“Lee’s Eating Alone” written by Daniel Moeser, is a short but descriptive article that highlights thee poem “Eating Alone” and it’s message of what happens to family members after one passes away. I agree with what Moeser presents as points in Li-Young Lee’s “Eating Alone”. The tone, pattern, and how the child reacts when his father dies, play an important role in how the poem is perceived. When I first read the poem, I did get a sense of a dark, cloudy day, kind of gloomy day. However, by the end, I did have a more uplifting feeling afterwards. In the first two lines, the reader is exposed to a cold, rough ground, with the speaker picking the last available onions of the year (Lee, 1-2). The tone of the poem does progress into a much …show more content…
The tone is completely changed; the pattern goes back to focusing on food, but more in depth than the first stanza. In this stanza, we get a glimpse into what the son is cooking. With shrimp and rice, it sounds like a nice meal. Following that is a line that sticks out the most to the reader, “And my own loneliness” (Lee, 22). After mentioning food, the speaker makes it seems like the loneliness is an ingredient in a recipe, without it the recipe would not be the same. The way Lee wrote it makes since in a way. Without the loneliness from not having a parental figure, the son’s future would not have had the same outcome as it did; kind of like when a recipe is missing an ingredient. Moeser did a fine job looking into the patterns that Lee used in his poem, “Eating Alone”. There was some that I noticed when I read the poem, but after reading Moeser’s article, more popped out to me. I like how the article was short, but still covered a lot of information that was in the poem. I also appreciated how Moeser had the poem right before his article. This can give readers a chance to read the poem and article side by side and compare for their selves. It also helps when Moeser is quoting a piece of the poem, you can see the surrounding parts as well very
The speaker’s personal emotions emphasizes the poem’s theme since although his father is no longer with him in this world, the memory of his father will always live in his heart. Throughout the poem, Lee uses the sky, underground, and the heart to symbolize imagination, reality, and memory—emphasizing the poem’s theme of the remembrance of a loved one. Lee also uses repetition to convey the meaning of Little Father. The speaker repeatedly mentions “I buried my father…Since then…” This repetition displays the similarity in concepts, however the contrast in ideas. The first stanza focuses on the spiritual location of the speaker’s father, the second stanza focuses on the physical location of the father, and the third stanza focuses on the mental location of the speaker’s father. This allows the reader to understand and identify the shift in ideas between each stanza, and to connect these different ideas together—leading to the message of despite where the loved one is (spiritually or physically), they’ll always be in your heart. The usage of word choice also enables the reader to read in first person—the voice of the speaker. Reading in the voice of the speaker allows the reader to see in the perspective of the speaker and to connect with the speaker—understand
All eight stanzas Lee wrote combine to inform readers his experience of grief and how it went from beginning to end. In the beginning, Lee opens readers with his vision of life, which is everyone are circuit boards, who absorb the electricity of life. In other words, Lee is explaining how every person’s life goes, but it always comes to an end at some point. From Lee’s life, he has lost a friend as stated before named Stephen. “Pass On” then looks back at the memories of Stephen such as, how he enjoyed dribbling the basketball or singing his favorite songs. However, Lee begins to realize he should not mourn over his loss nor grieve as he looks back at memories, but instead find Stephen. Near the end of “Pass On” and Lee’s journey concluding, he believes that Stephen and everyone else who is not physically alive are in the breeze of the wind. More specifically, whenever someone feels a strong breeze of wind, a loved one of theirs is most likely right beside them. Furthermore, Stephen and everyone else dead are not only in the wind, but indirectly in people you see every day. With Lee, after nine years of searching for Stephen he has found him in Wilt Chamberlain, who plays basketball, his voice in a musical young boy who sings, and his smile in a young girl’s shinning teeth. With Lee’s beliefs and his own
When I read this poem I felt the tone was very gloomy and somber, because the setting of the poem takes place in a cemetery. I also felt sad for the speaker because she felt “left out” as stated in line 15. I did find it peculiar that she used the word left out when referring to all of her family members dying. Pastan uses allusion when she refers to the “grown-up secret” said in line 16. What I think
