J Personal items can often hold a lot of weight for a child. For Marilyn Nelson Waniek, this is represented through her and her sister’s love of blankets. A source of comfort, imagination, and memories, the blankets and quilt Waniek describes throughout her poem, The Century Quilt, illustrate her feelings towards family. Waniek uses structure, imagery, and tone in her poem to show her deep relationship to her family, and most particularly their diversity and the way their generations progress.…
From Little Things Big Things Grow The song “From Little Things Big Things Grow” is a song written and released in 1991 by Paul Kelly and is a song about the protest from the Gurindji people and Vincent Lingiari during their argument about land rights at Wave Hill station in August 1966. The Gurindji strike at Wave Hill station was an revolutionary incident that occurred in August of 1966 at Wave Hill station in the Northern Territory. On the eponymous date in 1966, Vincent Lingiari, a spokesman for the Gurindji people, led his fellow Gurindji compatriots and walked off their worksite and began a seven year strike.…
The short poem by Billy Collins “Care and feeding” is a story I can connect my personal life experience with. The narrator therefore seems to be a human, who either considers himself a dog or feels like one. While reading the story, I was thinking about how selfish the narrator sound. Because he’s turning 420 years old in dog age then that’s when he decide he wants to be a dog. After living his life on earth enjoy everything he possibly can, now the only thing left for him to think about is how he wants to become a dog because he feel old and lonely.…
There are in total two poems in Slant Six I used as models to write this poem. The first one is “Someone asks, what makes this poem American?’ and it inspires me to find connections among daily things. Specifically, Erin draws the conclusion that “American is anywhere” at the first time by discussing about where the “normal” American food comes from and different customs behind these American food and how American society contributes to the combination of different cultures. Once Erin draw the conclusion that Americanness is everywhere, she works on verifying her conclusion by both describing a normal American mini-marts, Bill’s, and using examples to convince people have opposite ideas.…
Review of Williams J. Bennett’s “The Broken Hearth” Summary Many of Bennett’s solutions are perceived as controversial in contemporary society. Celebrities (e.g., Adele, Madonna) portray single motherhood as glamorous and preferential. Marriage has become a no risk service based on a trial period; whereas, if it doesn’t work a no-fault divorce is a viable option.…
Gender stereotypes have always been apart of society either through construct, and communication. We see these stereotypes in “Day Star” by Rita Dove, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy. Day Star by Rita Dove is about a mother who felt trapped in her life as a stay at home mother, who just wants to daydream in the sun. “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is about a mother trying to give her young daughter advise on how not to be a “slut” and how to keep a man. “Barbie Girl” by Marge Peircy was about a smart young lady who did not look how society wanted her to look so she cut off her lgs and nose her biggest features according to society around her, and died.…
When you read those lines it makes you think about nature and how leaves fall from trees . Well it is sad when you see a plant dying or falling apart, and it is sad when a season changes, for example, when you are having the best summer ever and then one day you hear your mom tell you that school starts the next day, that makes you sad . In Abandoned Farmhouse the lines that make the poem have a sad mood are, in all of the lines it talks about how the house is a mess and the place is just ruined. That would make me feel sad if my house was ruined.…
You have an interesting point here. I agree that after the death of her husband, the widow seems to be oblivious to everything that once brought her joy. In the beginning of the poem, the widow mentioned that she was surrounded by a “cold fire” (305). This implies that she has grown cold to the world and the happiness that it offers. Her son informed her that he had seen trees full of her favorite flowers in an attempt to cheer her up.…
The funniest thing about the town of Brattleboro was that it was impossible to not be creative. Everywhere you could possibly look there would be something that you could base a poem or painting off of. Everyone you met could be a character in some amazing novel. Every song you hear could allow you to create more music. This entire town oozed with art.…
Growing up as a hispanic woman in America has always been more difficult than I thought it was going to be. There were many times where I felt excluded, judged or like I am not as good as other people. Throughout my life this has always affected my happiness because it was never as easy as I wanted it to be. With that being said, many people that are also a different race also struggle with this problem and this affects their wellbeing as well. I came to realize what a struggle being a person of color is to other people as well after carefully reading a short story by Junot Diaz called “Wildwood” and a poem by Claudia Rankine called “From Citizen Six” where both of the characters were treated unfairly, and ran into issues on a daily basis because…
In this Sink Ad for Kohler we see what one would assume to be your average middle aged house wife, standing in front of the kitchen sink looking out the window at what we can assume to be her husband and daughter. This imagery carries heavy cultural messages, this paper will begin by looking at it from a feminist perspective. From the imagery provided in the ad we can assume this is 1920’s America where the message was for women to stay at home, clean, cook and raise the children. They had to participate in this activity while the man went to work, meaning he is detached from the home. This can be seen clearly after reading the text which glorifies the sink, which means they are participating in meaning transfer as they try to fetishize the…
The poem is about a man who is rich but can't find the money to give to the poor and it is only if he earns more of what he is earning that he can then give of himself. The poem highlights how useless money can be depending on the perspective of the money holder. She uses this medium to mock the rich. The following line places emphasis on that greed " “Alas! to ease their woes he wishes but cannot live without ten dishes. Though six would serve as well, ‘tis true; but one must live as others do” (Barber 2446).…
Everyday Use, a short story written by Alice walker embraces the idea of heritage and shows the reader how important it is to be true to your culture. Dee, the narrator 's daughter loses sight of that and has to be reminded of her African American culture. In the story, she asks for the butter churn and quilts, two objects with an abundance of history behind them, with the intention to utilize as mere decorations. In an attempt to embrace her heritage, Dee changes her name thinking that this change would bring her closer to her heritage. She didn’t realize that a name without a substance is just a name.…
Carol Ann Duffy’s, The Diet, employs a variety of literary techniques to explore loss of identity, dieting, eating disorders and the ways in which these themes interconnect with feminism and femininity. The Diet is part of a collection of poems entitled the Feminine Gospels, the focus of which is showcasing the less desirable aspects of womanhood and providing social commentary on female issues, usually told from the perspective of a woman. The theme of change and transformation is also presented in this poem, connecting it to other poems in the collection such as The Woman Who Shopped which also incorporate change and transformation. In the opening stanza of the poem, the diet and character undertaking the diet are presented to the reader.…
Gwendolyn Brooks's poem "kitchenette building" is really impressed me, because I found myself understanding it in a different way each time I read it, sometimes pessimistically and sometimes optimistically. Brooks uses the word "kitchenette" in the title so that the reader can have a clear idea about the size of the building and the conditions of people who live there. Brooks also uses words which have connotation to help us understand the theme and the tone of the poem. The poem is about poor African-Americans who live very hard lives in "kitchenette" buildings with small rooms and who share things and places with others. They have a lot of obligations, but also they do have dreams to dream about.…