Sonny Blues - The fiction that influenced me is in "Sonny's Blues", because James Balwin showed me that it doesn't matter how lost we can be in life, there is always another alternatives hidden behind scenes that only a friend, or a family member can show you the right way. Sonny was lost in his life, but his brother patiently brought him back to "normal" life," without modifying his real personality. "but the reason I wanted to leave Harlem so bad was to get away from drugs. And then, when I ran away, that's what I ws running from-really. When I came back, nothing had changed, I hadn't changed, I was just - older." This last sentence shows we are what we are, and to try to run away from ourselves, soon or later, we will have to face the truth.
We Real Cool - This poetry showed me that how much teenagers wast time with insignificant moments. This poetry made me go back to mine youth and see how blind I was by doing things that didn't help me with anything. The young boys that left school to drink, and play pool weren't worry with their future. On the last sentence "We die soon," shows that they are having fun today, but tomorrow can be too late to go back.
Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night - I love this poem! This is my favorite poem because the words touched my heart. This poem is about a son who doesn't want his father to die without dignity. "And you, my father, there on the sad height,Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.Do not go gentle into that good night.Rage, rage against the dying of the light. "
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Poetry
1) Thomas, D. - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
The first feeling I felt after reading this poem is about an old man fighting against the death.
The second feeling is about a person who is sad with his father for not being brave against the final good night.
The picture reveals an old man with a lot of energy. The same style the writer is wishing for his dad.
The picture also tells us about being old without giving up totally.
2
) Brooks, G. - We Real Cool
) Brooks, G. - We Real CoolThe first thought of this poem is about kids who do not worry about their future. All these kids want is to have some fun without any further worries.
The second feeling is when the writer says that "We Die Soon," at this moment I felt the same way many young people feel; why we do not live our lives at the top, if at the end we all are going to die.
The picture is about young girl having no limits on her drinking time. She thinks that it's so "cool" to be drunk.
The picture also reveals that some people do not know how to enjoy their lives without penalizing themselves.
3) Dickinson, E. - I Felt a Funeral In My BrainThe first feeling for this poem was about someone living a funeral experience. The second feeling was about on how people like to live the dark side of life. People love to imagine the most morbid things that might happen in their lives.
The picture reveals that in early aging, human being love to fantasy their death.
Another reason for the picture choosen is the fact that there is still life, and we should live the present.
4) Frost, R. - The Road Not TakenThe first feeling for this poem is the regrets someone might have about bad choices made.
The second feeling is that a person might never know if the other option would be better or not. Because life keep on.
The picture shows that everything in life is about choices.
The picture also shows that we should be happy with our choices because at least we are trying to be happy.
5) Silverstein, S. - If the World Was CrazyThe first feeling from this poem is about how good the world would be without rules.
The second feeling is the meanings we put in our lives that for others doesn't mean the same.
The picture shows that the poem shows confusing, but still is a colorful world.
The picture also shows that there are many ways that we can interprete our lives. Some people will take life away too serious, and others will live more relaxed.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Poetry
1) Poetry is a literary art with short texts inducing the reader different emotions such as sadness, happiness, romance, hatred, and so on.
2) Poem for me is when there is a rhyme connecting other words bringing up the tones and flavors of the poetry. When the poem doesn't make any sense to the reader, it is because wasn't a poem.
3) Robert Graves was born in England in 1895. After been severe wounded in the World War I,Graves started practiced what he inherited from his parents, the poetry. Many of Graves poems were about wars such as the Over the Brazier and Fairies and Fusiliers which gave him the reputation as an accomplished war poet. But was an American poetry Laura Riding, who would influence Graves to change his writing style.Graves accomplished an international reputation as a poet, novelist, literary scholar, and translator, and in 1968 Graves received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
William Carlos William was born in New Jersey, USA in 1883 and died in New Jersey in 1963. William was an American patriotic aversed to any other culture, especially to European culture. Although, he knew that his passion was poetry, he decided to become a doctor and practiced both. His major works include Kora in Hell (1920), Spring and All (1923), Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962), the five-volume epic Paterson (1963, 1992), and Imaginations (1970).
Babylon
by Robert Graves
The child alone a poet is:
Spring and Fairyland are his.
Truth and Reason show but dim,
And all's poetry with him.
Rhyme and music flow in plenty
For the lad of one-and-twenty,
But Spring for him is no more now
Than daisies to a munching cow;
Just a cheery pleasant season,
Daisy buds to live at ease on.
He's forgotten how he smiled
And shrieked at snowdrops when a child,
Or wept one evening secretly
For April's glorious misery.
