Although Scout has to face many events that change her views on the world, she keeps her moral and strong sense of what's right. I feel like this shows that she is a very strong person. Most people seem to conform and accept when they come of age, I'm glad that Scout stays the person she truly is.
Scout Finch grows up in the small southern town of Maycomb, Alabama. She grows up in times of inequalities-Sexism, Racism, these were very different times from ours. One of the main issues she has to face is learning about the little rights women had. Scout grows up mostly around men, as she lives with just her father and her brother, her mother having passed away. Having little to do with most women does not help her in growing up to be a "proper lady." Yet that is what her society is pushing her to be. The old woman who lives up her block looks down on her for playing sports and getting dirty. Once even her brother expressed his shame, he said
"Oh, for christ's sake, why don't you just act like a lady for once. You're a girl." Scout did not want to wear a nice dress to church, she wanted to wear shorts instead. Scout really must feel the pressure of society trying to turn her into something she's not. However, although there's all this pressure on her to be "a proper lady," she doesn't let society turn her into one. She keeps her own personality, the slightly boyish one, even though that's not what people want of her. I think that's very strong of her.
Another issue that Scout comes to terms with as she comes of age is frankly, the cruelties of small-minded people-The gossip that circulates. Scout is part of what could be called a "not-so-kosher" family. She grows up without a mother, having her major influences be men and her housemaid. In a small-minded southern society, It's not right for a girl's major women role model to be black, and her imperfect family gets her lots of unfair gossip. One time, a boy in school
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
COA Response #3 (Extra Credit.)
Response to Question # 5: "What are some realizations and/or epiphanies that you have had about yourself, friends, family and the world overall? How did you arrive at these realizations?"
Oh, the amount of realizations that I've had about the world as I grew up. One of the first ones that comes to mind is learning the realities about my family. Oh, I never thought that my family was perfect-No, not like most people say. But i never realized how much my family really screwed up, and how much my family screwed me up. My family is far from perfect, but it's almost better that way.
When everyone else talks about their childhood, their memories seem to be laced with sunshine and flowers. I have a couple good photos, photos that emanate a happy glow. I have a couple good memories memories that only erupted when someone reminded me, someone told me a story. But most of my memories are memories of nights spent hugging myself, staring out the window and pretending I belonged among the stars. Not at home in my dingy little bedroom, listening to the sounds of fighting parents outside my door.
But you know, even though I could vaguely understand that my life was not like the life of my friends, I did not understand that maybe-that could be my family's fault. I did not understand that my life could have been better. That maybe, if not for some of the things that my family had done, I could own a brownstone. I could maybe buy some clothes. I could go to expensive salons. Maybe, if my family had been perfect, my life could be better.
But that brings me to my second epiphany. That, there's really nothing I can do. I learned that just last year, and that realization is both invigorating and destroying. I was born into the life I was born into, and no matter what I do i can not change that. I can yell at my parents all i want, it won't get me a bigger house. I can whine about my looks for as long as i want, it won't make me any prettier. See, that was one of my greatest epiphanies. I can say i spent a good two weeks just thinking, thinking about this. That as much as people say "If you try enough, you will succeed," No matter how much I try- I can't change the life I was born in to. I arrived at this realization after having a fight with my mom. I believe her exact words were, "What are you picking a fight with me for? Just because you whine won't make your life better."
And it's true. Whining about my life won't change it. Writing about my life won't changing. Even trying hard, getting good grades in school won't change my life. Until I'm 18, this is my life. And this is everything I've worked for, my family's worked for. My life is far from perfect, but it's the life i fit into. A child can't construct their life around themselves, they're built like a puzzle piece into the lives of someone else.
Oh, the amount of realizations that I've had about the world as I grew up. One of the first ones that comes to mind is learning the realities about my family. Oh, I never thought that my family was perfect-No, not like most people say. But i never realized how much my family really screwed up, and how much my family screwed me up. My family is far from perfect, but it's almost better that way.
When everyone else talks about their childhood, their memories seem to be laced with sunshine and flowers. I have a couple good photos, photos that emanate a happy glow. I have a couple good memories memories that only erupted when someone reminded me, someone told me a story. But most of my memories are memories of nights spent hugging myself, staring out the window and pretending I belonged among the stars. Not at home in my dingy little bedroom, listening to the sounds of fighting parents outside my door.
But you know, even though I could vaguely understand that my life was not like the life of my friends, I did not understand that maybe-that could be my family's fault. I did not understand that my life could have been better. That maybe, if not for some of the things that my family had done, I could own a brownstone. I could maybe buy some clothes. I could go to expensive salons. Maybe, if my family had been perfect, my life could be better.
But that brings me to my second epiphany. That, there's really nothing I can do. I learned that just last year, and that realization is both invigorating and destroying. I was born into the life I was born into, and no matter what I do i can not change that. I can yell at my parents all i want, it won't get me a bigger house. I can whine about my looks for as long as i want, it won't make me any prettier. See, that was one of my greatest epiphanies. I can say i spent a good two weeks just thinking, thinking about this. That as much as people say "If you try enough, you will succeed," No matter how much I try- I can't change the life I was born in to. I arrived at this realization after having a fight with my mom. I believe her exact words were, "What are you picking a fight with me for? Just because you whine won't make your life better."
And it's true. Whining about my life won't change it. Writing about my life won't changing. Even trying hard, getting good grades in school won't change my life. Until I'm 18, this is my life. And this is everything I've worked for, my family's worked for. My life is far from perfect, but it's the life i fit into. A child can't construct their life around themselves, they're built like a puzzle piece into the lives of someone else.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Response to "To Kill A Mockingbird."
Harper Lee wrote the character of Scout Finch in "To Kill A Mockingbird" off of her own experiences growing up. She grew up a girl in the south, at a time much different from ours. Scout battled society trying to turn her into a "Proper lady,"she had to battle the people in her town not accepting her family, and she had to try and comprehend the "difference between her and the black folk." The 1930's were times of inequality, and Scout Finch had to learn to comprehend the cruelties of the world the hard way-Just like most of us.
Scout Finch battled society trying to turn her into a "proper lady." Growing up having just her father and a brother as family, she never had women in her life as role models. So when she starts going to school and is expected to wear skirts, she fights back hard. When the old lady on her block chides her for for "talking like a boy," she fights back hard. Soon enough, her own brother, Jem, starts being ashamed of her. Scout and Jem were like best friends, Jem had always accepted her of who she was, a "tomboy," per say. But we all know what happens when you grow older: You change. You change from always being entirely your own, quirky self to the person other people want you to be. It happens to everyone, and it happened to Scout. She battled what society expected her to be, but in the end she had to learn to comprehend the word like it really is.
Scout also had to battle the people in her town not accepting her family. She grew up without a mom, she acted like a boy, and her father was under attack for defending a black man in court. That made her family very controversial in their small southern town. When Atticus, her father, defended the black man, her entire family became under attack from their town. Scout even got beat up in school by a boy who's family was racist. At first, Scout did not understand why the world seemed to be ganging up on her. But Scout learned eventually that there would always be gossip in small towns, and with a family like hers she would have to accept that there was nothing she could do to stop the gossip. It's a sad fact, but true.
Scout also had to comprehend why she wasn't supposed to fraternize with the black people in her town. Because her heart was so pure, she didn't understand why the people in her town treated the black people as lesser than the white people. It's the whole idea of idealism to realism, that's what this response is all about. Scout has to battle the world in how she believes in the black people, against all others.
