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City of a Hundred Fires is Richard Blanco’s first book of poems. Blanco was born in Spain and later migrated with his Cuban family to Miami, Florida where he grew up. This book is a reflection of his life before Cuba and after Cuba. Blanco grew up in Little Havana with his family that insisted he do well in school. He was good at math and sciences and became an engineer. City of a Hundred Fires explains what it’s like growing up in Miami in a Cuban Community. He tells intimate stories of his childhood with his whole family living under one roof, no matter how old his brothers and sisters are, the Cuban family stays together. The first poem in the book, “America” explains how they family did not know what to do with peanut butter. It was used as hair relaxer, topping for guava shells as a desert a butter substitute for Cuban toast. Immigration would give immigrants 5 pounds every month. Pork was one thing they had all the time. Pork was seen on the table on all holidays along with black beans and rice, plantations and yucca. The …show more content…
one thing Blanco longed for was a Thanksgiving turkey. This poem takes the vision of a Cuban family trying to fit in as an American family on Thanksgiving by asking his grandmother to cook a turkey for this special day. Young Blanco tells the story of the Pilgrims that he learned in school and they all tried the turkey and sweet potatoes and went back to eating pork and black beans for Thanksgiving. This was Blanco’s family’s try at Thanksgiving. Blanco’s writing is familiar to those that live in Miami or that come from a Cuban background as he described in detail man wearing guayabera’s (Cuban shirt made of linen to keep cool in the hot temperatures all year,) drinking shots of confacto, eating pastelitos, watching, “Que Paso USA” and translating for his Abuela, (grandmother).
His poems are vivid and very lyrical in a speech that goes between English and Spanish. In the poem, “La Revolucion at Antonio’s Mercado” The Revolution at Antonio’s Mercantile, gives the reader a look into the life of a shop owner with all the colorful patrons that come to the store every day. Blanco gives the reader just enough information about each person and the interaction with the store keeper to make one want to go to Miami and find the shop just to go sit, drink a confacto and watch all the people come and go. It was almost as if I was there. A lot of Blanco’s poems put the reader in the
moment. In my own work I try to use this style of imagery and place the reader in the situation I’m writing about. I enjoy his sharing of his family stories and how they all were learning how to live in America. Blanco writes narratively as well as couplets, Quintains, prose and free verse. His lines are cheerful and uplifting, I was often laughing at the obstacles we take for granted, the families had no idea how to deal with simple things such as Americans not eating plantains instead of potatoes and cooking everything in a pressure cooker. As a first book of poetry, in my opinion this is a wonderful book of amazing tales, so brilliantly thought out and explained in great detail and even has historical tales of Havana in the 50’s and tales of Miami’s South Beach before the Mariel Boatlift affected the elderly Jews with crime, he tell as beautiful story in, “The Silver Sands” where the last two lines of the last stanza is, “I remember the poor magic of those voices, how beautifully they remembered beauty.” That is just a beautiful ending to an era that is gone. I suggest this book to anyone that is interested in culture, Cuban traditions, family, travel and adventures. Blanco will definitely take you on a journey one will never forget.
needs to make up his own ritual that he can do before running into a
In "the fire-breather" by Tod Olson, Garrett Morgan is testing his one of his many life changing inventions, to show the world that he was willing to put his life at risk to prove to people that he was confident in his invention. He did the craziest things to get people to buy his mask. An example from the article is "he would step into a tent containing a toxic mix of burning tar, sulfur, formaldehyde, and manure." (Olson 27) That is a very dangerous stunt to pull, just to prove that his invention worked. He even saved lives in a stunt and could have died, all just to show his confidence in his invention. In the article, it says that he went down into a tunnel with toxic gas wearing nothing but his pajamas and his mask. (Olson 28) It is not
The World Lit Only by Fire, written by William Manchester, is book based on the middle/ medieval ages. Early into the book, Manchester writes, “Was the medieval world a civilization, comparable to Rome before it or to the modern era that followed? If by civilization one means a society which has reached a relatively high level of cultural and technological development, the answer is no” (15). The author’s opinion is clear; he does not believe that the medieval ages ever achieved the title of a civilization.
Author’s Techniques: Rudolfo Anaya uses many Spanish terms in this book. The reason for this is to show the culture of the characters in the novel. Also he uses imagery to explain the beauty of the llano the Spanish America. By using both these techniques in his writing, Anaya bring s the true culture of
(134,219). The author and main character Rodriguez are one in the same person. At a young age Luis Rodriguez started writing about his life story which becomes a big feat for him because of not getting education in school, gang related problems, and being a leader in school for his fellow classmates. He clearly goes against a stereotype he faces which is Hispanics are illiterate by, writing a book despite getting without help in his circumstances and writing becoming very popular throughout the years. As a result of his hard work he put into his stories and poems, thanks to one of his teachers Mrs. Baez, the stories and poems were edited and sent to many literary contests.