At the beginning of the poem, the audience is able to witness an event of a young boy asking his father for story. While the father was deemed a “sad” man, it is later shown that his sadness can be contributed to his fear of his son leaving him. The structure then correlated to the point of going into the future. The future was able to depict what would happen to the loving duo. The father's dreams would become a reality and the son's love and admiration would cease to exist as he is seen screaming at his father. Wanting nothing to do with him. The young, pure child can be seen trying to back lash at his father for acting like a “god” that he can “never disappoint.” The point of this structure was not really a means of clarification from the beginning point of view, but more as an intro to the end. The real relationship can be seen in line 20, where it is mentioned that the relationship between the father and son is “an emotional rather than logical equation.” The love between this father and son, and all its complexity has no real solution. But rather a means of love; the feelings a parent has for wanting to protect their child and the child itself wanting to be set free from their parents grasp. The structure alone is quite complex. Seeing the present time frame of the father and son
Stanza two shows us how the baby is well looked after, yet is lacking the affection that small children need. The child experiences a ‘vague passing spasm of loss.’ The mother blocks out her child’s cries. There is a lack of contact and warmth between the pair.
“When we had first seen the apartment, I created stories in my head of The relationship we’d establish with our cohabitants.” (Schmitt 128). This she found to be strictly imagined shortly after moving. Schmitt took in many considerations as to why she could not form a relationship with her neighbors and she pulled the reader in with how persistent she was to wanting to have a connection with the different people around her. Schmitt told details of the ceremony. The emotions of the reader is tied when she attends the funeral of the old man. “ She wailed, her voice broke, and then she repeated it, “Baba, Baba.” In the front row, her three sisters joined the chorus.” (Schmitt 130) , this shows the loss of someone who was clearly loved by many. Schmitt mentions that this drags her emotions in as well (Schmitt 130), she made the grandfather a part of her own feelings and put into perspective how hard it is to lose someone. This also connects emotion to the reader because it helps the reader connect to the story. Everyone has lost someone and putting in her input and not just the input of the chinese really makes a connection with one who is reading. By the end of the story Schmitt ends up making friendships finally with the people around her. She explains everything that she begins doing with her
...ut something the mother is doing for herself, while the second poem is all about the sacrifices the father made for his son. Comparing them shows the mother to be the more "selfish" of the two, in that her child and husband are distractions from her revelry, and they are somewhat burdensome to her. But the father is totally self-sacrificing -- getting up in the "blueblack cold," making a fire with "cracked hands that ached." He takes no thought for his own comfort, except, possibly, when he gets angry. This makes me think if the father had spent some time relaxing like the mother, maybe he wouldn't have gotten as angry. Maybe thinking of yourself every once in awhile is a good thing, I don't know, but it is interesting to note the contrast. I think mother in the first poem is person we can relate to, but the father in the second poem is a person we admire.
Time is another big struggle for college students. I know the feeling of applying for classes because it’s tough to decide on if there’s time to get from one class to one another; also if there’s time to get a bite to eat. Wendell Berry’s “The Pleasures of Eating: In What Are People For?” article suggests taking pleasure in eating a few ways to help anyone be a healthier eater, but “time” is an obstacle for the solutions. First off, both Berry and actually Pollan suggest students grow their own food in gardens. Specifically, Berry says to “Participate in food production to the extent” and “You will be fully responsible for any food that you grow for yourself, and you will know all about it. You will appreciate it fully, having known it all
The tone is very depressing and desperate. There were a lot of imagery in this poem as well as metaphors. Line 3, “scraping their bellies gray on the cracked shingles of slate”, is describing the clouds floating around the mountains and valley making the people in the community think that it will bring rain, but that did not happen and the black bottom clouds just gets blown away by the wind (l. 3). The poem continued with “...the houses blown open, their cellars creaking/And lined with the bottles that held their breath for years” as if the reader is currently standing in front of the crumbling house lined with dozens of jars, but none was filled with what the people were looking for (ll. 5-6). Soto then started describing the situation outside the community, “they passed by field where the trees dried thin as hat racks/And the plow’s tooth bit the earth for what endured/But what continued were the wind that plucked the birds spineless” where trees are withering, the plow becoming useless because the fields are dried up, and the birds are left with empty stomachs and the spine chilling wind (lll. 7-9). The imagery and tone of this poem end with “under the sky that deafened from listening for rain” where the people of Ocampo continued to wait and listen for the sound of thunder and rain which would become their salvation (1.
