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Insight on the Life and Works of Julia Alvarez
Essay on julia alvarez
Julia Alvarez contributions
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The poem that gave me the greatest emotional reaction was “Dusting”. The poem is very touching to me. The poet described a girl in the poem who is writing her scribbling everywhere and her mother keeps erasing her scribblings. “Each morning I wrote my name/on the dusty cabinets, then crossed/the dining table in script…” (Alvarez, 2006, 1-3). This poem is showing how the girl is trapped in her mother’s shadow. She wants more in life and doesn’t want to be like her mother. The poet is showing that the girl wants to be better than her mom, “But I refused with every mark/to be like her, anonymous.” (Alvarez, 2006, 17-18). In some cultural you see this a lot; parents trying to guide their child down the same career path they are in. Most of the
time the children wants to explore and try different things. This poem makes me feel bad for the girl, because her mom is holding her back, meanwhile the girl is just wanting to be successful and become somebody. Sometimes as parents you have to let your children explore the world on their own to find what is going to make them happy, not their parents. In the poem, the mother is not allowing the girl to choose her own path, “She erased my fingerprints….” (Alvarez, 2006, 9). By parents trying to direct the child in a certain path, it will cause the child to not focus on their education, because they may realize that they are not going to be happy. I think parents should not force their kids to do things they do not want to do, because they would end up unhappy and miserable. As a parent, I will make sure I allow my child to explore different options, and not make her follow my feet steps. Overall, this poem shows how some parents can be hold their children back in life, and not letting kids be successful.
Jenna Wortham’s “Turn Off the Phone (And the Tension)”, most definitely brings the question, “what am I doing?” to mind. This article explains Wortham’s deep opinion on electronic use, and its affects on today’s society. Wortham’s article mentions the idea of going “screenless”, which is removing yourself from your phone or any other device to reconnect with what you’ve been missing in the world. I agree that this strategy is beneficial to those that are attached to their screens. Even though going “screenless” is a work in progress for those that that are completely attached, it is a positive way to view the world in the moment instead of having to capture it for someone else to see,
A poem that I have been studying recently is Assisi by Norman McCaig, which I found very interesting to read because it made a statement which relates to our world today even though the poem was wrote about thirty or forty years ago. The poem has lots of ideas including effective figures of speech, good choice of words, important images and irony. The statement that McCaig makes is, where ever there is great wealth it always exists along side great poverty.
“Those Winter Sundays” tells of Robert Hayden’s father and the cold mornings his father endures to keep his family warm in the winters. In “Digging” Heaney is sitting in the window watching his father do hard manual labor, which has taken a toll on his body. In “My Father as a Guitar” Espada goes to the doctors office with his father and is sitting in the office with his dad when the doctor tells him he has to take pain killers and to stop working because his body was growing old and weak. The authors of the poems all look at their fathers the same; they look at them with much respect and gratitude. All three poems tell of the hard work the dads have to do to keep their family fed and clothed. “The landlord, here a symbol of all the mainstream social institutions that hold authority over the working class” (Constantakis.) Espada’s father is growing old and his health is deteriorating quickly but his ability to stop working is not in his own hands, “I can’t the landlord won’t let me” (774.) “He is separated from the homeland, and his life in the United States is far from welcoming” (Constantakis.) Espada’s Grandmother dies in Puerto Rico and the family learns this by a lett...
The poem I read was "From the Hazel Bough" by Earle Birney. This poem paints a great picture of a specific situation and also represents an aspect of life that I am sure we all have experienced in one way or another. In order to get the full affect of this poem, you have to clear your mind and envision the close details that Birney is using in the descriptions of the characters. This poem has to be read line by line.
Poetry is a versatile avenue from which waves or ripples can be made potentially. A writer of poetry has the ability to make their readers feel a while wide array of emotions and situations synonymous with the human condition. I, at first, was completely turned off to the idea of poetry at first because all I was exposed to early on by way of poetry were bland professions of love or lust or seemingly simple poems I was forced to process down to a fine word paste. Edgar Allan Poe was interesting, but it was a tad bit dry to me. But, after reading poems the Harlem Renaissance gave me a bit of hope for poetry. To me, the poetry written during that time period has a certain allure to it. They have serious depth and meaning that I, myself and empathize
It can be intense understanding the feelings a poem can cause in a person with simple structure and good vocabulary. Many artists like Jean have had the power to make anyone understand the difference the Harlem Revolution caused and the challenges they have gone through and yet have to overcome to earn a spot within society. “Cane” can be said to be, “An Attempt to change American Society” by Charles Scruggs From Duke
For this assignment, I chose the poem "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks. This poem is generally about abortion and the feelings a mother has. It's about the remembrance of the children aborted and the little things children do that the mother will miss. Many images are conveyed throughout this entire poem. When Brooks mentions "the singers and workers that never handled the air" it gives off an air of sadness. You get the feeling that Brooks is trying to convey, to the mother, a sense of longing for those little things mothers are know to be good at. This is shown in the line, "you will never wind up the sucking thumb or scuttle off ghosts that come" .Then when she starts to address the child saying, "you were born, you had a body, you died." its hard not to feel some sadness or even a feeling of injustice.
