Mr. Z / M. Carl Holman

“ringing crude changes on a clumsy phrase” ( Holman 849).  I like this phrase in the poem. It is very simple but has a lot of meaning.  It shows Mr. Z’s efforts being totally cast aside by one Obit writer.  He tried his whole life to escape part of himself but fails. He does everything right to avoid one part of himself and cling to another part of himself.  This may give his respect by his pears but not totally.  He gains respect and prominence for his work but never himself. His difference is too visible.  No mater how much he runs it will always be with him.  This part of himself he tries to escape is stile part of him to the end even though he tries to hide from it. If he would have accepted all of his attributes he would not have had to run from himself.  Even with his total self he could of gain just as much prominence with les self sacrifice.

Toads / Philip Larkin

“And will never allow me to blarney

My way to getting

the fame and the girl and the money

 all at one sitting.” (Larkin 801).

These four lines make me thing the second toad has to be honesty or pride.  These to things are quite similar and could probably be replaced with many synonyms but I will stick to these two.  This stanza seems to represent an ingrained habit.  This habit is like work in its continual existence.  It sticks with the narrator for his whole life. It weighs him down just as much as work does.  It presses him into a rut which he cannot escape.  They are like wagon wheel tracks which cannot be easily avoided. They could also be like when one drives his car tire of the road and it tries to suck the whole car into the ditch.  This is kind of like the last two lines were he explains how incredibility difficulty it is to escape these toads.

Hazel Tells LaVerne / Katharyn Howd Machan

I like how this poem puts a twist to the traditional frog prince fairy tale.  It seems to be more realistic.  If a frog started talking to me I would probably get rid of it as well.  The vernacular of the poem makes it more relatable to real life.  “an i hitsm with my mop an has ta flush,” (Machan 21).  This shows a kind of southern uneducated vernacular.  This vernacular adds to the contrast between the poem and the fairy tale.  The fairy tale is proper and yet this poem is very improper in speech.  There is also a contrast between a lowly peasant being the narrator and the prince of a frog.  In the poem it sounds as if this incident would not faze the narrator at all and does not.  It seems to me as if this is just a story to be added to the character long list of funny things that have happened to her.

Everyday Use / Alice Walker / question 4

The mother’s refusal to let Dee have the quilts indicates a permanent change of character.  This is shown by Maggie’s and the mother’s contented position at the end of the story.   They seem set in their way and perfectly contented to stay that way.  Dee may be trying to change her out look and status in life but Maggie and the mother are not any were close to doing so.  Dee seems to want everything that has any meaning in their lives.  “This churn top is what I need,” (Walker 179).  This shows her need for the things of her past. This is odd though because the story makes it sound like she does not care for her past.  Dee seems to have always gotten her way because she was assertive while Maggie was shame faced.  The mother seems to finally decide Maggie needs her fair share especially since Dee seems to only care for history not the present.

Interpreter of Maladies / Jhumpa Lahiri / question 5

Mrs. Das thinks of Mr. Kapasi as almost a doctor.  She thinks of him as having the ability to decide what needs to be done to fix peoples problems.  She hopes he can fix her personal problem with her husband.  He however is less confident in his abilities.  He never glorified his position and is flattered when it is suggested he does more than just translate the people’s words.  “She sat a bit slouched at one end of the back sea, not offering her puffed rice to anyone,” (Lahiri 150).  This quote shows her indifference to her family. This is latter explained when she confesses her secret to Mr. Kapasi.  Mr. Kapasi thinks Mrs. Das is like him self which in a way she is.  She has a child that is not her husbands which has separated her from her husband.  Mr. Kapasi lost a child to disease which caused him and his wife to grow apart.

poems, how to?

I think Perrine’s approach to poems is a very efficient one.  His method seems very scientific.  He gives pretty strait forward rules for deciding the correct meaning of a poem. His ideas make sense.  Every poem has only one correct meaning.  I do disagree though some what.  Poems are like ink blots; they can be interpreted any way possible by different people.  Poems are often written for the enjoyment of others so if they find enjoyment out of interpreting the poem in a different way than it was intended than what is the problem with that. 

I found his explanations of the poems very satisfactory.  He explained in detail why they should be interpreted in the correct way.  He again sounds like a scientist or a lawyer because of his detailed explanations.  For the poem the Night-March it never occurred to me that it could be about the stars.  After he explains it, I can hardly picture it as anything ells.  At the end of his article he explains that symbols could be interpreted as a larger range of ideas.  I feel this kind of contradicts what he said earlier.  The poem of the Sick Rose is actually about a sick rose. This completely threw me of because I was thinking it was symbolic not literal, although the title does lend one to think of it literally.  Poems can easily become much more complex if parts of it are accidentally considered to be symbolic.

The Great Gatsby / F. Scott Fitzgerald (pg 143-153)

Ops I did it again.  The main character dies again in the end of the book. After Gatsby’s death Nick takes care of his funeral.  Nick continues to be Gatsby’s leaning post even after death.  Finally in the end of the book you learn Gatsby actually has a father.  It was not until his father was introduced as Mr. Gatz did I realize that in the earlier story about Gatsby helping a sailor from not crash his yacht Gatsby was the grungy character on the beach.  The book that Mr. Gatz shows Nick reveals how meticulous Gatsby was from the beginning of his life.  “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated” (Fitzgerald 187). This statement reveals how connected Tom and Daisy were.  Although daisy may hove loved Gatsby her need for luxury seemed more powerful because she did not show up to his funeral.  Daisy seems to be successful at living a rich life when Lily Bart was not.