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.

Explication of "My Number" and "I had heard it's a fight"

The two poems, "My Number" by Billy Collins and "I had heard it's a fight" by Edwin Derby, are paired together in Sound and Sense because they both take a stance on death. In "My Number" Billy Collins personifies death, even capitalizing it's first letter, and explains it as an ominous and unpredictable terror. One never knows when death could be coming for them, it could be far away or right around the corner and we may never know: "Is Death miles away from this house" and he goes on to wonder if death may be at his front door. The speaker describes death's actions as if it is actually a killer who plots to kill certain people. Collins writes that death may not be after him at this moment because he is "too busy making arrangements" for others whose times have come.  In this poem the speaker believes that death is not only inevitable but also that it comes on its own terms and nothing we do to prolong it really matter, it decides to take a life whenever and wherever it chooses.

Edwin Derby expresses a different view of death in his poem "I had heard its a fight". He also expresses that death is inevitable but goes on more positively than Collins does in his poem. The poem starts dark saying that death touches you: "The afternoon it touched me / it sneaked up like it was a sweet thrill", this scare with death makes the speaker look differently upon life. He starts living better: "Cut out the liquor, went to the gym, and did / what a man naturally does". Derby looks at death as being inevitable yet it is possible to prolong it by living a healthy life. Instead of being scared of death the speaker in this poem decides to live life to the fullest without fear of death, which is a much more positive view than Collins presents about life and death in his poem.

Comparing Apocalypse Now to Heart of Darkness

The movie "Apocalypse Now" has many similarities to Joseph Conrad's novel, "Heart of Darkness". The movie takes place during the Vietnam war  in Saigon and the main character, Willard, was assigned a mission to kill a colonel named Kurtz because he has lost his mind and is dangerous. The book, "Heart of Darkness" takes place during the time of the Belgian Congo and the main character, Marlow, also aspires to find a powerful man named Kurtz. Both Marlow and Willard take on command of dangerous and difficult journeys and the book and the movie are both depictions of the main character's recall of the events that occurred.

In Apocalypse Now Kurtz was once described as a brave soldier who deserved a lot of respect and somewhere along the line lost his mind and order the assassination of four people. In Heart of Darkness Kurtz is a mysterious character who no one really knows much about. This is similar to Kurtz in Apocalypse Now because Kurtz is difficult to find and the main character is told to keep his mission to kill Kurtz a secret.

Both Marlow and Willard look grimly back on their experiences leading a team down the river. The characters both do things that they now regret looking back. Both settings have violent natives as an obstacle as well as many other similar dangers along their journeys. The diseases and dangers that Marlow and Kurtz encountered in the Congo are similar to those that probably caused Kurtz to eventually go insane. In my opinion the movie Apocalypse Now effectively captures many details and concepts and follows a similar story line to Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, but each of the works also have their own individual differences. The movie highlights a lot of the violence that might have been more difficult to imagine through reading the book. Even though the settings in the book and movie were different seeing the immense violence that was present in the movie helped me to better imagine the atrocities that Conrad described in his novel.

Explication of "My Son the Man"

The poem "My Son the Man" by Sharon Olds is told from the point of view of a mother. The speaker is the mother of a boy who she is witnessing grow up into a man. The mother is sad about this transformation and wishes she could slow time down. The author's tone is one that would be relatable for most parents. The speaker seems as though she wishes that she could stop time and prevent her young boy from maturing and growing into a man.

In this poem the author effectively uses an allusion to portray the message and meaning of her poem. An allusion is a reference to something in history or previous literature. In the case of this poem Olds makes an allusion to the famous escape artist Harry Houdini, mentioning him twice throughout the poem and comparing him to her son. First the speaker says "his shoulders get a lot wider, / the way Houdini would expand his body". In this case the speaker is comparing her son growing to the way that Houdini pulled off his magnificent escapes. The mother feels as if her son is escaping from her because he is no longer a child and will not need to depend on her any longer. She goes on to say at the end of the poem that "he looks at me / the way Houdini studied a box / to learn the way out". The speaker is convinced that her son growing into a man means that he will no longer want to spend time with her and that he will immediately want to run away from her as if he is an escape artist. Sharon Olds effectively uses an allusion in her poem "My Son the Man" to portrays a mother's negative feelings about herdson growing into a man becasue she feels that he will leave her.