This is a very lyrical poem. The speaker's emotions and intentions are made very clear in very inconspicuous ways. The subtle repetition of certain words and images give the poem a very distinct tone. For example, the repetition of the words "cold" and "brittle" in the description of the grass and the car seats is interesting. It adds an element of fragility or ephemerality to the poem. The prevalence of cold imagery is also remarkable. The cold setting seems to freeze not only the grass, but the moment in time at which the speaker is in. The icebox 'full of lightness of air' could be an ...
The poem of A Story by Li-Young Lee analyzes the coming of age of a son through the eyes and emotions of a father. On the surface, it seems like a simple situation of a father telling the son a story to entertain him. But it is upon closer inspection and deep analysis that reveals the true meaning of the poem that the poet is trying to convey to the reader.
Li-Young Lee’s poem, A Story, explores a complex relationship between a father and his five year old son. Although the poem’s purpose is to elaborate on the complexity of the relationship and the father’s fear of disappointing his son, the main conflict that the father is faced with is not uncommon among parents. Lee is able to successfully portray the father’s paranoia and son’s innocence through the use of alternating point of view, stanza structure, and Biblical symbolism. The use of third person omniscient point of view allows the reader to know the inner thoughts of both characters in the poem. By knowing the thoughts of the father and his son, the reader is able to see both the father’s concerned thoughts and his son’s desire for a
The Author Li young Lee wanted to speak about the old and new, from when he lived in his old home, to living in America. His Poem “Eating Together” he wrote about this heritage and the traditions of living. Cathy Song was another author who write about the Asian American culture. She had also written through her poems the diversity between the two cultures she had lived in. In the poem “Lost Sister” she explain how a girl looses who she is when she moves and lives in America, this lost sister finds herself feeling alone among people she does not know. Cathy Song is able to write about her past and other peoples experience because of her
In the beginning of the poem, I believe the individual may have wronged someone, and eventually reached the realization that he or she should face his or her problems. I feel that the author is explaining that life goes on even though everyone has problems. The following passage, “Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes”, leads me to believe that there is reviving hope for those who head home (Oliver, 1945). Since the author mentions wild geese and not a single goose heading home, this lets me know that the individual does not have to be lonely and face his or her problems alone, while heading home to the family that he or she belongs
“We all think we’re too smart to be tricked by packages, lighting, or plates. We might acknowledge that others could be tricked, but not us. That’s what makes mindless eating so dangerous” (Wansink 2). Unhealthy eating and the rise of obesity have become increasingly prevalent problems in the United States over the last few decades, but what often goes unnoticed is an epidemic that very well may be the cause of these issues; mindless eating. According to Weight Watchers, the term ‘mindless eating’ is defined as “eating food without paying adequate attention to what and how much is being eaten,” continuing to mention that this habit can be influenced by our surroundings and portion sizes. With the advancement of technology increasing the number of distractions, the idea that “bigger is better,” and American culture thriving in a life of convenience, snacking has become much more than a quick granola bar. Rather, it has transformed into consuming an entire bag of chips, for example, without even realizing it. Clearly, mindless eating is a significant contributor to health problems such as obesity, but what does this practice truly say about the culture in which we live? This unconscious habit may be impacting society to larger extent than many realize; hurting productivity, driving up health care costs, prolonging and even encouraging a fast paced lifestyle full of haphazard decision making.