A Worn Path-Theme

    Racism: The belief that all members of each race posses characteristics, abilities or qualities specific to that race. Especially as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race(s). Racism is also a recurring theme in the short story "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty. Throughout the course of the story the protagonist, Phoenix Jackson, voyages across a great deal of terrain to pick up medicine for her sick grandson's throat. Amid this adventure she endures a countless amount of obstacles that are all allusions to her race made by the author. She has to deal with very rude interactions along the way with several white people. The first with a hunter, who finds her shortly after her old, feebly body has been knocked into a ditch by a dog. Before he helps her he takes a moment to laugh and display his pure ignorance for her struggle. "Granny...what are you doing there"? He is purely mocking poor Phoenix at this point. However, if this was an elderly white lady he would not have hesitated to pull her out of there immediately. After she deals with the likes of the hunter and the dog she continues to the pharmacy where she is again treated without the least bit of respect. The man and woman working there keep referring to her as "Grandma", clearly showing no recognition of respect for the elderly. They then repeatedly asked her if she is deaf, clearly disinterested in her well being. They were just furious at the fact she may be ignoring their questions about the health of her grandson. These judgemental and racial interactions yet again highlight the theme of segregation and racism in this selection.

A Worn Path-Symbolism

    Life is often referred to as a journey, an adventure, a pilgrimage. Some sort of voyage to find ourselves and create our own life long morality. For some of us, our journey leads us to a soul mate or a dream job. But for others the journey may not be about where they are going, rather the things that they overcame to get there. Phoenix Jackson, the main character in the short story "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty is an elderly woman who travels a great distance to get medicine for her sick grandson. Throughout this quest Phoenix has to deal with a multitude of obstacles that not only make her trip less enjoyable but also much more difficult. This physical journey into town is not only a representation of her determination but also that of her entire life. During this period in time life was not easy for an African American person. The obstacles in her trip represent all the obstacles she must overcome in her life time: her race, other peoples opinions and her aging body. In the story there is mention of a hill that Phoenix must climb. This hill is symbolic of her journey through life. It is all uphill and hard going but once you reach the top, the end of the hardships, and you look back on what you have conquered that is the true meaning of life. Phoenix made it through life despite all of the difficult times she had to endure. She kept going "until her feet knew where to stop" and that is all most people can strive for in a lifetime.

Poetry vs Short Stories

  In a great deal of English courses there is a variety of study. For instance one semester a class might do eight poems, five short stories two novels and a play. This variety is not only to keep the students interested. It is also to help students gather a literary preference. Some students will develop a passion for poetry. Poetry is a beautiful form of writing that most people never get to fully enjoy. Poets can give vivid imagery in the readers head just by coming up with the shortest perfect sequence of words that could momentarily take someone's breath away. Also a lot of poems are not very long in length, the types of poems studied in class usually do not exceed a page. Nonetheless, a poem so short as three stanzas could hold the meaning of something so large that there would never be enough time enough to discuss it all in one class. Ironically, this is the problem with poetry for lots of people. They simply cannot understand the immensity of it. How can something so short hold so much description? This is frustrating for a lot of students and then they turn their poetic brain lobe off never to be intrigued by flow of a poets pen again. On the other hand, short fiction is another possible love of students. Shorts stories are great creative pieces because, as hinted at in their given name, they are short. They give the plot just as any other story but it is to the point, only the important details are included. This is why students would prefer these over novels because the plot is not so dragged out. Be that as it may, this is also the problem with short stories. Due to the fact they are so to the point readers do not develop the same relationship and sympathy for the characters. By the end of a novel you feel like the protagonist was your friend, as if you knew them. Short stories do not give that kind of reader-character bond. Therefore there is no poems are better than short stories of vise versa. It solely depends on preference.

Point of view

  The point of view of a selection can take a major toll on it's effectiveness, even just in common everyday gossip. If Suzie and John win five hundred dollars on their Lotto Max ticket and they tell Johns mother. Then Johns mother tells her friend that John won the lottery it means something totally different than he just won a couple hundred. However, if John had been present to tell his own story to his mothers friend then there would have been no confusion. This just goes to show the power of the correct point of view. There a multiple types of point of view. There is first person, where the story is being told from the voice of a character who is/was present. Also there is second person point of view, which is when the narrator refers to "you", as if they are directly speaking to the audience. And finally there is third person limited and third person omniscient. The similarity between the two is that they both mean the story is being told from the voice of an outsider, somebody not connected or included in the story. But the difference between the two is the limited means that the narrator can only tell what is happening. He has no other details  to offer about the characters such as their thoughts or feelings. However, omniscient refers to someone who is all knowing. This means that the story is still told from an outsiders perspective but they know all the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Then they share it with the reader for better understanding of the plot and characters. All in all the optimal point of view is third person omniscient because it gives details that's help the reader understand the morals of the characters and their opinions toward the conflict that is going on in the story.