Poetry is very difficult to interpret because everybody has a different approach, understand, meaning and point of view. My next writer is an African Americans whose poem is” Black Art” by Amiri Baraka “Black Art”. In the poem “ Black Art “, the poem is dedicated to African American to wake up and reverse the situation , by taking control over everything . The author urges the audience to be conscious and unconscious about African-American. Amiri is saying I need to see all the hardworking of the African American not just word but reality, proof, demonstration, and action been taking. In addition, in a poem the author express his anger; frustration to the audience how he feels and the action need take
Reading Joy Harjo's poem was a very emotional experience for me. To me, it was about a woman who was trying to build a life for herself, but it was falling flat. Her dreams were not coming true, and she had come to a point where she had to decide whether to kill herself and end her misery, or pull herself up and begin again, continue living through her shattered expectations. Without getting into personal details, this poem pierced me through the heart. The ambiguous ending drives the point home that there's always a choice. There are always people who want to bring you down, but there are also always people who would support you. The choice lies in the hands of the woman who is dangling.
The poem I focused on was "Lucinda Matlock" by Edgar Lee Masters. The reason I chose this poem to write about was that it stuck out to me not just from how well written it was, but because I know someone who I care for deeply that can relate to this. I am very interested in this poem because elderly people are the most important to our society and losing them is one of the hardest things. This relates to our world today in so many ways because again as I have said losing an elderly family member leaves us all to morn. What we need to understand is that they lived a very fulfilling life and they were ready to go so why become depressed when we can be happy that they are in a better place finally to sleep
The poem I have chosen to focus on is “I was Born into a World” by James Franco. This poem focuses on how humans have successfully changed the world we are living in for the worse. Franco describes how most aspects of his life that he has always thought of as being definite are now starting to disappear in front of his eyes. The way that humans have treated our planet is ultimately resulting in the downfall of its diversity and its beauty. This position that Franco holds is something that I believe both Henry David Thoreau, and David Haskell would agree with.
Regardless of how many people tell me “crying is good for you”, I find myself completely avoiding it for reasons I can not explain. This is strange to me because l am not immune to the pleasure a person feels when they are finished crying nor do I lack experiences to cry over. However, this creative writing assignment brought tears to my eyes for the first time in months. My first impression of “I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom,” a poem written by Kim Dower was not so pleasant. As I began to read the poem my stomach curled up into a knot and the weight on my shoulders seemed to be increasing by the second; I was forced to lower my head. Before reaching the middle of the reading my eyes were clinched shut and I was weeping. After gathering
Ever since I can remember I have always loved reading poems even when I despised reading. I loved reading poems because they were simple and easy to read and understand at times. The first poem I can remember is “Rose is Red, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet and So are you” poem. I remember writing and reading about poems in elementary and middle school it was the only time I looked forwards to English class.. I even wrote a poem to enter in a scholar ship award once in high school. I did not win, but was offered to have it published in a poem book, but I declined the offer. We wrote Haiku, ballads, imagery, sonnets, limericks, and free verses. When I was writing these poems after the initial struggle of starting the poem I felt like it was a direct link to how I was feeling. An easy outlet it seemed to flow from my mind painting a picture to unknown places and emotions.
Loss of a loved one will inevitably bring about pain and grief, but it is better to have loved and lived life’s experiences, as without love, life would be like an empty vessel with no flavour, colour or spice. The daughter in “Poem at Thirty-Nine”, would never have learnt so much if it weren’t for her beloved father and the mother in “A Mother in a Refugee Camp”, cannot imagine a life without her son and would surely cherish the days that she had spent with her son rather than never having had a son. The mother in “Once Upon a Time”, only recognizes the fake personalities because she has experienced and has been an honest, loving and truthful person herself. The minor poems mentioned further contribute to this notion as it brings about the concept that love and pain go hand in hand.