Ana
Sucaldito
Ms.
Wilson
AP
Multicultural Literature B
28
February 2013
Blog Comments
Kevin’s Blog:
Responded
to: Response to Tormented
http://huangw-cp.blogspot.com/2013/02/poems-passages-and-multiple-choice.html?showComment=1360898745886#!/2013/02/poems-passages-and-multiple-choice.html
First
of all, I want to say that I love your profile description! It’s hilarious!
When analyzing your first passage, you mentioned how the point-of-view created
your character’s attitude of indifference. When you brought up this point, I
was able to connect it to my own project. Leroux writes a majority of his works
in first person. “. . . I begin to recount here . . .” (Leroux 1). This use of
first person allows the narrator to interject his own opinions and reactions,
fostering a more personal relationship between the speaker and his audience.
Conversely, the use of third person in your text detaches the speaker from the
situation, creating that indifference that you pointed out.
I
really like your analysis of Tormented by Claude McKay, especially your
emphasis on the interaction between the speaker and second person. I would like
to introduce the idea that the speaker is not actually speaking to an actual
person, but to desire itself, much like "Blind Man's Mark." This
would add another layer to the poem, explaining why the speaker can "not
fight [it], bold and tigerish." Desire can never be truly extinguished and
torments until sated. This idea would showcase the poem an apostrophe, where
the narrator speaks to an absent personification.
Paige’s
Blog:
Responded to: Close Reading Poetry Essays
http://margaretatwoodbypaigerichie.blogspot.com/2013/02/close-reading-poetry-essays.html?showComment=1361143111818
Hola! I really like your analysis here of how diction and
other literary devices create the weary mood. It's very involved and related
well to your book. One of the new things that you brought up was how the enjammed
lines could create an ironic effect. I never quite understood how enjammed or
end-stop lines function in poetry other than for rhyme or meter. Your comment
on this showed that I could analyze syntax in poetry in a similar way that I
would analyze syntax in prose.
I would, however, like to introduce the option that the horse
isn't just transportation, but also acts as another form of the man's psyche.
The conscious part of the man, the rider, may become angry with the journey he
has to make and the toll it takes and thus lash out at himself, specifically
his unconscious side, the beast of burden. But, the speaker's primal side also
has no control over the situation and simply cannot go any faster or stop,
compounding the grief and weariness, making the speaker only able to
"[answer] with a groan" (Shakespeare 11). This struggle between the
conscious and the unconscious sides of the man could attribute to his burden as
he travels on.
Ann’s
Blog:
Responded to: Poetry Essay #2: Do
not Despair
Your
presentation and thesis created a large emphasis on ambiguous endings and their
link to character development. I find ambiguous endings on of the more
difficult sections to analyze because there are so many possible
interpretations that could be viable and/or supported by the text. Connecting ambiguous
endings to character development will give a new way to analyze these endings
and focus on strong interpretations.
I
love this poem by Kipling. It really lays out the steps to be an adult in
simple language and diction, so that those still growing up, the poem's main
audience, can easily understand the steps to adulthood. However, he doesn’t make this steps easy. You
have to “dream---[but] not make dreams your master” and think, but “not make thoughts your aim”
(Kipling 9-10). Qualifying his advice allows the youthful audience to fully
comprehend what he means, and warns them that it will not be as easy as it may
appear. I also appreciate how Kipling structures the rhyme scheme. The ABABCDCD
structure makes the poem more sing-songy and child-like, juxtaposing the poem's
message of maturity. This juxtaposition really underscores the paradox of how
easy and yet difficult it is to "be a Man" (Kipling 32).
Anna’s
Blog:
Responded to “The First Step:
Acceptance”
I really enjoyed your analysis of dialogue. When I read
poetry, it’s not always something I think to focus on, but when you brought it
up, I understood what it brought to the poem through its sparse syntax and
contrasting content. I also like your analysis of the goldfish and their
significance. When you first read it in class, I didn't realize that the mother
had been the one to kill the fish, so that idea opened up a new viewpoint for
me. After considering that viewpoint, I would, however, like to add on a little
by expanding upon the father’s role in the fish's death.
In the end, he is the one who "threw them to the
cat" (Bukowski 20). The mother kills the fish, proving her determination
to release herself from the cycle, but the father is the one to truly end it
all, by throwing away the carcasses, the remnants. This could suggest two
scenarios. The end of the beatings could either conclude with the father
solving his inner problems and no longer beating the family of his own
volition, or with the father making a mistake/action that ends in his own
demise, where he sets the events in motion for the end of the abuse.
Burkowski's ambiguity here elevates the poem and adds another layer to be
examined.
Lauren
Morreto’s Blog:
Responded
to: Poetry Analysis of Portrait d’une Femme
The
focus on magic realism in your presentation intrigued me. Although we did
analyze fairy tales earlier in the trimester, it surprised me that those
elements showed up again in contemporary novels. The use of fairy tale
archetypes and themes in Angela Carter’s books served to create a base for
Carter to satirize traditional gender roles. Those fairy tale influences became
essential: without them, she would have nothing to build off of. Your
presentation truly shows how seemingly archaic tales can still have an impact.
I
completely agree with your analysis of Walser's attitude toward Fevvers. He
continually doubts her, in order to try to understand. His questions, his
words, truly dehumanize and diminish her worth. However, I slightly disagree
about how this line parallels the conclusion of the poem. Rather than parallel,
I think the lines juxtapose each other. Although Pound does call out the woman
who has "nothing that's quite [her] own" (Pound 29) he doesn't
diminish her worth. Immediately after calling her out, he says "Yet this
is you" (Pound 30). Through this line, he acknowledges that the woman does
have an identity, one crafted out of different sources, but an identity
nonetheless. In this way, he builds up the woman while Walser tears down
Fevvers.