I can understand exactly what Scout goes through. Obviously, it's a lot harder to have to face society in a small town where everyone knows everything about each other, than New York City. But in a way, we all face the same difficulties as Scout does. We all have to change ourselves based on what society wants us to be. We all have to learn what the world is really all about, have to change our ideas from what we want the world to be like to what it really is like. I think the reader should take away from this that, even when society does everything it can to change you, you will one day be able to be yourself and express your own opinions. And maybe one day, society will let others live the way you weren't able to.
Scout Finch battled society trying to turn her into a "proper lady." Growing up having just her father and a brother as family, she never had women in her life as role models. So when she starts going to school and is expected to wear skirts, she fights back hard. When the old lady on her block chides her for for "talking like a boy," she fights back hard. Soon enough, her own brother, Jem, starts being ashamed of her. Scout and Jem were like best friends, Jem had always accepted her of who she was, a "tomboy," per say. But we all know what happens when you grow older: You change. You change from always being entirely your own, quirky self to the person other people want you to be. It happens to everyone, and it happened to Scout. She battled what society expected her to be, but in the end she had to learn to comprehend the word like it really is.
Scout also had to battle the people in her town not accepting her family. She grew up without a mom, she acted like a boy, and her father was under attack for defending a black man in court. That made her family very controversial in their small southern town. When Atticus, her father, defended the black man, her entire family became under attack from their town. Scout even got beat up in school by a boy who's family was racist. At first, Scout did not understand why the world seemed to be ganging up on her. But Scout learned eventually that there would always be gossip in small towns, and with a family like hers she would have to accept that there was nothing she could do to stop the gossip. It's a sad fact, but true.
Scout also had to comprehend why she wasn't supposed to fraternize with the black people in her town. Because her heart was so pure, she didn't understand why the people in her town treated the black people as lesser than the white people. It's the whole idea of idealism to realism, that's what this response is all about. Scout has to battle the world in how she believes in the black people, against all others.
I can understand exactly what Scout goes through. Obviously, it's a lot harder to have to face society in a small town where everyone knows everything about each other, than New York City. But in a way, we all face the same difficulties as Scout does. We all have to change ourselves based on what society wants us to be. We all have to learn what the world is really all about, have to change our ideas from what we want the world to be like to what it really is like. I think the reader should take away from this that, even when society does everything it can to change you, you will one day be able to be yourself and express your own opinions. And maybe one day, society will let others live the way you weren't able to.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
"What are some questions and concerns you have about growing up and adulthood?"
I'm not altogether too frightened by adulthood. This sounds immature and all, but I'm actually pretty excited. I mean, of course i love youth and all-But I'm not afraid of responsibility. I'm not afraid of taxes.
What I'm more afraid of is the journey to being a complete adult, and who i'll be when I'm an adult. As a teenager, I feel like these are the days when you start learning about yourself and what you are going to become. Right now, I have no idea who I'm going to turn out to be. And that frightens me.
I guess what i require is a passion. For me, there isn't that one thing that keeps me going, I haven't found that one thing that i want to spend my whole life doing. I have many different options, but i don't pursue any of them. Instead, I spend my life wasting away at the computer, or doing nothing but talking about nothing with my friends.
That's why i'm afraid for the journey ahead, because i don't feel like i'm even ON a journey. At all. I guess last year i took a journey from childhood to adulthood (That was in the period where nothing went right and i lost my naivete and i was an awkward, depressed half-child.) But that journey to find myself ended up in me changing. I found myself, but she's gone. I guess the biggest question I have as i mature is: How am i supposed to find myself, when myself is such an intangible, capricious thing?
What I'm more afraid of is the journey to being a complete adult, and who i'll be when I'm an adult. As a teenager, I feel like these are the days when you start learning about yourself and what you are going to become. Right now, I have no idea who I'm going to turn out to be. And that frightens me.
I guess what i require is a passion. For me, there isn't that one thing that keeps me going, I haven't found that one thing that i want to spend my whole life doing. I have many different options, but i don't pursue any of them. Instead, I spend my life wasting away at the computer, or doing nothing but talking about nothing with my friends.
That's why i'm afraid for the journey ahead, because i don't feel like i'm even ON a journey. At all. I guess last year i took a journey from childhood to adulthood (That was in the period where nothing went right and i lost my naivete and i was an awkward, depressed half-child.) But that journey to find myself ended up in me changing. I found myself, but she's gone. I guess the biggest question I have as i mature is: How am i supposed to find myself, when myself is such an intangible, capricious thing?
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
****SPOILER ALERT******
Reading Response to Impulse By Ellen Hopkins.
Impulse is a story that tracks the lives of three teenagers, with very different lives, who end up in the same mental hospital. Vanessa is the pretty, charming daughter of an army dad and a bipolar mother. Tony is a bisexual juvenile delnquent who spent half his life on the street, and Connor is the priveleged, handsome boy who spent half his life trying to live up to his sister's standards and his parent's cold expectations of him. These are three teenagers who end up at the same mental hospital, all for different reasons, but end up best friends. This book, Impulse, shows that it doesn't matter where you come from, your problems can connect you with everyone around the world.
I have confusing feelings towards this book. While her books are very "teenage-y," they can have some beautiful language and themes i can connect to. So this book didn't quite live up to the standards i had set for it. But while it wasn't quite as geniusly written as Identical, I still really enjoyed the underlying theme that we're all connected through our problems. In this book Vanessa, Connor and Tony are all connected throught the facct that they can't stand living their lives. For Vanessa, it's the overwhelming guilt she feels at her mother's death and her bipolar disorder. For Connor, it's all the days he's plastered a smile when he really wanted to die inside. For Tony, it's the terrible past that keeps on flashing back to him. Though they all deal with their self-loathing in different ways, it's their problems that connect them.
Vanessa keeps coming back to the razor blade because that's the way she deals with the depressive side of her manic-depressive, when she "sinks all the way into blue." Vanessa is attracted to danger, that's why she lusts after Connor and eventually falls for the bad boy Tony. Although her depression and bad qualities shouldn't connect them all, it was part of the reason that they formed such a strong bond in the first place. But i can't help thinking that it's part of the reason that Connor eventually killed himself. In the last chapters of his life, Vanessa and Tony had noticed that Connor had stopped taking his pills, grew "tense and stiff-shouldered when [Connor] saw [them] snuggling". Although Vanessa and Tony's relationship might have contributed to his sucide, Vanessa and Tony also helped him realize what his life was really about.
The plot to this story disappointed me. I mean, we spend the whole book anticipating the recovery of the three protagonists, and smack, at the end Connor's dead. The book keeps on showing flashbacks, but does nothing to connect it to the future. I think that is something that is required in stories, if you show flashbacks, they can't be meaningless. They have to connect to the innermost feelings of the characters, not just show
what a terrible life they have.
However, this book still had essential qualities that made me appreciate it alot. :) You really felt for the characters. Although I don't have any severe depression-y stuff, and y I can connect to the feeling of self-loathing that these characters have. In a less mild sense, i know exactly how it feels to have to live up to high standards, yourself and others. I know how it feels to need to get away from things. And what makes the book even more special is exactly what my thesis statement is about: The characters can all connect with eachother through their problems, and so can i think the readers. It's easy to connect through problems, it gives you a more full sense of their personality, makes you feel like you know them on a deeper level. I don't know if it's a good thing or not that we find it easy to connect to others through our problems...
