The third vignette, “Boys & Girls,” intrigued me because it was interesting to read the narrator’s point of view. The idea that you don’t pick your family is very true, yet it doesn’t feel too great when you can’t rely on your siblings as your best friends because they’re so different from you or because they act a certain way. I, personally, am very close to my brother and my sister, but I can understand the narrator’s statement, “Carlos and Kiki are each other’s best friend… not ours.” I can understand this because while we are very close, there were times that I’ve felt as though they liked each other more or had a better bond because I came around a long while later. Family relationships can be funny that way. The first vignette, “The House on Mango Street,” surprised me because I can relate to the story in every way. I know how it feels to have to move all of the time because each time, things didn’t go as planned. I related to the narrator when the nun asked where the narrator lives, “You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded.” I can hear how the nun is pronouncing the word “there” with a tone of disbelief and I can feel the same level of embarrassment the narrator is feeling in this moment. Especially when the narrator goes on to say, “I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to.” The fourth vignette, “My Name,” puzzled me only because I am not sure if the narrator is literally saying that her great-grandmother’s husband really did throw a sack over her head and carry her away. I want to hope […]
Sophia Morales
In “Little Snow-White” by The Brothers Grimm, the story tells how the queen, Snow White’s stepmother, is consumed by jealousy of her child who, in growing up, surpasses her in beauty. To be completely transparent, I don’t think I had ever actually read the full fairy-tale; I only knew her as a princess. There are a few points of Bettleheim’s psychoanalysis of this story that are, in my opinion, incredibly insightful. The first being the three drops of blood that fall onto the snow when Snow White’s mother pricks her finger in the beginning of the story. Bettleheim states, “Fairy tales prepare the child to accept what is otherwise a most upsetting event: sexual bleeding, as in menstruation and later in intercourse when the hymen is broken. Listening to the first few sentences of “Snow White,” the child learns that a small amount of bleeding—three drops of blood (three being the number most closely associated in the unconscious with sex)—is a precondition for conception, because only after this bleeding is the child born” (Bettleheim 202). I would have never considered the possibility of blood representing anything in a fairy-tale, let alone a precondition for conception. “The stepmother’s narcissism is demonstrated by her seeking reassurance about her beauty from the magic mirror long before Snow White’s beauty eclipses hers” (Bettleheim 202). Narcissism is another concept I didn’t consider with the queen constantly consulting the mirror about her beauty. I also had no idea that the word Narcissism comes from Narcissus, in Greek mythology, who loved only himself, so much that he falls in love with his own reflection in a pool of water, staring at it for the remainder of his life. Bettleheim’s reading was very enlightening, and I might find myself analyzing some more fairy tales in the future.
The story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is captivating and incredibly eerie. Reading it felt as if I was watching a movie and yelling at the girl on screen to turn around and run away. The story seems to represent a young girl being groomed: manipulated by an older man to coerce her into agreeing to mental abuse. “I took a special interest in you, such a pretty girl, and found out all about you—like I know your parents and sister are gone somewheres and I know where and how long they’re going to be gone, and I know who you were with last night, and your best girl friend’s name is Betty. Right?” There is a terrifying aspect to this quote. Immediately, as the reader you might see flashing neon red flags, yet Connie is just confused. Connie, although doing so hesitantly, is cooperating at first. It starts to seem like he almost has her convinced and then things escalate. After the escalation, Connie is defeated. This quote, “She was hollow with what had been fear but what was now just an emptiness. All that screaming had blasted it out of her.” is representing, to me, a victim fighting until they cannot fight anymore. At this point in the story, this is clear because Connie is now beginning to do everything Arnold says. The next few lines in the end of the story point to the victim being estranged from family and being convinced that it is okay. “… Be nice to me, be sweet like you can because what else is there for a girl like you but to be sweet and pretty and give in?—and get away before her people come back? ”She felt her pounding heart. Her hand seemed to […]
For this discussion, I’ve chosen the poem, “We Real Cool,” by Gwendolyn Brooks. Of the three prior assumptions readers tend to make when approaching a poem, I believe I made the mistake of assuming that the poem can mean anything readers want it to mean. I actually read the poem once to myself, read it a second time out loud and then listened to Gwendolyn speak about and then read the poem on my third attempt. I did get the sense that it was about a group of kids who were supposed to be in school, but were instead playing pool, but I questioned the point of the poem. After listening to the audio attached, she explains that the idea for the poem came from her passing a group of schoolboys at the pool hall in her community, and instead of asking why they weren’t in school, she asked herself, “I wonder how they feel about themselves?” With this question, she explained the line in the poem “We Jazz June,” as a representation of the contempt they might feel toward school which also coincides with the lines, “We Real Cool. We Left School.” Also, when listening to her read the poem aloud, she gave it a different kind of energy as opposed to the way I was reading it myself; I ended up very much enjoying this poem, the energy and the meaning behind it.
