...different and similar methods to illustrate the importance of cultural identity. The poem ‘Presents’ is about the writer herself at a younger age feeling insecure as she is of dual heritage (mixed race) ‘in my English Grandmother’s dining - room. In the poem the poet begins to conflict with herself as she believes that she is not of one set race ‘I was there of no fixed nationality’. Throughout the poem the poet begins to show her insecurity as she begins to respond to the presents her aunties bought her from her native land negatively ‘I could never be as lovely as those clothes’. A t the end of the poem the Alvi is unable to resolve her problem as she finishes the poem feeling rather down saying ‘I was there of no fixed nationality’. The poem ‘Hurricane’ is rather similar in the way that it is again autobiographical. In the poem the writer is also in conflict with herself as she has left her motherland Guyana to move to England. At first the poet dreaded England but as soon as there was news of a Hurricane she began to feel much at home as hurricanes happen often in the southern equator. The writer shows her relationship with the hurricane by referring to it as her ‘sweeping a back home cousin’. At the end of the poem the writer resolves her problem which is her conflict with herself as she misses her homeland ‘Come to let me know that the earth is the earth’. The similarities of the poems are that they both involve the same situation...
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...similar methods to illustrate the importance of cultural identity. The poem ‘Presents’ is about the writer herself at a younger age feeling insecure as she is of dual heritage (mixed race) ‘in my English Grandmother’s dining - room. In the poem the poet begins to conflict with herself as she believes that she is not of one set race ‘I was there of no fixed nationality’. Throughout the poem the poet begins to show her insecurity as she begins to respond to the presents her aunties bought her from her native land negatively ‘I could never be as lovely as those clothes’. A t the end of the poem the Alvi is unable to resolve her problem as she finishes the poem feeling rather down saying ‘I was there of no fixed nationality’. The poem ‘Hurricane’ is rather similar in the way that it is again autobiographical. In the poem the writer is also in conflict with herself as she has left her motherland Guyana to move to England. At first the poet dreaded England but as soon as there was news of a Hurricane she began to feel much at home as hurricanes happen often in the southern equator. The writer shows her relationship with the hurricane by referring to it as her ‘sweeping a back home cousin’. At the end of the poem the writer resolves her problem which is her conflict with herself as she misses her homeland ‘Come to let me know that the earth is the earth’. The similarities of the poems are that they both involve the same...
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...is such a sad poem and I can see this read more as a lullaby to children. As almost all lullabies are, they are generally about something sad like “Ring Around the Rosy”. The seems to start as parents singing a lullaby to their baby, by the end of the poem you can tell that the baby is not alive and that he or she is now buried in the ground. This might not mean an infant or toddler, this poem could even relate to a 50 year old dying and the parents singing lullabies to them as well. Just because they may be older does not mean that they are still not their ‘babies’. Everyone deals with sadness and upset in a different way and the parents in this poem are able to cope with the loose of their baby by singing lullabies. “Daffodils” seems to me like it could be a children’s book. It could be read as a book or kids to use their imaginations and minds to create whatever they want. Even though it seems like this poem was written to show that someone is able to ‘escape’ the daily grind or depressed state by thinking or remembering something happy from the past. It can still sweep you off of your feet and bring you to a happy state even when you were not 30 minutes before. This poem could...
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... The main character’s father worked as a coal miner and his mother as a shop worker in a department store. Through the essay we follow this character, first known as the blackest five-year-old-boy in their street, then as a teenager, and in the final part as an adult educated man. The writer uses a lot of coloured and offensive adjectives through the essay which give the readers a more intensive and exciting experience. It gives the story life and meaning while the readers create more powerful images in their heads. You can for example see that on page 8, line 71-72: “Home was warm, school was stimulating and challenging”. Furthermore, the writer sometimes uses humor and on page 8, line 60-69 you can see that. At the same page line 79-82 we see another example on that: “...I fell in love with Bible stories and colourful pictures, although I wasn’t entirely convinced about virgin births, miracles and risers from the dead.” Even though it is noticeable statements you can’t avoid reading it with a smile on your lips. This technique also gives the reader a more thrilling experience and in this occasion the writer wants to lighten the story up, in the light of the topic poverty. The writer makes use of some arguments, namely an argument based on analogy. He extrapolates from situations and events based on poverty situations and events. The story is very chronological in its way of using years. At the same time we see these situations and events, for example on page 8, line 102-105:...
