Quote Response

From Langston Hughes' "I, Too"

"Besides, they'll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed --I, too, am America" (720).

After reading this poem I thought it was a particularly unique and interesting way to portray the desire for equal rights and to not be discriminated against. Then I looked at the date in which it was written and though it to be especially profound. In 1926, to publicly take such a strong and matter of fact approach to racism is really impressive to me.

I enjoyed the poem a lot, and this quote which comes from the last lines of the poem, is so powerful because he is saying so much. He is saying that he is beautiful not despite of his African American heritage, but because of it and that the people who told him to eat alone in the kitchen for so long will be ashamed when they see just how beautiful he is. He is also stating that he is every bit and just as much of what makes up America as the next person and he is proud of that.

I like that the author took a more subtle approach to his point. Instead of openly saying that racism is hurtful and he is tired of being discriminated, the author is using the forced isolation as a way to grow big and strong and show the people that have kept him down just how beautiful he has grown to be. This different approach to a topic that has been written about so much seems to make his point stand out even more.

Quote Response

From W.H. Auden's "As I Walked Out One Evening"

"You shall love your crooked neighbor with your crooked heart" (757).

I chose this quote not for its meaning within the poem or even because I fully understand what the author was intending the quote to mean. It stood out to me because of the wording and what I understood it to mean in life in general. Crooked to me can mean one of two things; twisty and imperfect or malicious and bad-natured. I took this quote to mean that we are all sort of crooked in that we all have flaws and imperfections and because we share that quality with every single other person in this world, we should love one another.

It is not often that a person can say that they have something in common with every other person, in fact, when people think of similarities they tend to think of hobbies, interests, goals, etc. We don't think of that which makes us human and unique; our flaws and overall crooked way of life. There is something quirky or different about all of us, and for the whole world to have something in common is pretty profound and deserves recognition.

Again, this may or may not have a single thing to do with the meaning of the poem, but this particular quote I think goes far beyond just this poem and has meaning to all aspects of life.

Poem Paraphrase

I chose to paraphrase the poem "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood on page 755-56 in our textbook.

The song is described as irresistable and the author believes that everyone wants to learn this song. This song has the power to lure men into even the most dangerous and life threatening of situations. This song evidently is unknown to everyone because of everyone that has heard it, they are either dead or can't remember the song. The author suggests that she will reveal the secret of the song if the reader will get her "out of this bird suit" (later explained that sirens were half women, half bird nymphs). The author expresses a distaste for being beautiful and mythical and would like to leave the island that she is trapped on with two others. She also expresses a lack of satisfaction with the song and her duty to sing it. The author again says that she will reveal the secret only to the reader as long as they come closer. She says that the song is a cry for help and that only the reader can help her. She closes by saying that though the song is boring, it works every time.

Literally, the poem is supposed to be written by the siren herself as she is singing another man to his death. She seductively makes the song seem appealing and portrays herself as needing to be rescued or saved from her duties on the island. She lures the men in by saying that she will tell the secret to just him if he comes just a bit closer--clearly this is where all of the men go wrong in believing that the secret is just for him and that she has good intentions. She is alluring and mysterious and overwhelmingly persuasive and leads men to their deaths with her song.

Just as a note, this poem was really entertaining to read and I thought was quite humerous as well. My favorite quote is at the end of the poem where Atwood writes "Alas it is a boring song but it works every time" (756).

Song Quote Response Assignment

Here are all of the lyrics to the song "Hey Soul Sister" by Train, I'll put in bold the lyrics I'm going to respond to.

Your lipstick stains
On the front lobe of my left side brains.
I knew I wouldn't forget you,
And so I went and let you blow my mind.
Your sweet moonbeam,
The smell of you in every single dream I dream,
I knew when we collided,
You're the one I have decided
Who's one of my kind.

Hey soul sister,
Ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo,
The way you move ain't fair you know.
Hey soul sister,I don't want to miss a single thing you do...
Tonight.
Heeey, Heeeeey heeeey!

Just in time,
I'm so glad you have a one track mind like me.
You gave my life direction,
A game show love connection, we can't deny-i-i-i.
I'm so obsessed,
My heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest.
I believe in you, "Like a Virgin," you're Madonna,
And I'm always gonna want to blow your mind.

Hey soul sister,
Ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo,
The way you move ain't fair you know.
Hey soul sister,I don't want to miss a single thing you do...
Tonight.
Heeey, Heeeeey heeeey!

