I thought about the house that I grew up in. It really did build me and shaped who I am. I just had to remember what it taught me. The memories swiftly began to flow back. My house made me a tough as nails little girl who could pull herself through anything. My house made me intelligent. My house made me outgoing and humorous. My house taught me I can be anything that I want to be if I set my mind to it. My house brought back all of the memories of who I really was and what I was raised up to be. Suddenly, I knew the answers to all of the questions I had been struggling to…
Much like poetry, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” Music and poetry are two platforms in which artists from the beginning of time have chosen to circulate their ideas, feelings, and opinions. Although different in popularity, these mediums are alike in various ways. Nonetheless, not every song you hear on the radio can be properly analyzed using procedures that you would follow to evaluate poetry. A song has to contain certain literary elements essential to poetry, such as the song “From Eden” by Hozier, in order for it to be analyzed. Hozier is recognized for his sentimental lyrics and use of poetic elements to add musicality and rhythm to his music. Through symbolism, repetition, and…
A soldier’s suffering holds no refrain from anyone, no matter what title or identity they have. In both the worlds of soldiers in those in the poem entitled “losses” by Randall Jarrell and at Devon school in “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, there are several relationships that they share. Both center around the lives of soldiers and soon to be soldiers during the cruel time of the second World War which was happening in Europe. Jarrell experiments with multiple identity in the combination of several speakers united in one, all wasted even before they could be conceded into the real experience of war. In the book World War II symbolizes many themes related to each other in the novel, from the arrival of adulthood to the triumph of the Evil…
In the book, A place to Stand, by Jimmy Santiago Baca, Baca writes about prison and how being incarcerated can have impact on a person and their family. With the most beautiful, strong and poetic language, Baca tells us the story of all the people who faces difficult times in order to find their place in the world. Baca always felt like he had no place to stand in society because, all of his life he was put down by his family and friends. From the age of five Baca experienced his dad and uncles going in and out of jail from being addicted to alcohol. Baca knew he would eventually end up in jail sooner or later because that’s what he had experienced all of his life. Baca writes, “Whether I was approaching it or seeking escape from it, jail always defined in some way the measure of my life” (3). Baca felt that his life would always head in the wrong direction because of his family issues. Baca shows being in prison can cause a lot of emotional impact on a person’s life, as well as affect the community.…
The case of the woman who had served 36 years in prison illustrated some effects of abuse on a teenager. She was looking for attention and love, because she was from an abusive family. She went to rob the store with her boyfriend to sustain the friendship, but it landed her in the prison because the boyfriend killed the owner of the store. She did not think of the consequence of her action because she was looking for love. I feel the action of this woman also portrayed a characteristic of some teenagers who do bad things because of peer pressure.…
Alexander poses many personal questions that challenges one's beliefs, gets them to think, and act as a catalyst for discussion. She probes into how we, the reader, would feel if someone we loved had to deal with discrimination, exclusion, and disdain for their whole life because of an addiction to drugs or some other felony crime ( Alexander 24). By making incarceration personal the reader identifies more with the article. While some questions make the issue personal, others such as,“What can be done to dismantle this new system of control?” (Alexander 25), facilitate talk. She captures the audience this way by using emotions and thought provoking questions, which in turn leads to action.…
The Prison system has been under scrutiny for years. They have tried every way imaginable to keep the prison system from failing. Experts have come and observed our criminal system from all over the globe “Our prison system has always been a closed institution, and that very secrecy has intrigued visitors to our country” says an article in the magazine America called “Reforming the system: rehabilitation needs a chance”. The prison system has remained an intriguing issue. The prisons have been kept quiet and no one really knows about it outside the system.…
Prison experiences are shared by those who spent much time behind the bars and most of the experiences shared exemplify how cruel the prison system really was showing that no rehabilitation was occurring due to an excess in punishment. The Los Angeles Times published an article, “Cruel and Usual Punishment in Jails and Prisons,” in which ex-prisoners were interviewed and shared stories of their time in prison, many of which showed how corrupt prisons have truly become. The stories described prisons as appalling and cruel, one prisoner describe being handcuffed every day to his bunk while he had to remain only in his underwear, another prisoner described how it was to live in a cell located directly under broken toilet pipes for weeks resulting…
The works we studied within Creative Writing were all helpful in creating my own works to submit to the class. Throughout all of the reading, many of the works inspired me in different ways, whether it was short story plot ideas or word usage in the poems. While crafting my work for the final portfolio, I reviewed many of the poems from our poetry packet in an effort to find inspiration and to create new interesting images. I took the most inspiration for my formal poem, which I found most difficult to write. One of the poems that was most useful to me was Jilly Dybka’s “Memphis, 1976.” Dybka’s poem follows the sestina form; I also wrote my last poem in this form, so it helped to follow the form by looking at her poem as an example. Dybka’s…
Wendy, the supervisor, has been in her position for the last 5 or 6 month. She heard the previous supervisor was “pretty strict”; the cause of Darla’s behavior might be the former supervisor. It seems like Darla is afraid of making mistakes, maybe the previous supervisor was harsh on her when she made a mistake. Or, perhaps the previous supervisor was a micromanager that wanted to be informed of every step of her work because Wendy states that Darla “won’t go ahead” and do stuff “unless I say so.” Another reason for Darla’s behavior might be, she does not have enough confidence in herself because Wendy said, “her work is all right” and “it seems like she does know” how to do the stuff. However, she relies on Wendy to tell her when to do it and “what to do next.”…
This “prison” what they call school has provided my classmates and I with years of happiness, of uninterrupted protection from the outside world, and a base of knowledge to succeed in anything(as long…
Ransom describes “John Whiteside’s” daughter as an energetic child. She is portrayed as a young child with a vivid imagination. Her image expresses the theme of “childlike imagination” in lines three and four by saying, “It is no wonder her brown study/ Astonishes us all.” By using this wording, Ransom invites the reader to look at the world through the eyes of a young girl. Ransom continues to explain the adventure of the daughter in lines ten and eleven by giving the image of geese floating and drifting on a still pond. He alludes to the geese as being “like a snow cloud”.…
The National Emotional Literacy Project for Prisoners gives incarcerated men and women throughout the United States a program to help them change life-long patterns of violence and addiction. Their main course book “Houses of Healing” guides them down a road where they learn better ways to cope in society and learn about themselves as a result. They’re given an opportunity to learn that they aren’t defined by the crimes they’ve committed but instead by the person they are and is a wonderful way to change the mindset of a person who thinks they’ll never be any better than they already…
In our correctional system, there have been always a great number of struggles dealt with daily. Due to mass incarceration, some of the prison and jail…
When most people think of marijuana, they imagine a teenager down in his basement getting high while his friends play video games. What people do not know is that the teenager had just got back from chemotherapy and found that smoking marijuana was the only way to stop himself from feeling nauseous. When people hear stories like this they do not know what to think about medical marijuana. It is therefore very important to look in depth at the effects and potential uses for this trending medicine. There is evidence that medical marijuana has been used since 2900 BC, though it and has been shunned for over the past 5000 years. In the late 1960s, marijuana made a comeback in the U.S. as a recreational drug, which gave it the bad reputation it has today. It is due to this reputation that it is illegal today though it has legitimate medical purposes. Medical marijuana has the potential to heal and treat millions of people as well as help out the country’s economy. For these reasons, the United States should collectively legalize medical marijuana to be prescribed to patients whose diseases and illnesses can be cured or treated by the drug.…