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...information about the writer, I have some own opinion about it. Comparing the death of moth, the battle of ants is more powerful, and depicts more detail about the process of battle. No one writes about such a negligible things and describe it in such details. Through reading the process of ant’s struggling and the movement of tussling, I not only feel the power of two group of ants, but also I even can experience writer’s mood. However, the death of the moth is kind of negative to me cause it express the death always defeat us. The Virginia Woolf, the writer of the death of moth, used the same insignificant objet in her article. Use a lot word like “ not properly” “ little” “nothing” to create a negligible object. Though she described all the big beautiful background for the nature, this comparing between significant surrounding and a little moth brings me more stronger feeling that no one care about the moth. Both articles illustrate the struggling between life and death. Virginia Woolf’s opinion is focus on the futility of struggling. Henry David Thoreau emphasized the contending between two groups. Reviewing the death of moth, I noticed that there are many metaphors in the article. Like so stiff or so awkward", or "The horses stood still” are all the signs of the death. Also, the writer used rhetoric skills that change from the begging to the last. At first, the writer uses the vivid and description to illustrate. Then, at the last of article, the writer uses more elusive...
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...“Me Talk Pretty One Day” “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is a non-fiction essay written by David Sedaris. The essay was written in 2005 and it is about Sedaris’ personal experiences when learning to speak French. The main theme of the essay is the attitude to learning a new language. My analysis of “Me Talk Pretty One Day” will include an interpretation of the language, tone and the attitude to learning a foreign language. In “Me Talk Pretty One Day”, David Sedaris writes about his struggles when learning French. As a 41-year old writer, Sedaris moves to Paris to learn the language. The essay is about his experiences at the school and with his awfully strict French teacher. At the very first day the teacher tears Sedaris down and takes all self-esteem out of him. She humiliates and demeans him and all his new classmates, because they cannot speak fluent French. This results in him being so afraid of saying anything wrong, and he therefore avoids doing things that requires him to speak, such as asking for directions, answering the phone and ordering coffee or food. The text is well written and the language is informal and simple, yet still very clever. It is written in an everyday language with dialog and a vocabulary that is also informal and simple; to give an example he uses phrases as “nerve-raking” and “rattle off” (page 1 line 15 and page 1 line 17). The tone in the essay is casual and informal, as Sedaris uses a lot of humour and sarcasm. This makes the text funny and...
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...Oddicea Linton (213152897) English 1001 3.0M John Blazina/ Michelle Lorimer January 20, 2014 Notes on “The Faraway Nearby” by Rebecca Solnit In the short story; “The Faraway Nearby” by Rebecca Solnit, three words that were unfamiliar to me are; appurtenance, aplomb and presupposition. According to Wikipedia Online, appurtenance is an accessory or item that is associated with a particular style of living. Aplomb is defined as self- confidence or poise. The word presupposition means to make an assumption before an argument or action. The Rapanui/ Easter Island was unfamiliar to me. I partentky nfamiliar to me. Appartentky argument or action. now know it is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Rebecca Solnit wrote of Simon Weil and Aung San Sui Kyi whom were both unknown to me. Simon Weil was apparently a French philosopher, Aung San Sui Kyi is a Burmese opposition politician. One metaphor used in the story is; “… the bird was a Taoist master.” This shows a comparison between the bird from The Roadrunner and Coyote cartoon and the Taoist masters in Chinese stories, pointing out that they share similar immortal characteristics. Another metaphor used is “… the place where the world is folded up into boxes of paper.” This is comparing the realistic events that occur in the world to the books in the library and the experience you get from reading them. Solnit illustrates her ideas by alluding to books she read as a child such as “The Chronicles of...