However, this book still had essential qualities that made me appreciate it alot. :) You really felt for the characters. Although I don't have any severe depression-y stuff, and y I can connect to the feeling of self-loathing that these characters have. In a less mild sense, i know exactly how it feels to have to live up to high standards, yourself and others. I know how it feels to need to get away from things. And what makes the book even more special is exactly what my thesis statement is about: The characters can all connect with eachother through their problems, and so can i think the readers. It's easy to connect through problems, it gives you a more full sense of their personality, makes you feel like you know them on a deeper level. I don't know if it's a good thing or not that we find it easy to connect to others through our problems...
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Response to "Impulse"
***SPOILER ALERT***
Reading Response to "Impulse" By Ellen Hopkins.
Impulse is a story that tracks the lives of three teenagers, with very different lives, who end up in the same mental hospital.
Vanessa is the charming daughter of an army dad and a bipolar mother, and when her mother is pushed over the edge Vanessa resorts to cutting to hide her sadness.
Tony is the bisexual juvenile delinquent who spent half his life on the street, but turns out to be a lot sweeter than what he might seem.
Conner is the privileged, handsome, smart, athletic boy who spent all his life having to try and live up to his sister's standards, his cold parent's expectations of them.
And they all meet in Pinebrook, a mental clinic in Nevada.
I usually like Ellen Hopkin's books, while they are very "teenage-y" they can have some beautiful language. Especially Identical, while the concept is sad and odd, the writing is beautiful. So this book didn't live up to my standards for her. With this concept and the intense writing she can do, she just kind of failed. And the plot wasn't for me either.
I mean, Conner's in love with an older woman.
Vanessa's in love with Conner.
They all have flashbacks.
Tony's in love with Conner.
Conner's in love with Vanessa, and the older woman.
Conner lusts after his therapist.
Tony and Vanessa become very close.
Tony realizes that he might actually not be gay.
They go out into the desert on a wilderness survival program.
Conner stops taking his pills.
Tony and Vanessa fall in love.
Conner jumps off a cliff,
and then, boom it ends. I mean, really? Really!? The plot was both uninteresting until the end, and sounded as if it was made up as the author went along. That's one thing I can't stand in books, possibly because i do it ALL THE TIME. J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" is a really good example of a book that doesn't do that. You can tell that Rowling plotted out all the 7 books in the series before even starting the first one.
In those ways, the book disappointed me. Also, i just hated the ending. Conner was really the character who could have done so well in his life, if he didn't just stop taking the pills. But in that way, the book was quite obvious. Conner is the one who would kill himself, he was no longer necessary to the other characters, besides his depression he was perfect, and he was the one who had a terrible life to return to once he got out of the hospital.
But i still thought that the emotions of the character's were expressed very well. Their problems were real, raw, relatable. Although, obviously, I've never been in a mental hospital, nor am i manic-depressive, nor is my life shit, I can really connect to the feeling of hopelessness that Conner, Vanessa and Tony all have felt. The realization that you don't think you can do shit to improve your life, that you're either just going to have to keep living a life you're not entirely satisfied with-or, not.
And, i think that's something we all have to face, all have to get over, and everyone can connect to.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Three favorite blogs
One blog that i thought was really exemplary was Sarah's blog. In her posts, she managed to show a lot of emotion while also making both her poems and her responses very factual, strong and clever. That perfect mix of emotions and facts is something not a lot of people can come across.
Her sonnet was quite impressive, and it seems like she actually took time and effort to write it-With the perfect iambic pentameter and perfect sonnet form, and it actually developed well and beautifully as a poem! It's written beautifully!
Great Job Sarah!
Another blog I really admired was Julia's blog. Everything she writes flows out with precision, making sense and sounding beautiful. It's not choppy at all. (A big problem everybody always complains about in my pieces is the choppiness.)
Her sonnet is also beautiful. It leaves room for the mind to wander, and out your own interpretation, while also stating some things very clearly. And the things she states are very connectible, without sounding cliche. The next entry down, her poetry forward, is also above standards. It sounds beautiful, and is just so TRUE and cool.
Great job, Julia!
The last blog I'm writing about that really impressed me was Tomin's. (No surprise there.)
Every time I read any of Tomin's posts I'm blown away. Also, I'm blown away by realizing that some guys actually CAN write. It just seems sometimes that boys are not capable of expressing emotions or writing anything meaningful. I know that's really sexist of me, and looking at Tomin's blog reminds me that I'm totally wrong. He is not only capable of expressing things and writing with emotions, he does both things amazingly! Tomin has a voice in his writing that i wish i had in my speaking. It's really gorgeous, and never bores me.
Bravo, Tomin!
A Sonnet on A Thunderstorm (Cliche, I know.)
A Sonnet Ana Gross 807
A giant thunderstorm, the sky expands
The trees in front’ my house the lightning sears
The hail calls me an ordinary man
The rain tells me that my fate is not clear.
My heart, it seems, is caught up in the past
The thunder says to care about the now
But I won’t let this storm dissuade me, fast
I run outside, forgetting the storm’s growl.
The rain, it stains my face and knots my hair
And into my clothes freezing water seeps
But this exhilaration does not care
Peace with myself I’ll try so hard to keep.
I know not where I am, nor where I’ll be
But I trust now that I can wait and see.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Salt/Fresh- Foreword
FOREWORD: “Salt/Fresh,” Poems about the water
My book, “Salt/Fresh” is a collection of poems written simply about water. It does not pertain simply to the ocean; it does not pertain only to lakes, or pools. This book is about all types of water, from the water in your sinks to the eighty-percent chlorine in your pools.
For, don’t we all have stories to share about water? I know I do. I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with water, with stories backing up other sides. I’ve been caught in terrible riptides, choked and slapped around by water. I’ve been blinded by chlorine, and stung by jellyfish. But I’m also in love with the ocean. I have an inexplicable connection with the water, one that sends me swimming all the time. A connection that gets me called “mermaid,” and “dolphin.” A connection that makes my favorite animal an octopus-
And my connection with the ocean is one I’m pretty sure we all have. Sure, you might not feel it the way I do. But after all, water is the thing that keeps us living. You can only live a couple of weeks without water. Your own body is up to 70 percent water.
So whether you read these poems while bored, or you read these poems while yearning for a beach vacation-these poems have a specific meaning. If I’ve done my job, you should be able to relate to these poems in some way. These poems should evoke memories, or at least do something. If they don’t, either these poems suck or I’m just really weird and believe that I’m not the only one who has this weird pull towards water. You can decide which one it is.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Response to "My Papa's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke
My Papa's Waltz
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
In class today, my group and I were discussing the father in the poem. Some of us believed that Roethke, (or the character he made up,) is being physically abused by his father. Others chose not to believe that, and to believe that well, they were actually waltzing.
I happen to think that to believe that Roefke is writing a happy poem about just waltzing with his father as a child, and the feeling of being naive to his father's drunkenness, is deluded. I mean, sure, i get a BIT that this poem could just be about how when the narrator was young, he did not understand what being drunk meant. He had thought that his father was merely acting a little off tonight. But who's to question? You're young, right?
Let me tell you-that's not how that happens. I know on an intimate level that even when you're very young, you understand that something is wrong when a member of your family is drunk. You understand that the drawl, the bloodshot eyes, the inept care of others, is not normal. You understand that it's wrong, even if you badly don't want it to be wrong.
And so, no, I don't think that this is a happy poem. You can tell just by the tone of the poem, can't you? It has a sad, mellow feel.