“Reading a poem is part attitude and part technique.” 1. Reading a poem requires a certain level of openness and curiosity of what the poem actually means or stands for, and it needs to be read in a meaningful way. A poem cannot be looked at as though it is simply words put together in lines. You have to approach the poem free of judgement or indifference and ask yourself questions as you do so. 2. In my personal experience throughout this course, I have had to learn how to read the poems we’ve been given. I have learned that approaching the poem with an, “I don’t want to read this,” or an, “What is the point of this,” attitude, is not helpful at all in trying to understand what the poem means. I have also realized that it’s okay to misunderstand the poem at first read. In Sonnet 130: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun, for example, by just reading the title, I said to myself, “well damn,” because at first it sounds a little rude (lol.) Even after reading a little further, he is describing her hair as coarse and her breath as being a little stinky, but when I read the last two lines, 12-14, “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.” He ends the poem by saying he loves her more than anything else and his love may be truer than any she’s ever experienced. I will admit it took me reading this poem twice in my head and once aloud, before I finally understood what he was saying and it’s beautiful. He loves her with her coarse hair, her dull skin and her stinky breath.
The greeting card lyrics “Why Do I Love You So Much?” and the Browning sonnet “How Do I Love Thee?” are both expressions of love and affection, however there are differences between them. In her sonnet, Browning uses figurative and rhetorical devices to create imagery: Personification: “My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight,” “I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.” Simile: “I love thee freely, as men strive for right.” Hyperbole: “I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life Browning uses end-rhyme in her lines: height (3), sight (4), candle-light (6), right (7), use (9), lose (11), choose (13) breath (12), death (14) ways (1), day’s (5), praise (8) Browning’s use of anaphora adds emphasis and rhythm by beginning multiple lines with “I love thee…” In reference to the greeting card, the lines are beautiful but do not create imagery, they simply state the reasons why love is being expressed. There isn’t much of a rhythm other than “Why Do I Love You So Much?” being stated twice. I would describe the greeting card as prose with line breaks and pretty words, where the sonnet is poetry with rhyme and rhythm.
1. Identify the author and the literary work you are focusing on for your research essay. For my research essay, I will be focusing on “The Most Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 2. Please share the actual word-for-word thesis statement of your research essay in your post. “The short story “The Most Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez explores themes of mystery, reflection and magical realism by engulfing the readers in a concept so strange it can only be described as a dream.” 3. Explain what specific kind of secondary source information you feel will support your thesis. I will be using a literary critique written by Rena Korb on “The Most Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” for the secondary source information. This will support my thesis because she discusses García Márquez’s use of magic realism. 4. Identify the BMCC databases you have explored to date and what the results have been. I have explored OneSearch and Gale Literary Sources. OneSearch did not provide any articles in specific reference to this literary work but Gale Literary Sources proved to be more helpful in finding the specific critique I was looking for.
