Fast Break

I found a poem on poets.org titled "Fast Break" written by Edward Hirsch in 1950. The poem is about a team making the perfect relay to the two forwards on the court to lay the ball into the basket. Showing perfect sync between the members of the team. As Hirsch says "letting the play develop in front of him in slow motion, almost exactly like a coach's drawing on the blackboard." It ends with the defender going after the wrong forward where that man passes to his other teammate running the floor with him and passing to him to let him take the wide open lay up. We see this today in basketball, watching the DSU team or when I watch my home team. Except in today's sport, they most likely dunk the ball on a fast break, whereas with basketball around the 1950s, dunking wasn't much of a though let alone a specialty like it is now. Just a poem about a team perfectly executing a plan and making the basket, by utilizing their skills and teamwork in order to get what they needed and wanted, a basket.

Poetry Doesn't Matter

This week I read a poem titled "Poetry Makes Nothing Happen" written by Julia Alvarez. This poem is an interesting one if I say so. The way the author writes this is that poetry, in what i'm assuming is her own mind, poetry makes all the things that are wrong in the world better. The last two lines of the poem read, "That's why they can be trusted, why poems might save us from what happens in the world. Mike Holmquist, Jenny Klein and Faith Cheney identify as the characters in this poem. Each on having their own situation in life. Julia Alvarez continues to say "Poetry made nothing happen" and "if only poetry had made nothing happen. As if poetry was able to make something happen, or had a role in something happening. These characters turned to poetry, in hopes to escape their problems and feel as if nothing was wrong.

More on A&P

For my second post, I'll focus on Sammy and the three girls. I find it interesting that Sammy was willing to quit his job all because Lengel embarrassed. Now, I understand that stores have clothing regulations and that a majority of the time they are monitored and enforced. Lengel even tells the girls, "That's policy for you. Policy is what the kingpins want." Sammy, a 19 year old kid, probably got all googly eyed when these girls walked in to the store with their bikini's on, as most teenage males would. I just don't see the point in quitting your job over that fact. A job that most high school kids have and keep in order to have money for what they desire. It must not have been that important for Sammy, as he does walk away form his job in preference for the girls, though he doesn't even get a phone number or anything. However, Sammy does realize that it's a hard world out there, and it will be from here on out for him.

Coming of Age in Boys and Girls, A&P

In both stories, "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro, and "A&P" written by John Updike have instances in which there is a sense of maturity, and making their own decisions. For "A&P", at the end of the story, Sammy quits his job because he believes that Lengel embarrassed the three girls, Sammy states "You didn't have to embarrass them."speaking to Lengel. This leads Sammy to quit his job, as he says "Their unsuspecting hero" in defense of the way Lengel handled the situation with the girls. Sammy also says at the end "I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through. His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he'd just had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." As it seems Sammy realizes here that it's going to be an uphill battle as the world was cold. It's admirable of Sammy to defend the girls but he gets nothing in return, and even loses his job. Now, for "Boys and Girls". The little eleven year old girl grows up a bit when she lets Flora, their horse, run out of the gate to freedom. They live on fox farm and use the meant from the horses to feed the foxes that are on their farm. When the horse began running around, it headed toward the gate. The eleven year old describes this as "Instead of shutting the gate, I opened it as wide as I could. I did not make any decision to do this, it was just what I did. Flora never slowed down; she galloped straight past me, and Laird jumped up and down, yelling, "Shut it, shut it!" even after it was too late." She elected to choose to save the horses life rather than help provide food for the foxes on the farm. This shows that she is taking a stance against the job that her father does, of killing the horses for the foxes to feed on. Even though that is most likely how they receive their home income. This may not have been the smartest choice, but it is only one horse, and her father forgives her at the end of the story, saying "she's only a girl". Indicating that he can't be mad at her for this. 

