Friday, March 14, 2008

The Kite Runner (Blog B)

This second section of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner is an extremely eventful one! Amir's selfishness is only getting worse. "It should have been just the two of us-that was the way I wanted it" (Hosseini 82) Amir states when Baba invites more people to go along with them to Jalalabad. His anger and jealousy also worsens toward Hassan. He tries to get Hassan and his father fired by creating an entire set up, making it look as if Hassan had stolen some of his birthday money and watch. "Baba came right out and asked" (Hosseini 105) and "Hassan's reply was a single word" (Hosseini 105) describes the moment that Baba confronts Hassan and Ali about the situation and to Amir's surprise, Baba didn't think twice to forgive him. "They'ed both been crying; I could tell from their red, puffed-up eyes" (Hosseini 105) was a great describtion of how the whole scheme effected both Ali and Hassan so greatly.

Not long after Ali and Hassan decide that it is time for them to leave. Amir is overjoyed until he finds out that him and Baba are also moving due to the Russian invasion. I agree with others who have said that they would have liked this novel to elaberate a bit more on the invastion because I am not very familiar with it either.

While making their way to the United States Baba and Amir encounter being lied to about their source of transportation, spending nights in a dark basement taken over by rats, traveling in the tank of a gas truck, and finally by bus, make their way to Fremont, California. It is very different for the two of them to live in the United States because they are no longer the well known and rich people they once were in Kabul. "On the floor: oranges, an overturned magazine rack, a broken jar of beef jerky, and shards of glass at Baba's feet" (Hosseini 127) was the result of the grocery strore owner asking Baba for an ID with his check. He is not used to the United State's customs yet. He is also not used to being the one receiving charity so when he acquires food stamps he is said to have "walked out of the walfare office like a man cured of a tumor" (Hosseini 131).

Baba is severly ill now. He has cancer, though he doesn't want anyone to know about it. He is also turning down the chemo as help to fight the disease. With this situation Amir is still only thinking of himself, wishing Baba would agree to the medicine so that he would still be around for him. Doctors encourages the radiation treatment, but Baba still declines the offer to better himself. I think this is his way of saying that it is time for Amir to make his own way and that he needs to start looking at the bigger picture in life.

Amir meets Soraya at the flea market and they are now engaged to get married. She tells Amir her secret while Amir holds his, telling readers "I envied her. Her secret was out" (Hosseini 165). He was about to let her know what he has been keeping in for so long, but doesn't. Hopefully he will eventually.

digging

I really enjoyed the poem "Digging" I. sounded like Seamus Heaney's grandfather was a hardworking man. "To drink it, then to it right away." p679:20, was one of the more memorable quotes. I also find it very descriptive in the way the potatoes were dug."Nicking and slicing neatly."P679:20. The grandfather was an architect when it came to harvesting potatoes. The poem was very well done

Thursday, March 13, 2008

My Papas waltz

I really enjoyed this poem even though it was quite short. I captured everything that I needed to know from those four stanzas! From what I understood about it was that the little boy was getting abused.Like in the fourth stanza where it says " he beat time in my head"(Piercy 991). I am not sure if he intended it to sound like this but it sounds like he is getting beat to me! Granted yes why would he call him papa if he got abused but some people still believe that whoever abuses them are still good people. Some people think they don't know what they are doing is wrong and still love them. The only thing I don't understand is why the author sugar coats his words. I guess you could say he is almost trying to mislead you. I really enjoy reading poems as long as I can understand them. It doesn't necessarily have to make complete sense but as long as I understand it. I just hope the rest of the poems that we have to read are as easy to read as this one was!!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

"Barbie Doll"

I interpreted Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” similar to the interpretations of the rest of the class. I agree that the overall message was society’s demands of females and that suicide was the result of them. When I read “dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipstick the color of cherry candy” (Piercy 2-4) I thought not only of small girls but also the way that Barbie has evolved. She has gone from bright red lipstick to glittery pink lip gloss. The stoves and irons remind me of Barbie’s dream kitchen and the dolls that did pee-pee seem to represent new dolls that other company’s have manufactured since the success of Barbie. These are all typical toys that normal girls play with, which is the beginning description of the girl in this poem. “You have a great big nose and fat legs” (Piercy 6) was the start of the girl’s self-consciousness. The whole second stanza goes on to describe her flaws: “healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (Piercy 7-9). Such characteristics were not acceptable of a female in those times so she felt that she owed the world an apology for her lack of feminism and physical appearance. The very last stanza begins out explaining what she was told to do, but after following along for so long the girl feels that it must come to an end. The person she knew herself as is being hidden and she is commanded to form herself the way that society fells females should be. “She cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up” (Piercy 17-18) to me represented her weakness and lack of desire to keep them up to par. The fact that she was dressed up in pink and white stood out to me right away because I thought of the box that Barbie is displayed in, which consists of those two colors. Also the fact that it was a nightie implies that she will be resting a long while. After the girl takes her own life everyone finds her so beautiful, thanks to the help of cosmetics. The girl they see isn’t the girl that she really was so those people may be pleased to see that she now looks like they wanted her to, but I don’t believe that her personal happy ending would relate to suicide.

