After reading those poems, the ideas in my mind about poems haven’t changed because it still hard to understand and force to think. In the poem “How Do I Love Thee” the word thee was shown in almost every single line, which I really hate about that, I have never used the word thee(means you) in the modern convention. In other words poem sucks, you have to use your brain to process the meaning, also it might be different meanings, everyone views the story differently, you might see it as romantic, and others might see it as ridiculous. Personally, I don’t like to read poems, it likes reading an ancient English book like Romeo and Juliet, it almost killed me once and made my brain stop processing because of a word like thou and more it is just hard to understand, just like reading ancient Chinese words. Also in the modern world, we tend to make things simpler because of the internet, and I don’t think people going to write a love poem from those words, it just makes things complicated.
Ben
I will write about “Salvation” by Langston Hughes for my research essay. “Salvation” by Langston Hughes published in 1940, is a short story from “The Big Sea”. “Salvation” is a short story about a 12 years old kid, who questions Jesus existence after church services, and also reached out to adults after that visit. In this short story, there are a lot of ironies popping out. But the main point which was a lie changed him because Langston realized if he didn’t lie about being saved, his aunt will be disappointed in him. He cried at the end and realized something about Jesus. In BMCC databases I didn’t find any resources yet because of reasons. I will try to find mostly about, how a can lie affects someone, or how can a lie changes a child’s mind. Since we as the reader saw what happened to Langston at the end. My thesis statement would be “A simple lie can affect a kid(person) mentally”.
The theme in Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife” explains to the reader that she sacrifice a lot of things for this marriage “The playthings of her life” and the secure only keep to herself like in the deepest in the sea, not even her husband know”But only to himself is known The fathoms they abide.” Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour, tells us about her being free of the death of her husband, it also in a way to shows the reader that she’s out of the cage”There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers” nothing can stop her from being free now. From these two articles, we can see that it is not just Emily and Mrs. Mallrds in this cruel marriage, it is the worst possible century to be born in (anything before 20th century). Marriage for women is like a birdcage, and the owner(husband) dresses (expect) the wife to be the way he wanted to be.
In the story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” O’Connor shows the elements of suspense in it will be transferred from its surface to its interior, for example, the Grandmother at first you might think she’s a regular woman (grandmother) but later as the story goes on, things start to show up, that she’s very selfish, she will manipulating the family to get what she wants. At first, she forces Bailey(her son) to change the trip from Florida to Tennessee with news of “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit… did to these people” and cries about it that she wouldn’t let her children go there. Later on the trip, she knows Bailey hate traveling with a cat but she still brought with it on, also the dress she dressed very fancy, it ironic for me because it just trips why do you dress up like this, and later she explained that if she ends up dead on the road, people would find her will know she was a lady, which brings an idea for me to think, she probably means even if she is dead on the road if people find her they will know she was a lady(in a pure way, let people think she’s kind, innocent, and friendly). Baily her son, didn’t talk much in the story probably just sick and tired of his mother, just like a doll to her.
What behaviors do you find in your reading of Oedipus the King? In the reading of Oedipus, you can see one of the pride behaviors between Oedipus and Jocasta because both of them tries to escape the prophecy but in the end, Oedipus marrying his mother(wife having 4 kids ) accidentally kills this father without knowing it, as Oedipus Jocasta tries to escape it by telling the shepherd to abandon Oedipus and killing it. But the shepherd does what Jocata which also results in the prophecy coming true, when trying to escape from fate but resulting in happing. Also, fate if Oedipus didn’t listen to the prophecy and left Corinth, fate won’t happen that quickly or in a way that the prophecy can be false. In the end, Jocasta kills herself from knowing the truth and so did Oedipus blind himself(in a way to not see the horror in his life again).
why do you sit here with your suppliant crowns?2 the town is heavy with a mingled burden of sounds and smells, of groans and hymns and incense; 5 I did not think it fit that I should hear of this from messengers but came myself,– I Oedipus whom all men call the Great. This part explains “language enhanced by varying beauties.” and is an irony because of the way Oedipus uses that sentence to describe him and his children. At first, he said “Why do you sit… crown?(not sure what that means)” then “groans and hymns and incense” it seems like his children are wearing that crown for nothing because if the town is under peace and calm why do they wear that suppliant crowns? could it be all illusion? or is it just to certify something to help people?. Second part where the irony begins because their father(Oedipus) calls himself the great(in my way of understanding he might rule this place and everyone is being themself no chaos or anything), but with the first parts adds up. It is like they are challenging the father(Oedipus), so he is pretty mad now.
This short story “Araby” by James Joyce wasn’t really a love story because in this story it is more of a narrative talking about Araby to the audience than third person view in a way that gives the reader confusion at first. But it opens with his own information age, place, and etc… as the narrative talks us about Araby, but it also Araby himself tells us about the story. As the story goes in the narrative starts to describe to us the girl he loves, but also in a way that Araby was just looking at her and following her footsteps like a protector “We waited to see whether she would remain or go in and if she remained, we left our shadow and walked up to Mangan’s steps resignedly.” Also, he described Mangan’s sister in a very detailed way showing the audience that he loves her. To be honest I don’t get the story.
I would pick Sylvia and Sugar because they are the most appearance in the story and two and the first two out of three mentioned first. In the Schwarz toy store Sylvia(main character) was the first one who read the “Hand-crafted sailboat of fiberglass at one thousand one hundred ninety-five dollars.” From my understanding, Syliva is like a leader in this team(Sugar, Mercedes, Flyboy, Junebug, Rosie Giraffe, and etc…) because in the scene Miss Moore hands Sylvia the cash and ask her to pay the driver “five-dollar bill and tells me to calculate 10 percent tip for the driver” this tells you that Miss Moore trusted Sylvia like a child adult. Sugar is a very funny girl because her first strong appearance was in the Schwarz toy store to saying if we can steal “Can we steal?” Sugar asks very serious like she’s getting the ground rules squared away before she plays.” a very funny and unforgettable line, shows she’s still a child.
At the beginning of “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, Langston was a child that listens to his Aunt and follows her words about Jesus, but as the story goes on you can see the belief really ruined him in a bad way because the trust from the heart to his Aunt result in him of suffering from believing Jesus didn’t save him. As a way that he realizes that lying can be the only way to get out of this situation, just like what Westley did ““God damn! I’m tired o’ sitting here. Let’s get up and be saved.” So he got up and was saved.” Sometimes being too serious of thing can hurt you because like Langston his in pain from the lying, as well from those pressure from”deacons and old women on their knees praying” and his the last one sitting there parsing for Jesus to show up, however, things didn’t go well. At this point, I think it is a little ironic between him and others because Langston was the last one to change but in a way of following Westley. But does it explain that God is not there? because you can’t see through inside of a person, which you can’t tell if these children saw Jesus or not.
The reason why I think this story(“The Handsomest Drowned Man”) was chosen for us to read is that this is a very interesting short story, and with a lot of questions to ask about, it is also a nice way to start the course with a fantasy story because the drowned man seems like imagination or illusion for me in a way. Esteban The Handsomest Drowned Man changes to villages in a way people rethinking of themselves “They secretly compared him to their own…most useless creatures on earth”. Also, the details from the dead body, women in the village can imagine what kind of person Esteban is and the things he has been through, which is very incredible because the dead body can’t talk about what happened to him, but women in the village can from the smallest details to a story. Personally, for me, the story seems like the dead body entering a place where it is an isolated land.