The Congo Free State

The Congo Free State was a colony that was controlled by Leopold II, king of the Belgians. He had wanted control of the region for many years and finally Leopold formally acquired the rights to the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin in 1885 and gave it the name of the Congo Free State. His major reason for striving to gain power of the Congo for so long was to control the profitable ivory market in Central Africa by establishing a secure trade route between the upper and lower Congo. It was also known that the colony was rich in mineral resources. Leopold eventually lost respect of the people in the Congo due to the increasingly harsh treatment of the people and the decrease of natural resources. Leopold's main objective during his reign was to gain money and power and was not concerned with the well-being or quality of life for his people.

Under Leopold's reign the Congo quickly became one of the largest international scandals of the early twentieth century. Many people died due to the brutal treatment they endured under Leopold's reign, the estimated number of deaths during these years is around ten million. The report of the British Consul Roger Casement led to the arrest and punishment of white officials who had been responsible for killings during a rubber-collecting expedition in 1903 that was aimed to expand the Congo's international market while Leopold was still in rule. Europe and the United States exposed the conditions in the Congo Free State to the public in 1900. By the year 1908, public pressure and diplomatic moves led to the end of Leopold II's rule and to the addition of the Congo as a colony of Belgium, which came to be known as the Belgian Congo. The loss of life and horrors that many experienced in the Congo Free State under the rule of Leopold II inspired great literature such as Joseph Conrad's novel, "Heart of Darkness".

AP Style Close Read of a Passage from the Metamorphosis pg 37-39

The author of the Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka, is known to have a poor relationship with his father. This is relationship is evidently portrayed in his writing. In the Metamorphosis, Gregor's father, Mr. Sampsa has to get a job once Gregor is transformed into a giant cockroach. Mr. Sampsa had not worked in a long time and is described as an overweight man who leeches off of his son.

In part two of the metamorphosis Mr. Sampsa gets a job, it is low level job, yet a job nonetheless. Mr. Sampsa is usually extremely lazy "now, however, he was perfectly erect, dressed in a tight blue uniform with gold buttons like those worn by messengers in banking houses" (37). It seems as though Mr. Sampsa takes a lot of pride in finally having a job and being able to provide for his family. It makes him feel as if he has power and control in a way. Gregor tries to demean his father's "accomplishment" by making it clear that he knows it is very low level job. Usually when one thinks of a uniform they think of someone brave or powerful wearing it like a soldier or police officer, but instead Gregor compares his fathers uniform to that of a "messenger in banking houses".

It is then mentioned that Mr. Sampsa never takes his uniform off, even at home: "with a sort of obstinacy the father refused to take off his messenger's uniform even at home [...] the father drowsed in his chair fully dressed, as if he were always ready to do his work and were awaiting his superiors orders even here" (39). This takes away from Mr. Sampsa's power that he had seemingly gained previously. He is not capable of doing things for himself. At the beginning he relied on Gregor to take control of the family and take care of everything. Now although he is supposed to be the head of the family, he is still looking for direction from someone. Throughout this passage Gregor takes away from his father's apparent successes and belittles him. This reveals the poor relationship that Kafka had with his father.

Explication of "A Song in the Front Yard"

"A Song in the Front Yard" is written by Gwendolyn Brooks. The first reason why I chose this is because poems that rhyme are more appealing to me and I believe that they sound better when being recited. I also  loved how it has many underlying messages and there are multiple layers of the poem that can be pealed back. The more times that I read the pone, the more I discovered about the speaker.

The speaker is a young girl who has been brought up in a strict and proper society with many rules that she has always had to follow. She wishes that she could be one of the "bad girls" for just one day. The author compares the front yard and the backyard and uses it as a metaphor for the proper kids and the improper kids. The speaker has always been stuck in her front yard and would do seemingly anything to get a chance to sit in the backyard because it is uncharted territory to her.

This is very relatable, although we might have everything we could ever need or want we will always wonder about what we don't have and will fixate on that. The speaker lives a privileged life yet desires freedom to do as she wishes without so many rules. The speaker wishes that her life was not perfect and that she had more adventure in it.

It was not until the end of the poem that I picked up on the possible racially undertone that exists in the poem. The speaker says that she wants to "strut down the streets with paint on my face". This makes sense with the rest of the poem and the speaker desiring freedom. Although the girl is treated well and lives a good life she will not settle and wants to see the other side of life. All the speaker wants is to be careless and free and explore the back yard rather than her usual routine of being in the front yard everyday.