Wisdom made him old and wary
Banishing the Lords of Faery.
Wisdom made a breach and battered
Babylon to bits: she scattered
To the hedges and ditches
All our nursery gnomes and witches.
Lob and Puck, poor frantic elves,
Drag their treasures from the shelves.
Jack the Giant-killer's gone,
Mother Goose and Oberon,
Bluebeard and King Solomon.
Robin, and Red Riding Hood
Take together to the wood,
And Sir Galahad lies hid
In a cave with Captain Kidd.
None of all the magic hosts,
None remain but a few ghosts
Of timorous heart, to linger on
Weeping for lost Babylon.
Danse Russe
by William Carlos Williams
If when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,-
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
"I am lonely, lonely,
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!"
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
against the yellow drawn shades,-
Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?
4) Both poems reveal the deep emotions from the writers. These poems are easy to understand and imagine yourself in the situation.
2) Poem for me is when there is a rhyme connecting other words bringing up the tones and flavors of the poetry. When the poem doesn't make any sense to the reader, it is because wasn't a poem.
3) Robert Graves was born in England in 1895. After been severe wounded in the World War I,Graves started practiced what he inherited from his parents, the poetry. Many of Graves poems were about wars such as the Over the Brazier and Fairies and Fusiliers which gave him the reputation as an accomplished war poet. But was an American poetry Laura Riding, who would influence Graves to change his writing style.Graves accomplished an international reputation as a poet, novelist, literary scholar, and translator, and in 1968 Graves received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
William Carlos William was born in New Jersey, USA in 1883 and died in New Jersey in 1963. William was an American patriotic aversed to any other culture, especially to European culture. Although, he knew that his passion was poetry, he decided to become a doctor and practiced both. His major works include Kora in Hell (1920), Spring and All (1923), Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962), the five-volume epic Paterson (1963, 1992), and Imaginations (1970).
Babylon
by Robert Graves
The child alone a poet is:
Spring and Fairyland are his.
Truth and Reason show but dim,
And all's poetry with him.
Rhyme and music flow in plenty
For the lad of one-and-twenty,
But Spring for him is no more now
Than daisies to a munching cow;
Just a cheery pleasant season,
Daisy buds to live at ease on.
He's forgotten how he smiled
And shrieked at snowdrops when a child,
Or wept one evening secretly
For April's glorious misery.
Wisdom made him old and wary
Banishing the Lords of Faery.
Wisdom made a breach and battered
Babylon to bits: she scattered
To the hedges and ditches
All our nursery gnomes and witches.
Lob and Puck, poor frantic elves,
Drag their treasures from the shelves.
Jack the Giant-killer's gone,
Mother Goose and Oberon,
Bluebeard and King Solomon.
Robin, and Red Riding Hood
Take together to the wood,
And Sir Galahad lies hid
In a cave with Captain Kidd.
None of all the magic hosts,
None remain but a few ghosts
Of timorous heart, to linger on
Weeping for lost Babylon.
Danse Russe
by William Carlos Williams
If when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,-
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
"I am lonely, lonely,
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!"
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
against the yellow drawn shades,-
Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?
4) Both poems reveal the deep emotions from the writers. These poems are easy to understand and imagine yourself in the situation.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
1. The cafe takes place in a town in Spain or any other one that speaks Spanish. The time is around World War I when people shoud not be late in the streets, otherwise the guards would get them. The cafe was described as clean and pleasant. This setting can be interpreted as a security place where the old waiter and the old customer can find peace in an empty establishment and be comfort without any noise once it was late night with nobody else to disturb. "It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order."
2. They do not need name. Hemingway perfectly described the characters without a name because he wanted the readers see the differences between ages. 2 men were old living in the dark with nothing and nobody else waiting for them, while the younger waiter have a wife waiting for him, meaning he was starting his life with many hoping.
. The 2 old men lived their lives already. They have nothing else to expect from life, and nobody to wait for them when they go back home. They both are afraid to be home lonely, so they like to be surround people with a lot of light.
4. The conflict of this story is an old man who wanted to end his life because he is lonely, and doesn't like to be at home by himself.
The rising action is when the already tired younger waiter who goes to serve a drink to the old man who is the last customer at the cafe.
Complications: are the comparison between an old man and a young waiter, and the similarities between the old man and an old waiter. The old man was despair who tried to end his own life. On the other hand, the young waiter cannot wait to end his work and go home where his wife was waiting for him. Like the old man, the old waiter also did not like to go home and like to stay late at the cafe because both of them need light for the night .
Climax: Is when the old waiter starts to pray and explains why he has sympathy towards to the old man. As the old man, the old waiter has lived enough to understand the meaning of life where nothing is nothing.