Digging

This is the first poem I have read that I actually understood what the author was talking about. I think it is really nice for a person to have his father and grandfather as role models and want to duplicat thier work ethic. You can definately tell that the boy wanted to be like his father because he has memories of going to work with his father when he was younger. "Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily with paper" (Heaney 679). I have memories just like that when I use to go to work with my grandpa. He was a very hard worker and he used to cut trees down so he could build shelves and desks, he was a carpenter and he worked like 15 hours a day. The little boy reminds me of myself. It seems the man is a little depressed that he doesn't do the same kind of hard labor his father did. "But I've no spade to follow men like them" (Heaney 697. He says that he will use his pen as a spade. Meaning he will do his work with a pen like maybe writing poetry instead of farming. Out of all the poems we have read in class so far this one is by far the best one. It has the best message and I understand why the author chooses certain words.

"Barbie Doll"

This poem is like a real life of a teenage girl. It starts off using little kid words such as "dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons..." (Piercy). Then it goes on to explain about puberty and how it is the "magic of puberty," (Piercy), which is like an oxymoron because there is nothing "magic" about puberty.
Puberty causes many bad times in a young girls life like this poem explains about the girls "...great big nose and fat legs" (Piercy). There is a lot of little things that people say to and about girls that really lower their self-esteem and make them depressed and want to commit suicide like the girl in this poem.
After the girl is dead people then notice how pretty she looks and says it aloud. I think if people wouldn't have said mean things about her in the first place then it could have saved her life. The girl finally got to look beautiful "In the casket displayed on satin she lay with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on, a turned-up putty nose, dressed in a pink and white nightie" (Piercy). Now if only she could have lived this fairy tale life alive instead of having to take her own life to get her fairy tale "barbie doll" life. Very unfortunate for this poor girl who people felt the need to make fun of her.

"Those Winter Sundays" and my thoughts!

I have never been a big fan of reading poetry, however, I’ve had a little bit of a change of heart. I really like having all the class discussion on the poems that we have read so far. None of them have been too hard to understand or follow. My favorite part is how many different interpretations that can be made on just a single poem. You are able to interpret it how you want to, and it’s really interesting seeing what other people thought the same thing meant. For example, when I read “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, I understood the poem to be about a monotonous Sundays that seemed to be the same very week. The tone of this poem seems to be slow and almost regretful, especially when the speaker says, “No one ever thanked him” (678). I also get the feeling of an indifferent relationship between the father and the speaker. When discussing this poem in class, it helped my pick up on the smaller details in the story that have a big impact. Such as the significance of the words “blueblack cold” and “chronic angers of the house.” When I first read the line “he put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,” I didn’t give it much attention (678). However, when discussing it in class, I realized how powerful the word blueback is. I might represent a bruise-like feeling. It was so cold that it hurt! There is so much power in the few words that poems use, if you take the time to figure it out.

Photograph of My Father in His Twenty Second Year

When i read this poem I automatically thought that it was about, an alcoholic father who never spent time with his kid, the narrator. I notice that an image that constantly comes to mind is the father holding a beer and holding the string of fish. This gives me the reason to believe that he is an alcoholic and someone who loves to fish. The beer and fish are brought up twice in the poem. It seems like the father never spent time with him because at the end of the poem the narrator says, "Father, I love you, yet how can I say thank you, I who cant hold my liquor either, and don't even know the places to fish" (13-15) So he must not have shown him how to fish, or maybe he has never asked him to go fishing with him. Also something else that comes to mind is maybe the narrator is an alcoholic like his father because he cant hold his liquor.
The narrator seems to be looking at a picture of his father who has either been dead for twenty two years or he was twenty two when he died. I believe that he is dead because the narrator says, "All his life my father wanted to be bold" (line 10).
This was a pretty straight forward poem.

Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year

We briefly discussed “Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year” in class today. I agree with some of the things that were said about this poem. I think it’s a son writing to his father but what I’m not sure about is if the father is dead or alive. The son is looking at his father after what appears to be a fishing trip, “I study my father’s embarrassed young man’s face. Sheepish grin, he holds in one hand a string of spiny yellow perch, in the other a bottle of Carlsbad beer” (line 2-5). The son talks about his father trying to be something he couldn’t become, “All his life my father wanted to be bold” (line 10). At the end of the poem the tone changes into regret towards his father for not teaching him or taking him fishing like his father did when he was younger. “Father, I love you, yet how can I say thank you, I would can’t hold my liquor either, and don’t even know the places to fish” (lines 13-15). In that statement the son admits that he might be an alcoholic himself, and that to me seems like the only thing his father ever really showed him. His father was an alcoholic and that’s what the boy grew up with so instead of following in the father he wanted footsteps he only had one person to follow; his alcoholic father’s footsteps which he seems to regret as much as his father not taking him fishing when he was younger.

