In a Station of the Metro

I really didn't undstand the poem by Ezar Pound until I found a summary on "In a Station of the Metro." In the first line the poet is basically watching the faces appear in a crowded metro station. When I first read the poem I didn't know that we were in Paris, which means that everyone look really nice. The author is trying to get us to see things in perspective and "apparition" means that the faces are becoming visible to him very suddenly and disappearing just as fast. The faces are almost like ghost. by calling them "faces," the author puts us right in the middle of the subway. The station must be pretty full because their a "crowd." In the second line the author says the faces look like flower petals on a wet, black bough. The wet black bough and Paris are same because the wet and black. I enjoyed the poem because the author had a interesting story in a such a short poem.

A Man Said to the Universe by Stephen Crane is a short, but very true poem. In the poem a man says to the universe: “Sir I exist!” However the universe had no obligation to the man simply because he existed. The poem is so true in the world today. As adults people are taught to go and get the things they want and that nothing is going to be given to them, as if they were still children. The universe was here before anything existed and will remain after nothing exists. In this poem Crane’s choice of words is great and shows how cold the world can be sometimes. Crane does not use any imagery or other literary tools; he simply tells it how it is. As a person, you don’t matter to the universe. We are not here for the universe, the universe is here for us and after we die the universe will continue. There is nothing that says life is easy and I think Crane realized that life was not easy. He understood that eventually a person has to grow up and face the harsh realities of life.

Nature Vs Man (Aauzsa Mack)

In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” there many examples of how nature beats man. For one thing nature tore man down with the weather, it was cold below zero and not many men can survive for such a long period of time in below freezing weather. The dog was also another example of how nature beat man because of the dog’s naturally instinct to live and he was able to prevent frost bite by getting the ice off of his foot by gnawing on it. Nature is equipped with certain things that man is not in order for nature to survive. The man in the story also lacked common sense which was another minus for him. He would rather build a fire under the tree with snow on it than to find an open area and build a fire from there. I would say that is was the man’s own fault for dying because common sense should have told you to not go out in below freezing weather and try to hike a trail. Sometimes common sense will help man out but instead he did not use the better judgment and stay out of the cold but if it was absolutely necessary to go out into the cold he should have came equipped with things that might have helped him out on the way. In the story man looked clueless.

"Mending Wall"

I have known this poem for some time having read it in high school as well as last year. Reading it throughout the years makes my perception a little different. You have two neighbors in the spring that walk together to mend a wall that separates their property. The narrator likes the wall because it keeps him blocked from his neighbor. "He is all pine and I am all apple orchard" shows that the two are very different by personality and even what is on their lands. The narrator's neighbor has a different perspective though. He says, "Good fences make good neighbors." He says this to state that some distance is healthy. The narrator is taken off by this because he believes the wall to be something different. "He moves in darkness" shows that the narrator says that he doesn't know his neighbor at all. The narrator repeats "Good fences make good neighbors" again to reinstate his take on the wall in spite of the narrator's view. It seems there is tension between the neighbors and the wall keeps them apart and in some way sane.

Blog Number 3

In the poem "The Road Not Taken" Robert Frost expresses many interesting thoughts. In the poem the speaker has been walking around for a while and comes to a fork in the road. The person must decide which road to take. There is only time to take one. So in order to figure out which road to take the speaker starts comparing the roads and gives us descriptions. And after the person has made a decision they express their feelings on their choice. This poem includes two themes. The first one is individualism which is expressed well in the poem since the speaker has to make a decision on their own. It can be compared to an officer in the military. The higher ranking officer is always faced with a decision that has consequences. The officer is the leader and he must make the choices for his followers. Moreover, the poem also talks about another theme called romanticism. The speaker is considered to be a friend of Robert Frost: Edward Thomas. It is said that the poem has an ironic nature and origin because Frost uses Thomas in the poem as the person who must make the decision. The decisions we make will make all the difference in our future.