What surprised you and why? What surprised me in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin was Mrs. Mallard’s response to her husband’s death as well as her response to seeing her husband alive and well. I was not expecting her to feel triumphant by realizing that she would have the ability to be independent following the death of Mr. Mallard and I was most definitely not expecting her to drop dead upon seeing him alive. I assumed her “piercing cry” was one of excitement rather than dread until I re-read the last paragraph a few times. What intrigued you and why? What intrigued me about the story ” The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant was the lesson it seemed to teach. Throughout the beginning of the story, Madame Loisel is miserable because she is living what she deems to be a ‘poor’ life. In preparation for a ball, she ends up borrowing a necklace to present herself as belonging among the rich and when she loses the necklace, she lies and ends up putting her and her husband in debt in order to pay the debt back. For ten years she now experiences what it really means to be poor, and all to find out that the necklace she borrowed to begin with, was fake. The lesson I gather from this story is to be grateful, always, for what you have and to always tell the truth. If Madame Loisel had told the truth to begin with, she would have known the true value of the necklace she lost and would not have had to suffer, but perhaps she had to suffer to gain a new perspective on her life. What puzzled you and why? The poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson puzzled me. “She rose to his […]
The story ”A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Conner definitely took a sudden turn I was not expecting. I probably should have expected it based on the foreshadowing in the beginning with the grandmother talking about The Misfit headed toward Florida and the family going on the trip to Florida anyway despite her suggestion to go to Tennessee instead. On its interior, the story portrays prejudicial ideations. The grandmother seems to be unaware of the internalized racism she is exhibiting on the drive. She has also proven to be manipulative by her actions leading up to the accident, but turns into a completely different person in the face of death. The story also portrays tense relationships between family members. This can be seen throughout the story with the constant disrespect Bailey exhibits toward his mother – especially at the end of the story, “Bailey turned his head sharply and said something to his mother that shocked even the children. The old lady began to cry and The Misfit reddened.” Interestingly, there is an aspect of psychology that can be seen in this quote because while we know The Misfit to be a murderer, he seems to be equally offended by the way Bailey speaks to his mother. To further this point, the Misfit implies the possibility of religion having been able to save him, “The Misfit said. ‘I wisht I had of been there,’ he said, hitting the ground with his fist. ‘It ain’t right I wasn’t there because if I had of been there I would of known. Listen lady,’ he said in a high voice, ‘if I had of been there I would of known and I wouldn’t be like I am now.’ His voice seemed about to crack…” In this quote, The Misfit is […]
“If a man walks with haughtiness (1010) of hand or word and gives no heed to Justice and the shrines of Gods despises—may an evil doom smite him for hiss ill-starred pride of heart! — if he reaps gains without justice (1015) and will not hold from impiety and his fingers itch for untouchable things.” This quote by Jocasta is something we have all experienced, either personally or otherwise. There are so many instances where a person is too arrogant to see the error in their ways and is then allowed to continue with the same behavior without any consequences. “O God, I think I have called curses upon myself in ignorance.” This quote by Oedipus’ is something we have all experienced at one point or another. Many people, including myself, have put themselves in a situation where anger has clouded our judgement. Anger and pride can blind a person from being able to see where they are wrong in any situation. I feel for Oedipus in this moment where we can see he is beginning to realize that he has been wrong the whole time, leading him to accuse a close and evidently loyal friend of such a heinous act based on emotion rather than solid proof. His pride can be seen as a flaw but is also something to be respected if wielded correctly in his role as a king. Beyond simply being angry, I believe Oedipus’ pride was driven by fear of not knowing and therefore not being able to control any outcome. Throughout humanity, I believe this is too common. I have definitely had to learn that you are unable to think clearly when you are angry, and it is only healthy to stress over the things you can control versus the things that you cannot; […]
Oedipus saved the citizens of Thebes by answering the Sphinx’s riddle correctly, thereby becoming their king and now is referred to as their savior. The Chorus has had no doubt in the abilities of their king, yet after witnessing an argument between Oedipus and Teiresias, they no longer know who to trust. In lines 564 through 574, we see the prophet has now brought forward an attention to the King’s temper, of which the Chorus cannot deny, “The augur has spread confusion, terrible confusion; I do not approve what was said nor can I deny it. I do not know what to say; I am in a flutter of foreboding; I never heard in the present nor past of a quarrel between the sons of Labdacus and Polybus, that I might bring as proof in attacking the popular fame of Oedipus,” beautifully stating their new fear of now knowing what’s to come based on this new portrayal of their king. Do they trust their savior who has proven himself to be worthy or the prophet who speaks the word of their gods? However, the Chorus restates their faith in Oedipus in lines 578 through 591 by stating that no man shall be judged by another man with wise words from another, unless this “wisdom” is proved to be correct. “Truly Zeus and Apollo are wise and in human things all knowing; but amongst men there is no distinct judgment, between the prophetand me—which of us is right. One man may pass another in wisdom but I would never agree with those that find fault with the king till I should see the word proved right beyond doubt. For once in visible form the Sphinx came on him and all of us saw his wisdom and in that test he saved the city. So he will […]
I would describe the boy in the story as naive and vulnerable; lacking emotional intelligence. It is implied by his attempt to hide in the shadows to avoid going home, that he is of a very young age. Since he doesn’t have much control over or knowledge of his emotions, a crush on Mangan’s sister turns into more and instead turns into a sense of desperation, “I looked over at the dark house where she lived. I may have stood there for an hour, seeing nothing but the brown-clad figure cast by my imagination, touched discreetly by the lamplight at the curved neck, at the hand upon the railings and at the border below the dress” (Araby). Toward the ending of the story, the boy is angered by the lack of options he was left with at the bazaar, having arrived too late. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” If he had not been so susceptible to an obsession with Mangan’s sister, he would not have been so determined to buy her something, and therefore, he would not have been so angered by his inability to.
