8/26/14

8/26/2014, Part One.

Some thoughts on Chapter One, An Introduction to Literature, Fifteenth Edition.

I found the book's explanations concerning Frost's and Mora's poems exciting in that I had no idea how to deconstruct poems like that using words, images, and, in fact, the space between the lines.  I was captivated.

I tried to use the editor's tools for "Childcare."  I could see the points made and how they fit the explanation but I am more harsh with the husband.  When he gives the baby juice to drink, does this prove he loves the child, or does it show he is too lazy to touch, hold, and interact with it?  He tells the truth without shame or exaggeration, 'I never get enough done.' I wonder about his feelings for his partner in that he not only doesn't spend time with the baby, but doesn't even run a dust cloth over the television screen before he plunks himself down to watch it.  Even that small dusting could help her with chores.  Does he love her?  Basically, this poem fostered anger toward the man.

About the stories we read for today:

"Samuel"
Again, I found myself angry at the end.  I believe that was the purpose of the writer.  She painted an inevitable ending--death of a boy.  Instead of one person being responsible, she blames all the characters:  The men who sat by and remembered their youth watching the boys, the women who were afraid of being embarrassed and wanted to blame the boys' mothers, the boys themselves, and the one man who pulled the cord.

This story examines "The Other."  On one hand are the daredevil boys who are really afraid of looking like wimps with the men who remember themselves as daredevil boys and therefore join the boys in the playful dance of death.  "The Other" is the man whose boyhood "had been more watchful than brave."  He becomes angry.  Why?  Does he remember other daredevil boys in his past who tormented him for being "The Other?"  Is he jealous of the present daredevil boys and their antics?  When the writer says he "walked in a citizenly way" to pull the cord to stop the subway, was this sarcasm directed at all "The Others" that cannot join "The Us?"