Mending Wall

In Robert frost’s poem a “Mending Wall,” A stone wall separates the speaker’s property from his neighbor’s. When spring comes, the two meet to walk the wall and jointly make repairs. The speaker sees no reason for the wall to be kept—there are no cows to be contained, just apple and pine trees. He does not believe in walls for the sake of walls. The neighbor resorts to an old adage: “Good fences make good neighbors.” The speaker remains unconvinced and mischievously presses the neighbor to look beyond the old-fashioned folly of such reasoning. His neighbor will not be swayed. The speaker envisions his neighbor as a holdover from a justifiably outmoded era, a living example of a dark-age mentality. But the neighbor simply repeats the adage. Like story because why have a wall in the first place. What exactly is neighbor trying to keep walled in or out?

Robert Frost

Robert Frost’s poem the “Mending Wall” has been a very significant poem that has been produced in the 19th century. The poem is a very realistic work because it describes two neighbors and what they go through after each winter, having to rebuild the wall that separates their two properties. The poem ultimately questions why the fence is needed. The speaker describes the wall as unnecessary but he initiates the repair of the rock wall. And his neighbor desires the wall saying that “Good fences make good neighbors.” From what I could see in this work is that the wall is a metaphor within the poem that shows the separation of humans. It tells us that humans and all people want to connect but they cannot because of the walls and barriers within their lives. I believe this is what Frost was trying to portray to the reader when he says that “Good fences make good neighbors.” Another part that is shown here is that the neighbors maintain their relationships through the attention of the walls that are in between them. This is an excellent description of the people that we live around in our home neighborhoods. Most people have their fences up so that they do not have to deal with the neighbor to their left or right and see what they do in their yards. The fences are a way of showing the increased distance that has been increased from family to family. I do not believe that when Frost wrote this poem he would have thought that it would be describing people in the 21st century but it is a very accurate picture in our world.

To Build A Fire

This passage by Jack London was quite interesting. When I first began to this story I didn’t think it would catch my attention like the way it did. This story is about a man traveling through some pretty harsh weather, but he thinks that he can do it and do it alone. There seems to be a bit of forecasting in this story; the man realizes that an elder man told him that no man alone can travel the path he is taking alone in such harsh weather as such. Obviously he did not listen, and with his luck the one thing that he is trying to avoid the whole journey, brings him to his demise. In class we talked about how this story is basically about nature versus man. On this journey the man tried to take on nature single handedly and sadly, lost. He was told by someone who had more wisdom to not travel alone, but he truly believed that he could travel alone and would need no help getting him to his destination. He tried all he could to stay alive, but in the end his efforts meant nothing as he fell asleep forever.

LOL

“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” struck my interest for a couple of reasons also. For one, it is a product of the infamous by Mark Twain. Two, it is quite an interesting work of art to take breath of or read. Three, it is interesting to read about how luck is struck with/by different people. It makes you think about a lot…like: “What if this were real?” or “What if I were him?” Last, but not least, I also read this story in my Advanced Placement English class. In everyday situations, many people over the world gamble their personal belongings-to include money-away. While this story tells of an extremely lucky individual who places bets on just about everything. Not only is he placing many bets on preposterous reasoning, but he is winning. If anybody dared make a bet, he was ready to take the opposing side. Though luck can take you far, it does not account for the slithering cheaters of the world. This is also portrayed in the story. The lucky character of this story goes by the name of Jim Smiley. He met up with one of those cheaters. Jim Smiley found a frog and bet that his frog would jump higher than any other frog that challenged it. This frog was not anything special. The cheater put a couple of teaspoons of quail shots in Jim’s frog. This made Smiley’s frog heavier and allowed for the stranger’s frog to out jump his.

To Build a Fire

In Jack London's "To Build a Fire", you can definitely tell that he is a realist. The tragic ending proves it. The man dying at the very end after fighting so hard for his life was a tragic way to end the story. In real life the man would not have made it because we was not able to build another fire and it was just too cold so London is showing how it really would be. I really liked the story though because of how London explains the terrain of Alaska. Not many people have experienced such harsh weather conditions or have any idea such conditions exist. A part of the story that I found a little humorous was the relationship between the man and his dog. Most people treat their dog as a friend but this dog meant nothing to him. He made him go out on the ice first and then even tried killing him to warm up his hands. When the man died the dog does not stick around like most dogs would. It left and went on about its life and just left the man. I could imagine the dog being glad that the man got what he deserved for treating him like that.

