Alejandra Yanez Eng 1B

The Namesake
Question: How did Ashima and Ashoke think that they would preserve their culture after moving to America?
Pg. 37. Pg.65


I think that Ashima and Ashoke though that they could keep their culture traditios by not assimilating into American culture. They thought that they could keep their traditions by keeping the same traditions alive and doing the same routines as they would when they were still living in Calcutta. Sooner than later their children and even themselves began to live their lives just as Americans would. Ashima begins to cook American meals once a week; she begins to make Shake and Bake and Hamburger Helper, etc. Their bubble of tradition bursts and their presemption of wanting to keep their clture is not well suited.

Coldplay - Fix You [Lyrics]

Fix You by Coldplay 

Fix You by Coldplay is one of my favorite songs because I love the lyrics and of course my favorite band sings it as well :). It is a great song to make someone feel that it is perfectly acceptable to take risks and even if you don't end up with what you initially sought out for, at least you can say that you took that risk/ leap of faith. The rhythm of the song helps create rime and helps the listener catch the phrases that stand apart. It helps create my own meaning as to what the song is about. The mellow rhythm that the piano creates enhances the richness of the rime that the song plays out. There is repetition that goes along the song and that put together with the rhyme scheme enhances my love for this song. The constant repetition and the soft piano keys being played in the back ignite the meaning and help the song flow along without any confusion. Without the rime, I don't think it would be as affective as it is because its simplicity is what helps create the feel to the song. This song is important to me because whenever I feel depress or feel weak, I like hearing things that reassure me that it is normal to feel what I am feeling and that there is light at every end of a tunnel. Basically just saying that there is hope. Whenever there is a storm, the sun will eventually come out and shine down. Eventually I am going to reach my goals, whether it is five years from now or ten; I just have to take plunges and risks in my pursuit of reaching my goals. It is a song about knowing that there are going to be hardships and moments of agony, but also moments of clarity and reassurance. It is a long road and at times a dark one; there is going to be bumps along the road, but I have to be resilient.

Alejandra Yanez Eng 1B Blog

Not Waving but Drowning by Stevie Smith 

The poems denotative meaning is about a dead old man and the cause of death being drowning. His distress calls seemed though as he was simply waving to onlookers, but that was clearly not the case. Onlookers discounted the old man's distress calls because the "Poor chap, he always loved larking," Meaning that the old man always loved frolicking; it is like little red ridding hood and how she cried woof. The connotative meaning is how people are often absorbed in their own personal life that often time we ignore potential danger. Often times people are consumed in their own state of being that we forget to help out and ignore those that need help. Another connotative meaning is a metaphor for the man being depress himself. In the beginning stanza Smith says, "Nobody heard him, the dead man"(462). To me this suggests that the man felt alone and forgotten and the only way he could get means of attention was through his love for pulling pranks, not just pranks, but it was an escape mechanism. Depression took over this old man's life and his way of pulling/drawing people to get his attention was through "not waving but drowning" (462). Smith writes, I was much further out than you thought and not waving but drowning" (462). The old man's depression was greater than he himself imagined it to be, he died drowning from his depression. "It must have been too cold for him his heart gave away" (462). The poor old man's heart gave away, of course through drowning, but through his faults and consumption of his own depression. 

The poems key images are the image of the man waving, but they are not actual waves. They are distress calls that onlookers think are just simple waves/hand gestures. Just by the simple words, "not waving but drowning" (462) I can get an image of someone waving desperately to be saved from drowning. Those four words create a vast image; the use of these words are just enough to create imagery, but in such a way that gets the meaning across without being so confused. It does not just create imagery, but also emotions. Imagining distress calls for drowning being interpreted as waving calls sends chills. There is something utterly sad about someone falling through the cracks of depression and going into the water and drowning. This poem is sad and the imagery that gets created and the emotions is what makes this poem understandable and heartbreaking. The lines, "nobody heard him, the dead man" also help set the tone and image of what this poem is going to be about. They are simple words; there are no complicated use of diction. But yet as it is simple, the words take a sophisticated manner that help create a mental image of someone trying to be saved. Also as well as trying to be saved from their own problems/ depression.

Alejandra Yanez Eng 1B Blog

Friend I Never Had by Alejandra Yanez

I compromised all my time and
Rearranged my life to make sure
You were fine
You used and abused me emotionally
Acting blind not wanting to see
You took advantage of my generosity
I hate having you memorized in my head
Beacause everything you ever did or said were lies
All this friendship did was suck me dry

Leaving me here feeling alone and teary eyed
I have to laugh to keep from crying

Just to hide all the pain I feel inside
You have no idea how hard I tried making sure you were satisfied
Your selfishness lead me to believe that this relationship was nothing but a waste of time
I always wonderd why I cared so much because in reality you Never gave a FUCK
I see no need to be irritated or mad

Because I now see you as........ A friend I never had:)