The way you can cut a rug,
Watching you's the only drug I need.
You're so gangsta, I'm so thug,
You're the only one I'm dreaming of.
You see, I can be myself now finally,
In fact there's nothing I can't be.
I want the world to see you'll be with me.

Hey soul sister,
Ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo,
The way you move ain't fair you know.
Hey soul sister
I don't want to miss a single thing you do tonight,
Hey soul sister,
I don't want to miss a single thing you do...
Tonight.

It was really tough to choose just a few lyrics to respond to from this song. I think the lyrics are really unique and it has a really sweet and endearing message that is hard to narrow down to just a few lines. However, I chose the first few lines because of the unique wording and imagery that the writer employs.
The song is clearly about a woman who has got all the right moves and is the writer's soulmate. I like the first two lines, "your lipstick stains on the front lob of my left side brains" because it shows just how much of an impact this woman has had on the narrator. She has managed to imprint herself into his mind and she is all he can think about. It is a unique way of saying what has been said many, many times in other works and songs. The writer uses interesting word choice (lipstick stains, front lobe, left side brains) to paint a picture that could easily, but not as effectively, be painted with simpler words.
I also like that the writer doesn't just say that he dreams about the woman every night or even specifically say what he dreams about. In the last few lines of my selected lyrics, he says "the smell of you in every single dream I dream." This shows the reader/listener exactly how this woman affects all of his senses, even in his subconscious. He vividly remembers her smell and that memory even affects him in his sleep.
I think that the word choice and the description of how deeply this woman moves this man is especially romantic, and the song accomplishes this with its catchy rhythm and great lyrics. One of my favorites, for sure!!

Haiku

This is my nursing school inspired haiku poem (yes, I counted the syllables out on my fingers!) :-)

All-night clinicals
We live in our favorite
Stethoscopes and scrubs

Poem Paraphrase

Last Words of the Prophet -Anonymous
Farewell, my younger brother!
From the holy places the gods come for me.
You will never see me again; but when the showers pass and the thunders peal,
“There,” you will say, “is the voice of my elder brother.”
And when the harvest comes, of the beautiful birds and grasshoppers you will say,
“There is the ordering of my elder brother!”

The author is addressing his younger brother as he has died, as though this poem is his final message to his brother before he crosses over. He wants his brother to recognize that he lives within the elements of nature and his brother can look to these elements and remain close to him, though he has died. The author also wants his brother to know that he will continue to care for him and all people for that matter, through bountiful harvests and the wild animals. In this way, the author never really dies. He simply lives in another way, through that which affects the earth and his people.

Freestyle Blog Entry Week 3

For one of our freestyle reading assignments this week, I read Sandra Cisneros' "The House on Mango Street."

One of the more powerful quotes that stood out to me was "the way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded" (Cisneros 329).

The narrator of the story describes moving from place to place with a family of six. Each of the family's residences were somewhat less than ideal, either being too small or faulty in some way. The narrator desperately wanted a house of their own "and we don't have to pay rent to anybody" (Cisneros 328).

A house they could all be proud of so that when they pointed it out to passerbys on the street, they didn't have to feel ashamed or embarrassed to admit it was their own. Even though this quote I selected is near the end of the story, after the family had moved into a house of their own (though it was only slightly better than some of the previous residences), I really felt a sense of sadness for the narrator and the family. I found myself rooting for them, though the story is very short. When they finally got the house on Mango Street, I hoped it was what they had all dreamed of. When the house fell short, my heart sank for them.

Of course material possessions are not all-important, that certainly is not what I'm trying to say here, being proud of what your family has and wanting to show it off is a feeling I think everyone deserves. This family struggled but stayed together and perservered through it all. Cisneros does a great job of getting the reader on the narrator's side and hoping right along with the family that the house on Mango Street can live up to their dreams.

Quote-Response Assignment Week 3

"When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of joy that kills" (Chopin 327).

I chose this quote from Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" simply for irony's sake. I really enjoyed reading this story, probably because it took a turn that I wasn't necessarily expecting. Upon the news of a husband's death, most wives would be heartbroken. Louise Mallard had quite a different reaction. She was overcome with a newfound sense of freedom and opportunity that she had not felt since her marriage to her husband.
I especially liked the detail of her excitement about "spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own" (Chopin 327).
The irony of the quote I selected is that when her husband returns home, indeed very much alive, she herself dies. The doctors assumed it was overwhelming joy that did in Louise's weak heart..however the reader knows that it was the overwhelming sense of loss and disappointment that killed Louise.
It certainly was not the joy of seeing her husband alive that killed Louise, in fact it was very much the opposite. With his arrival home, her aspirations and dreams vanished. Heartbreak for Louise was the death of her life, the way she wanted to live it, not the rumored death of her husband.