Falling action: The old waiter would go home and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep.
5. The theme is about an old man who is "nada" nothing at the end of his life, he only wanted to be in order in a clean place. "It was nothing that he knew too well. It was all nothing and a man was a nothing too. It was only that and light was ll it needed and a certain cleanness and order".
6. Ernest Hemingway Biography: (1899-1961), born in Oak Park, Illinois, started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the age of seventeen. Ernest Hemingway was an established American journalist and writer. During his lifetime he wrote and had published about seven novels; six collections of short stories; and two works of non-fiction. He used to write about the darkness and pain people find daily, but without losing their dignity. Novels such as The Old Man and the Sea, and The Sun Also Rises put him as one of the top American writers.
1) As his character in the short story, Hemingway also had an example of suicide in his family. His father committed a suicide when him was only 12 years old, and Hemingway followed his father footsteps by ending his life too.
2) Hemingway's ways of life was to live deeply between the light and dark, exactly the same way his characters were in the novel. They wanted everything in order with secrets in their heart (dark) and their fears about life wanted light to not face the real life.
3) Like a soldier the minor character in the novel, Hemingway also was a soldier in the war.
2. They do not need name. Hemingway perfectly described the characters without a name because he wanted the readers see the differences between ages. 2 men were old living in the dark with nothing and nobody else waiting for them, while the younger waiter have a wife waiting for him, meaning he was starting his life with many hoping.
. The 2 old men lived their lives already. They have nothing else to expect from life, and nobody to wait for them when they go back home. They both are afraid to be home lonely, so they like to be surround people with a lot of light.
4. The conflict of this story is an old man who wanted to end his life because he is lonely, and doesn't like to be at home by himself.
The rising action is when the already tired younger waiter who goes to serve a drink to the old man who is the last customer at the cafe.
Complications: are the comparison between an old man and a young waiter, and the similarities between the old man and an old waiter. The old man was despair who tried to end his own life. On the other hand, the young waiter cannot wait to end his work and go home where his wife was waiting for him. Like the old man, the old waiter also did not like to go home and like to stay late at the cafe because both of them need light for the night .
Climax: Is when the old waiter starts to pray and explains why he has sympathy towards to the old man. As the old man, the old waiter has lived enough to understand the meaning of life where nothing is nothing.
Falling action: The old waiter would go home and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep.
5. The theme is about an old man who is "nada" nothing at the end of his life, he only wanted to be in order in a clean place. "It was nothing that he knew too well. It was all nothing and a man was a nothing too. It was only that and light was ll it needed and a certain cleanness and order".
6. Ernest Hemingway Biography: (1899-1961), born in Oak Park, Illinois, started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the age of seventeen. Ernest Hemingway was an established American journalist and writer. During his lifetime he wrote and had published about seven novels; six collections of short stories; and two works of non-fiction. He used to write about the darkness and pain people find daily, but without losing their dignity. Novels such as The Old Man and the Sea, and The Sun Also Rises put him as one of the top American writers.
1) As his character in the short story, Hemingway also had an example of suicide in his family. His father committed a suicide when him was only 12 years old, and Hemingway followed his father footsteps by ending his life too.
2) Hemingway's ways of life was to live deeply between the light and dark, exactly the same way his characters were in the novel. They wanted everything in order with secrets in their heart (dark) and their fears about life wanted light to not face the real life.
3) Like a soldier the minor character in the novel, Hemingway also was a soldier in the war.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Sonny's conflicts in Harlem
1. Harlem is an area located in the northern part of Manhattam. The first people to settle there was the Dutch by 1600's. After World War I to the middle of 1930 the African American population started to move in to Harlem. The white population tried to stopped the influx of blacks. White landlords made difficcult for blacks to rent housing in the area, they charged more the rents to blacks than to whites for the same apartament. Soon the area was known as the Renassaince of Harlem where flourished the jazz, musicians, poets, writers, and many others African American talents (columbia.edu).
1. Harlem is the setting Sonny grew up. He chose the wrong friends from the neighborhood. Sonny was a dreamer who wanted to scape from suffering from anything that will hurt him. Right before his mother death, Sonny was already addicted to drugs. He tried to scape joining the military, but Harlem was part of his life and inside of his soul. Harlem was the place where Sonny discovered his music talent, and his misfortune of drug addiction which was just too powerful (ucdavis.edu).