Allie’s
Blog:
Responded
to: Poetry Response 2
Your presentation’s intro won the prize for most unique.
Connecting your life with your author’s kept everyone engaged and made the
author seem more relatable. Your focus on five main literary elements for each
passage or section helped me to organize what I should be getting from the
presentation, giving me a focus on what I should study for the AP exam.
One allusion that you didn’t reference in your analysis was
the “Fet” (Blok 2). This line could be alluding to “Afansy Fet,” a poem
discussing Ophelia and her songs. Her madness drove her to suicide, making her
one of those who find it “difficult . . . to walk among people/. . . pretending
not to have been killed” (Blok 3-4). I like how the author uses juxtaposition
and paradox in this poem. It begins and ends with the idea of "life's
fatal fire" (Blok 10) yet the body of the poem describes a dull,
passionless existence, the opposite of fire. The people of these poems have
lost their spark and have resorted to simply going through the motions and
struggling to "find order in disordered swirls of feeling" (Blok 8).
There is also a paradox in the idea that life's fire can be fatal. However, the
purposeless individuals in this poem prove this to be true. Passion, the fire
needed for life, has killed them, for without it, they are emotionally dead.
Will’s
Blog:.
Responded
to: “Before a Painting” Prose Analysis
I like how thoroughly you thematically
relate your poem to your text. I didn’t quite get the connection during the
presentation or when reviewing the PowerPoint, but your essay explains it very
well. I would, however, like to analyze the texture of your poem a little more.
I disagree with one of the comments you made on your PowerPoint: that the
rhyming couplets advance the notion of detachment. I would argue that it is
actually the use of the negative that underscores the detachment. “Not with the
crowd. . . nor felt the power” (Johnson 6-7). “Not” and “nor” are the words
that emphasize the sensation of isolation. The rhyme scheme does draw attention
to the lines, but it doesn’t serve to emphasize detachment.
Almost all of the literary devices in the
poem serve to emphasize the speaker's awe for the artwork. The polysyndeton in
the first stanza, "He had created life and love and heart" (Johnson
3), underscores the power of art with universally positive qualities; the
multiple “and[s]” puts the focus onto these ideas. Relating the art to the
music of an "old cathedral dim" (Johnson 14) imbues the painting with
the feeling of reverence that many associate with religion.
Caroline’s
Blog:
Responded
to: Response to Poem #1
An author’s background always
affects his or her works, consciously or not. Your presentation truly pointed
out how true this is. When reading, many don’t consider the author in the
forefront of the action. Your thesis and presentation proved that you should:
Winterson’s past had a profound effect on her subject matter. Characters from
her childhood, such as her mother, act as templates for characters in her
novels.
I like how thoroughly you related
this poem to your text; I can totally understand the links between the two. I
also found the correlation between the language interesting: you mentioned that
Winterson likes using patterns of three and four. In this poem, negatives,
"Nothing . . . no reason . . . no longer" (Hirshfield 1,3,7) also
appear as a set of three. This use of the negative emphasizes the action taking
place. Like "Blind Man's Mark," from first trimester, the speaker has
a complicated attitude towards desire. Her final example of desire, geese
flying and crying, doesn’t create the most positive imagery. Although
Hirshfield's view is more positive, the ending, "the living cannot help .
. ." (Hirshfield 13) could imply a sense of finality and lack of control
over one's actions.
Rhea’s
Blog:
Responded
to “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” Analysis
I
really loved your presentation, as well as your analysis. Even though you told
me how nervous you were before presenting, it never showed. Before your
presentation, I had never heard of genderlect, in passing or in detail. Your
explication of genderlect gave me a new way to analyze dialogue (particularly
helpful for me, since analyzing dialogue is not one of my strong points),
In
“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” I find the paradox between the woman's sphere and her
oppression particularly interesting. Her marital ties, her husband both confine
her to the domestic sphere, yet they also make it impossible for her to
function even in these limited parameter. That is why she "find[s] even
the ivory needle hard to pull" (Rich 6). The nature of the tigers is also
an paradoxical aspect of the poem. The structure of tiger packs gives more
power to women than human society: both males and females are permitted to
hunt. But in the poem, the "tigers prance across a screen" (Rich 1),
only existing on the television, so even these symbols of power and freedom are
confined in some way. Like women, they can only be seen and not act in
Jennifer's world.
Song
Yi’s Blog:
Responded
to: “"Agape (Sacrificial Love)" by Royston Close Reading Essay”
Bravo
on your presentation! I’ve never really had a chance to hear you present for
long time before and you did very well. The focus that you placed on allusions
during your presentation also impressed me. Allusions are relatively easy to
identify and place in a work, but they truly help to create meaning. They add
depth by connecting the work to other works and events, giving the text
underlying levels and meanings. Your explanation of allusions in Lewis’ works definitely
reminded me of their power.
I
like the way you thematically analyzed your poem. You make good connections
with your text and explain them so that someone who has not read the entire
book can understand what is going on. However, you didn’t touch much on the poem’s rhyme scheme,
which has elements I find interesting. The poem is written in four line
stanzas, consisting of two rhyming couplets apiece. But the first and third
stanzas both have an AAAA rhyme scheme. These stanzas discuss "sacrificial
love" (Royston 9). The AAAA scheme reflects such wholeheartedness: the
woman gave everything for him and the stanzas this, devoting all its attention
on one rhyming syllable. At first glance, the rhyme scheme seems simplistic,
but in poetry, simple is often paradoxically complex.