But do i think it's about abuse? Not necessarily. I was outraged in class today when a classmate said that, "of course the dad beat him up, he's drunk. It's what drunk people do." That's so not true. There are many different ways that you respond to intoxication.
However, from the tone of the poem-It is about abuse. The lines, "You beat time on my head," and "At every step you missed/ my right ear scraped a buckle," can be hints at the fact that he was abused.
OR, they could just be literal. Actual, with no meaning behind the words. But that almost violates the laws of poetry, huh.
This poem sure is mysterious. That's almost what i don't like about it, it reminds me of myself in too many ways.
I myself write poetry to be interpreted in many different ways, but often find that it just turns out confusing or weird.
But maybe me and Roethke have something else in common: It's hard for us to let out our emotions plainly. It would hurt too much.
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
In class today, my group and I were discussing the father in the poem. Some of us believed that Roethke, (or the character he made up,) is being physically abused by his father. Others chose not to believe that, and to believe that well, they were actually waltzing.
I happen to think that to believe that Roefke is writing a happy poem about just waltzing with his father as a child, and the feeling of being naive to his father's drunkenness, is deluded. I mean, sure, i get a BIT that this poem could just be about how when the narrator was young, he did not understand what being drunk meant. He had thought that his father was merely acting a little off tonight. But who's to question? You're young, right?
Let me tell you-that's not how that happens. I know on an intimate level that even when you're very young, you understand that something is wrong when a member of your family is drunk. You understand that the drawl, the bloodshot eyes, the inept care of others, is not normal. You understand that it's wrong, even if you badly don't want it to be wrong.
And so, no, I don't think that this is a happy poem. You can tell just by the tone of the poem, can't you? It has a sad, mellow feel.
But do i think it's about abuse? Not necessarily. I was outraged in class today when a classmate said that, "of course the dad beat him up, he's drunk. It's what drunk people do." That's so not true. There are many different ways that you respond to intoxication.
However, from the tone of the poem-It is about abuse. The lines, "You beat time on my head," and "At every step you missed/ my right ear scraped a buckle," can be hints at the fact that he was abused.
OR, they could just be literal. Actual, with no meaning behind the words. But that almost violates the laws of poetry, huh.
This poem sure is mysterious. That's almost what i don't like about it, it reminds me of myself in too many ways.
I myself write poetry to be interpreted in many different ways, but often find that it just turns out confusing or weird.
But maybe me and Roethke have something else in common: It's hard for us to let out our emotions plainly. It would hurt too much.
Monday, January 24, 2011
A Rhyming Poem By Ana Gross
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This wouldn't copy-paste, but I'll show it to you in class. :)
This wouldn't copy-paste, but I'll show it to you in class. :)
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Poem on an important memory
I continue to talk
about the same boring stuff
You continue to shush
shush
shush
shush me
You're embarrassed to be around me?
"Forgive Me," I say
"I have nothing else to talk about."
Our hearts,
once one, are separate and throbbing.
Do you remember I exist?
Salty water stains my cheeks
Those are not tears
(It's the ocean)
This is not a love poem
(Love, Ha!)
Watch me float out into the water,
so far that the I'm way past where waves crash
You don't come to me
You turn your back
My heart is not one with any person
My heart is one with the water.
about the same boring stuff
You continue to shush
shush
shush
shush me
You're embarrassed to be around me?
"Forgive Me," I say
"I have nothing else to talk about."
Our hearts,
once one, are separate and throbbing.
Do you remember I exist?
Salty water stains my cheeks
Those are not tears
(It's the ocean)
This is not a love poem
(Love, Ha!)
Watch me float out into the water,
so far that the I'm way past where waves crash
You don't come to me
You turn your back
My heart is not one with any person
My heart is one with the water.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Response to "The Starry Night."
In class, we established that Anne Sexton is writing autobiographically about the woes of her life in this poem. We established that she was a very sad woman, and this shows through her violent imagery.
Sentences like "one black haired tree slips up like a drowned woman into the sky," and "even the moon bulges in its orange irons to push children,"show the violent images in the mind of this sad, depressed woman.
Another signification that this poem is very personal and about the author's sadness is the repetition of the line "I want to die." Every stanza ends with "Oh starry starry night! This is how/ I want to die."
A different theme i find in this poem is the author's feelings towards the sky. It seems as if she's confused.
In some lines, she shows it as being harsh, violent: "The night boils with eleven stars."
But mostly, it just seems like she loves the sky, and, like Van Gogh, feels more connected to it than she does to the world: "The town does not exist," and "Oh starry, starry night! This is how i want to die."
I can connect to her (mildly) in that way. I know how it feels to feel like you feel more connected to some place than the world you live in. For me it's the ocean, or water in general. I can literally feel like it can just lift me away and take me. And i wouldn't resist. The water is where i belong.
This poem is really nice.
I LIKE it.
Sentences like "one black haired tree slips up like a drowned woman into the sky," and "even the moon bulges in its orange irons to push children,"show the violent images in the mind of this sad, depressed woman.
Another signification that this poem is very personal and about the author's sadness is the repetition of the line "I want to die." Every stanza ends with "Oh starry starry night! This is how/ I want to die."
A different theme i find in this poem is the author's feelings towards the sky. It seems as if she's confused.
In some lines, she shows it as being harsh, violent: "The night boils with eleven stars."
But mostly, it just seems like she loves the sky, and, like Van Gogh, feels more connected to it than she does to the world: "The town does not exist," and "Oh starry, starry night! This is how i want to die."
I can connect to her (mildly) in that way. I know how it feels to feel like you feel more connected to some place than the world you live in. For me it's the ocean, or water in general. I can literally feel like it can just lift me away and take me. And i wouldn't resist. The water is where i belong.
This poem is really nice.
I LIKE it.
Monday, January 10, 2011
My Interpretation of an Art Piece
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.artquotes.net/masters/salvador-dali/the-persistence-of-memory.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.artquotes.net/masters/salvador-dali/the-persistence-of-memory-painting.htm&h=355&w=495&sz=46&tbnid=Bz3vS0QYiv4nkM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bpersistence%2Bof%2Bmemory&zoom=1&q=the+persistence+of+memory&usg=__TMpKL_lIzdRdiIRVwzc5ftezpaY=&sa=X&ei=yZcrTeTeH4H6lwfXhaTWAQ&ved=0CBwQ9QEwAA
^That is my amazingly long ling to Salvador Dali's painting, "The persistence of memory."
Observations:
I notice that not only is the land and everything dull and flat in this painting, the clocks are flat too.
The clocks have the look of a balloon without air.
The clocks look wilted.
There's a large gray thing on the floor, which i first thought was a walrus or dolphin or something? Now, I'm pretty positive it's a surreal drawing of a sad, gray face. With a very large nose.
The colors are very bold and the way the image was painted doesn't match the surrealist art period it belongs to, or the surrealist painter. (Otherwise, this painting is pretty surrealist.)
Inferences/Interpretations:
I inferred that the wilting, disturbing clocks have a deeper meaning. It could do with memory, as the poem is titled "The persistence of memory." I'm guessing that the painter is showing something about how time has wilted since some big event happened, by showing clocks that are...deflated, for lack of a better term.
The clocks can also have kind of a "time stands still" meaning, where he depicts the clocks not working to show how time has paused.
A third idea is that he has a very pessimistic, neurotic view on the world. He shows this with having the land be flat and barren, brown and gloomy. < I'm guessing this means that he feels his life is dull and he isn't satisfied with it. As for the big, gray face lying on the ground in the painting, I still can't really infer what that means. The eye is closed with the eyelashes hanging over the bottom part, which could show that this weird, gray thing is either tired or sad. I'mma guess sad.
