Explication of "The Health-Food Diner"

The Health-Food Diner is a satirical poem written by Maya Angelou. Angelou utilizes clever diction and rhyming in this poem to hook readers. Th poem is effective in being comical and clearly getting across its satirical nature. The subject of the poem is people who are overly obsessed with eating healthy. The speaker of the poem mocks this healthy eaters while talking about her interest in fattening foods that are full of protein such as steak and breaded veal. By Angelou writing in the first person the reader is better able to connect with the speaker and relate to the frustration she has with all of these people sacrificing delicious food for "zucchini by the ton" and many other health foods.

Angelou wrote this during a time when the wave of healthy eating was just becoming extremely popular. Angelou mocks the excessive health freaks comically in this poem. The rhyme scheme also adds a a lot of personality to the poem because it gives the speaker a sarcastic tone that makes it clear that she thinks this health nuts are ridiculous. Angelou expresses the fact that she does not feel the need to deprive herself of the food she enjoys so fully and thinks those who do deserve mocking. Angelou effectively changes the tone and diction when she goes from talking about health foods to meat to portray her feelings to readers.

The speaker's view is that no matter what the new trend is she will stay true to herself just has she has stayed true to being a carnivore during this seemingly obnoxious health kick that everyone else around her seems to be on. The speaker is not ashamed of her desires for unhealthy foods and thinks that others are foolish to sacrifice meat to look thin. The diction and rhyme scheme in this poem effectively give it a satirical tone and alert the reader of Angelou's aversion to health food and her definite preference of meat.

Explication of "To A Daughter Leaving Home"

The poem "To a Daughter Leaving Home" was written by Linda Patan and the speaker is the mother of a daughter who is leaving home. There is a discrepancy between the title and the rest of the poem because the poem is talking about a young child learning to ride a bike yet the title tells us that the during the poem that speaker is reminiscing on times when her daughter was younger because now she is grown up and going to leave her to become independent.

In the poem, the mother recounts a time when her child still needed her and depended on her. Her daughter needed her to teach her how to ride a bike and to save her if anything went wrong in the process. The mother describes how she kept waiting for her daughter to fall off her bike so that she come and help. However, the daughter never fell, she just kept getting smaller and smaller in the distance, harder for the mother to catch up to. Now the daughter is leaving home and the mother will not always be there to help her or pick her up when something goes wrong and the mother feels as if she will be so far away.

The writer creates a metaphor between the daughter learning how to ride a bike and the daughter moving away from home, presumably to go to college. At the beginning of both processes the young girl needed to lean on her mother for support and aid. Eventually the girl learns how to ride own her own just like eventually the girl will learn to live on her own. As the girl becomes more independent the mother feels her slip away, just as she cannot catch up to her daughter on the bike and she sees her shrinking in the distance. The last few lines make it evident that the daughter is leaving home she describes her hair whipping in the wind as "waving goodbye". As well as a strong message and symbolic meaning, the poem also has a strong rhythm throughout which shows the talent of the writer.

Explication of "Woman Work"

The poem "Woman Work" is written by Maya Angelou and focuses on the daily tasks that a woman generally does, specifically a mother. The first stanza consists solely of all of the tasks that the mother must do in a day that likely go unnoticed or unappreciated by the other members of the family. This takes place in the past when it was a very popular belief that men were the only ones who worked hard and women just sat at home. This poem reveals that although may have been at home it does not mean that they were not doing anything with their time. Women have just as much responsibility as men.

The list of the woman's daily tasks is lengthy and in a two line rhyme scheme. The focus in this chapter was musical devices and it is evident that one of the musical devices that Angelou used in this poem is rhyme. The length of the list brings focus to how demanding and tiring these tasks are. The mother has to take care of the children, the family and the house seemingly all on her own.

In the next three stanzas the speaker goes on to focus on nature. It seems as if this focus on nature may be an escape for both the reader as well as the speaker herself. The speaker desperately wants to escape from her relentless tasks of being a housewife and a mother, nature seems to provide this escape and fantasy for her. She hopes that nature will take her away from all of her unappealing duties: "Storm, blow me from here" (20). In the poem Angelou portrays the speaker as loving and respecting nature but the woman also wants something from nature, she wants it to serve as an escape. The speaker yearns for the relaxation and freedom that she thinks nature provides. The speaker no longer wants to be limited to her house and confined by her daily tasks that she has seemingly grown so accustomed to over time, she wants an escape from the "woman work" that she has done for her whole life and that escape is provided by the beauty, mystery and immensity of nature for the speaker.

Research Paper Short Story: "A Country Doctor"

The second short story that I read of Franz Kafka's is "A Country Doctor". For this specific short story Kafka wrote in first person. This shows that Kafka possibly connected to this story in some way or it could relate to his life. The main character is a country doctor and the story opens with the doctor facing a dilemma. The doctor's horse has died and he has been called to see a patient. Kafka demonstrates the stress that the doctor is under during this part of the book with his use of short, choppy sentences. The writing style during this part of the short story helps readers to relate effectively with Kafka's protagonist. It is also an interesting stylistic choice on Kafka's part to switch from past to present tense in his short story "A Country Doctor".

