Hey guys,
So for anyone who was wondering, I've finished the CM1120 course and is now doing CM1145 which also has a blog, therefore I made a new one!! The link should be above this post, and right under the blog description!
Happy reading! :)
Susie
My Son, My Executioner - by Donald Hall
This poem was very sad and touching for me. It talks about how a young couple feels after losing their son. This piece of work is a great example for portraying how genuine and strong the bond between parent and child can be. In lines 7-8 it says "Your cries and hunger document/ our bodily decay". This provides evidence that the parents are having difficulty dealing with their loss, and that having something so close to them slip away can "eat away" at you emotionally. The last stanza is also significant because it tells us, (the readers) that they are feeling like hypothetically, a piece of them has died along with their beloved child. The parents were just as reliant on the baby and the baby was on them. The joy and happiness that a child brings changes you and becomes a reason for living. Even though I'm not a parent, my parents have told me many times over the year that having kids was the best thing they ever did.
Parents dream about how their child will carry on their memories and make a life for them-self, carry on family traditions and whatnot. They see that even though they may die, they have the responsibility of providing the information needed so their children can carry those things after the parents die. So its as if the parents never die, their spirit lives on in their children. But these parents are watching those dreams and hopes die with the child. And in essence, they feel as though they are dying as well.
Parents dream about how their child will carry on their memories and make a life for them-self, carry on family traditions and whatnot. They see that even though they may die, they have the responsibility of providing the information needed so their children can carry those things after the parents die. So its as if the parents never die, their spirit lives on in their children. But these parents are watching those dreams and hopes die with the child. And in essence, they feel as though they are dying as well.
Design - by Robert Frost
I really liked this poem--It was, different. It was still somewhat linked to the theme of death that most of the poems we have studied did, but it was in a more mysterious and interesting context. I liked that it's theme wasn't as blunt as other pieces of work we have studied. Instead of words like "death, dying, die, die, die...", it was more like "kindred", "thither", "darkness". All words that helped the author create more suspense for his audience, leading up to what we all know was death for poor Mr. Moth, but still this poem forces you to brainstorm and idealize more openly.
Another aspect of the poem that I really liked was the "heal-all", which is a plant that usually has violet-blue flowers and is known as a source of healing. I enjoyed the symbol of the flower because it helped showed one of Frost's main themes of evil existing everywhere. You have this poor innocent flower who is, hypothetically speaking, is watching this innocent moth dying a slow painful death, and can't do anything about it.
I think Frost had a hidden meaning by the whole set-up of this poem as well. What I mean is, what kind of a coincidence would it be for all three things, the moth, spider, and flower to be in the same place, at the same time. I also think that Frost was trying to say that there is a higher power that overlooks every aspect of all of our lives. Either that or he just likes to torture my brain into trying to figure out what the hell he means. That, we will never know!
Eveline - by James Joyce
"Eveline" is a story about a girl who is trying to decide on weather to leave her home or not. She is stuck being staying home and taking care of her father and brothers, or fleeing into the night with the love of her life, Frank. Frank proposed to her and "she was about to explore another life with Frank". There was one catch though. Her mother made Eveline promise on her death bed that she would keep their home together as long as she could. This was the dilemma that Eveline kept going back to.
Turns out in the end she decides, even though she doesn't want too, respect and obey her late mother's wishes and stay home. She is sad to see her love go, but knows it is for the best.
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This reminds me of a certain encounter I had at a party once. My friends and I randomly ended up at a house party, by the time we got there it was pretty full and everyone was enjoying themselves (and their "kool-aid" of course!). Anyway, for some reason I was drawn to the corner of the room where this guy looked pretty relaxed like the "cool-kid" on the block. Around him was a poorly gathered line of people. I was intrigued, so like you would, I went to investigate. Turns out this guy was suggesting that he was a fortune teller and assured me he could predict my future. So me, trying to figure out if this guy was for real or not, temporarily plays along and asked for my future to be told. He was a complete stranger, didn't know my name, how old I was, or where I was from. My friends and I were all laughing and giggling at this mysterious person, thinking "what in the world is this guy on?". However, half way into my "reading", he became suddenly interesting in my "head line" (according to him). He noticed that I had a branch in mine. After some extra observing he says to me, "You don't know what you want to do with your life do you?". Catching me in the middle of a chuckle, I stopped. Sure I had a game plan the next few years and blah blah blah. But I could tell the way he was looking at me he didn't mean "right now", he meant the bigger picture. He then continues on saying that "in about 3-4 months (this party being in April), you are going to make a really big decision, weather it's the right one or wrong one it's up to you".
Now, in my mind, I knew that I was in my last year of high school, and that grad was coming up in May, and college plans and decisions were soon going to have to be made in the next few months. I assumed that this was the "big decision" he was speaking of was where I was going to move to for school, and how I will adjust to school. But how would this person, who doesn't know not one thing about me, have any idea about that? Call it luck, call it coincidence, hell; call me crazy, I actually believed he had a clue what he was talking about. It surprised me I must say.