The one thing that gets me confused about this painting is the background. Whereas the foreground looks barren and sad, the mountains contrast this, and so do the jolly colors of the sea.
I feel that the artist is using the background to represent happiness, as if happiness was far away, long gone in the past or the future. (THE CLOCKS.) Or, that happiness was just not with him.
Either way, I see the artist making himself the gray person and living a sad, flat life. I think he saw his world as very depressed, and that time made him depressed, or the way that time functioned.
^That is my amazingly long ling to Salvador Dali's painting, "The persistence of memory."
Observations:
I notice that not only is the land and everything dull and flat in this painting, the clocks are flat too.
The clocks have the look of a balloon without air.
The clocks look wilted.
There's a large gray thing on the floor, which i first thought was a walrus or dolphin or something? Now, I'm pretty positive it's a surreal drawing of a sad, gray face. With a very large nose.
The colors are very bold and the way the image was painted doesn't match the surrealist art period it belongs to, or the surrealist painter. (Otherwise, this painting is pretty surrealist.)
Inferences/Interpretations:
I inferred that the wilting, disturbing clocks have a deeper meaning. It could do with memory, as the poem is titled "The persistence of memory." I'm guessing that the painter is showing something about how time has wilted since some big event happened, by showing clocks that are...deflated, for lack of a better term.
The clocks can also have kind of a "time stands still" meaning, where he depicts the clocks not working to show how time has paused.
A third idea is that he has a very pessimistic, neurotic view on the world. He shows this with having the land be flat and barren, brown and gloomy. < I'm guessing this means that he feels his life is dull and he isn't satisfied with it. As for the big, gray face lying on the ground in the painting, I still can't really infer what that means. The eye is closed with the eyelashes hanging over the bottom part, which could show that this weird, gray thing is either tired or sad. I'mma guess sad.
The one thing that gets me confused about this painting is the background. Whereas the foreground looks barren and sad, the mountains contrast this, and so do the jolly colors of the sea.
I feel that the artist is using the background to represent happiness, as if happiness was far away, long gone in the past or the future. (THE CLOCKS.) Or, that happiness was just not with him.
Either way, I see the artist making himself the gray person and living a sad, flat life. I think he saw his world as very depressed, and that time made him depressed, or the way that time functioned.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Entry#12: Research on Child Abduction Response.
I did some research about child abduction, hoping to find about the trauma victims of child abduction have. I thought I would find some solid, cruel facts. However, what I came up with was more than cruel-It was very twisted. Children who are abducted at a young age often suffer little to no psychological trauma at all. You'd think this was good, right? Well, think again.
The reason their abductions don't haunt them isn't that abductors who target children very young are kinder to them than people who abduct kids closer to their teens. It isn't that because their very young, they'll totally forget about all that has happened to them later.
Children who are abducted before they reach around 8 years old have no clue that what is happening to them is wrong. They often don't even know they're in danger. Because that's the tricky thing about abductors, they lull children into a false sense of security. I've heard way too many stories of kids who only get found when they are nearing adulthood; children who were repeatedly raped and otherwise violated, who were comfortable with their lives before they were saved. I distinctly remember hearing a story on the today show of a woman who was abducted when she was 7, and never tried to leave. She actually had 3 of her abductor's children.
That actually appalls me. It scares me. And the deep root is that these kids are too young to know what is right and what isn't yet. They can be persuaded easily. Kids believe abductors who tell them that their parents were just lying to him or her, to keep them from from having fun. Kids believe abductors when they say that the reason they're hurting them is because they love them. And kids are so easily impressionable that the beliefs of their abductors often stay their beliefs.
For instance, there is the case of David Goldman trying to retrieve his son Sean from Brazil.
Although it's true that Sean wasn't treated poorly in Brazil, how he was snatched is illegal and immoral. However, Sean didn't want to go back home to his father. No, he wanted to stay with the family he'd lived with his whole life; no matter the circumstances of how he got there. In Sean's perspective, a man he hadn't seen in over five years was trying to bring him back to a life he didn't want to go to. Although much of the reason it took so long to return Sean to David was the Brazilian government not acting; Sean also didn't want to return. The family he was living with had convinced him that they were who he really belonged with, and Sean is a child, impressionable.
This case and so many others show the cruelty of abduction. Not only does it take children from their parents, split apart families, leave physical marks on children and leave mental marks, children who were abducted and then rescued often hate their life after they get saved.
Really, it comes down to who we are as humans. Not just kids. As humans, we love the familiar. We believe what we are told and find it hard to question what we are told. And that one "insignificant" flaw can be the difference of a child who tries to escape and a child who is willing to stay in a dangerous situation.
OTHER FACTS:
-Girls between ages 10 and 14 are most at risk of attempted abduction. It scares me that I fit into this group.
-A large portion of children who are abducted are abducted by family. This happens often when parents divorce and one parent gets full custody of the kids while the other never gets to see them. This often makes the other parent do crazy things. Because the children are familiar with who has taken them, they often don't see it as an abduction. This happened to my 2nd cousin.
-In most cases of attempted abduction, kids' own pure strength and resistance help them get away. In only 16% of cases do adults step in to help.
The reason their abductions don't haunt them isn't that abductors who target children very young are kinder to them than people who abduct kids closer to their teens. It isn't that because their very young, they'll totally forget about all that has happened to them later.
Children who are abducted before they reach around 8 years old have no clue that what is happening to them is wrong. They often don't even know they're in danger. Because that's the tricky thing about abductors, they lull children into a false sense of security. I've heard way too many stories of kids who only get found when they are nearing adulthood; children who were repeatedly raped and otherwise violated, who were comfortable with their lives before they were saved. I distinctly remember hearing a story on the today show of a woman who was abducted when she was 7, and never tried to leave. She actually had 3 of her abductor's children.
That actually appalls me. It scares me. And the deep root is that these kids are too young to know what is right and what isn't yet. They can be persuaded easily. Kids believe abductors who tell them that their parents were just lying to him or her, to keep them from from having fun. Kids believe abductors when they say that the reason they're hurting them is because they love them. And kids are so easily impressionable that the beliefs of their abductors often stay their beliefs.
For instance, there is the case of David Goldman trying to retrieve his son Sean from Brazil.
Although it's true that Sean wasn't treated poorly in Brazil, how he was snatched is illegal and immoral. However, Sean didn't want to go back home to his father. No, he wanted to stay with the family he'd lived with his whole life; no matter the circumstances of how he got there. In Sean's perspective, a man he hadn't seen in over five years was trying to bring him back to a life he didn't want to go to. Although much of the reason it took so long to return Sean to David was the Brazilian government not acting; Sean also didn't want to return. The family he was living with had convinced him that they were who he really belonged with, and Sean is a child, impressionable.
This case and so many others show the cruelty of abduction. Not only does it take children from their parents, split apart families, leave physical marks on children and leave mental marks, children who were abducted and then rescued often hate their life after they get saved.
Really, it comes down to who we are as humans. Not just kids. As humans, we love the familiar. We believe what we are told and find it hard to question what we are told. And that one "insignificant" flaw can be the difference of a child who tries to escape and a child who is willing to stay in a dangerous situation.
OTHER FACTS:
-Girls between ages 10 and 14 are most at risk of attempted abduction. It scares me that I fit into this group.