My Papa's Waltz

Even after discussing this poem I am still convinced that the son of an alcoholic dad is looking back at his childhood describing the daily occurences. I believe he is an alcoholic because of the phrase, "the wiskey on his breath" (873). I believe the father to be a hard worker because the son describes him with, "palm caked hard by dirt" (874). But after the hard working day I believe the father has a drink to relax. At this time he wrestles around with his son witch doesn't get to see him much. I believe the son loves him much because there are two phrases like, "still clinging to your shirt", (874) as the dad puts him to bed, and "he waltzed me off to bed" (874).

Monday, March 10, 2008

My Papa's Waltz

In "My Papa's Waltz" the author remembers his father and all of the senses associated with dancing with him.
In the first paragraph, the author makes a comment on his father’s drinking and the smell. “The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy.” But as you can tell, he still wanted to dance with his father, even though it was a difficult dance: a waltz.
In the third paragraph he uses the sense of touch to describe his father’s hands. “Was battered on one knuckle;” And you can tell that the author is young in this poem because he talks about scraping against his dad’s belt buckle when dancing with him. I think it brings happy memories to everyone, memories of when we were all kids standing on our parents shoes while dancing with them. It was always fun to do and you would always feel so special while doing it.
In the last paragraph, the author uses the sense of sight by describing his dad’s hands. “With a palm caked hard by dirt.” I think that is a very familiar sight in that a lot of us remember some male in our family as having weathered and dirty hands. They are hands of a hard worker, hands that told the story of working hard labor to earn their money.

Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year

Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year by Raymond Carver is about a son looking at a picture of his father when his father was 22years old. The son talks about how his dad is leaning against his old truck. He describes how his dad is dressed and how he is looking "bold"while holding a beer in one hand and fish in the other. The son is comparing himself to his dad. How they both can't hold their liquor and he doesn't know where to go to find the fish. Also the narrator talks about how he loves his dad but dosent know how to thank him. I think that the narrator talks the way he does in the poem becasue that how a lot of boys feel like, that whole "male thing", how they dont show their feelings very much. Again the narrator does a good job with really showing the father and son in a sense of bonding even though the narrator is looking at a picture. But all boys and girls do the same thing when we look at old pictures of our parents we can kind of see ourselves in them.

"Digging"

In the poem "digging", there is a melancholy tone. The narrator laments about his father who farmed and his Grandfather who dug sod for a living. He is very proud of their work, since he mentions their jobs in such detail and has nothing negative to say about them. He also expresses a fondness of the memories, with "the squelch and slap Of soggy peat"(679-25). At first, I thought that the flowers were a monument for his dead father. Now I think that his father is outside of his window shoveling flowers, and the sound reminds him of "twenty years" before(678-7). His dad was a potato farmer then, and was as good of a digger as his grandfather. His "grandfather cut more turf in a day Than any other man on Toner's bog"(679-17). When we learn about the two men that were great with a spade, and he says "I've no spade to follow men like them", there is a tone of regret. The narrator mentions how his pen is "snug as a gun" in his hand(678-2). This would imply that he takes the pen very seriously. He then says he will "dig with it", which would mean that he will make his living with a pen instead of a shovel.

My Papa's Waltz

My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke was about a boy an a father in a kitchen. The father was an alcholic and the son seemed proud to have his father around him. Some of the passage that made me think the son was proud were:
"but I hung on like death"(873)
"Still clinging to your shirt."(874)
the poem could go both ways positive and negative
the positive part is the speaker is explaining that his father having a drinking problem and it is okay because the son is able to spend time dancing around with his father. The negative side is that the father is dancing with his son drunk and it is not the graceful kind of waltz it is the abusive kind.

Those Winter Sundays

In the poem Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden, the cold was what I felt the most. In the first stanza, second line, the word blueblack cold stopped me to think. The first image I thought of was a bruise, but then I started to think about what the outside looked like when it was very early in the morning. The reflection of the moon off the snow gives the air a blue look while still being dark. The color black gives it the feeling of how cold it is. It's so cold outside the cold air will have the effects of frost bit resulting in black fingers etc. It made me wonder if these two thoughts had anything to do with the relationship the father had with his family. At first, I didn't know what the father was doing every Sunday morning. Some questions I asked myself were, Why was the father getting up early in the morning? Was he going to work? What did fire have anything to do with it? All I knew was that on lines three and four the way his hands were described showed me how hard of a worker he was. After class, I learned it was a fire stove he was lighting every morning to heat the house on Sunday. After knowing about this, I could get the feeling that how the speaker, which I imagine is a son or daughter of the family is not appreciating all the work the father does. Communication in the house was limited and it also states that the house had chronic angers. So the question remains, What kind of anger is he/she talking about? Physical,emotional,verbal? On line ten, showed that he/she didn't speak nice or at all to his/her father. This might be why the speaker feels this way. In the end, the feeling changes and there is a realization for the speaker.