Retired Greyhound, II

            This past week, we had to read a couple of poems about dogs in class. One of the poems that stuck out was Retired Greyhound, II. The poem gives the perspective of a dog. The dog talks about how he was abused to the point where an animal loses his trust in humans. He describes his horrible ordeal by saying his fear of raised hands and deep men’s voices. Then, the poem switches directions. The dog talks about his unlikely owner. His owner was attacked by a dog many years ago. She has scars around her eyes. What makes this poem so unique is that this owner and dog would have never been pictured together. They are supposed to be scared of each other, but they prove their fears wrong. They rebel against the stereotype that the world has placed on them. This poem tells the reader that they can step out of their fears and do what people least expect. They do not have to be pinned down by the past. They can move ahead to the future without fear.

The Amazing Adventures Part 2

            After reading the book “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” for class, I have to say that the book wasn’t as bad as I expected. Some parts of the story did highly irritate me because the story didn’t go the way I wanted it to. I feel really bad for Joe because throughout almost the whole book, it seems like the world is out to get him. First his father dies from sickness, then his brother drowns at sea, and then his mother dies in a concentration camp. I do not blame him for running off and leaving Rosa behind, especially since she didn’t tell Joe that she was pregnant. Joe did start to irritate me when he took so long to come back to see his family. I understand that he didn’t want to face Rosa and Sammy, but he had abandoned his son, Tommy, for almost twelve years. The story kind of ends as a cliff hanger because Sammy has just run off to California and Joe has just bought Empire. Overall, the book was good. It leaves you guessing what will happen next and does some unexpected turns that leads the reader wondering how could that have happened.

Death, be Not Proud

            The poem “Death, Be Not Proud,” is a very hard poem to understand. It was written in 1633, so it contains a lot of words like thee and thou. Once the reader understands what is being said in the poem, they realize that it is a fascinating piece of work. The poem makes death into a real person. Death walks around killing people. He thinks he is in control, but in reality there is a greater force than he. That greater force is God. When death kills people, if they are true believers of Christ, God allows them into heaven. When they enter heaven, they live on eternally. The poem can also be viewed in a different way. It could be talking about when Christ comes back to earth. When He comes back He will take up the heaven all the believers. Then He will destroy the world. Through this action, He will be destroying death. Either way, the poem has the same message. The message is that death can never win because God is in control. Death has some power right now, but it is only temporary. 

Hard Rock

One of the poems that we read in class is very interesting. The title of the poem is Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane. Hard Rock was sent to the mental hospital to try and make him behave. Before he left, Hard Rock was known as being the troublemaker of the prison. When he returns to the prison, everyone expects the same old Hard Rock, who is their hero. Instead, they get a weak man who can’t remember his own name. Everyone is disappointed to see that their hero has been tamed. Sadly, they do not realize why Hard Rock isn’t the same. The poem was written in 1968, which was a time when mental hospitals were big. The hospitals didn’t treat their patients humanly. They would split a patient’s brain apart, believing they were doing the right thing. In reality, they were killing them. The doctors would also shoot electricity into the brain. Their methods were cruel. Hard Rock experienced the torment of a mental hospital. When they completed the treatment, they took Hard Rock’s personality and self away from him. This poem shows us how insane hospitals harmed people many years ago.

The Amazing Adventures...

            The book that we have to read for English 102 is an interesting story so far. The title of the book is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. I know this book is fictional, but it is sad to think that people had to use different ways to escape Europe to come to America. Joe had all of his paperwork ready to go, but that day, the government made it where he needed one more specific thing. So, he had to find a new way to get to America. He had to travel in a coffin. You know that it was killing Joe to leave his family behind, but he had to leave. When he gets to America, his cousin Sammy gets a great idea of how to get a great job for both of them. He decided to try and get them jobs as cartoon artists. I love that Sammy and Joe are artists. They are trying to pursue a job in a field that they are passionate about. They want to make a superhero that will be better than Superman. Hopefully the story will stay interesting to the very end.

Essay Number Two

          Most of the topics for essay number two seem pretty easy. The one topic about symbols is easy because there are so many symbols found in the story “The Glass Menagerie.” One major symbol is the unicorn. It symbolizes Laura. The unicorn didn’t fit in with the horses, just like how Laura didn’t fit in with people. When the horn broke off of the unicorn, it showed that Laura had experienced being normal, even if it was just for a few moments. Another easy topic is comparing a character from this story with a character from another story. An example is comparing Laura to the woman from “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Laura was trapped inside her idea of how she was crippled and extremely shy. The woman was trapped inside her room because of how others saw her and her mental stability. One topic that seems a little difficult to write on is about escape. All of the characters escape reality, but to write one whole paper on one character’s escape from reality maybe a little hard. Tom’s escape is going to the movies, Laura’s escape is her glass collection and records, Amanda’s escape is her memories of Blue Mountains.