Amazingly, a groom arrives with a horse for the country doctor to seemingly solve all of his problems, yet this gift does not come without a price. As the doctor rides away on the horse he knows that the groom is attempting to break into the house to rape the maid yet he does not go back to help his maid. When the country doctor arrives to the patients house the young boy seems to be perfectly okay, yet he begs the doctor to let him die. The boys sister shows the country doctor a bloody towel making the doctor take one more look at the boy resulting in him finding a large wound infested with worms on the boys side. The doctor realizes at this point that he cannot do anything for the boy. The family then strips the doctor of his clothes and make him lie with the boy. The boy dies and the doctor leaves the patient's house yet the doctor cannot return home because he can't go back to being the person he was after this experience.

After reading this short story it makes me wonder what relation it may have to Kafka's life. The fact that the story is written in first person makes me think that there must be some significant relation between this story and Kafka's life or experiences. In my research paper I will look to explore the possible connection. Does Kafka see himself as the country doctor?

Research Paper Short Story: "A Hunger Artist"

The author that I am researching for my paper is Franz Kafka. We read a few of his most famous short stories in class, however the story "A Hunger Artist" is also an extremely unique and interesting piece of work by Kafka. The protagonist in the story is The Hunger Artist and he fasts for a living while traveling to different European towns. While in these towns he sits in a cage and fasts for all in the town to watch.

The Hunger Artist has a manager known as the impresario. The hunger artist believes that the impresario stands in the way of his full potential and makes him appear weaker than he actually is. The hunger artist mentions that the impresario only allows him to stay in the cage without eating for forty days when he says that in reality he could last much longer then that. The impresario also makes a big show of the hunger artist coming out the box and acts as though he is extremely frail; the hunger artist makes it clear that this is not the case at all. The hunger artist becomes frustrated by many things throughout the short story, the first being the impresario. Also he get annoyed that the people in the towns always think that he is cheating and secretly eating food when no one is looking. Later, when his fame begins to die down he gets frustrated by the lack of attention he receives.

Throughout the story the artist is separated from society which is shown through him being in a cage. He feels as if society does not understand him because of their accusations of him cheating. There is also an evident theme of pride shown by the hunger artist. His pride eventually leads to his downfall because he wants everyone to notice him and he wants to be the greatest faster but ultimately he dies in his attempt. The panther at the end of the short story is exactly opposite from the hunger artist. The panther is full of life and hunger as compared to the hunger artist who was lifeless and weak. It is ironic how much attention the panther gets in the very same cage that the hunger artist used to perform and get no attention at all.

Based on reading the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka I am noticing a theme of Kafka incorporating loely, misunderstood characters into his stories. Also, the main characters of his stories usually have problems with male authority. This is significant because of the poor relationship that Kafka had with his father as a young boy. I look forward to being able to research Kafka more and exploring to see if these commonalities persist through more of his works of literature.

Explication of "Picnic, Lightning"

In the poem "Picnic, Lightning" by Billy Collins, the speaker is a girl named Lolita and Collins writes about her recount of her mother dying of a freak accident when she was three years old. This tragedy is revealed in an epigraph before the poem begins. This epigraph helps reders to understand the poem and the tone of the speaker.

Being struck by "Picnic lightning" is almost unheard of yet this is the tragedy that resulted in the death of the speaker's mother. Therefore the speaker goes on to mention other ridiculous ways that life can be taken from us. The tone of the poem is very cynical and pessimistic, the speaker seems to be bitter towards life after the tragic loss of her mother. She believes that if this atrocity could have happened so many years ago, then there is no telling what other possible seemingly harmless things could actually be life threatening. It seems as though the speaker lives her life in fear ever since the sudden death of her young mother.

The speaker relates her gardening to her outlook on life later in the poem. The girl talks about gardening flowers and flowers are representative of fragility. The speaker sees life as extremely fragile  as she has seen it taken away in a brief moment by something very strange and unexpected. Based on this, she creates a metaphor between this feeling and her gardening going on to talk about the life that exists within the soil which is representative of how life goes on and she has to learn to live with the tragedy she experienced at a young age. It seems as though the speaker is not really living life, she is just being careful and watching the hours go by on the sundial as she gardens. The tragic loss of the life of the mother has also resulted in the loss of life within this girl.

"The Sisters" & future themes in "Dubliners"

"The Sisters" is the first short story from the collection of  short stories called "Dubliners" by James Joyce. The story is about a young boy who is very close to his priest, named Father Flynn, who has had many strokes and dies at the end of the short story. Although we know the cause of his death there are still many lingering questions that Joyce leaves the reader with. Old Cotter is a character in the story who makes a comment about the boy's relationship with with Father Flynn yet when it is described by the boy it seems to be innocent. We also learn through the father's sisters that he began going mentally insane before his death. He was caught talking and laughing to himself towards the end of his life. This is all we learn, Joyce leaves the reader hanging with respect to finding out what was wrong mentally with the father.

Based on the first short story of the series of stories in "Dubliners", I would predict that two of the major trends or themes in the stories to come would be unfortunate death and unanswered questions. Joyce probably leaves many of his stories open ended so that it is up to the interpretation of the reader. Another theme in the book could be judgement because it seems as though many people were judging Father Flynn after his death and criticizing his life, everyone except for the boy. Tragedy will likely be a theme in the stories to come because it is tragic that the boy lost this role model in the first story and that trend will be likely to continue. The first short story, "The Sisters" definitely helps to hook readers and make them want to continue reading onto the next story to learn more.