"Heat-lighting streak"

Heat-lighting streak by Matsuo Basho

Heat-lighting streak-

Through darkness pierces

The heron’s shriek.

This poem was by X.J. Kennedy. The poem is an original haiku from Matsuo Basho (1644-1694). These haiku was directed to the to the soldiers who strike fear to their enemies. “Heat-lighting streak,” have the meaning that a attack should be strong and fast, point to a specific target. Precision is a vital key to any attack. Every attack is mean to hit its target. The phrase, “Through darkness pierces,” have the meaning that any precise attack will be hit its target as long is consistent and fallow, just like a lighting. At the end of any confrontation one or the other person will lose. “The Heron’s shriek,” symbolize the end of the confrontation and the announcement of a victory.

            The imaginary speech makes you think about a lighting traveling across a dark night. The strength and the power behind the lighting is show and hear across the land, being Strong enough to create fear, making the animals around scream. As any actually thunder in the middle of the night will scared the birds away.

             

exile, sonnet

As I walked alone into the room,

The visions of your beauty blinded me.

From a dark, deep, cold, som’thing started to bloom

Piece by piece the covers of my hearts icy

Broke down and the winter in me ended

Like a new day, the sun rise and shine

We dance the night away and we bonded

Until the morning, with music and wine

The morning alert our hearts to stop

but the love will never stop growing

to the sky I look and wait for raindrops

a waterfall slowly start, life bleeding

to his arms you walked, look back and smile

now everyone understands my exile.

An Email to my fallen brothers.

Write a blog entry about the person you sent your poem and how they reacted to it.

            Poetry is a hard thing to get into unless you have a clear understanding of what it is being said. I have read many poems, some been sad and gloomy and others bright and happy. Today I read a poem that describe the years a lived in the military, out there with other just like me who we learned to call brothers and sisters. The poem I decided to email, no to one person but instead to a large amount of people I keep in contact with, was “Driven across many nations,” by Gaius Valerius Catullus and translated by Charles Martin. To my fallen brothers in arms who had fought in war with me an e-mail to their now maybe forgotten accounts been send. To those who were lucky enough like me to return home safe, emails been send too. I know that to those who read my email a tear or two might have come to their eyes. In my platoon, I was the youngest there for the youngest brother. To my oldest brothers who are still out there my email [will let them know that I will never forget the fallen brothers that we all have.

Driven across many nations, across many oceans,

   I am here, my brother, for this final parting,

to offer at last those gifts which the dead are given

   and to speak in vain to your unspeaking ashes,

since bitter fortune forbids you to hear me or answer,

   O my wretched brother, so abruptly taken!

But now I must celebrate grief with funeral tributes

   offered the dead in the ancient way of the fathers;

accept these presents, wet with my brotherly tears, and

   now & forever, my brother, hail & farewell.

The Glass Menagerie

“The glass Menagerie Symbolism”

        The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams has a many different types of symbolism that describes the characters of Laura, Amanda, Tom and Jim. Some Items such as; Glass, light, color and music constitute the substance of the dominant symbols and motifs, serving to reveal deeper aspects of characters and underlying themes of the play. Tennessee Williams wrote the play so that each character had a special symbol which resembled their personality. But he didn't only give the characters of the play a resembling symbol; he also mentions the apartment blocks to be Bee hive conglomerations of cellular living-units .The way he describes their location also has a lot of symbolism in its roots because he describes them to be flowering  as warty growths in overcrowded urban centers.

