One Perfect Rose

One Perfect Rose

The disappointment that the speaker is having is about the clichés of love, specifically about how people in love always send flowers. The speaker does love the fact that she has received a rose, which is the symbol of love yet she thinks it’s very ordinary and wants something special that not a lot of people can get, like a limousine. If you want to prove to somebody that they're the most important person in the world, doing some lame thing that everybody else always does and that doesn't require any real thought isn't the way to go. This what the speaker of this poem is trying to say.

Invisible Man Book Project #2

·         Among Ellistons most pivotal early experiences is the death of his grandfather, who first opens the young boy's eyes to the fact that appearances do not always represent reality. He has a hard core, just like a peach, and how he endured the death of his grandfather.

 

·         Invisible Man shows a lot of allusions to other texts. Ellison draws from sources as diverse as classical European texts. Which shows his fuzzy, “different” skin.

 

·          "Ellison uses everything he knows, not to prove anything to anybody but to exploit as fully as possible the artistic materials he is conjuring” This shows how he uses his resources as the peach would when it falls off the tree and re-grows a new tree using its own fruit as nutrients.

Quotes

“All things truly wicked start from innocence.”
―Ernest Hemingway

“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.”
― Anne Frank

                                                                          Peach

·         The narrator remains a voice and never emerges as an actual presence. This emphasizes him as an “invisible man.”

 

·         Ellison renders the narrator’s voice as that of a man looking back on his experiences with greater perspective, but he makes sure that the reader sees into the mind of the still-innocent character.

NPR Interview

A.)  A Rest Stop On The Road From Soldier To Civilian

B.)   Richard Martin

C.)   War in Afghanistan

D-G.) This great segment draws the curtains back to give civilians a look into a little known part of the soldier's world and the military's strengths. Moving large numbers of individuals requires order, structure and control.  This article displays how each soldier struggles with the fact of having an occupation at one time in their lives, to having no employment. "Somebody has got something wrong with their foot, they go see the podiatrist," he says, "no harm, no foul. Nobody says anything. It's when they got something wrong up here, that's when ---we--- want to put a stigma on somebody."

This I Believe...

This I Believe…

           

           My family has a dog named Roxie. He’s a huge fluffy golden retriever—he has great big ears, a very large head, and a laid-back, mellow personality. My sister was the one that really wanted a dog and surprise surprise my parents bought her Roxie.

Some years later, now in high school, I went home one afternoon after having had an emotional breakdown. My whole life was upside down; the situation was tough and saddening. I felt hollow, dead, an empty shell of a person. Then I found Roxie, laying in one of his usual spots on the ground. He’d been asleep, but he lifted his head and looked at me with his sweet hazelnut brown puppy eyes. I stroked his head ever so gently, scratching his chin (his favorite spot)  I moved my hand down to scratch his back and sides, and he stretched lazily, showing  his belly so that it could be rubbed as well, giving me looks of absolute adoration. My heard warmed, forgetting the thought of what had happened earlier.

At that point, it hit me: not matter how tough some thing in life may be, no matter how badly I fail, I will always have my family friends to support be and be by my side. I believe family is so crucial. I believe that real love, whether it comes from a family member, a friend, or a dog, love is offered unconditionally. Love doesn’t consider past transgressions; love doesn’t wait to make sure it will be returned; love isn’t looking for something better and settling for less. Without my family and friends, I would be nothing.

Big Idea Revised Writing

Chapter 2 Big Idea Writing

In Chapter two one of the biggest things in the beginning of the book happens, Kemmrich dies, leaving the whole group of soldiers psychologically in ruins. Muller notices Kemmrich’s condition and then points out the boots and asks if he could have them. The narrator describes Mullers hunger for Kemmrich’s boots: “I live, I feel a hunger, greater than comes from the belly alone.” (pg. 33) Muller takes advantage of opportunities in a world of limited resources.

Just as the men could feel like anything could go wrong, Kropp, Muller, Kemmrich, and Paul are all sent to Platoon 9, controlled under Himmelstoss. Himmelstoss uses a variety of get-tough-disciplinary measures, making Paul scrub the latrine with a tooth-brush. “…under his orders I have scrubbed out the Corporals’ Mess with a tooth-brush.” (pg. 23) 

All Quiet on the Western Front Essay

All Quiet on the Western Front Essay

The sense of loss in Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is prominent throughout the novel. Identity, lost; the war, lost; and themselves, lost. “[Paul’s] state is getting worse.” (pg. 222) Little did he know, he was already dead. Paul “…can take nothing more.” (pg. 295) Stripped to pieces, his senseless soul is deprived of proper nourishment. Then “he fell in October 1918”.  (Last Page) Death; the best thing that happened to Paul.

            Paul’s generation is the “lost generation”. Only seeing through the eyes of death—fear and sorrow shroud the men as they “know only that in some strange and melancholy way [they] have become a waste land." (pg. 24) As “The war swept [each one] away.” (pg. 24) , the men lose their only hope and self-respect. They “…are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, [they] are crude and sorrowful and superficial” they “…are lost." (pg. 110) “The generation that has grown up before [them] will be strange to [them] and will push [them] aside “ (pg. 254), as if not there. The men don’t know what life is, how it works, or what it feels like to have it. That’s the greatest loss, life.

It’s sad to say that it’s the people who have lived and learned most that have led these young men to their final chapters. Parents, teachers, and the government body all played a big influence in the path these men took. As they looked around and asked "why," they focused on what they had learned at home and in school. The patriotic myths of the older generation become apparent when Paul goes home. A man in the army criticizes Paul for not saluting him when Paul has spent a good share of his life in the trenches killing the enemy and trying to survive. These examples of betrayal are a motif in Remarque's novel.

            ". . . All men of my age, here and over there, throughout the whole world see these things; all my generation is experiencing these things with me." (pg. 264) Paul’s “… knowledge of life is limited to death” (pg. 264) Surviving the rest of the war would have been bad enough for Paul to endure physically and emotionally. Every time Paul went into the trenches, he lost more of himself; coming back at recurring emotional lows because of his consumption of death and violence that had been going on very close to him, deceiving his mind into thoughts of trickery and even worse, nothingness.

            Loss controls and dictates the lives of these men, especially Paul. Is there any gain in winning a war after you’ve lost so much? As everyone’s “…legs refuse to move” (pg. 111)  the shear thought of going to the front cripples the men. Every blood-soaked step towards the front eliminates any thoughts from one’s mind, leaving the men in pure cluelessness.

            Paul is loss, and loss is everything.

Why Are We Here?

When Dale Long had asked himself the large life question, "Why are we here?," he wasn't always sure of the answer. But one night of stargazing with his children brought him clarity on his place in the universe.

            Wondering about everything, I always over analyze the world and what revolves around me. I love reading articles, books, and newspaper reports about interesting topics that I don't really know about.
I'm pretty sure we have all thought about this question to ourselves, Why are we here?, and we may never know the answer yet the answer might just be right there, in front of all our faces, staring straight at us. As curious as I am, I always tend to lean towards sci-fi and interesting things that humans may have only heard about.