-A large portion of children who are abducted are abducted by family. This happens often when parents divorce and one parent gets full custody of the kids while the other never gets to see them. This often makes the other parent do crazy things. Because the children are familiar with who has taken them, they often don't see it as an abduction. This happened to my 2nd cousin.
-In most cases of attempted abduction, kids' own pure strength and resistance help them get away. In only 16% of cases do adults step in to help.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Social Awareness Week 2-Two more things off of the list.
Analyze Social Problems In IRP.
Well, currently I'm not really reading a book with outlying social injustices.
So I'm going to go back to "Story Of A Girl", which I read in about a day a little while ago.
Story Of A Girl is a novel by Sara Zarr, about how the life of a small-town girl is completely turned around when she is caught having sex with a high school junior-at thirteen. For the rest of her high school life, everyone thinks of her as the school slut, because nobody forgets these things in small towns. Or anywhere, really.
Some of the issues in this book just deal with how unfair society is: How we are all programmed to believe in certain things, and we can't break this programming; how people are never really forgiven; the ways we label people; and what we'll do merely to do something.
In the town the character, Deanna, lives in, there really isn't anything to do. And so she does what teenagers are supposed to do in small towns when they have nothing better to do-get drunk, high, have sex and be stupid.And she gets a reputation for being a slut that no matter what, she can't rub off. I am so happy to live in New York where there are actual things to do with my time.
Another issue in the class system in our country. Deanna has it tough because she lives in the less wealthy section of her town. And just because she doesn't have a family with income, it basically prevents her from leading a healthy life. Her parents are never home, she does no extracurriculars, her brother Darren and his girlfriend live in her parent's basement. Their the typical "white trash" family-- teenaged boy knocks up girlfriend, and they have no means of their own income because they're busy caring for the baby.
Deanna herself has no aspirations, she accepts the hardships of her life and she doesn't even try to run away from them. She works in a Pizzeria, hoping to get enough money so she can rent an apartment with her brother when she turns 18. She doesn't even want to go to college. It's truly upsetting that just being born from a family with low income assures you a bad life. It really is sad.
A True Story About Someone Who Changes The World Every Day
The Dalai Lama is someone who changes the world every day. In fact, it's hard to come up with a story on him just because it seems like every other day he is enlightening new people.
This isn't biased, I'm not talking about his buddhism speeches. I'm not writing this because I'm a strong buddhist, in fact I have no religion. But the Dalai Lama teaches about peace, and how we can work to make our world peaceful.
The Dalai Lama won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, at the age of 59, and even now as he gets older he continues to fly around delivering his messages of peace to everyone. After 9/11, he delivered a speech that many people took into mind. He doesn't just fund causes to earn the name of a good person. He really cares. His speech on 9/11 was so moving that it made many people cry. In it, he talked of how events of this kind of hatred "make it clear that if we allow our human intelligence to be guided and controlled by negative emotions like hatred, the consequences are disastrous." He analyzes our souls in ways that make it clear how truly brilliant he is. (Okay, this is starting to sound really stupid.)
Also in his 9/11 speech, he gives americans guidelines for how to respond to an attack like this. He doesn't just hate the people who committed the crime, he digs deeper into why the did what he did. For more on his 9/11 speech: http://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/9-11
That speech is just one of the many he has delivered.
Well, currently I'm not really reading a book with outlying social injustices.
So I'm going to go back to "Story Of A Girl", which I read in about a day a little while ago.
Story Of A Girl is a novel by Sara Zarr, about how the life of a small-town girl is completely turned around when she is caught having sex with a high school junior-at thirteen. For the rest of her high school life, everyone thinks of her as the school slut, because nobody forgets these things in small towns. Or anywhere, really.
Some of the issues in this book just deal with how unfair society is: How we are all programmed to believe in certain things, and we can't break this programming; how people are never really forgiven; the ways we label people; and what we'll do merely to do something.
In the town the character, Deanna, lives in, there really isn't anything to do. And so she does what teenagers are supposed to do in small towns when they have nothing better to do-get drunk, high, have sex and be stupid.And she gets a reputation for being a slut that no matter what, she can't rub off. I am so happy to live in New York where there are actual things to do with my time.
Another issue in the class system in our country. Deanna has it tough because she lives in the less wealthy section of her town. And just because she doesn't have a family with income, it basically prevents her from leading a healthy life. Her parents are never home, she does no extracurriculars, her brother Darren and his girlfriend live in her parent's basement. Their the typical "white trash" family-- teenaged boy knocks up girlfriend, and they have no means of their own income because they're busy caring for the baby.
Deanna herself has no aspirations, she accepts the hardships of her life and she doesn't even try to run away from them. She works in a Pizzeria, hoping to get enough money so she can rent an apartment with her brother when she turns 18. She doesn't even want to go to college. It's truly upsetting that just being born from a family with low income assures you a bad life. It really is sad.
A True Story About Someone Who Changes The World Every Day
The Dalai Lama is someone who changes the world every day. In fact, it's hard to come up with a story on him just because it seems like every other day he is enlightening new people.
This isn't biased, I'm not talking about his buddhism speeches. I'm not writing this because I'm a strong buddhist, in fact I have no religion. But the Dalai Lama teaches about peace, and how we can work to make our world peaceful.
The Dalai Lama won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, at the age of 59, and even now as he gets older he continues to fly around delivering his messages of peace to everyone. After 9/11, he delivered a speech that many people took into mind. He doesn't just fund causes to earn the name of a good person. He really cares. His speech on 9/11 was so moving that it made many people cry. In it, he talked of how events of this kind of hatred "make it clear that if we allow our human intelligence to be guided and controlled by negative emotions like hatred, the consequences are disastrous." He analyzes our souls in ways that make it clear how truly brilliant he is. (Okay, this is starting to sound really stupid.)
Also in his 9/11 speech, he gives americans guidelines for how to respond to an attack like this. He doesn't just hate the people who committed the crime, he digs deeper into why the did what he did. For more on his 9/11 speech: http://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/9-11
That speech is just one of the many he has delivered.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Social Awareness-Entry # 10
of it.
DAY 5:
I found an article in The New York Times called "Haiti Fears Cholera Will Spread In Capital."
The article claims that a total of more that 2,674 cases of Cholera have been found, which is very extreme. Because of how bad the Haitian economy is, and how little funding it gets from other countries, treating the sick will be nearly impossible. Cholera is a disease usually spread by dirty water, and we had thought we had gotten rid of it completely.
This article addresses the social issue of poverty, and does this in a really touching way. It brings social awareness to everyone who reads it, and I applaud the author. It is truly upsetting how little help Haiti (Port-Au-Prince) gets.
Final Reflection:
This experience really did make me much more socially conscious. I came into the project with the mindset of "Yeah, I already know that there are tons of issues that exist-Our world is much less than great." Although I did know already about most of the issues I wrote on, I was informed of some things that were really just so terrible. So bad. This assignment did not inform me of many things that I didn't know about, but it did make me learn more about the cruelties of the world. In some ways, I hate this assignment. And I hate learning more about our world, because the more I learn, the more I lose faith. Sometimes it just hurts me how screwed up our world is.
But in other ways, this assignment is great. Because the more I learn about these issues, the more I appreciate my own life. And the more I want to change it. Because sometimes I just can't bear this world, and it doesn't do me anything to sit here.
I appreciate this assignment because it made me appreciate my own life, and want to do more.
Respond to a Song/Poem on Social Issues:
Working Class Hero- John Lennon
Although this is not a song to be proud to decode, the message is still great as any.
