also intrigued because I wanted to know if she really got married or not, and then I was disappointed to find out she didn’t. The vignette that puzzled me was “Four Skinny Trees” because in the beginning of the story in “The House on Mango Street”, the author mentions the trees in a off-standish way because it wasn’t the extravagant backyard, she thought the family would have with the house. Now in “Four Skinny Trees”, she finds comfort in the existence of the trees in front of her house. It puzzled me because it shows her growth from when she moved […]

I believe Bettelheim’s analysis of Snow White related the most to the details presented in the poem by Anne Sexton. For example, in the beginning of the poem, Snow White’s stepmother hired a hunter to kill her, and Bettelheim interpreted the hunter’s role as “not a figure who kills friendly creatures, but one who dominates, controls, and subdues wild, ferocious beasts” (Bettelheim page 205). In the beginning of the poem, Snow White’s purity was emphasized through details of her appearance. The color “white” comes up a lot and is even included in her name and, “She was unsoiled… lovely virgin” (Sexton lines 12-14). White is a symbolism of purity and because of this, the hunter could not bring himself to kill Snow White because she was not a beast nor evil. However, the hunter dominated and controlled the stepmother by deceiving her and giving her a boar’s heart because the stepmother’s character was that of a beast. Another observation that related to the poem was the analysis of Snow White’s naivete. It is presumed that beauty means you’re dumb and, in the poem, even when Snow White was given specific instructions by the dwarves to not open the door for her safety, she was a “dumb bunny” (Sexton stanza 7) and proceeded to open the door and got hurt each time. In Bettelheim’s analysis, he pointed out how that was a reflection of not only the beauty stereotype but also her position as an adolescent. This reflects innocence in Snow White’s character despite knowing that her stepmother was out to get her, she was still oblivious to the evils in her world.

My interpretation of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was that it is a story about the curse of being beautiful. In the beginning of the story, Connie is the black sheep of the family because of her beauty. For example, her mother constantly berates her by saying, “Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you’re so pretty?” (Coates paragraph 1). Connie is treated ugly because she’s pretty and this leads her to relish the attention that she gets at the hamburger place. Connie gets attention from one boy, Eddie, in particular and enjoys herself. This is when she has her first encounter with Arnold Friend and “He wagged a finger and laughed and said, “Gonna get you, baby,”” (Coates paragraph 7). This makes Connies feel uncomfortable, but she dismisses it and continues with her night.  In Korb’s critique of the story, she includes how some readers interpreted the story as a as a “feminist allegory which suggests that… the spiritual death of women at the moment they give up their independence to the desire of the sexually threatening male” (Korb paragraph 4). This goes along with my interpretation of how beauty is a curse in this story because Connie was only seen for her beauty; her mother treated her like Cinderella’s stepmother. and boys gawked at her. Most importantly, her beauty was a curse in the end when Arnold Friend seduced her into coming on a drive which readers can interpret led to her being raped. He was sexually threatening, and she was still pure not only in her beauty, but also as a virgin and this shows how in society, a woman’s beauty often times attracts unwanted attention and women are stripped of their purity.

When I read “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W. B. Yeats, the assumption I made was assuming that the poem was a code. For example, throughout the poem, Yeats is talking about the lake house at the Innisfree Lake and when he was describing the scenery, I thought it was symbolic for something else. The entire time I was reading the poem, I was trying to decipher what was the meaning of Lake Innisfree and why it was important for the author to write about it. Yeats says, “And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow” (Yeats line 10) and to me this was a reflection of the poets’ need to find peace and serenity. Usually this is my issue while reading poems, I never really understand it because I feel like there’s a hidden message.

When I look at the quote “Reading a poem is part attitude and part technique” (Hirsch) what comes to mind is feeling and interpretation. For example, your “attitude” could be how you feel about reading poems in general, if you do not enjoy reading poems, then it would be harder for you to interpret the poem versus someone who enjoys reading poems. Also, how you feel while reading the poem plays a part in how you interpret the poem because a happy poem could make you feel sad and your interpretation from the poem would be as such versus someone who would read it in a happier attitude. Your “technique” is how you read the poem and your ability to understand the poet’s style. In William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18″ Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” I read it as a love poem. Because I received it as a love poem, my attitude was more open and calmer, and I absorbed the words more. Shakespeare uses a lot of personification in this poem by making nature more humanistic. For example, he says “Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed” (Shakespeare lines 6-7). In this line, he is referring to the sun and when the sun sets which is what he means when he says, “his gold complexion dimmed”. In this poem, I interpreted Shakespeare saying that the woman’s beauty is as raw and bright as nature is during the summer because the heat is brutal but it’s bright. 