Movies vs Books

   Watching a movie is a great way to relax with family or friends. You can watch a comedy to make you laugh, a romance to make you cry or a horror to frighten you half to death. Movies are also used by students who want to get out of the commitment of reading a novel for a course. Instead of reading The Hobbit in grade 11 like a great deal of students have to do, majority of eleventh grades this year and for years to come will more than likely just watch the movie. Much in the same way teens say they are the biggest fans of the Twilight saga, yet they have never read so much as a page of the novels. Movies do not give the same detail and emotion as books. Books can give you the inner most thoughts of the characters: how they feel, what they think, if they are tired, nervous or depressed. These are things you can’t get with movies. Sure, you can tell a lot about a person’s feelings by their body language but that too can be described by the art and skill of a talented writer. In this particular quote from the first novel of the saga “Twilight” you get so much detail from the description of Bella’s thoughts. “I peeked up at him one more time, and regretted it. He was glaring down at me again, his black eyes full of revulsion. As I flinched away from him, shrinking against my chair, the phrase if looks could kill suddenly ran through my mind.” All that information just from one look, that is something you would never pick up on from a film. So although movies are quick and easy ways to get the gist of a plot, the much more powerful and captivating way is to take the time and read the novel. Once you start you will never feel the same way about movies again.  

Hills like white elephants

  Decisions are a prevalent occurrence in everyday life. For example, deciding what to wear in the morning or what to have for lunch. People are choosing every second of everyday. Granted that some choices are much more important than others, such as deciding where to go to college is more important than deciding whether or not to have that second cookie right before supper. These choices are driven by a person’s morals and conscience. The short story “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway is a tale of a couple at a train station who have recently discovered they are pregnant. Now they have to decide whether they want to keep the baby and take the responsibility of caring for another life, or have an abortion so they can continue their young, carefree ways. The theme of this story is choice and consequence. The couple has made the choice to create this child now they need to own up to consequence of their action. The woman is unsure; she keeps asking the father questions. “If I do it you won’t worry?” and “if I do it you’ll be happy and thins will be like they were and you’ll love me?” She craves reassurance from this man. He answers Jigg’s questions with statements. He says “we’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before.” He wants her to have the operation. The entire story they go back and fourth trying to decide which life they are going to lead; which side of the train station to be on. The train station symbolizes the decision they have to make. One side takes them home and the other to the operation. In the end the man takes their bags to the other side and they decide to keep their son or daughter. They decide to deal with the consequence of their actions like responsible adults.

The woman in this poem

  A symbol is a repeated thought or object in a literary work that has a deeper representation. Symbols are often used to efficiently bring forth a theme. For instance; “The Women in this Poem” by Bronwen Wallace in about a middle-aged lady who feels trapped in her vapid everyday life. The author makes reference to the fact that her kitchen is “spotless”. When she stands in it “her arms fall to her sides”. This gives the reader a better understanding of her revolted attitude toward this kitchen. However, it is not the kitchen she is displeased with, it is her life. The kitchen symbolizes that her life is dull or complete. There is no more that can be done with a “spotless” kitchen. It appears perfect. The woman smiles on through dinner but she is distracted by “the number for the airline reservations/ [chanting] in her head.” This symbol helps the reader grasp her feelings of hate for this life, and supports the theme of public perspective versus a person’s private feelings. She feels like she cannot leave to be with her “lover” because “she is thinking of/ her daughter’s piano lessons/ her son’s dental appointment.”All of these things a mother is required to worry about.by the image of a mother given by society. The stereotypical mother is supposed to stay home, tending to the needs of the rest of the family: cooking, cleaning, doing laundry. Society does not view mothers as people with needs for excitement, lust and adventure. They are supposed to be practical and worrisome. This is why this woman’s unhappy feelings are unacceptable. To want to leave your family for an exciting lust filled fling with a pen pal lover is not in the maternal profile. Therefore, this is the reasoning the woman in this poem is eternally fastened in her bromidic kitchen.