WE ARE JUST ALIKE

I want to comment on Mark Twain’s story titled “Life on the Mississippi” for a couple of reasons. For one, I just so have happened to have read this story while I was in Advanced Placement English in my senior year of high school. Some things did not seem as obvious to me then as they do now. It portrays how young adults and/or teenage children have goals that they have set for themselves. Not only that…but they are ambitious in their train of thought. My other reason for choosing this story is that it stuck out to me in a since of reminiscence of my own childhood. After my mother passed away and my father was incarcerated, my brother and I moved to Mississippi and were nurtured into the young adults we are today. We were brought up in a small town called Shubuta. There are about five surrounding communities that together have a population of about 681 people total. The only reason that Shubuta shows up on the map before the other communities is because the Post Office is located here. Along with other growing individuals of this community we always dreamed of going big and leaving this small town we grew up in. I think that the pursuit of happiness is the real them shared in this story as well as the lives of the readers.

The Unforging Flirtatious Flower...

In nature, flowers die, and rather quickly, as most get plucked away even before their short times end. They show their beauty with haste, but what else do they have to offer in life; they are unable to mate on their own, utilizing others (bees) for their futures sake. They are mother natures flirtatious being and they are unable to tend to their dire needs, such as safety. Their is a young lady named Daisey Miller, from the short story "Daisey Miller", and her character could resemble that of a Daisey in many ways. Her personality is that of someone in dire need of attention, she is an obvious flirt, with nothing to gain other than her intent for never ending attention. Her ways lead to her demise for she is only conscious to the attention that she receives rather than what she need to survive. She knew that her life was endangered when she entered the Coliseum, but the attention she received blinded her as the sun would blind a Daisey. Like a flower, she got sick and slowly withered away until she finally became food for the earth....

Life on the Mississippi

For my second blog post I chose to comment on Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi." This story stuck out to me at the very beginning because when reading it, it reminded me of my childhood and how we always dreamed of going big and leaving our small town we grew up in. I believe that all children and all people have dreams that they try to pursue but there are only a select few that reach them in the end. I believe that like Twain did in his story, that we should all pursue the things that we dream because we never know how they might play out as we are in pursuit. This story is also very good because while reading it, you understand what Twain is saying in his story and as the reader it feels like you are actually there. You get a very good description of the daily life in the village and also the navigation from Mr. Bixby while on the Mississippi River. While on the river, the steamboat pilot Mr. Bixby seems to test Twain but he is not prepared because he did not listen to what Bixby said to him about the river. He felt that he did not need to know it but Mr. Bixby showed him that he needed to know even the little details for the safety of the crew and passengers on the steamboat. I believe this application can even be applied in our own lives. We need to pay attention to the little things in our daily lives so that we can either learn from our mistakes or the mistakes from those around us. Because we never know when we might have the life lesson that would test us.

Mark Twain is Larger Than Life

I noticed while reading the section of "When the Buffalo Climbed a Tree from Roughing It and Life on the Mississippi that Mark Twain makes his protagonists a little larger that life. The man who was up the tree built suspense of the buffalo coming after him. The man though built himself up from a little cowardly person to cunning and being able to defeat the animal. It gives a emboldening statement of the man being a conqueror. It gave the buffalo a superior stature even though he died in the end. His fictitious ability to climb a tree combined with his factual rage made the buffalo a more realistic fake than the man making himself emboldened by his story (that might have been skewed a little to make his story seem good). The other character that I feel seems larger than life is Mr. Bixby. In his view, Mark Twain looked up to Mr. Bixby and in turn makes him bigger than maybe he really was. He noted Mr. Bixby's great attributes of memorizing the river and knowing exactly where to go in the dark on the river. Back then that was probably real and not made-up but the part where Mr. Bixby got past Hat Island definitely made Mr. Bixby in Twain's eyes and the other pilots as great. Twain made these characters from real life experiences and in my opinion might have given a little twist to them in order to make them and the story larger than life.

A Flower?