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...English 101 “Dreams Converted to Reality” In “The Symbolic Language of Dreams”, Stephen King speaks in depth about his writing process. King has written over fifty novels and sold over three hundred and fifty thousand copies worldwide. Most of us cringe at the thought of re-living some of our worst nightmares, but that’s not the case for novelist Stephen King. He uses his dreams and nightmares to sculpt his stories to his liking. King believes that dreams are the way our minds translate the nature or solution to our problems, and speaks in depth about this connection with his writing process. In “The Symbolic Language of Dreams”, Stephen King reveals that writing and dreaming are closely correlated, and writers prefer routine to achieve a semi-dreaming state. King uses dreams extensively in his writing process. He believes that dreams have a precognitive effect on the story and uses those experiences to bring the eerie feelings to life in his novels. When he was writing “IT”, King reveals that he came to a halt in writing, and needed to come up with something. He fell asleep and had a very scary nightmare; he awoke terrified and delighted, all at the same time. It would be safe to say that we’ve all had dreams reflecting on a current situation or problem, especially ones that weigh on us the heaviest. We can draw a conclusion to our problems from dreams, which is also what he relates to his readers. King describes the writing process similar to digging...
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...Death, grief, melancholy, pain, and suffering. These are all the characteristics of Edgar Allen Poe’s life and stories. Edgar Allen Poe is a writer of dark romanticism. Dark romanticism is a genre of stories and movies that give a sad, dark, and evil vibe to the reader. This terrifying genre is centered on Poe’s work. It is supposed to make you feel scared and/or scared for the main character. Sometimes you can be scared of the main character. When the main character is sad you are sad. Poe conveys this in many of his writings. Poe wrote these because of his own troubled life. When is wife died he wrote Annabel lee in morn of his wife. Poe uses many techniques in his stories to help the reader understand and see what he sees, such as metaphors...
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...as if everyday speakers would say them. As the reader, I felt that most of what he says in the poem was metaphors. The poem has a bit of depressing and frustrating tone. You could definitely feel the depression in some of the lines that he writes. A few examples are “all the heart has gone out of me,” or “I re-wove the rotten fish- basket, fixed it up for use again in the foothills. But sick at heart, I have cut it to pieces.” As the reader, I feel as if the writer is going through a major life crisis where he is caught in between two decisions, and it’s just tearing him apart to choose. I hear this tone throughout the whole poem. In the poem, he repeats the line “’all the heart has gone out of me,” twice, once in the beginning and once in the end. Throughout the poem he continues with depressing metaphors. I believe the part I heard the tone most was in line “I re-wove the rotten fish- basket, fixed it up for use again in the foothills. But sick at heart, I have cut it to pieces.” The voice of the poem is a person or may be the poet himself. It really only has a single voice and is spoken in a somewhat private and personal way. He uses metaphors to paint an image on how he truly feels. His style of voice could be described as dramatic. For example, “ While I was weaving another, a bat flew right at me. I will not do what it orders, the small moth-spirit that flew at me here in the valley.” He seemed to be vey dramatic when speaking about the bat, describing it as a...
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...“Drag Me Down” The theme of this song “Drag Me Down” is that nobody can take you down with the love and support of someone else. This shows that with the right support nobody can make you want to quit something that you have started. This song really speaks to a lot of people and it is one of the best. One Direction expresses figurative language in a few places in the song. They use a good example of hyperbole when they say, “If I didn't have you there would be nothing left…” (One Direction 7). They over exaggerate that if the love of their life was gone, he would have nothing else to live for, but there are a million things to live for. Which some people might believe that their world is going to come crashing down but only time will...