My point with this story is I too have went through what Eveline is talking about. And I'm almost guaranteed a lot of other people have been too. In a moment of weakness, there is a thin line between the responsible thing to do, and the immature thing to do. Sure, I could have stayed home after high school, lived off my parents (actually, there is a better chance of me winning the lottery then my Dad letting me skip off College), and play video games all day and night. Sounds pretty sweet, right? But I knew, as did Eveline in her case, it wasn't the right thing to do.
At the end of the day, weather your mind tells you different, you know you made the right decision in your heart. If otherwise, you wouldn't have chose it!
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*Just a random picture I found on google of a palm reading diagram. Maybe it will clarify things for you, cause it don't for me! haha
A Worn Path - by Eudora Welty
This story is about a African-american woman named Phoenix Jackson. She was an older woman, but she definitely didn't let that stop her. She lived alone with her grandson, who was often sick. Phoenix would have to take a path for days in order to reach the hospital to get the medicine her grandson needed. She was such a devoted, caring, determined, and very dignified person. I found this refreshing because she never let where she came from or who she was to stand in the way of her loved ones. For example, during her journey on the worn path she encounters a hunter. As she is speaking to him, she noticed he drops a nickel. She is smart enough to distract the hunter so she can take it. "God watching me the whole time, I come to stealing", she quotes after the nickel was in her apron pocket. The hunter notices and point the gun at her. She doesn't even flinch. She isn't afraid of the gun because she has been through so much in her day that nothing surprises her. That is how devoted she is to her family.
You go girl!
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Once you actually think about it, and this might sound racist, but make no wonder African-american people reacted so well in all kinds of "life & death" situations. Back in the time this story was written, they were treated like pure dirt. They were threw around, sold back and forth, tortured, and god only knows what else; just because of the color of their skin. But they literally "rolled with the punches" because really they had no other choice. There was no such thing as individuality and/or personality in the African-american race at the time. It was either do what your told, don't get in anyone's way, and you'll have a better chance for surviving through the night.
It is so absurd to think about it now; thankfully society came to its senses and began to treat black people equally. :)
Death, Be Not Proud - by John Donne
In this post, I want to talk about one of the themes in this poem. Death. Death is obviously one of the bigger themes, but it's the way the speaker talked about death that made it so appealing. It refers to death as somewhat a good thing because it provides the "souls" with eternal life. Kind of like when people say, "They are in a better place now" or "At least they aren't suffering anymore". It's a way of showing remorse and comfort, which is what I think this poem's overall message is. When we are told these things we believe that our lost loved ones are gone to a better life, and they will forever be happy. This theme comes from how the poem talks about death. It consistently refers to death as a person. You can tell this by 1) "Death" has a capital D throughout the whole poem, same as a name would, and 2) Lines 1-2 state "Death, be not proud, thought some have called thee/ Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so". In other words it's saying, "Don't be proud of what you have done, because really you have accomplished nothing". It continues to read "Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me"
Let me tell you know, I am so afraid of death! I never want to die, and hate the fact that a life is ending almost every minute. I'm just so afraid of what will happen after, and I don't want to put my friends and families through such an experience. But when I read this poem, it gave me some peace of mind because according to this poem, "Death" will never win. When we die, we (as in our "souls"/"spirits" whatever you believe in) will still have eternity. This is something I also liked about this poem.
:)
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*Link to the text:
To Set Our House in Order - by Margaret Laurence
When I read this poem, I thought about the book "Stone Angel" which I read in my last year of high school. Ironically, both pieces were written by Margaret Laurence. . I noticed a few similarities in each story, like Grandmother MacLeod and Hagar for example. Both were elderly women who were very stubborn, proud, and refined. Hagar was haunted by the regrets of her past, and was trying to obtain closure. Marvin, her son that she lived with, and his wife was trying to get her to go in an old folks home. She was convinced that she can take care of herself and do all the things that she always wanted to do. Grandmother MacLeod was also proud and stubborn like Hagar because she always had things "just so" in her house. "God loves Order" is one of the quotes that she lived by. She always thought she knew best and was always right. Both of these women were independent, but also dependent because they depended on the people around them to do as they say. Grandmother MacLeod was always telling her daughter and granddaughter to clean up, and leave everything the way they left it, hence "House in Order". Hagar depended on Marvin and often guilted him into things she wanted him to do for her, either with the death of his brother, which she loved more than Marvin, and the death of his father. I wonder was it Laurence's intentions to link the two characters together?
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I did some research on Margaret Laurence. These are a few things I found interesting*:
1. "To Set Our House in Order" was actually chapter two of the novel "A Bird in the House".
2. Margaret Laurence was Canadian, born in 1926 and died in 1987.
3. "Her published works after The Stone Angel express the changing role of women's lives in the 1970s"
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*Reference Link:
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