        Tennessee Williams used many symbolic aspects to describe Laura and
the world she lives in. In the play, Laura represents the very fragile, shy
and emotionally crippled girl. In her mind she lives in a world of glass
animals and doesn't have a connection to the real world. The menagerie of
glass also represents the fragile relationships among all the
characters. The glass unicorn is most obviously a symbol of Laura--
delicate, sadly different, an anomaly in the modern world. The glass motif
recurs throughout the whole play in many other forms. When Laura dropped
out of college she constantly visited the zoo, a glass house of tropical
flowers that are as vulnerable as she is. During Laura's and Jim's brief
romantic encounter, Laura is gaining more confidence about herself. It seems
as if she is starting to escape her world of illusions. When they started
dancing together, Jim accidentally knocked the little glass horse over.
Laura, who usually worships her glass collection more than anything
else, replied to his excuse;” He’s lost his horn. It doesn't matter. Maybe
it's a blessing in disguise." and”I'll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less--freakish! Now he will
feel more at home with the other horses, the ones who don't have
horns....".These two quotes give an impression that Laura is finally
escaping her illusive world. She thinks that she might have a chance to
survive the real world. What she doesn't know is that she is about to be
wounded by the news of Jim's engagement. After Jim tells her the news, she
gives him the unicorn as a souvenir and retreats into her land of the
glass menagerie never to come out again.
           In the play, Tom is the adventure seeking man trying to escape
the prison Amanda is keeping him trapped into escape the real world, Tom
constantly goes to the movies. The movies make him think about all the
adventures he missing. It his little land of dreams. He is jealous of his
father who left his family and achieved what Tom always wanted,
"Freedom”. Tom has never been comfortable with the way his mother treated
him. She always disagreed with the way Tom behaved. When Amanda put him down after Jim left, saying that he didn't even know that his friend was engaged and that Jim broke Laura's heart, and Tom finally had enough. He took the money that was meant to pay for the electric bill, left the family and finally pursued his dream of adventure.Still, when he crosses by a window with little perfume bottles made of glass or other small things made of this
material, he thinks of Laura.
          Amanda, who is the domineering parent of Tom and Laura, lives in a fantasy world in which she was a young beautiful girl, living in an area
called Blue Mountain. She always told Laura and Tom about the many
gentleman callers she received every day. Sometimes there were as many as
seventeen a day, all prominent men on the Mississippi Delta. To make some
extra money she sells The Homemaker's Companion that features the
serialized sublimations of ladies of letters who think in terms of
delicate cuplike breasts, slim, tapering waists, and rich and creamy
thighs. Those are all parts of her fantasy world which make her think back
to the time when she was a young and beautiful girl. She also is the
domineering parent in the family. She treats Tom very harsh sometimes. She
does that because she is scared that she is going to lose her children
just like she did her husband.
        Jim is the most realistic character in the play. He is didn't live
in any fantasy world like Tom and his family did. When he talked to Laura
after they had dinner, he tried to make her more comfortable because he
felt that Laura was very shy. He showed Laura how superior he is in order to
impress her. For example, he said,” Look how big my shadow is when I stretch.” He wanted to show Laura how manly he is. Jim’s nickname for Laura, Blue Roses, suggests a phenomenon that is contrary to nature. Blue also means sad.

          The symbolism in the play The Glass Menagerie made the story much
more interesting. It gave the play a special point which made it more
interesting to read. Tennessee Williams used a wide range of symbolic
aspects to describe Laura, Amanda, Jim, and Tom who are four out of the five characters in the play. Symbolism is sometimes very important in
plays, stories, etc. because it tells us about the secrets which are hidden
inside.

"The Things They Carried"

“The Things They Carried”

            What is the story saying about the theme of war?

The story talks about how war is no place for one way romances,” He would image romantic camping trips into the white mountains of New Hampshire.”(341) The theme of war is painted gray with curtain of sorrow and tears full of fear, “For the most part they carried themselves with poise, a kind of dignity. Now and then, however, there were times of panic.”(351) War is a weight on the mind of the soldiers that they will carry until the end of their life,” They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing-these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity.”(352)  War will change a men ideals and dreams. War can create a brotherhood among those who are together and far away at the same time,” there it is, they’d say. Over and over-there is my friend.”(352)  

            War is and will always be the fear behind human dreams and ideas. I had seem the born of a new life into these world and the also the early end of someone life. War is nothing more than a selfish shadow that would not care about who, what or where, violence will manifest. War can corrupt the purest of heart, and transform him into a inhuman animal,” They burned everything. They shot chickens and dogs, they thrashed the village well, they called in artillery and watched the wreckage….” (349)

They weight of war can not be weighted in pounds, it can only be weighted in dreams destroy and tears shared.

"The Storm"

“The Storm”

Try to explain the time the time and place as if you were explaining them to someone who had no read the story.           

            The short story “The Storm” takes place around the late 1800. The main setting of the story takes place at Calixta’s house. For use of French between the characters and the weather conditions that takes place during the story, we can conclude that it might be late 1800 and that it might be located northern, east coast of the United States. During the story a strong and quick rain appears. During the story there are clues that reveals that the storm happen late afternoon, also due to the fact that some of the characters show up home when dinner was being prepare lets us know that it is already pass noon time.  Calixta’s house is a typical house located on the out skirt of town, with a big front porch and tall trees around the house. Inside the house there are a couple rooms, the family room, a gallery or living room, bedrooms, and kitchen.