Lennon complains in this song about the woes of society. He complains that "As soon as your born they make you feel small/By giving you no time instead of it all." He complains that throughout life, your peers and the people you look up to only try to make you working class. Nobody expects to get to the top, and nobody aims for the top. And that's just one of the reasons he is against society. Also, he addresses the issue of how everybody is subjected to conformity. Everybody strives to be working class, and the authorities "hate you if your clever/and despise a fool."-Verse 2. John Lennon writes about how the authorities torture you throughout your whole lives until you become one of the mold.
And that's an issue we all have-None of us want to be just another kid. We all want to be something more, but nobody wants to let us. They tell us that the top exists, but don't help us find our way up.
Observations Of My Surroundings:
1) My neighborhood has become very wealthy very quickly, and we can barely afford our tiny apartment. It seems like Everyone I see on the streets around me is either a hipster/yuppie, banker, banker's wife/mother with $2,000 stroller, or just another rich young thing. (Well, that's not including all of the old Italian ladies). And you know what-Nearly none of these people are black. It's almost surprising to see someone black on certain blocks of my neighborhood. It almost comes as a shock. I think this is extremely unjust. It could mean that for some reason, african americans just don't like Carroll Gardens. OR it could mean that despite all of our countries achievements in anti-racism, white people are still earning more money. And that's just sad.
2) Why in the world do adults sell drugs and cigarettes to kids my age? That really is just sick. It shows how far people go just to scrape up a little bit of money, which can show how depressing our economy is. It also shows how society pushes kids my age into thinking that drugs, cigarettes and alcohol are cool. And it shows how much peer pressure affects us.
3) I realized that well, most of my friends are white. I'm not saying that I don't have black friends, but most of my friends are from pretty much the same background and financial situation. At first I felt really bad, but then I got to thinking that I wasn't the only one. At lunch today I watched all the cliques pass me by and realized that all of the friends were alike. Most cliques were just hispanic, white, black, rich, "ghetto", and whatever else. We don't mingle with anyone besides people similar to ourselves.
DAY 5:
I found an article in The New York Times called "Haiti Fears Cholera Will Spread In Capital."
The article claims that a total of more that 2,674 cases of Cholera have been found, which is very extreme. Because of how bad the Haitian economy is, and how little funding it gets from other countries, treating the sick will be nearly impossible. Cholera is a disease usually spread by dirty water, and we had thought we had gotten rid of it completely.
This article addresses the social issue of poverty, and does this in a really touching way. It brings social awareness to everyone who reads it, and I applaud the author. It is truly upsetting how little help Haiti (Port-Au-Prince) gets.
Final Reflection:
This experience really did make me much more socially conscious. I came into the project with the mindset of "Yeah, I already know that there are tons of issues that exist-Our world is much less than great." Although I did know already about most of the issues I wrote on, I was informed of some things that were really just so terrible. So bad. This assignment did not inform me of many things that I didn't know about, but it did make me learn more about the cruelties of the world. In some ways, I hate this assignment. And I hate learning more about our world, because the more I learn, the more I lose faith. Sometimes it just hurts me how screwed up our world is.
But in other ways, this assignment is great. Because the more I learn about these issues, the more I appreciate my own life. And the more I want to change it. Because sometimes I just can't bear this world, and it doesn't do me anything to sit here.
I appreciate this assignment because it made me appreciate my own life, and want to do more.
Respond to a Song/Poem on Social Issues:
Working Class Hero- John Lennon
Although this is not a song to be proud to decode, the message is still great as any.
Lennon complains in this song about the woes of society. He complains that "As soon as your born they make you feel small/By giving you no time instead of it all." He complains that throughout life, your peers and the people you look up to only try to make you working class. Nobody expects to get to the top, and nobody aims for the top. And that's just one of the reasons he is against society. Also, he addresses the issue of how everybody is subjected to conformity. Everybody strives to be working class, and the authorities "hate you if your clever/and despise a fool."-Verse 2. John Lennon writes about how the authorities torture you throughout your whole lives until you become one of the mold.
And that's an issue we all have-None of us want to be just another kid. We all want to be something more, but nobody wants to let us. They tell us that the top exists, but don't help us find our way up.
Observations Of My Surroundings:
1) My neighborhood has become very wealthy very quickly, and we can barely afford our tiny apartment. It seems like Everyone I see on the streets around me is either a hipster/yuppie, banker, banker's wife/mother with $2,000 stroller, or just another rich young thing. (Well, that's not including all of the old Italian ladies). And you know what-Nearly none of these people are black. It's almost surprising to see someone black on certain blocks of my neighborhood. It almost comes as a shock. I think this is extremely unjust. It could mean that for some reason, african americans just don't like Carroll Gardens. OR it could mean that despite all of our countries achievements in anti-racism, white people are still earning more money. And that's just sad.
2) Why in the world do adults sell drugs and cigarettes to kids my age? That really is just sick. It shows how far people go just to scrape up a little bit of money, which can show how depressing our economy is. It also shows how society pushes kids my age into thinking that drugs, cigarettes and alcohol are cool. And it shows how much peer pressure affects us.
3) I realized that well, most of my friends are white. I'm not saying that I don't have black friends, but most of my friends are from pretty much the same background and financial situation. At first I felt really bad, but then I got to thinking that I wasn't the only one. At lunch today I watched all the cliques pass me by and realized that all of the friends were alike. Most cliques were just hispanic, white, black, rich, "ghetto", and whatever else. We don't mingle with anyone besides people similar to ourselves.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Entry # 9: Mother to Son Langston Hughes
The poem Mother to Son is beautiful in a simplistic kind of way. When I first read it, I thought I already knew all of what it was about. I was sure I had grasped every single bit of symbolism. However, as the class discussed their opinions on what the poem meant, I realized that I did not know all of the poem at all. The beauty of this poem is that parts of it had a different meaning for everyone, and everybody can connect to it in different ways. In the poem, what everyone agrees on is that the stairway symbolizes life. I'm sure it's not just life, but the journey of life.
In brief, The mother figure in the poem is recounting to her son about the hardships of her life, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair, it's had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up." But, she says, I've kept on going. She tells her son about how even though her life had been hard, she's kept on living it and persevered through it. "I'se been a-climbin' on." She says that she has kept on climbing, " and reachin' landin's, and turnin' corners." Basically, she is saying that her life has been tough, but she's struggled through, found the strength to live to live on, and has been rewarded with good times too.
When I read this poem, I envision an old, dark woman sitting in a rocking chair. She's one of those southern women that you can tell is frail in body but strong in heart. And she's Langston Hughes' mother. I imagine Hughes sitting by her, you can tell he feels weak and sad. --This is how I think the poem was born. Hughes was going through a rough time, so his mother gave him a pep talk.
But oh what a beautiful pep talk it was. And, oh, how I wish my mother would talk to me like that. Whenever she tries to talk to me, it just ends up sounding cheesy and insincere. This poem could sound Cliche, cheesy and insincere-But it is pulled off really well, and it doesn't. It just sounds beautiful, and maybe because it's so real. While we can all say that our lives are imperfect, and "haven't been no crystal stair", I can almost assure you that the Mother has actually had a life with tacks and splinters. Well, we all have-But you can tell her problems were big. It may be from the limited knowledge I have of Langston Hughes, and I know that his mother was a black woman in the times where women and people of color had no rights. So we can all complain about our lives sucking, but there are bigger things than just our petty problems.