David W. Blight's book Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory and the American Civil War, is an intriguing look back into the Civil War era which is very heavily studied but misunderstood according to Blight. Blight focuses on how memory shapes history Blight feels, while the Civil War accomplished it goal of abolishing slavery, it fell short of its ultimate potential to pave the way for equality. Blight attempts to prove that the Civil War does little to bring equality to blacks. This book is a composite of twelve essays which are spilt into three parts. The Preludes describe blacks during the era before the Civil War and their struggle to over come slavery and describes the causes, course and consequences of the war. Problems in Civil War memory describes black history and deals with how during and after the war Americans seemed to forget the true meaning of the war which was race. And the postludes describes some for the leaders of black society and how they are attempting to keep the memory and the real meaning of the Civil War alive and explains the purpose of studying historical memory.
Edwidge Danticat, the author of “A Wall of Fire Rising,” was raised in Haiti and used experiences from her own childhood to recreate a short story which symbolizes her time spent in Haiti. Even though Haiti is an independent nation, Danticat has a constant theme of freedom in her short story, "A Wall of Fire Rising" which is represented through symbols in the unique and distinct culture. The major instances of symbolism are found throughout the story with the main character, Guy, the hot air balloon, and the play “A Wall of Fire Rising.”
The Tomorrow City by Monica Hughes The plot of this book centres around two adolescents, David and Caro and an evil supercomputer which aspires to control the futuristic city of Thompsonville. Dr. Henderson, Caro's Father creates the "perfect" computer designed to solve all of the problems of Thompsonville by gaining almost complete power of the city. The computer then begins to make rash decisions of it's own. It decides that humans are incapable of making decisions of there
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston In October of 1989, Macaque monkeys, housed at the Reston Primate. Quarantine Unit in Reston, Virginia, began dying from a mysterious disease at an alarming rate of the. The monkeys, imported from the Philippines, were to be sold as laboratory animals. Twenty-nine of a shipment of one hundred died within a month.
The poem “America” also shows that not all households in America eat the specific food or drink that has been assigned to a particular occasion due to the poverty of the household, their belief or heritage. The poet wrote about his family eating pork on Thanksgiving Day instead of the traditional baked turkey, and on every other occasion because, that was the food his parents grew up with and prefer to cook. Likewise, during thanksgiving in my house I don’t cook the traditional meal that is a baked turkey and mashed potatoes, rather I cook food from my native country because that is what I know how to cook and enjoy
...s poems publication. In `A un olmo seco', we discover references to the cemetery of Leonor's grave, and the beauty of new shoots set against the decay of the `olmo's' trunk, which evokes Machado's young wifr in her terminal condition. `A un olmo seco' is highlights the central theme of landscape and countryside, and through the physical description, Machado remembers his personal experience in Soria. The river Duero acts as a leitmotif for the cemetery where his wife was buried. In `Caminos' as Machado develops the theme of his displacement in Baeza, his mood is finally attributed to the loss of his wife. Landscape can be linked with inner emotional landscape. The landscape in this poem is ominous, violent and inflexible: "hendido por el rayo." Therefore, landscape acts as a way of revealing inner emotion and Spanish National character throughout the collection.
The Disaster Artist is a memoir of Greg Sestero that depicts his friendship story with Tommy Wiseau. Greg is an ordinary high school graduate in his 20’s who dreams to become an actor. He has attempted numerous ways from attending acting schools to modelling. One time when Greg was attending his acting class, he met a person who would change his life. That’s Tommy Wiseau. The first impression that Greg had on Tommy is that he is a weird person. Tommy does not seem to be a person that can be friend with, and he is full of mystery. Greg resumes his story of meeting and partnering with Tommy in The Disaster Artist. His memoir continues all the way to the end of production of the movie The Room, which immensely influenced Greg to write
In the photograph, Crushed Car and the short story, “Ground Zero”, James Nachtwey recalls his experiences as a 9/11 victim. The photograph, Crushed Car depicts the ash, debris and rubble resulting from the attack. The focal point of the photograph is the police car, which is damaged from the falling debris. Nachtwey’s framing of the picture indicates the destruction’s severity by emphasizing the fact that authority figures, like police officers, were not able to survive the attack. Moreover, Nachtwey’s photograph evokes various emotional responses by focusing on the disasters that result from certain events in history. The short story, “Ground Zero” focuses more on Nachtwey’s experiences and thoughts as a witness. As a witness, he states, "I
The short story, “Unlighted Lamps,” by author Sherwood Anderson is about a relationship between a father and his daughter. Their relationship is a stressful one because neither of them talk to each other, nor show their emotions. Throughout the story, you find out why their relationship is the way that it is, and why it is hard for her father to talk to her. The unlighted lamps in the story represent flashbacks of memories wherever light dances across something.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a really influential writer for his time. The peace maker some called him. His writing style is a direct projection of his early life, or rather his whole life. Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote his stories on the real with a fantastic twist to it. Although Gabriel Garcia Marquez was raised by his grandparent’s stories, his cultural aspect of the life around him as a child and adolescent had more of an influence on him as a writer.