The Disapperance of Alys

Another thing I found interesting about this story was Alys, and how she disappeared. I know she followed Primrose and Penny into the forest, but no one ever sees her or finds her or any of her remains. At the end of the story when Penny and Primrose are discussing the creature in the woods as they reflect on it, they are trying to determine whether or not they really saw, or that the creature was indeed real. As Penny says, "Sometimes I think that thing finished me off", Primrose responds with "It did finish that little one off, didn't it?." As if she wasn't really sure what happened to the little girl. Byatt writes in the story that she went into the woods, never to be seen again, but when Primrose and Penny are reading the book inside the country house, there are no mentions of the little girl that was never found. As Primrose and Penny struggle to determine whether or not the creature was real, maybe the question is was Alys really there, or was Alys more apart of their imagination than the worm was? Or was Alys real and the worm was fake? I guess we'll never know for sure what ever happened to Alys in the woods that day, but maybe it's best that we don't.

The Thing in the Forest

Looking back on this short story and the 'worm', I believe that is imaginary but it also has the chance of being a real creature. The way that the girls describe it in the story is very detailed. Saying that it's lips were thin and had white eyes along with it's lips being raised like welts from whipstrokes, these are distinct features. However, then the girls add that it's body looked to be made up of wet paper mache and had a tube shape. It seems kind of ironic that the girls come across such a creature, as they define that it's a monstrous creature, because they are moved to this in the country to get them away from the danger of the Blitz during the World War Two era, and while it comes off as a safe country house, they come across this worm that seems to be everything but safe. As I read this story, I thought of a few things in the Harry Potter books and movies, as well as caveman. At the end of this story, it mentions how people had been fighting off this beast for centuries. Much like cave drawings of cavemen fighting off these "beasts" but today, we don't see many if any of those animals or creatures that were supposedly fought off in that time. I see Harry Potter in this because of the serpent that is locked away inside the Chamber of Secrets. Also, the forest depicted in the Harry Potter series is named "The Forbidden Forest" because of the many dangerous creatures inside that forest, much like the worm in this unknown forest.

White Heron

I recently came across a short story by Sarah Orne Jewett titled "A White Heron". This piece was about a little girl who lives on a farm and has to find one of the missing cows. She finds the cow and while bringing the cow back to the farm she comes across this man who is a hunter. The hunter asks for shelter at Sylvia's grandmothers' house. While he's there he explains that he is a hunter and has a collection of many birds that he has hunted over the years but there are a few that have eluded him for so long. One of which being a white heron. While the hunter explains that he has been following the heron's path and that's how we ended up here. Sylvia hears this and thinks to herself about how she's seen that white heron. However, she elects not to tell the hunter where she saw the heron in order to save it's life. I found this interesting that a little girl, only 9 years old, would protect this heron for whatever reason. The hunter had told the family that he could make them rich with money, he promised it. This doesn't stop her from protecting the heron. It could have something to do with the fact that she's been around animals her whole life, so her loyalty lies with the animals, but even being promised riches, she still keeps the heron's location a secret. No one can really tell where a younger persons' loyalty lies, when it comes to animals, or people, or whatever. She cared more for life than money, that's something to think about.

Say Cheese

Cameras and photography are present in both "Interpreter of Maladies" and also in "A Pair of Tickets". However they are used in two different ways. In the "Interpreter of Maladies", Mr.Das uses his camera to take photographs much like a tourist would do. This differs from "A Pair of Tickets" because in this story, Jing-Mei uses photography to win over her little cousin by taking photos with her to make her cousin feel more comfortable around Jing-Mei. In the first story, Mr.Das is using his photos more to capture a moment, something to put in an album and say yeah, we went to India where my parents are from and saw this and that. However, Jing-Mei uses her camera to win over a little cousin, using it as a toy or something to do that doesn't necessarily mean that she's a tourist, she's just playing the likes of the little cousin. That's how the two cameras differ from each other, they have the same purpose, and the same use, but each person is using them to a different degree, where one is for capturing a moment of a time and place, and the other is used to keep a little girl happy in a meeting between two family members.