Daisy Miller? Was she really just a big flirt and in dire need of attention? I most deffinatley do. For a woman of this time period to be out galavanting with men, she has to have some alternative desire. She may not have been in pursit of sex, but the idea of making a guy think that may happen later on, seemed like the game she wants to play. Daisy was so caught up in attention and doing what she had to to get it that it ultimately cost her, her life. We can apply this to our lives. We must think about what we are doing and the consequeces to follow. If you cheat on the test, the consequence could be, you get in trouble, or you might not, but you could possibly need to know that answer later on in life in a weird crazy interview for a job. I mean, life is too great to make it a game and to play with your life. Daisy was in oursuit of something that wasn't good by any means. Thus is why she dies.

The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain was quite interesting to me because it was fun. There is no real point or lesson to be learned from this writing, which I guess is a reason why I like it so. This fictional writing was about a character by the name of Jim Smiley who liked to bet on basically everything. It would not matter what the chances were of Jim Smiley winning the bet were, it did not matter how dumb or crazy the bet was. Jim Smiley played the cards he was dealt, and always seemed to win his bets. In this particular story, Jim Smiley found a frog and bet that his frog would jump higher than any other frog that challenged it. There was nothing special about the frog at all; it just was like any other frog but Smiley chooses place bets like that. With his luck he wins all of his bets until one day a stranger comes to town; automatically Smiley wants to bet him, but he doesn’t have a frog. So Smiley leaves to get him one, but while he is gone the stranger cheats by putting a couple of teaspoons of quail shots in the frog. This made Smiley’s frog heavier and allowed for the stranger’s frog to out jump his. Smiley’s luck finally runs out.

Was Life on The Mississippi this good?

In Mark Twain's story, Life on The Mississippi, Twain talks about his and other boys ambitions to become a steamboat pilot. This story is actually a memior, which is a story told about previous memories in ones life, about how he worked as an apprentice and then eventually becomes a steamboat pilot. Twain states within the story, that becoming a steamboat pilot was every young boys dream, and that was the job of the time. Twain was still under his name Samuel Clemens, while under the apprenticeship of Horace Grixby. Eventually Twain becomes a steamboat pilot himself. He talks about how much fun he had and how it was everything he had wanted. When the American Civil War broke out, his time a pilot was brought to a halt because Union troops were using the steamboats to transport equipment up and down the Mississippi. Twain's pen name, comes from the word "Tawin", which is used as a word to let pilots know the water is safe for them to bring their boats through. Twain's last ride was from New Orleans to Saint Louis. After the war was over, Twain did infact return for more rides as a pilot. I like this story alot, because it shows the motivation to want to become something you love to do. It reminds me of my time as trying to become a volunteer firefighter while in high school. The thrill and excitment, and the knowledge that i could save someones life in a burning building was motivation enough for me to stick with it till the end. After i graduated, i went off to college to face my new endevor of joing the United States Military. While in college, i still return to my home town to volunteer.
"

The Outcasts of Poker Flat

I really enjoyed reading the story by Bret harte, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat." The story begins on a on the morning of Nov 23 1850 when John Outhurst steps on the main streets of Poker
Flat. Oakhurst is a professional gambler, but the citizens of Poker Flat see him a villian. John would be is a favorite character because as the story goes along we found that he's a cool, calm, and collected guy. He's doesn't drink any liquor because it would affect his mind as gambler and He also says, he "couldn't afford it." The townspeople form a secert committee which saw a hanging and banishment of a couple a residents. They also wanted to hang Mr. Oakhurst but a couple coolheads decided that banishment was a enough. Mr. Oakhurst wasn't alone, he also other people been banished along with him. The Duchess and Mother Shipton were prosititutes and lastly, was Uncle Billy who was a thief. On their journey, they run into Tom Simson and his girl Piney Woods. Tom and Piney were on their way to be married because Piney father Jake had opposed the wedding so they ran away together. The group found a cabin a rest for the night but the next morning Uncle Billy and the two horse were gone. So for 10 days the group stayed there under open fire singing song and telling stories until supplies began to dwell. Mother Shipton passed away from stravtion but did save some food for the young. The next morning Mr. Oakhurst walked Simson half to Poker Flat for supplies but nightfall had came along and there was any sign of Oakhurst. The follwing morning the two ladies found note in tree with a knief in center saying that here lays the body of John Oakhurst Dec 7 1850.