Alejandra Yanez Eng 1B Blog

Past Light by Pimone Triplett

 Within reach of sex but not yet, I remember, a few stars 
          freckling the vacancies 
past the yard’s blown flood beams and father’s single 
          sycamore. Expert amateur, 
I thought myself, aged thirteen, rabid for facts and trying 
          to have a mind for 
what each light was. This I knew: arrivals of gaseous crackups 
          wholly unlike us, and not 
pinpricks, nor quaint connect-the-dots, nor tiny stabs of will. 
          Sky’s Zenith, Lyra, The Great, The Small Bear. 
Hopes rose. It was before the boys and window escapes,
          before breakup seeped 
into the house like bad water. I loved stories
          of staying in place.
In the one about the ancient astronomer 
          on the day of eclipse,
after he’d gazed his naked sight away,
          he thought he saw the sun giving birth 
to itself and scrawled, half blind, in a notebook, 
          as if wood fought back
to eat the fire. Meanwhile, our lawn sparked 
          with mother’s rake tines upraised,
sound of door slam and squabble inside, squeal 
          of brakes rounding 
out the drive. And if I wanted one clean,
          one lesser loyalty, wishing
so hard on that old onlooker?
          I could see him at full kneel
in dirt unflinching, begging the above to smote what’s bulk,
          the words arcing slowly up, 
saying, burn me all to star, o fathers.
          I understood nothing of their pain.
Already, close to home, the sycamore leaves in full 
          heat looked edgeless,
each dark on dark blurring the shapes 
          as if we were all dropped through: 

Zenith, Lyra, The Greater, The Lesser, The True.

     
         The person that I send my poem to was my friend Eric. First of all he was surprised and thrown off as to why I send him a poem. The reason I send him a poem is because he loves expressing himself through poetry and if anyone was going to understand this particular poem it would be him. He thanked me and told me that "after reading this poem my reaction was that  expressing  admiration toward nature and self identity is key to being a stand up person, this was a very deep and beautiful poem!!!:) He said that this poem is helpful in being free to be yourself without being afraid about what others are going to say. Eric said, "self identity is something that a lot of people struggle against and this poem is helpful into explaining self identity".  When I met up with him after class he gave a hug and thanked me for sending him the poem. His reaction was a good one, I was expecting him to maybe be a little weird out that I send him a poem, but I knew he would understand the poem better than I would.

Alejandra Yanez Eng 1B Blog

       In the Glass Menagerie the characters of Amanda Winfield is overbearing, arrogant, and yet also loving to her children. Despite her being dominant and selfish, she does love her children without a doubt. The way she shows her love is overbearing because instead of driving her children closer to her she drives them away. Her children: Laura and Tom are distant from her because she is one of those mother's that pushes them to do things not because they want to, but because it is what she wants. She creates her own emotional rollercoaster that she goes through with her children. In the scene where.Tom and Amanda are having a conversation about how he is unhappy with the job he has instead of comforting him she tells him that he is " a selfish dreamer" (1048). It is understandable that she loves her children and she just wants the best for them; what mother does not want the best for her children? But the way she proceeds in doing so is what cripples her children into having issues with being comfortable and accepting who and what they are. Laura is severely shy; she is so shy that she gets sick when she takes a typing class and has to interact with others. The fact that her husband left because "he fell in love with the idea of traveling" (). Despite all that foolishness of her, she is tender and would do anything for her children. All she has left are the stories she recounts over and over to her children about how she met their father and how she had so many gentlemen callers after her. She is ruthless when it comes to the love she has for her children. 


     Laura Wingfield is dangerously shy; she is basically handiapped by it. She has this complexity of her that makes her always doubt herself and bring herself down. She is her own bully because she does not allow herself to accept that she might have some defects, but she fails to use that as a stepping stone to greater things. In scene four Tom says, "She lives in a world of her own- a world of-little glass ornaments, Mother...." (1021). Like her glass collection, Laura is a fragile and unresponsive to movement and change. Laura just kinda sits around looking at life and time just pass by her very eyes. I feel for Laura, but at the same time she has to work on having some sort of confidence in herself. She has none what so ever and she feels like everyone looks down upon her. I get the part about being shy because I am shy myself, but one has to know when to say "ok this is not getting me anywhere, something needs to change" and she kind of just sits by watching life as it happens. 

Alejandra Yanez Eng 1B Blog

         In "The Yellow Wallpaper" symbolism takes a significant meaning towards the way women were and are still being dominated by men. The narrator of the story is a women possibly suffering from post pardum pregnancy. Her husband John (who also is a physician) completely isolates her from having any real contact with anyone except for himself and his sister. Gilman writes, "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do? (266).  He tries to cover up the fact that his wife is suffering from more than a simple nervous depression. The yellow wallpaper symbolize John's dominance over his wife by trying to mask/cover up the fact that his wife is suffering from more than a nervous breakdown. John tries to keep his wife covered like a wallpaper so that no one suspects that she is indeed sick like she claims to be. He feeds her with sound words and make her powerless against all that he says. Gilman states, "But he said I wasn't able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there...., "He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of myself for his sake, and keep well" (271). This isolation that his wife receives crosses over to the yellow wallpaper by generating a sense of powerlessness and vulnerability coming from the wife.

       The symbolism that the wallpaper transforms itself is into desperation coming from John's wife in trying to escape from isolation. Gilman writes, "And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern- it strangles so.." (276). By tearing down the yellow wallpaper she is letting out months of feeling over analyzed as being incompitent, powerless, isolated, and not being given the chance to fully recover. Her husband makes all the decisions without any consent from her. The yellow wallpaper despite being "repellent, revolting" (267) gave her sense of hope and being able to strip and rid off her inner frustration. Gilman states, "If those heads were covered or taken off it would not be half so bad" (276). She wants to feel like she still has some control of her life and the decisions that are being made for her. Those heads that she claims to see behind the wallpaper are a symbolism of dominance that her husband and sister have over her. The woman or women she claims are trying to crawl out from behind the yellow wallpaper is symbolizing her struggle with herself and those people trying to dominate her.