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...to feel when you find out that I wrote this instead if you” (as cited in Clugston, 2010, section 12.1). This very first line comes off as arrogant and cocky, in result creating dramatic tension between the speaker and the reader. The persona grabs the reader’s attention by using detailed imagery about the particular day that he sat down to write the poem. The narrator paints a picture by describing the environment that he was in while writing the poem. He remembers to, “mention with a pen the rain soaked windows, the ivy-wallpaper” (as cited in Clugston, 2010, section 12.1). The scenery in this line creates a miserable pathetic tone for the reader. One begins to ask oneself, what did I do with my free time? Was I being productive like the writer of this poem? The rain symbolizes teardrops due to wasted time. Maybe the reader was not so productive with his or her day and can relate to, “the goldfish circling in his bowl,” (as cited in Clugston, 2010, section 12.1), which symbolizes...
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...Ashley Word Count: 654 English 100 L51 February 4, 2015 Alexie SWA # 1 In the short story “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, he talks about being a 3 year old who lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation who loved to read. Alexie talks about the struggles that his family endures with money, but he doesn’t let that stop him from reading. Alexie learned to read from comic books such as “Superman”, he used the pictures to help tell the story. As he became older and started school he was teased because he was an Indian child who could read and write. Now, Alexie is a writer who visits schools to help Indian children to understand how reading had an impact on his life and he wants to try and get more Indian children involved with reading. Alexie describes his family as being poor but they are considered second class according to Reservation standards. As told in the story Alexie’s family consist of 7 family members and at least one parent held a job so the family could make it through a time where poverty was hitting the world hard. They lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food, but managed to be doing better than a lot of others in the reservation. The role of Alexie’s father played a huge role in his life. His father loved books and since Alexie loved is father with an aching devotion, he decided that he would love books also. Alexie’s father was one of the few Indians who attended a Catholic school, so I think that had a big...
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...Equation” by Brian Patten and the Short story Brackley and the Bed” by Sam Selvon, depict love and relationships the effect the writer has on the audience and also how the texts reflect social issues. In the traditional style poem “Ballad” the writer uses short regular rhyming verses to tell the story of a young maid who falls in love with a shepherd. The writer portrays the maid as the Protagonist and the victim of a love crime from early on in the poem for example. “ He stole away my liberty, when my poor heart was strange to men. He came and smiled and stole it then.” (Lines 2 – 4) The writer describes the antagonist Shepherd as “faithless” and a “rogue” who seemingly promised the young innocent maid the world but in return took her virginity, impregnated her then left her in a depressed suicidal state. “He promised beds as fine as silk, and sheets for love as white as milk. But he when won my heart astray let me to want a bed of clay.” (Lines 21 -24) The writer’s use of contrasts in this poem is very effective and paints the picture of a whirlwind romance using the seasons as a metaphor. The summer brings with it long hot days and romantic nights. While the cold bitter chill of winter, brings long lonely nights. “When summer brought no fears to fright, he came to guard me every night. When winter did darkly prove, none came to guard me or to love.” (Lines 9 – 12) This is a very familiar story and...
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...Farah Saadeh 4/5/2015 Comparitive Literature Dr.Hanan Ibrahim Comparison between Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Born on October 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College at the University of Cambridge, before receiving praise as a poet and writer. Sylvia was clinically depressed for most of her life, and committed suicide in 1963. In 1982, she won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems. Plath is a well-known feminist writer. Sylvia has always felt that she is inferior to men and was victimized greatly by her father. Sylvia’s own experiences with the men in her life comes out in a lot of her writing, and this style of writing is common for her. Her writing seems to be her response to the oppression she felt from men. Sylvia could face her father, and never found closure with the abuse she felt so she used her styling techniques and strong metaphors to feel some sort of relief. Sylvia was also tortured by her husband, and she was victimized by him just like she was by her father. She felt that she was inferior to him, and this showed in her early works, like in “A life “. However, in later works, she overcomes the victimization she felt and uses her experiences as an advantage in her writing. She even metaphorically kills her father in “Daddy.” “Daddy” was written on October 12, 1962. The poem is viewed as...
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