Freestyle Blog Entry Week 2

For one of our freestyle reading assignments, I read Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood. I chose to write this entry about that story (how fitting, right? Freestyle reading for a freestyle blog entry!)

First off, what an interesting way to write a story! I thought it was fun following along with the different options for the story. I thought it was a really clever and enticing idea that Atwood had to present her story in this way.

The quote that is most important to me and has the most meaning about the message of the story, is definitely "The only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die" (Atwood 312). She makes a valid point, in each scenario, no matter who the characters are, their fates are all the same. Eventually, regardless of the plot in the middle, the characters die at the end.

It is an intriguing, and slightly morbid, way of looking at life. Although, it does certainly make you think about things. Really, all of our stories are vastly different and every person's life story is different but in the end, we all have one very important thing in common, we all die.

Quote-Response Assignment Week 2

"Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head (Jackson 221).

I was absolutely shocked that this was the eventual end of the town's lottery. In the beginning of the story, when it described the boys gathering stones into a pile, I didn't even come close to making the correlation that those stones would be used to kill one of the people in the town.

When I think of a lottery, I think of a lucky individual winning something of great value. Perhaps a large sum of money, maybe a car or even a new home. This lottery is, in every single way, exactly the opposite. No one wants to be the chosen one, and the chosen one is dealt a horrible, painful death by stoning.

The words that stand out to me is that the character "held her hands out desperately" to describe how terrifying the experience must be. "It isn't fair" also stands out because, well, it isn't. What an appalling tradition to continue to uphold for the characters of this story. I think Jackson puts it quite well in the short introduction about her at the beginning of the story. She says that the purpose of the story is "to shock the story's readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives."

Not long ago, I remember seeing on the news a small bit about a documentary film about women in the middle east who are sentenced to death by stoning. The small clips of the film that were shown were gruesome and terrible.

The story certainly achieves its purpose and, after the initial shock, does prompt one to examine their own lives and the crazy, violent things that go on in the world that we live in.

Freestyle Blog Entry

Reading "A Rose for Emily" was very interesting and very different from what I had expected. The title had me thinking it was a light-hearted story, perhaps about a romantic courtship or other love story. I suppose there was a love story in this, however much darker than I had expected.

My favorite quote from the story is "We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will" (Faulkner, 31). This passage is in reference to Miss Emily hiding her father's body and refusing to admit his death. I thought the quote was powerful in its message and really insightful into human nature. To cling to that which robs us is an interesting concept, but certainly very true. An similar example that comes to my mind is of a controlling, abusive relationship where someone robs the other person of their hobbies, their spirit, their friends, etc. and that person in turn clings onto the abusive person because that is all they have left.

It is an interesting facet of human relationships that is surprisingly easy to understand. This character, Emily, was sheltered by her father for so long and deprived of human contact in any substantial amount, that her father was basically her only companion, the only person she had left. So, upon his death, it makes sense why she would cling to what was left of him and deny his death, as the quote says.

Quote-Response Assignment

"The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle--the girls were walking against the usual traffic (not that we have one-way signs or anything)--were pretty hilarious. You could see them, when Queenie's white shoulders dawned on them, kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup, but their eyes snapped back to their own baskets and on they pushed" (Updike, 16).

This quote stood out to me and struck me as important because of how much is said in just two sentences. When Updike describes the regular customers as "sheep" a picture is instantly painted in my mind of customers, single file, going about their shopping without straying. The quote also includes the words "jerk, or hop, or hiccup" to describe the customers' reactions to seeing the girls scantily clad in their grocery store. The quote effectively describes just how much of an upset these girls' presence had to the normal day to day in this market.

The story is based on young girls coming into a grocery store in swimsuits and basically turning the place upside-down without ever making an overt attempt to do so. This quote alludes to the girls' attire ("Queenie's white shoulders") and how the customers reacted. In two sentences, this quote sums up the source of conflict for the story and how the characters react to the conflict. It also describes how the narrator feels about the conflict and the characters in the store. Clearly the narrator finds humor in the customers' reactions. The customers were obviously taken aback by the girls and we can infer that they were probably appalled by the upset to their normal expectations and routine. The narrator finds all of this "hilarious" and continues watching the girls move throughout the store with a sort of awe and appreciation.

I wonder if this is where "No shoes, no shirt, no service" got its start.