Ms. Moore’s decision to bring the eight children in this story to an expensive toy store, in what seems to be a predominantly white neighborhood, is made in an effort to showcase the inequality that exists in the United States’ economy, and each child reacts to this trip differently. Although Sugar and Sylvia seem to be most alike in their mischief and mannerisms, they have opposite reactions to being inside the store and seeing some of the prices on the displayed items. Prior to entering the store, the two are in alliance in terms of behavior, “‘Can we steal?’ Sugar asks very serious like she’s getting the ground rules squared away before she plays. ‘I beg your pardon,’ say Miss Moore, and we fall out. ” They are both hesitant to enter the store, feeling as if they don’t belong, yet as they enter the store, their behavior changes. Sugar becomes intrigued by the items, which angers Sylvia, “We just stare at that price tag. Then Sugar run a finger over the whole boat. And I’m jealous and want to hit her. Maybe not her, but I sure want to punch somebody in the mouth.” It’s clear Sylvia is doing everything in her power to preserve her tough persona while Sugar is showing an actual interest in what Ms. Moore is attempting to show them. Sylvia is angered by this trip, likely unconsciously trying to avoid coming to terms with the truth these price tags are teaching the children. When they return to their neighborhood, Ms. Moore asks what the children thought of their trip to the store and the implied but very clear differences in economic status and Sugar responds, to Sylvia’s dismay, by saying,” ‘I think,’ say Sugar pushing me off her feet like she never done before […]
I would describe the boy in the story, “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, as trusting, faithful, anxious, and excited. I say he is trusting because when his aunt tells him what he should expect from the revival, he believes her with no doubt and has faith that something will happen to him inside and he will see this “light.” I would maybe also describe him as naive or innocent because when he hears everyone asking Jesus to come, there is this implied sense that he is truly excited and anxious to physically see Jesus. When he was the only one left that had not been saved, he says, “And I kept waiting serenely for Jesus, waiting, waiting – but he didn’t come. I wanted to see him, but nothing happened to me. Nothing! I wanted something to happen to me, but nothing happened,” to further show his innocence. By the end of the story, he is ashamed, no longer excited and lacks faith because he felt he had deceived everyone and no longer believes there is a Jesus anymore because he didn’t come to help him.
I believe this story is a beautiful introduction to this course and I believe you chose to assign this story first to introduce us to rich language and imagination; maybe even to see what we gain from reading it. To study literature is to study the value of wording, poetry and perspective in writing and Gabriel Garcia Marquez captures your attention immediately. While he paints a vivid story that we know could never be true, the story also teaches the reader something about community and perspective. For example, he starts with the children, “They had been playing with him all afternoon, burying him in the sand and digging him up again…,” who have no perception of the seriousness they’re dealing with, to show the innocence children possess. Then the women, “Fascinated by his huge size and his beauty, the women then decided to make him some pants from a large piece of sail and a shirt from some bridal linen so that he could continue through his death with dignity.” This line, even with no context, is beautiful. It shows how caring and supportive humanity can be if we all put aside any outside worries or problems, and simply cared for one another. “…men and women became aware for the first time of the desolation of their streets, the dryness of their courtyards, the narrowness of their dreams as they faced the splendor and beauty of their drowned man.” This one stranger’s death brought everyone together and forced them to view their lives differently.
