“Jessica Tunner, you have to be White! Can you imagine the shame our family will have to endure if you are not White?” My mother’s voice echoes in my ear or maybe it’s my mind. I wish I was an Electronics Master. I would find a way to remove or override the Communications Chip that had been implanted in my ear even before I was born. I could become some kind of rebel hero or Com Terrorist as the GOV likes to call them. Unlike my brother Gary, I barely meet the academic standards for electronics. My Assessment Data always end up in the satisfactory area, which is fine with me, because you won’t get to White by being satisfactory.…
Stanford and University of California alumni Sandra Lim reads from The Wilderness on April 7, 2015, at Prairie Lights. As an alumna from the International Writing Program Lim was making her return back to Iowa City after 11 years. In The Wilderness Lim reads a collection of poems about love, spring and one poem that caught my attention was about the individual struggle of one's body within one’s mind. The poems are open to many interpretations but that is the way that I chose to interpret that poetry in particular. The interesting thing about Lim’s poem is how describes the body parts in some of her poems. It is very vague. It almost makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable but at the same time, I really like her style. The way she describes…
The poem ‘Drifters’ depicts the restless life of a transient and a rouseabout family. The poem demonstrates the destiny of the family’s existence. ‘Drifters’ is about a household who move from place to place, as the father needs to move to find work ‘notice how the oldest girl is close to tears’ shows that the hardship that the eldest sister has to go through, she realised that her nomadic lives may never change, she cannot live as a normal teenager as she is not stationed in one place long enough, to become friends with the same age as hers, she is gradually frustrated…
Certainly, one of the goblins’ treachery effects is the loss of the notion of time for Lizzie (V.449) and it previously happened to Laura (V.139). Despite having being attacked by wicked creatures, Lizzie walks home happily. The bouncing of the coin is like a victorious hymn for her, the proof that she has confronted and overcome temptation. She conserves her kind heart and thus her purity and vitality, which make her run home.…
In the poem, “Hand-Me-Downs” by Sarah Kay, the poet uses conflict and figurative language to show that anger is passed down from generation to generation. This is a problem because when a person “wears” anger, they do not ask themselves if the anger is worth it, and if it is having the affect it is supposed to have.…
The short poem, “Sadie and Maud” by Gwendolyn Brooks compares the lives of two sisters who chose different paths growing up. From the beginning to the end you can tell that the lives of Sadie and Maud were drastically different. Sadie seems to be the extroverted sister that loved to get all the fun that life can offer. While Maud went to college Sadie stayed home and had kids out of wedlock, which was a big shock to Maud and their parents. While everyone seemed to think that Sadie was the shame to the family she didn’t regret not a single thing she did in her life leaving behind what to her was a life worth living. Maud, the more introverted sister, went to college and became more of a quiet little mouse. Maud didn’t take advantage of every…
Death is part of life, weather you believe in a life after, or not. The story “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant, and the songs “Don’t fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult and “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, all illustrate death in some way. Though each artist has a different view of death, then the other.…
Both swallowed in their job, the janitor in “Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits” by Martin Espada and the secretary in “The Secretary Chant” by Marge Piercy feel unappreciated and lost as employees. Jorge is “outside…of [Americans] understanding” and The Secretary is lost in her work and compares herself to objects such as her “hips are a desk.” The employees from these poems have become hidden behind their duties and are slowly sinking into the unknown.…
Sadie and Maud are two sisters that lead two completely different lives. Maud went to college while Sadie did not and stayed at home. Then, Sadie had two children out of wedlock and her family almost dies of shame. Towards the end of the poem, Maud, who went to college, is compared to a thin, starving, and lonely brown mouse. This is shown in the poem when the author states “Is a thin brown mouse / living all alone / in this old house,” (Brooks 18-20). Sadie lived life contently as a result of her children growing up. This is shown in the poem when it states “when Sadie said her last so-long / her girls struck out from home. / (Sadie left as heritage / her fine-toothed comb.)” (Brooks 13-16). Basically, Sadie dies at a young age, her children grow up, move out from home, and the only item left is her fine-toothed comb as heritage for her children. This shows that Sadie lived her life to the fullest potential, even prior to having children. Starting at the beginning of the poem, it described her as “livingest chits / in all the land” (Brooks 7-8). At the beginning of the poem, it seems as though Maud would be the happy, wealthy, and successful sister, and Sadie would be the unhappy, poor, and unsuccessful sister. At the end of the poem, the storyline takes a three sixty turn to show that what always seems to be the correct way, which is education, is not always going to be…
When it comes to playing the proverbial, "game," even Einstein knew that knowing the rules was not enough. I believe that in order to truly succeed in any endeavor, one has to apply their knowledge practically, be willing take risks, and operate proactively. Fortunately, I have always had a predisposition to learn with dexterity, so the rules have never been an obstacle for me. Playing the game, however, can potentially be challenging.…
This poem immediately begins with the differences in the paths of the two sisters. Maud may have been the achiever, the one chosen to excel and become a success. Maud was the sister who, if not the brightest, was certainly the least adventuresome, and the more dutiful, of the two. The connotation that Sadie stayed at home could be interpreted in a number of ways. Did Sadie live at home with her parents and do nothing as Maud went to college Did she merely stay in their hometown but lived independent of their parents’ home? There is no indication that Maud went away to college and attained any measure of independence just that she attended college and Sadie did not. Maud does not strike one as the type to leave home.…
The song " Just a Girl" by No Doubt shows the stereotypes, oppressions and standards that women are subjected to in our society. The author feels oppressed because she is "...just a girl" and because of that the author thinks that" ...I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite So don't let me have any rights". The oppression makes the author feel lesser than a man even though she is aware that she doesn't need a man she feels that "This world is forcing me to hold your hand" .The author's decision to include these lines also help show the stereotypes that women are all expected to be small and weak and always need a men to help them become something.…
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…
The poem consists out of three short stanzas written in free verse. It is an image poem held together with repetition of sounds. The speaker is standing outside, trying to depict the antagonism between “all Greece” and Helen by describing their interaction. As there is no reference to time or space it seems that the speaker is depicting an image of this antagonism rather than event. The image is the rising hate towards Helen and how it affects her. The first line in the first stanza „All Greece hates” sets the tone of the poem, hateful, bitter tone. The word Greece seems to imply that not only people hate and judge Helen for her part in the war, for Greece is a country, but the whole culture. It shows the intense hatred and condemnation towards Helen especially when being reinforced with words such as “hate” and “reviles”.…
The poems Living in Sin and Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers, both written by Adrienne Rich surround women before the civil rights movement when gender equality was inexistent. In Living and Sin and Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers, gender inequality and the traditional marriage system are portrayed as discriminatory towards women. However, the differences in these poems show that their involvement and motivation to obtain gender equality play important roles in determining their happiness and freedom. To portray similarities and differences in her poems, Rich uses many extended metaphors and symbols, which make the reader feel what it was like to live as a woman during these times.…