Hayra Fabri G

With specific reference to one of this week’s poems, explain how you “completed” what the poet set in motion. In your answer, be sure to refer specifically to the article and to quote from your chosen poem to illustrate your response. According to the article “How to Read a Poem” written by the poet William Carlos Williams, one of the challenges of reading a poem is the ability of entering the imaginative play of a poem, therefore bringing our own perspective and point of view into the meaning of the poem. And that, successful poems are a matter of how the readers will perceive the reading, “completing” ideas that may not have been in the writer’s mind while the creation of the poem. Based on that, I’ve decided to analyze the poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, by William Butler Yeats. The reason why I’ve picked this poem, comes from a personal discontent towards living in the city on my mid 20’s, and the challenges to overcome as a lower class immigrant on a highly capitalist country as United States. My perspective towards this poem is the necessity of living a carefree, peaceful life away from the city. Where ideally, one would produce everything they need in order to survive, lay down and wake up to the nature and their surroundings. The poem states “I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, / And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: / Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee; / And live alone in the bee-loud glade” (Yeats, lines 1-4). Where “Innisfree” is perceived as an ideal state of mind, or place. And within this state of mind, or place, the poet finds himself to be self sufficient in all forms, […]

As a Brazillian person, poetry and prose has always been a huge part of our national literature. However, I was not aware of the differences between poetry and prose, until I’ve watched the first video on the activities this week, “Poetry Lesson” by Tom Chester. Furthermore, I’ve found it quite amazing that instead of starting the video explaining what is poetry and comparing it to prose, he decided to start by saying what is “not” considered as poetry and prose. I have always thought that by starting the lesson knowing what we should not do, it becomes easier to understand the right concept and how to do it or identify it properly. The second activity that I’ve found highly informative to help me understanding more about poetry, poems and prose was the reading “How to Read a Poem” by Edward Hirsch. The author defends that there are three false assumptions when it comes to reading poems. As one of them, he mentions “The second is assuming that the poem is a kind of code, that each detail corresponds to one, and only one, thing, and unless they can crack this code, they’ve missed the point” (Par 3). Particularly, I have always read every poem looking for a clue, a word or a saying that identifies the true meaning of the poetry, and it can become extremely frustrating at times. This week’s readings and activities was incredibly informative, and assisted me on understanding better how to identify, read and look for clues in poetry.

Research Summary: “When It’s Time to Grow Up” My research essay focus on the short story “Araby”, one of fifteen stories from the collection“Dubliners”, written by James Joyce. My thesis statement, word-for-word, is: “ The transition between the narrator’s childhood to adulthood is described through a series of symbolic imageries, where Joyce uses the contrast between lightness and darkness to exemplify the narrator’s growth, and reveal the story’s true meaning.”  The secondary source informations used so far to support my thesis are the Biography “James Joyce.” from Authors and Artists for Young Adults, vol. 42, Gale, 2002. Gale in Context: Biography in the BMCC library. This biography contains important informations about the collection “Dubliners” and how meaningful it was for Joyce to write about Dublin after he left Ireland, consequently being an inspiration for the upcoming stories. Moreover, it gives further details about how Joyce separated the stories in a chronological order, replicating the growth of the narrator and making “Araby” even more meaningful.  So far, I still did not find a reference about the imagery and the symbolism behind light and dark in the narrative. 

Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife” and the short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin are particularly similar when it comes to exposing the sexist gender roles expected to be followed by women in the 18th and in the 19th century, and the erasure of their self identities in detriment of their marriage life.  In the first lines of the spenserian poem by Dickinson, she says “She rose to his requirement, dropped/ The playthings of her life /To take the honorable work/ Of woman and of wife.” As an allusion to a women who has dropped her entire identity and passions after marrying, where she referred as “playthings” — or in other words, something not worth to be taken seriously. And decided to perform the greatest “work” attributed to women in that era: Being an honorable wife.  Attributes which we see on the story “The Story of an Hour” by Chopin, where after one of the characters, Mrs. Mallard’s, receives the unfortunate news about her husband passing away in a train accident, she sinks into sadness and the feeling of abandonment. Revealing then, at a first glance, a certain vulnerability expected by a married women at that time.  Further, Dickinson says “If aught she missed in her new day/ Of amplitude, or awe / Or first prospective, or the gold / In using wore away” As a way to show some certain of disappointment and fear of missing not only the days that she had left in the past and her own individuality, but fear that the feeling for the husband — who now she had to look up for — would eventually wear away. Which we can relate to Chopin’s story, on the paragraphs 13-14, when after a short grief, Mrs. Mallard’s realizes that now she was […]

The story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by O’Connor may seem like a unusual tragedy storytelling at its first glance — a story about a cruel serial killer that in a pitiless acts decided to take away the lives of a family of six members, without any apparent motivation besides disregard for their existence. However, when diving deep into the narrative and analyzing not only the prior events before the tragedy but also every character — from the grandmother to the children — we realize that the short novel is much more about the duality of the human kind more than anything else.  The reason for that observation is based mostly, but not only, on the grandmother’s character. Throughout the whole story she shows herself as a racist, selfish, shallow and manipulative person that still believes that being christian makes her inherently good individual. On the other side, Misfits — the serial killer — can be seen as a calm, rational and self aware figure, despite his lack of empathy for human life. One may argue that in a different occasion, he could be a good person.  The “interior” on this novel is to show that despite the antagonist’s brutal acts towards that family, being “good” or “bad” is a condition that goes beyond that, in places that we are yet to discover inside the human mind. 

                   It is an incontestable fact that, despite years of human history and societies, some behaviors and experiences patterns are still intrinsic in our lifestyles and still are a huge part of who we are as individuals, or as a community. Several of these timeless patterns can be encountered in the reading “Oedipus the King”, such as the community’s respect towards its social hierarchy, and the feeling of revenge.                     In the lines 254 to 260, Oedipus says: “But if you shall keep silence, if perhaps some one of you, to shield a guilty friend, some one of you, to shield reject my words – hear what I shall do then: I forbid that man, whoever he be, my land, my land where I hold sovereignty and throne; and I forbid any to welcome him or cry him greeting or make him a sharer in sacrifice or offering to the Gods, or give him water for his hands to wash.” Here, Oedipus symbolizes not only his power towards his country and community, but also an allusion about how much his loyal followers are expected to respect his words, and fear his attitudes. Today, despite the almost complete extinction of monarchy countries, we as individuals and as a country or society in a democracy, still respect the State and its authority figures.                    Further, in the lines 119-120, Creon says: “By banishing a man, or expiation of blood by blood, since it is murder guilt which holds our city in this destroying storm.” As a way to symbolize that, the only way to make that empire prosper again is to find revenge against those who hurt them […]

The lines from the chorus that I’ve chosen to analyze from the reading “Oedipus the King” refers to the blind prophet Tiresias, who had refused to obey the king of Thebes, Oedipus, by helping him to find who killed his father. After he refuses to cooperate, Oedipus accuses the prophet as being one of the murderers of the king. Further, in a headed argument, Oedipus and Tiresias exchange feverous curses to one another.  On the lines 535-540, Tiresias says: “He shall be proved father and brother both to his own children in his own house; to her that gave him birth, a son and husband both; a fellow sower in his father’s bed with that same father that he murdered.” Hence, the prophet not only condemns the king as the murderer of his own father, as he also curses Oedipus to a life of shame and sin, by taking his father’s place in the family and  being now the father of his brothers, and also laying down in the same bed as his own mom, while performing to be her husband.  Further, the chorus performs on the lines 560-575: “He is sad and lonely, his feet that carry him far from the navel of earth; but its prophecies, ever living, flutter around his head. 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, seeking to take vengeance for undiscovered death in the line of Labdacus.” Here, the chorus uses from a hyperbole “flutter around his […]

