The Man He Killed

The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy gave me a different thought from the title, that the poem was going to be about some guy that got shot. Some one had murdered another man. The second Stanza was the only part that had to do with shooting and was the only part that deal with someone dying. After reading and talking it over in class i realized it was more to do with a soldier that was in the war. In war you have no guarantee if you will survive or n0t, and I think this poem is trying to show that people that go into war do not know what is coming for them.

The Kite Runner

When reading "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini through pages 165-212. I couldn't believe the rollercoaster of emotions I felt. One minute I was happy, when I thought Amir and Hassan would be reunited. The next minute I was crying when Amir found out that Hassan and his wife were murdered. "No," I breathed.
"-and ordered him to kneel-"
"No. God, no."
"-and shot him in the back of the head."
"No."
"-Farzana came screaming and attcked them-"
"No."
"-shot her too. Self-defense, they clamed later-"(195).
Hassan was such a wonderful person. I couldn't imagine what would happen to his son, Sohrab. Sohrab has delt with a lot of death at such a young age, not to mention BOTH parents, and his grandmother who he just meet. Hassan at least got to renite with his mother before she died. "She looked calm, at peace, like she did not mind dying now. The loss was hard on Hassan-it always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place"(188). This line sticks out a lot to me because I know exactly how it feels, because I never got the oppertunity to know my dad before he died. I think if I would have know my dad it would hurt more than I could of imagined. It's all I've ever know since I was one, is my dad was the brightest star in the sky. I could also relate with Hassan when he never knew his mother while growing up. I was very happy Hassan got to see his mother with his son. Now on a complete different note I can't believe that Amir and Hassan are 1/2 brothers! "Ali was sterile, " Rahim Khan said. (198). I couldn't believe it, if were a different setting I'm sure the truth would of came out a lot sooner. I now think that now it's Amir's way of repaying Hassan for all of the pain and sorrow he caused to him. Amir needs to find Sohrab and take him in as his own son, and not just a newphew. I know that Soraya would approve because, "The doctors said we could adopt,"(164). I can't wait to finish to find out if I'm right, it sure would be a way Amir can forgive himself for what he did to his brother.

Dulce et Decorum Est

When I looked at the title of this poem I thought that it would be confusing to read, but once I read it I found out it was very easy to follow. The last couple of lines to this poem say "The old Lie: Dulce t decorum est Pro patria mori"(27-28). This means, sweet and fitting it is to die for ones country. After you read the poem you sense that the narrator obviously does not agree with this. He capatilizes the L in Lie, which apparently tells you that he strongly disagrees with the saying. I disagree with the author, and agree with the saying.

What I picture is from all of the “Five-Nines,” a person is walking around with this gas floating in the air which is the thick green light not being able to breathe trying to find a way out of it but can’t. I later found out from our discussion in class is that the gren light is the way the people see through their mask/helmet things. This is a very strong image that I immediately think about when I see the title of this poem.

Dulce et Decorum Est

" Sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country" (887) That is the definition of the poem written by Wilfred Owen. It is somewhat ironic to read the title to this poem and know what it means and how important it was to many back when this poem was written. Back when this poem was written, many agreed that their was no greater death than to die for ones country. Today, I feel that many people's views on this may have changed a bit. While it is honorable to die for our country I believe the long war that is being fought has many people questioning " Is it worth it anymore?"
"He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning." (887) In this line of the poem I am imagining a person struggling to live. I am imagining a person that has gone to the front line to fight for their country and to fight for what they believe in. I am also imagining that this is an image that is instilled in many young soldiers minds as they fight for our country in a war that seems cannot be won.
This poem illustrates the many hardships that a soldier must endure in times of chaos and uncertainty. This is also a poem that in reality reels through a soldiers mind time and time again after having been through this type of trauma described by the author.

The Man He Killed

At first I thought this poem was about a man that was wondering why he killed this person, like he didn't understand why he was at war or what he was doing there. After discussing it in class I understand it is about a person who is regreting what he did, he is sad that he had to kill this man. "I shot him dead because-/Because he was my foe"(Hardy 9,10). I think that shows that him being a foe is the only reason he killed him. I also think the man feels bad about shooting him because he talks about the only reason he is in the military is because he was out of work and had no other option. "Was out of work-had sold his traps-/No other reason why"(Hardy 15,16). He thinks that the other man was in the same situation, was out of work and it makes him think was it worth it to join the military. Being in the military I kind of realize what the man is thinking. Like you don't have the option to think for yourself, you just do what your told without asking questions. I think the man is really feeling guilty and I think he will hesitate the next time he gets in a gun fight. Afte learning what nipperkin and half-a crown was it made sense that this poem was written in 1902.

"Moving Camp Too Far"

After discussing "Moving Camp Too Far" in class I realized that this Native American is telling of her heritage and all the things they did as part of their culture and all the things she can still do and the things she can't do. She says she "i can't speak of many moons moving camp travois I can't tell of the last great battle counting coup or taking scalps" ( 1-7), but she says "i can see and eagle almost extinct on slurpee plastic cups i can travel to powwows in campers & winnebagos" (12-16), but at the same time none of this stuff is truly the same as the olden days when her ancestors were around to experience it all. At the same time she tries to be positive and talk about the things that she can do to keep her heritage alive. "i can dance to indian music rock-n-roll hey-a-hey-o i can & unfortunately i do" (19-23). This shows that just because things aren't exactly how it was in the old days and some traditions fade there is still some traditions people can do to keep their heritage alive no matter what.

The Man He Killed

Discussing this poem gave me more detail to understand what the speaker was really feeling. My first impression was that a man would need to kill or be killed. Not knowing the life or feelings of the other he killed, he would go in a stance of thinking that it was his job, his enemy. The line "Had he and I but met," (page 710) made me believe this because he is thinking that maybe if they would of they would be friends, share interests with one another. But he can't feel this way, because he is made out to be the enemy and he has no choice. If he wanted to remain alive he were to shoot first. "Just so: my foe of course he was", (page 710) then leads me to believe he is not happy for what he has done, but confused, trying to convince himself that it is ok. Even though deep down he knows it isn't.

Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year

This is another poem that refers to alcohol. A son is remembering his father through a photograph. What the son remembers is his dad away most of the time fishing and drinking beer. I study my father's embarrassed young man's face ( 2 ). The father must of been embarrassed of his drinking problem, and that is probably what killed him. It seems the son could of been an alcoholic, but realizes he can not hold his liquor, so he chooses not to drink.
And don't even know the places to fish ( 15 ) suggest one of two things. Either the father never took the son fishing, that why he does not know of any places, or that because he is not a alcoholic and spends all day drinking and fishing, therefore he doesn't know of any places. No matter what problems the father had, the son still loved him.

My Papa's Waltz

This poem to me represents a father who has been drinking, and probably abusive to his wife, in the line suggest The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle ( 9-10 ). I think that father was abusing his wife, the son woke up, and the father started dancing with the son. The poem refers that the son does not know any better as the father then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt (15-16). Usually children in abusive homes do not know any better. Children think this is the norm, so regardless of the abusive, the son still loves his father. This is probably the only time the son gets attention from his father, and wants that attention to last even with his father being drunk.

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

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!!

"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.