 Far into the horizons a storm is coming, dark clouds approach and  the sound of the thunders alert the coming of the rain. 

  

 During the beginning of the story, Bibi and Bobinot took shelter from the rain at a store near by the house.

Calixta's house was a small house. she had a nice porch where her chickens took cover when the rain started. M'sieur Alcee also took cover for a moment before he was invited to come in. 

Calixta invited M'sieur Alcee to come in into the living room to wait until the storm ends.

M'sieur Alcee had a quick look of Calixta and Bobinot's room.

As the storm passes Calixta and M'sieur Alcee talkde about their past.

when the storm was ended M'sieur Alcee left, the sun shine it over the dripping leaves, and the sense of tranquility ones again arrived.

This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona

Who is the main character or protagonist of the story? _­ make a quick list of the character’s physical, mental, moral, or behavioral traits. Which seem especially significant to the action of the story? Does the main character have an antagonist in the story? How do they differ?  Does the way the main character speaks reveal anything about his or her personality? If the story is told in first person, what is revealed about how the protagonist views his or her surroundings? What is the character’s primary motivation? Does this motivation seem reasonable to you? Does the protagonist fully understand his or her motivation?

The main character of the short story, “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” (247) is Thomas Builds-the-fire. The main character is an American Indian, psychologically disturbed, with strong family values, and with a storyteller background behavior. Thomas Build-the-fire since a little boy enjoyed to tell stories that came to him from dreams, the breeze of the wind, the cry of the animals, the sound of the water running. Thomas Build-the-fire antagonist is Victor. Victor and Thomas Build-the-fire are two completed different persons, even though they grow up together each one with the past of the years choose a different path. Victor is more like the normal American person. He worries more about the money and worries about himself. Thomas is more attach to his Indian roots. When Thomas at the end of the journey tells Victor,” “I know how it is,” Thomas said. “I know you ain’t going to treat me any better that you did before. I know your friends would give you too much shit about it.””(256) When Thomas tells that to Victor, I get the idea that Victor is and will continuous to be a self-centered person who worries to much about what other think about him. If the story was told in a first person view, the point of view of the main character about his surroundings would be sad and at the same time full of life with sign and messages to him, with ideas to tales for him to pass down to the anybody who would listen to him. The character primary motivation is to help a fellow human being in distress. Another motivation for Thomas to help victor is what victor’s father told him ones, “He said I had to watch out for you as part of the deal.” (254) Thomas ones had a vision that drove him to be in the middle of nowhere, where he met with victor’s dad. He later understood that victor’s dad was his vision, “take care of each other is what my dream was saying. Take care of each other.”(254) Thomas motivation is to help each other, his motivation appeals to me very reasonable and very noble. The protagonist seems to fully understand his motivation to help others. When Thomas and Victor made it back to the reservation, Victor wanted to thank him and repay him but Thomas as a good person did what he did no for repayment or any reason. He did what he did because he just wanted to help a person that was in need.       

           

"A Rose For Emily"

What is the point of view of the story? Who is telling this story? How is this unusual? Why would Faulkner select this point of view? How does the point of view fit with the theme of the story? What specific lines in the story give you clues about who is telling the story?
    
      On A Rose For Emily, by William Faulkner, the point of view of the story is set as observer. The story is narrated by an unnamed character who throughout the whole story seemed to be part of the everyday conversation and also seemed to know everything that goes around town. This method of narration is unusual as it gives the reader the illusion of the character being an important part of the story or one of the main characters. I believe that Faulkner chose this point of view to give an unbiased perspective. The point of view fits the story in a way that does not give any idea of the outcome or set any emotional distress towards any character. Throughout the story, I found many clues about the narrator being an observer. The first line that star to giving me the idea is the sentences,"When Miss Emily dies, our whole town went to her funeral."(33) Another line that gives me the idea that the narrator is an observer is,"She carried her head high enough-even when we believed that she was fallen."(37) Sentences like that ones before are throughout the story where the narrator included himself but he never actually gives his judgment or point of view.   

German Coello 1B "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

Does the plot surprise you? Why or Why not? When you started reading the story, what did you think would happen?

     I was very surprised by the plot and by the turn of actions from the trip. I thought the family was going to have a nice trip to Florida and come back with a lot of memories. When I started reading the story, it seemed like the story was going to be another funny, without-a-care, simple, family story. I thought it was going to be just a family trip without any trouble; however the end shocked me to the bones.