In the card greeting, I would label it as a prose versus a poem only because it uses standard sentences that don’t require critical thinking in order to understand it. Both the card and “Sonnet 43” by Elizabeth Barnett Browning reinforce the passion in the author’s love. For example, in “Sonnet 43″, Browning explains, ” I love thee with the breath/Smiles, tears, of all my life” (Browning lines 12-13). This emphasizes the passion behind the author’s love to the point where she invests her life energy into loving. Similarly, in the greeting card, it says “Because you’re a part/of my favorite memories/as well as my/most important dreams”. In both quotes, the author mentions their personal life and includes love as a part of their priorities. In “Sonnet 43”, there is more repetition with “I love thee” to compare the love, and in the greeting card the repetition is more subtle and indirect to where the author repeats the different reasons why they love.

For my research essay, I will be focusing on Toni Cade Bambara, and “The Lesson”. My thesis word for word is: The narrator’s change in voice from the beginning of the story and towards the end demonstrates her determination to not be defined by her childhood. For the secondary source information, I decided to use a literary critique written by Rena Korb in reference to “The Lesson”. The reason why I chose this is because she gives an in-depth analysis of the characters in the story as well as background information on the time period and how it connects to the development of the characters. This can support my thesis because I am focusing on the development of Sylvia based on her environment. So far, I’ve looked into the BMCC Literature Resource Center, and I used the direct link posted under Week 4 when we covered “The Lesson” that had the PDF of the literary critique.

In “The Wife” by Emily Dickenson, what surprised me was her use of verbal irony when she says, “She rose to his requirement, dropped/The playthings of her life/To take the honorable work/Of woman and of wife” (Dickenson 1-4). This surprised me because during her time in the 1800s, being a wife in the way that was expected was to live a life in the house, being subservient to your husband. In these lines, she portrays womanhood and marriage as an honorable thing for women, when in reality it wasn’t, and a lot of women secretly hated it.  This is surprising to me because it shows that Emily Dickenson was critical of her time despite the cultural norms and gender standards put in place. When she describes the woman’s individuality before marriage as the “playthings of her life” it reiterates the idea that it wasn’t important, and her responsibility and focus lie with a man not with herself or in other words, “the playthings of her life”. The part of the poem that intrigued me was Dickenson’s inclusion of the sea when she says, “as the sea/Develops both pearl and weed” (Dickenson 9-10). This intrigued me because pearls are beautiful creations that come from the sea, but seaweed is bothersome. When you go to the beach and the water is covered with seaweed, it feels weird on your skin, it’s hard to swim through and it tangles up in everything. On the contrary, oysters make pearls, and they are often beautiful and worth a lot of money. This intrigued me because she amplifies how both beauty and ugly can be found in the same place. In relation to marriage, it can be both beautiful and ugly especially in this case where the Cult of Domesticity is the norm. Marriage is beautiful […]

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner we are given a Southern murder story of a family on a road trip to Florida. In this story, the grandmother is the protagonist and her character is built on pride. The grandmother prides herself in her impression on others as well as taking care of her family. She tries to lead by example by maintaining her neat appearance and teaching her grandchildren manners while also reiterating her superiority to others. Through the change of setting and building on the grandmothers paranoia of getting caught up by The Misfit during their road trip, O’Conner forebodes the fact that the family was going to get murdered eventually. I think this story reveals the interior lesson that appearance does not equate to one’s morality. For example, throughout the story, the grandmother switched from teaching her grandchildren manners and looking down on their behavior, to making racist remarks about Black people. The author builds on this irony in the conversation between the grandmother and Red Sam when he says, “A good man is hard to find” (O’Conner paragraph 42). He said this because he was cheated by guys that looked respectable and even though the grandmother has a prejudiced character, one would never know because she cleans up her appearance before the road trip just in case, “anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Conner paragraph 12). This highlights how one’s appearance does not reflect their morality because you can look good and have an ugly personality. This is later addressed when the grandmother faces The Misfit and the grandmother realizes his “strong white teeth” (O’Conner paragraph 88). Even in a life threatening situation, the grandmother considers the “nice” appearance of The Misfit […]

In Oedipus the King, the human experience I saw was facing reality. In the play, Oedipus was given a prophecy on how his life would turn out and he did everything to escape his fate. This relates to the human need for control over the outcomes of their lives. There are certain things that happen in our lives that are meant to happen, but humans are blinded by the fantasy of having perfect, mistake free lives. Eventually, Oedipus’s prophecy came true while he was searching for his identity and role in the murder of King Laius. This highlights Oedipus facing who he really is for example, in the ending of the play, Creon told Oedipus, “Do not seek to be master in everything/ for the things you mastered did not follow you/throughout your life” (Sophocles, 1722). This shows that Oedipus faces his reality and surrender to the reality that he was not meant to be a king. This is applicable to humans now because we often change who we are to escape who we were and who we can be. In the play, it demonstrates that, we cannot run from ourselves.