2. The African Americans have participated from every single war. The mainly motivation for the blacks enlist to military was the idea to become slave free. There are many black heroes who represented the country bravely, but the midia would expose only the whites as heroes on TV. The military would accept the blacks especially in wars while in peacetimes the whites were the favorites (nps.gov). One famous colored troop is the 369th Infantry Regiment in World War I also known as the Harlem Hellfighters. Before this event, the blacks were sent to wars only to labor work while the whites would go to fight, but the Harlem troop was determined to gain their place in the trenches showing how much they could be part of the American country (worldwarI.com).
2. Sonny knew that the Harlem streets was killing him little by little. In order to scape from the "killing streets", Sony wants to enlist to the army or navy where he could get free education and ironically feel free from his childhood house and sourrounding area (ucdavis.edu).
3. Billie Holiday's song: "A Fog Day" by George and Ira Gershwin. A foggy day, in London town. It had me low, and it had me down .I viewed the morning, with much alarm. The British Museum, had lost its charm How long I wondered, could this thing last, But the age of miracles, it hadn't past, And suddenly, I saw you standing right there And in foggy London town, the sun was shining everywhere (sing365.com).
3. The song "A Fog Day" takes place in London, but if we change the city to Harlem and it would perfectly describe Sonny's feeelings and sadness. Sonny shows that he has been through to a lot of pain, and he somehow thinks that he can find sunshine in his music and in the army.
4. Bebop started as a form of jazz in the 1940's. The protagonists of this new style of music and performance were trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. They made the songs more melodic and minimized the number of musicians in the band. They also used more swing style, but the type of songs wouldn't permit them to dance. New York was the first area where many other bands would get together in clubs to play bebop (hypermusic.com).
4. Bebop is a melodic type of song that says more about suffering and someone's pain. Sonny thought that as a black person he never would have the opportunity in American society unless something drastically would change. Sonny found his way as a musician to express his feelings and anger. In a conversation with his brother he confesses that he was using drugs and had dropped out of school, because he doesn't believe in hard work to change his life. On the other hand, his brother contested Sonny by arguing that there is another way to have a better life. The brother believed in hard work and education to succeed and one day be part of the white society (ucdavis.edu).
1. Harlem is the setting Sonny grew up. He chose the wrong friends from the neighborhood. Sonny was a dreamer who wanted to scape from suffering from anything that will hurt him. Right before his mother death, Sonny was already addicted to drugs. He tried to scape joining the military, but Harlem was part of his life and inside of his soul. Harlem was the place where Sonny discovered his music talent, and his misfortune of drug addiction which was just too powerful (ucdavis.edu).
2. The African Americans have participated from every single war. The mainly motivation for the blacks enlist to military was the idea to become slave free. There are many black heroes who represented the country bravely, but the midia would expose only the whites as heroes on TV. The military would accept the blacks especially in wars while in peacetimes the whites were the favorites (nps.gov). One famous colored troop is the 369th Infantry Regiment in World War I also known as the Harlem Hellfighters. Before this event, the blacks were sent to wars only to labor work while the whites would go to fight, but the Harlem troop was determined to gain their place in the trenches showing how much they could be part of the American country (worldwarI.com).
2. Sonny knew that the Harlem streets was killing him little by little. In order to scape from the "killing streets", Sony wants to enlist to the army or navy where he could get free education and ironically feel free from his childhood house and sourrounding area (ucdavis.edu).
3. Billie Holiday's song: "A Fog Day" by George and Ira Gershwin. A foggy day, in London town. It had me low, and it had me down .I viewed the morning, with much alarm. The British Museum, had lost its charm How long I wondered, could this thing last, But the age of miracles, it hadn't past, And suddenly, I saw you standing right there And in foggy London town, the sun was shining everywhere (sing365.com).
3. The song "A Fog Day" takes place in London, but if we change the city to Harlem and it would perfectly describe Sonny's feeelings and sadness. Sonny shows that he has been through to a lot of pain, and he somehow thinks that he can find sunshine in his music and in the army.
4. Bebop started as a form of jazz in the 1940's. The protagonists of this new style of music and performance were trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. They made the songs more melodic and minimized the number of musicians in the band. They also used more swing style, but the type of songs wouldn't permit them to dance. New York was the first area where many other bands would get together in clubs to play bebop (hypermusic.com).
4. Bebop is a melodic type of song that says more about suffering and someone's pain. Sonny thought that as a black person he never would have the opportunity in American society unless something drastically would change. Sonny found his way as a musician to express his feelings and anger. In a conversation with his brother he confesses that he was using drugs and had dropped out of school, because he doesn't believe in hard work to change his life. On the other hand, his brother contested Sonny by arguing that there is another way to have a better life. The brother believed in hard work and education to succeed and one day be part of the white society (ucdavis.edu).
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