“Araby” by James Joyce is a story about a young boy who finds himself in a profound and confusing adoration with his neighbor, described as “Mangan’s sister”. And how this obsessive passion became the main source for his desperate attempts to show his feelings for the so divine girl.  When they spoke for the first time, the boy promised to bring her a gift from the Araby bazaar, known as being a splendid place, since she could not go for herself due to a retreat happening on her convent at the same time. However, due to the intense nature of the boy’s feelings, he becomes obsessed with the chance to impress her somehow.  Later, already at the bazaar by himself, after the disappointment of having to wait for his drunk uncle to come home and take him to the station, the boy finds out that most of the stalls are already closed and the darkness took place in the walls of the place. That is the moment when he realizes his own vanity intentions, and let himself feel anger for it.  

The short story ‘’The Lesson’’ by Toni Cade Bambara brought me many reflections of my childhood, as I also grew up very financially limited, and in an emerging country. Therefore, as a child I’d usually get upset for not understanding why I could not have the toys I’d seen on the TV advertisements, or at my trips to the mall with my mom. However, as time passed and I started to enter my teenager years, my family started to grow financially and we could finally afford the things we wanted. Based on that, from all the eight kids that Miss Moore had taken on the toy store, the ones that called my attention and that I was able to emphasize the most were Mercedes and Sugar.  Mercedes presented herself as someone who had a different lifestyle from the other teenagers. She was the only one who had a studying space with a desk, and stationary itens on a box. Also, Mercedes didn’t seem surprised by the price tag on the toys, instead she seemed hopeful that she would have money enough to come back and pick something for herself as a birthday gift. In addition, Mercedes seemed to be the only one who did not understand the purpose that Miss Moore was trying to reach by taking them to the store, and the reason for that is because she was financially privileged enough to not need to.  Meanwhile, Sugar seemed to be the most upset about the prices, or on the fact that her family was not financially able to provide such things for her. Sugar manifested her incomprehension about wealth and social inequality as rage towards Mercedes, the system and Miss Moore. Moreover, one could argue that the reason why Sugar resented Miss Moore so much was a way […]

The short story “Salvation” from The Big Sea by Langston Hughes is a reminiscence of Langston’s childhood, and an example of how social groups or individuals are able to work their way through coercion and intimidation to make them act in a way they might think is valuable, or to think in a certain way that pertains to the collective.  In the beginning of the story, Langston shows himself as a hopeful and faithful thirteen year old boy, waiting to be saved by Jesus in the revival at the Reed’s church through rhythmical preachers and sermons. He was placed on the bench with all the other children his age, while seeing one by one being able to accept Jesus and to be saved. Further, Langston testified Westley, one of his friends, lying and turning over to be saved as an attempt to get out of the bench and not deal with the embarrassment of having his faith questioned.  Langston himself also could not deal with the pressure from his aunt and the church which at that point were all thriving and praying for his salvation. He felt coerced, so he lied and stood up, claiming to have found Jesus. At the end of the story, we can notice that the faith and excitement are not there anymore. Langston then proceeds to cry throughout the night over the shame of lying to his aunt, and for feeling that Jesus was not there to show himself, and to save him from his sins. 

I believe that Marquez’s novel ”Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” is a truly captivating and curious story, which makes it easy to imagine and to build our own critiques about the magic event of Esteban, the giant drowned man. With that being said, this could be our first reading assignment because of the novel’s facility to engage and to provoke feelings on the readers. Personally, I have felt very touched by this novel and it has made me wonder a lot about how people perceive me, or why do we have the tendency to judge everything around us. It brought me to a place where I could almost feel the hurt from the women on the village, whom imagined Esteban’s whole life and emphasized with his sufferings. Moreover, it has made question so much that I started to create my own narratives to explain his life too: “What if he wasn’t handsome, would they have cared for him?”, “And if he wasn’t so big, would it still make sense? And if he was happy on the way he was?”. Well, I guess I will not have the answers and an end for my own narratives, but it was good while it lasted.