” Our sorrows defy number; all the ship’s timbers are rotten; taking of thought is no spear for the driving away of the plague There are no growing children in this famous land; there are no women bearing the pangs of childbirth. 200 You may see them one with another, like birds swift on the wing, quicker than fire unmastered, speeding away to the coast of the Western God” (Oedipus 195-203) I chose this quote because I could feel the desperation for there to be a cure or a miracle to stop the Black Plague that is taking over the city. In this quote, the citizen is basically saying there are more people dying than being born. When he says, “you may see them one with another… speeding away to the coast of the Western God” (Oedipus 200-203) he was pretty much saying that everyone collectively is dropping like flies. This was beautiful to me because there is a sense of unity even during this time of illness in the city. It has a dark yet comforting feel because it demonstrates that death does not play favorites. In Greek mythology, it’s believed that your fate is unique to you depending on how you were as a person. For example, evil rulers in Greek mythology always ended up cursed for their crimes. In this case, death is taking anyone through illness which adds more reasoning behind the citizen’s desperation for Oedipus to save the city.

In “Araby” by James Joyce, I would describe the narrator as naive. The narrator became obsessive over his crush and began to devote his days into winning her love by any means necessary. The narrator describes his mental state as unable to focus when he says, ” I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire” (Joyce paragraph 12). This affects the character in the end because he goes to the bazaar in order to look for a gift for his crush and he becomes disillusioned after realizing that he couldn’t find anything good to buy. This is what makes the narrator naive, because he believes that he can buy his lover’s love when love between two people should be based on the connection versus the materialistic. The narrator comes into age after experiencing his first disappointment in life, which is love, and this affects him because in the end, he sees himself as “ creature driven and derided by vanity” (Joyce 37). This affects the narrator because now he feels like his chance of winning his crush is over due to the masculine pressure to provide, which he failed to do. 

The two characters that had different reactions to FAO Shwartz would be the narrator and Mercedes. The narrator demonstrated the reality for poor kids growing up with his survival mindset. For example, the narrator lists all of the different uses for thirty-five dollars, and they are all related to providing for the home. For instance, he acknowledges that “thirty-five dollars could buy new bunk beds…pay for the rent and the piano bill too” (Bambara 6). It is common for children that are poor to miss out on experiences that other children would have and instead learn responsibility and how to survive on “making ends meet”. This prevents the narrator from seeing the fun and entertainment behind toys and instead he uses his logic based on wants and needs. Mercedes on the other hand shows her connection to childhood by having hope that she would get her toys with her birthday money. This reveals her desire and hope to be like other kids regardless of money and economic status which highlights her connection to being a child.

In “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, the character is an observant and curious African American boy who lives in the South. Two words I could use to describe him would be attentive and despondent. In the story, Hughes describes the church service, and through the inclusion of imagery, he displays his attentiveness in the beginning. For example, Hughes starts the story fast paced, jumping from detail to detail as a way of mimicking the high church energy that the character was surrounded by. This proves Langston to be attentive because as a young boy who is not familiar with the concept of spirituality and religion, he was able to understand his environment and what was expected out of him from it from the members of the church.  Hughes highlights the pressure applied to “see” Jesus in order to be accepted as the lamb. This is largely shown in the song that the pastor sang to the children about the “ninety and nine safe in the fold, but one little lamb was left out in the cold” (Hughes paragraph 3). This is what leads the boy in the story to change into a despondent person because he did not get the spiritual awakening that he expected and that was when he became the “one little lamb left out in the cold”. From the beginning, readers are able to see the excitement and hope turn into pessimism and self-judgment once the boy lied about reaching salvation by even concluding that he “didn’t believe there was a Jesus anymore” (Hughes paragraph 20). This fuels self-judgement because now he sees himself as unworthy of being saved from sin.

I believe that this reading was assigned to us to remind us of our humanity during a time where society has turned against each other after the pandemic began. In “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” by Gabriel Marquez, the author reveals the innate characteristics of human personality. For example, the author includes details of how the children were playing with the corpse to highlight the innocence of a child and their inability to understand the concept of death as a part of life. On another note, the women of the village were very compassionate and nurturing towards Esteban when they didn’t know him as a way to demonstrate respect for death while the men saw the man as an inconvenience to their lives. Eventually, towards the end of the story, the village came together and “they came to hold the most splendid funeral” (Marquez 7).  After seeing the effort put in by the women to prepare the body, the entire village began contributing and this signifies the importance and strength behind society working together and showing compassion towards another. After the funeral, the village was reborn with a new meaning of unity and what it meant to respect life before death which allowed the village to improve their own lives by making the village brighter and more inviting. This is important because in society, to help others is viewed as an inconvenience when unity is needed in those times to guide us into better directions.