Essay 3

I really like the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and I feel I could write a good essay on it. I did not care of the short story "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I did not find that one interesting enough to write about compared to the first one.

"Barbie Doll" by Charles Simic

Charles Simic is making a point about media in his poem “Barbie Doll.” He is describing how people will change themselves in order to be liked by others. I love some of the terms he uses in this poem. But it is kind of upsetting to me because I do not like the fact that the majority of this world has expectations on how people look. They cannot appreciate who a person is if they are heavyset, or they don’t wear makeup or buy expensive clothes that show more skin than they cover. Because of the media, people will do anything to change who they are so they can be “accepted.” People, especially younger girls, will “cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up,”  so they won’t be teased or frowned upon. When girls are at a young age they need to hear that they are smart, funny, and a joy to be around. They do not need to hear that they are fat, and have a huge nose. They feel very self-conscience about themselves from that point on. They change who they are for other people, so those people can be happy. But they do not change for themselves. I think that Simic makes this point very clear, and I think he uses this poem to show that it does not take a “Barbie Doll” to be happy, healthy, and intelligent.

"Digging" by Seamus Heaney

In “Digging” by Seamus Heaney, he is describing how his father knows how to use a spade and can dig really well. He also explains how his grandfather could cut more turf in one day than could any other person. Heaney describes how his father and his grandfather had their own way of digging, and how they were both the best at what they did. I like how he talks about both his father and grandfather because it shows how one trait was passed from generation to generation. Even though they are digging different things, they are still digging, and the father learned how to from the grandfather. Also, Heaney is digging in his own way. Instead of digging the ground for turf, or for potatoes, he is using his pen to dig his words onto his paper. He is great at digging with his pen, like his father was great with digging with his spade, and his grandfather was great with digging with a spade. I really enjoyed this poem because I could relate with learning how to do something and be good at it from my father, and my mother. They both learned the same thing they taught me from their parents and passed it on to me. I see this to be true with every family. When looking at individual families, you can see how kids end up doing, or acting the same way their parents acted. Sometimes it is not even intentionally learned. It is a trait that is just picked up from how they were raised.

"The Sound" by Kim Addonizio

“The Sound” by Kim Addonizio is a very short poem, but I thought it had a lot of meaning to it. He talks about how every way of suffering has a sound, even if we do not see it. I have never noticed it until I read this poem that this statement is true. When people hear suffering, their minds go to gory pain and loud screams. But as mentioned in the poem,  there is more ways to suffer. When Kim talks about how the mother sighs when the daughter leaves for a date, she is explaining that even though the mother might feel happy, she is still in pain knowing that her daughter is growing up and will soon be out of the house away from her. Just because the mother can be happy that she is growing up, does not mean that she is ready for her daughter to leave her side. Therefore she is unhappy and has as a “resigned sigh.” Everything suffers in a way, weather it is over a small problem or big problem, and it all has its own way of making sound.

"Mother's Mother" by Kiniko Hahn

In the poem , “Mother’s Mother”, Kimiko Hahn tells her readers that we learn all the important things from our mothers. In her poem, she explains how she has been learning her language from her mother, and how her mother knows many different languages that she learned from her own mother. She also explains how when her grandmother dies, and her mother dies, there would not have been enough time to learn everything they knew, and she wouldn’t be able to pass their knowledge down to her own kids,  making it even more depressing when they die.  I love how she uses the Japanese language to show some of her points, and how she compares the syllabic Japanese scripts with everyday modern objects. For example, she says “she can write her name in the kana that resembles tv antennae. She also explains how she can feel that she is a part of her mother and that her children are a part of her. I really enjoyed this poem because I can relate to the feeling of having part of my mother in me, and how I do many things the exact same way as my mother does. This poem is true for any gender, or culture, or even society. The older generation makes a huge compact to the younger generation, and the elder teach the younger. When the elder die, the younger have to take control and then be in charge. She uses the Japanese symbols to say “it is endless” and I think that correlates well with the rest of the poem because it is a never ending process to teach each and every younger generation.

"The Gift" by Li-Young Lee

In the poem “The Gift”, by Li-Young Lee, he tells us how the things we learn from our superiors at a young age stay with us for us to use when we are older. He also explains when we are young, little things tend to seem gigantic to us. He tells us of an experience he had with a splinter and how he felt like he would have died from it, until his dad was so gracious as to take it out, and to tell him a soothing story as he worked. Also, another point I got from this poem was that he did not mind when he didn’t remember the story that his dad told him, but he did remember the sound of his voice and that it calmed him down so he wasn’t worried about the sliver. From his memories of that, he could then take the sliver out of his wife’s hand gently and without pain.

Entry to Poetry

Coming into poetry, I was not very excited. I love reading poetry, but I do not enjoy writing poetry. Over the past few days, I have learned that there are many differnet methods of poetry, and differnt ways to present it. I was very facinated by the poetry slam because the writer is showing the emotion that they want the poem to describe. One reason I dont like poetry is because I dont like looking for the meaning that the author tries to present. I like to see it off the bat. I like to enjoy poetry after reading it, and I dont like reading and pounding into poetry just to find the meaning. Poetry slam is like writing poetry to me as well. I am not a writer, especailly when it comes to poetry, and I am not an actor. I could not stand up and act infront of people and show my meaning of a poem. But I love to watch people in the poetry slam, and I love to read other peoples poems. One thing I have learned from the past few days, is that the reader has their own meaning to their poem, and it is not up to the reader to make his own meaning. I like knowing that there is a meaning purposly put into poetry, but I almost do not like that because then I have to spend time on most poems trying to figure out the meaning, and hoping the meaning that I come up with is the meaning that was meant to be there.