Poetry has always been hard for me to understand, especially Shakespeare. But the common lit reading of “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” was really helpful because of the structure with the questions. I surprised myself with answering all the questions right because I usually can’t focus when it comes to the language Shakespeare uses in his poetry or plays. The Common lit structure also helped with Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee ” and I actually really enjoyed that poem, which is great because normally I would consider myself anti-poetry, just based on the fact that I don’t usually understand it. I also was gifted an Elizabeth Barrett Browning poetry book like six years ago and I actually feel compelled to finally give it a read. But these exercises helped me a lot because with “What My Lips Have Kissed and Why and When” I read it, understood it, and loved it without any help.
Emma-Aine Bryan
I am doing Langston Hughes “Salvation”. “This epiphany was a lot more than Langston just losing his faith, because his innocence left with it.” I think both biographical sources and Literary Critiques would both be helpful secondary sources for me. Biographical because “Salvation” is a true story from his childhood, and Literary Critiques because the way he tells the story is beautiful and complex, and also full of Dramatic Irony. I have looked at JSTOR because it’s my old faithful, and found some interesting critiques of not just “Salvation” but many other of his short stories and poems, and many people exploring religion in many of his works. And I explored the Biography in Context and found a few interesting biographies as well.
In “The Story of an Hour” I think that Mrs. Mallard being youthful and being married to Mr. Mallard so young, seemed to be an unknown burden to her, until she heard that he had been killed in the accident. Especially in the 12th paragraph when she mentions there being “no powerful will bending hers.” She had been longing for her freedom from this marriage, and now saw that she had the world at her finger tips. I think this is where it parallels with Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife”. In this poem, the paragraph is “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife.” I think this paragraph ties in with what I spoke about above. Mrs. Mallard is thrilled at the opportunity to go live her life as a single woman, and to see what the world can give to her. This has similar themes as the second paragraph from “The Wife”. “If aught she missed in her new day Of amplitude, or awe, Or first prospective, or the gold In using wore away.”
I think in its interior, this story is a complex psychological evaluation of the Grandmother character, and what she represents. She is very stubborn and stuck in the ways of the past. It also seems like she literally sees people as black and white. The racist story about the watermelon and talking about how the little boy not wearing pants was telling of her feelings about black people. She also assumes because the Misfit is a handsome white boy, that he must come from a good family background. And that he’s probably a good christian and prays and things like that. In the end it’s what got them all killed. She ended up being her own worst enemy, and that parallels with the Misfits life story as well. He was falsely accused of a crime, went to prison, then started actually committing crimes. I think that’s a lot of the interior of this story
I think that even today, many people struggle taking advice and listening to others. Whether it’s pride, mistrust, or being blinded by something want/love, I think we all struggle listening to what other people have to say about our lives and our mistakes.
This story was really beautiful. It is not a love story, it’s more of the story of a young boy infatuated with a girl. I think in order for something to be a love story, the efforts and feelings need to be reciprocated, and this young woman barely knows he exists. He’s obsessed with her, and obsessed with the idea of getting her to actually pay him any mind, hence the want to go to this bazaar. And I even think, ultimately, if he had gotten her something at the bazaar, he would’ve still had that sinking feeling in his stomach, because she probably would not have cared that much.
I think Sugar’s reaction to being in the Toy Store was very interesting. She understood why Miss Moore brought them there, to show them the difference between their lives, and the people who could spend money like that on these luxury toys for their children. And then .Q.T., who seems to probably be the youngest out of the group, has this innocence about him. He seems excited about the toy boat, and asks if it’s for children to play with. Not really seeming to catch on to the price until the older kids start talking about it.
In the beginning of the story, Langston starts off his church experience with a sense of innocence, and nervousness, or excitement. He sees everyone celebrating seeing Jesus, and him coming to them. He’s almost anticipating it happening for a moment. Until his friend is sick of just sitting there being watched as people waited for them to join, and decided to lie. I think in that moment, Langston lost all that innocence. Because Jesus wasn’t coming to him, and he’s sitting there alone, hoping that he will come, but his friend just started pretending and faced no consequences of that. That innocence, and hope and belief that there was a God left him.
I will start by saying I absolutely loved this story. The language in it, and the sentiment of it was beautiful. I think this was our first reading was because of what the appearance of Esteban does to the citizens of this village. He was a complete mystery to all of them, this large man that came from the ocean, yet they came up with his story, purely using their imaginations. And it inspired them to change their ways of thinking. That’s a lot of what writing and reading fiction and literature is about. This man’s appearance broadened their minds, and showed them something they had never thought about. “Oh this man is so tall, he can barely fit in my house when he’s laying down, imagine standing up? He would be so embarrassed to stand in my house, let me raise my ceilings.” That’s what reading can do to a person. Things are brought to our attention, and we change the way we think.