There are so many ways you can reach deeper into this poem. I believe it was Fiona Socolow who called the crystal staircase "Cold perfection," and someone else pointed out that crystal is sharp. Which led me to thinking deeply about the crystal staircase. Because I feel that there is nothing worse than being cold, frigid. Like the Ice Queen in Narnia. If there is a Hell, I doubt it's burning. More likely it is ice cold, and you're alone. So I went into questioning whether the Crystal Stair is really good. Because if there is one thing that I've learned from my life- Your problems build your character. I know if I had gone through life without the problems I've faced, I'd be be a completely different person. Living your life in complete perfection gets you nowhere as an actual human being.
This poem is great because you can dig so deeply into it- And everybody can have a different idea about it. For instance, you don't even have to consider this poem as actually from a mother to a son, but more of a lesson to society. There are so many ways you can think about this poem, and that's what makes it beautiful.
In brief, The mother figure in the poem is recounting to her son about the hardships of her life, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair, it's had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up." But, she says, I've kept on going. She tells her son about how even though her life had been hard, she's kept on living it and persevered through it. "I'se been a-climbin' on." She says that she has kept on climbing, " and reachin' landin's, and turnin' corners." Basically, she is saying that her life has been tough, but she's struggled through, found the strength to live to live on, and has been rewarded with good times too.
When I read this poem, I envision an old, dark woman sitting in a rocking chair. She's one of those southern women that you can tell is frail in body but strong in heart. And she's Langston Hughes' mother. I imagine Hughes sitting by her, you can tell he feels weak and sad. --This is how I think the poem was born. Hughes was going through a rough time, so his mother gave him a pep talk.
But oh what a beautiful pep talk it was. And, oh, how I wish my mother would talk to me like that. Whenever she tries to talk to me, it just ends up sounding cheesy and insincere. This poem could sound Cliche, cheesy and insincere-But it is pulled off really well, and it doesn't. It just sounds beautiful, and maybe because it's so real. While we can all say that our lives are imperfect, and "haven't been no crystal stair", I can almost assure you that the Mother has actually had a life with tacks and splinters. Well, we all have-But you can tell her problems were big. It may be from the limited knowledge I have of Langston Hughes, and I know that his mother was a black woman in the times where women and people of color had no rights. So we can all complain about our lives sucking, but there are bigger things than just our petty problems.
There are so many ways you can reach deeper into this poem. I believe it was Fiona Socolow who called the crystal staircase "Cold perfection," and someone else pointed out that crystal is sharp. Which led me to thinking deeply about the crystal staircase. Because I feel that there is nothing worse than being cold, frigid. Like the Ice Queen in Narnia. If there is a Hell, I doubt it's burning. More likely it is ice cold, and you're alone. So I went into questioning whether the Crystal Stair is really good. Because if there is one thing that I've learned from my life- Your problems build your character. I know if I had gone through life without the problems I've faced, I'd be be a completely different person. Living your life in complete perfection gets you nowhere as an actual human being.
This poem is great because you can dig so deeply into it- And everybody can have a different idea about it. For instance, you don't even have to consider this poem as actually from a mother to a son, but more of a lesson to society. There are so many ways you can think about this poem, and that's what makes it beautiful.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Appreciation Draft 1
A Wrinkle In Time is one of those beautiful books that you can never stop learning from. No matter how many times you read this book, you can always come out of it with new knowledge of the book, and the world. It's wonderful how Madeleine L'Engle incorporated so many lessons, so many ideas into a couple hundred pages. And what I truly appreciate is this: You can tell that these lessons and ideas mean something to her. They aren't just BS to give the story props with the parents. Madeleine L'Engle herself hates conformity. L'Engle herself has had issues with being the odd one out. I'm sure that she has felt the ways Meg feels, in feeling insignificant and not special.
It's a problem I've always had in writing; I find it hard to connect my personal problems to others. Well, it's not even just a problem I've had in writing-It's a problem I've had in life. It's hard for me to understand that the problems that I have, other people have too.
L'Engle realizes what I haven't quite yet, and she channels this into her books. She writes about problems that not just her and I can connect to, the whole world can connect to. She really hits home with all the issues in the book, to a point where I want to reach out and comfort Meg myself, tell her that she really isn't the only one. I want to scream to Charles Wallace, No! Even if it sounds good to have everyone think like you, you know conformity isn't right!
Last year i had a lot of trouble in my independent writing piece. One night as I went to bed I listened to A Wrinkle In Time, and felt the soul in the piece. I realized that as I listened, I felt as if I were Meg. I felt her own emotions, and for that time as I was half-awake, I was Meg. I realized what my piece was lacking. In the morning I brought the book to school and used it as a mentor, and it really helped. Now I know this was a cheesy connection, but that is the magic of the book. It's the difference between the argument you make just for the sake of argument, and when others can tell that your argument is coming from within.
Madeleine L'Engle is my idol. She learned how to channel her emotions into writing so she did not only create this one brilliant book, but over sixty more. And all her work paid off-She received a Newberry Medal. One of the things that really upsets me in my life so far is that I feel like I can't connect. Although a little part of me knows that many many people feel the same way I do, I can't bring myself to find out if the people I know understand. In this way, I'm caged. I can't get out of this personal bubble of mine, because I can't talk to people. Madeleine L'Engle has popped the bubble that is more like a steel wall to me. I know I'm only thirteen, but if I keep on doing this I know I'm only going to start hating myself.
Everybody can fall in love with this book. Everybody can love and hate the characters at the same time, in the exact same way you love and hate yourself.
This book is fabulous, this book is life-changing. This book is one that not just I could appreciate, but anyone.
It's a problem I've always had in writing; I find it hard to connect my personal problems to others. Well, it's not even just a problem I've had in writing-It's a problem I've had in life. It's hard for me to understand that the problems that I have, other people have too.
L'Engle realizes what I haven't quite yet, and she channels this into her books. She writes about problems that not just her and I can connect to, the whole world can connect to. She really hits home with all the issues in the book, to a point where I want to reach out and comfort Meg myself, tell her that she really isn't the only one. I want to scream to Charles Wallace, No! Even if it sounds good to have everyone think like you, you know conformity isn't right!
Last year i had a lot of trouble in my independent writing piece. One night as I went to bed I listened to A Wrinkle In Time, and felt the soul in the piece. I realized that as I listened, I felt as if I were Meg. I felt her own emotions, and for that time as I was half-awake, I was Meg. I realized what my piece was lacking. In the morning I brought the book to school and used it as a mentor, and it really helped. Now I know this was a cheesy connection, but that is the magic of the book. It's the difference between the argument you make just for the sake of argument, and when others can tell that your argument is coming from within.
Madeleine L'Engle is my idol. She learned how to channel her emotions into writing so she did not only create this one brilliant book, but over sixty more. And all her work paid off-She received a Newberry Medal. One of the things that really upsets me in my life so far is that I feel like I can't connect. Although a little part of me knows that many many people feel the same way I do, I can't bring myself to find out if the people I know understand. In this way, I'm caged. I can't get out of this personal bubble of mine, because I can't talk to people. Madeleine L'Engle has popped the bubble that is more like a steel wall to me. I know I'm only thirteen, but if I keep on doing this I know I'm only going to start hating myself.
Everybody can fall in love with this book. Everybody can love and hate the characters at the same time, in the exact same way you love and hate yourself.
This book is fabulous, this book is life-changing. This book is one that not just I could appreciate, but anyone.
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