Carpe Diem

 Carpe diem; seize the day. Words commonly heard in everyday life but rarely taken to heart. This is a theme not only in lots of poetry but also in songs and public advertisements that are taken in by society on a daily basis. In English class this semester we did a poem called "To the virgins, to make much of time". This poem also posses the theme of carpe diem. It describes youth as being the best years of a humans lifetime. "When youth and blood are warmer" and how "old time is still a-flying...To-morrow will be dying". This conveys the message that today needs to be taken advantage of because tomorrow is not always guaranteed. Another piece with a theme of carpe diem is the song "If today was your last day" by Nickelback. This song conveys the theme a little differently than "To the virgins, to make much of time". The poem has more free spirited theme. Seize the day to chase your dreams and succeed is more of the message in this selection.  However, in the song the writer is trying to convince the listeners to do right by the world while they still have the chance: mend all of your broken ties with friends or family and forget all of your regrets. It says "so do whatever it take 'cause you can't rewind a moment in this life". This is also a good philosophy in the case that a loved one does not get tomorrow. Nothing should be left unsaid because there may never be another chance to say it. So carpe diem! Not only to motivate yourself to chase your dreams but also to forgive and ask for forgiveness with ease.

Sonnet 130

  Unconditional love refers to a certain affection that is without limitations. It is a term that can be used between two lovers to represent that their love is true. Or, it can be used by a parent/guardian to explain to their child that no matter what obtuse actions they commit throughout their life time, they will always unconditionally love them. William Shakespeare put a sort of playful twist on unconditional love in this sonnet 130. A sonnet is a form of poetry that surrounds a single idea. It has 14 lines, and is usually in iambic pentameter. Sonnets follow a definite rhyme scheme (a-b-a-b-a-b) and end with a rhyming couplet. Instead of creating a stereotypical sonnet about how beautiful his mistress is and how much he loves her. Shakespeare spends the duration of the poem bringing all of his mistress' flaws to light. He refers to her annoying voice when he says "I love to hear her speak, yet well i know/ That music hath a far more pleasing sound" He also says "And in some perfumes is there more delight/ than in the breath that from my mistress reeks". In this line he is talking about the stench of her breath. Throughout the entire poem he continues to insult this woman. He insults her so much that the reader becomes convinced that there is no possible way that he loves her. However, at the very end, the couplet reads "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare". He tells his audience that even though there a countless things he doesn't like about her, that doesn't mean she is unlovable. Nobody is perfect. And this is the message that he is trying to convey with this poem. He concludes with the idea that any woman could be misrepresented by outrageous comparisons. Society makes it very crucial for women to appear flawless. They have to fulfill a certain criteria for them to be considered appealing. This was a problem back in Shakespearean time and definitely one for years to come. 

Because I could not stop for death

 “Because I could not stop for Death,/ he kindly stopped for me;/ the carriage held but just ourselves/ and Immortality.” This is the opening stanza of the poem “Because I could not stop for death” by Emily Dickinson. This is a poem Dickinson wrote, much like the majority of her other pieces, with a theme of the death. There are three characters in the poem: the speaker, death and immortality. And the three of them are riding in a carriage together; death is driving while Immortality and the speaker are in the back. This drive symbolizes the speakers life, and how death is with us the whole way until the end. Oddly enough, she speaks of death as if he is considerate. She makes reference to his “kindness” and “civility”, and how he “slowly drove,/  he knew no haste”. This shows that the speaker believes that death is not rushing her life. He wants her to enjoy it. However, in the end she references how she “surmised the horses' heads were toward eternity.” So this indicates that she has died and passed on to “eternity”. This type of gloomy tone is not uncommon for Emily. A great deal, if not all of her poetry has the same theme of death and depression. She spent a great deal of her life isolated and her poetry reflects upon her loneliness. Majority of people believe that most of the characters she created in her poetry represent her own state of want. For example the speakers in both “Hope is the thing with feathers” and “I felt a funeral, in my brain” display that same sense of want. In "hope is the thing with feathers" the speaker alludes to her desire for hope. Much like in "I felt a funeral, in my brain" the speaker is desperately searching for peace of mind. Both of which Emily Dickinson was not abundant with either. This clarifies her connections to these themes and desires.