Daisy Is A Flower (Aauzsa Mack blog post 2)

Daisy is a flower not a tease. Daisies are there for beauty and not to please. In the short story, “Daisy Miller”, Daisy is portrayed as a tease. When you think of a daisy I think of a daisy I see a white flower with a yellow center. White equals the main appearance which would automatically attract attention because of the purity that the color white portrays. The yellow reminds me of the sun which is bright and not easily forgotten or missed. All of these things describe Daisy Miller, but in the end she died from being too careless with her beauty. Daisy was just like the flower and wanted and need attention in order to live. You have to tend to the flower in order for it to live and then in the story Daisy needed to be tended to because she had malaria which is not like the common cold that would subside by itself and if the flower does not get its proper watering and sunlight it would eventually die. This is what happened to Daisy Miller, she did not get the proper attention that she wished to have and in return she ended up dying in the end.

The Passing of Grandison

My first thought after reading this short story by Charles Chestnut was that slavery was the main point or issue. But after thinking about it again I realized that Dick Owen's love for Charity Lomax was the reason that Grandison even became a part of the story. He was so in love with her that he was willing to do whatever it would take to get her to love him back, even if it was something he did not believe in or agree with. He did not really care about the slaves and whether or not they were free. His motive was very selfish. Eventhough Charity was not very happy with how Dick just left Grandison all on his own she still married him which did not make much sense. I like how the story has a very unexpected ending! The whole time Dick thought he had been the sneaky one that left Grandison behind but Dick was actually the one that got outsmarted. In the end, things work out great for both of them. Dick marries Charity and Grandison gets to be free along with his entire family. Something else I liked about this story were the accents. Even if Chestnut would not have said that they lived in the South, the accents would have given it away. It was kind of odd though that only the slaves had the accents and not any of the others. But having the accents make the story more interesting and entertaining.

Jaraid's post of lif on the Mississippi

The best story that I have read for this semester has to be Mark Twain’s Life On The Mississippi. I really think that Twain captured the essence of his time with a bunch of young men of that time. It is also seen that the young men along with the rest of the town just wanted to get away and make a name for themselves in their town or where ever he lived. Every one had aspirations to be something great, and that just happen to be a steamboat men. The story is mainly about following a young man and his dreams to be become a steamboat pilot and his journey to become it. In Twain’s writing he is very descriptive. He describes the scenery very well. One example of this is when he describes who every thing looks when they are trying to find Jones’s Plantation. Another aspect of Twain’s writing that I really liked was his use of language in his story. In his writing, he aloud his readers to know how people of that time speak so that the reader can connect with character of the story. Over all, the story is a good story because it is a relevant topic because everyone wants to grow up and be something great.

the notorius jumping frog of calaveras county

“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain is one of Twain’s earliest examples of humor and exaggeration. From the beginning of the story, one could see that it was filled with humor. Jim Smiley was the man who would bet on anything, but he always seemed to win. He would bet on animals that had absolutely no chance of winning anything, but he still won. He had an old asthmatic horse that he enters into races and the horse always finds a way to win. Smiley also has a dog, Andrew Jackson that would lose every fight until there was money involved. Smiley then got a frog and trained the frog to jump higher than any other frog around. The frog began to win and one day a stranger challenged Smiley and the stranger won. The stranger had secretively given the frog a quail shot to hinder its great jumping abilities. The frog eventually burped the quail shot up and Smiley realized that he had been cheated. He went looking for the stranger, but the stranger was long gone with his money. Mark Twain really uses humor and exaggeration in this story to keep the reader’s attention. The entire story is very interesting and the humor is great.

Daisy Miller

Daisy Miller by Henry James was an interesting story to read. However, personally I didnt really understand the moral behind it. The story focuses on two main characters, Daisy Miller and Winterbourne. Winterbourne is an american but lives in Geneva and studies there as well and he speaks like a German. He seems to come from a very wealthy family and is wealthy himself. Daisy Miller is a very pretty, young lady. She is wealthy as well. The first part of the story the setting takes place in Vevey, Switzerland. Diasy and Winterbourne are introduced by her little brother Randolph. Winterbourne finds her very pretty and admirable. however, as time passes by and they exchange a few words. He realizes she is just a flirt. Daisy is just a simple young minded, adventurous little girl. But she is innocent and Winterbourne realizes that at the end. In my opinion i think the story centralizes on the innocence in Daisy little world.