Sometimes drugged & duffled (by white men) into a cockpit bound for the next adventure
The speaker begins his commentary on the actor’s career by suggesting that The A-Team, the show Mr. T stars in, is racist by mentioning how he is “Sometimes drugged / & duffled by white men in a cockpit,” which seems to draw illusions to white men capturing and transporting slaves to new territories during the time of the slave trade.
What were we, the skinny B-boys, to learn from you? How to hulk through Chicago in a hedgerow afro, an ox-grunt kicking dust behind the teeth; those eighteen glammering gold chains around the throat of pity, that fat hollow medallion like the sun on a leash
The speaker portrays Mr. T, as a sellout and an unfavorable role model for the African American youth for constantly playing negative, stereotypical roles for a black man in order to achieve success in Hollywood. Hollywood back in the day was less considerate towards African Americans. Thus, Mr. T's rise to fame was very controversial at this time
Sometimes drugged & duffled (by white men) into a cockpit bound for the next adventure. And liable to crush a fool’s face like newsprint; headlines of Hollywood blood and wincing
The speaker illustrates the major themes in this poem which are pop culture, race, music, and masculinity.
A man made of scrap muscle & the steam engine’s imagination, white feathers flapping in each lobe for the skull’s migration, should the need arise.
The author uses alliteration to set the tone of the poem, by the use of man made, muscle and migration. I believe this is a great example of a free verse poem.
Later that night when Thomas rolled over and lurched into her, she would open her eyes and think of the place that was hers for an hour-where she was nothing, pure nothing, in the middle of the day….
Another expression of how this poem is a elegy. The mother is expressing her sadness, grief and loneliness as she truly yearns for a better life. She dreams of escaping her current situation, longing for something new and better.
She had a hour at best before Liza appeared pouting from the top of the stairs. And just what was mother doing out back with the field mice? Why, building a palace.
This illustrates how the mother is struggling with her individual space from her daughter. She only has an hour to herself to truly be free and alone. The mother is trying to create a "palace" representing her own safe space away from the stresses of her life.
Sometimes there were things to watch- the pinched armor of a vanished cricket, a floating maple leaf. Other days she starred until she was assured when she closed her eyes she’d see only her own vivid blood.
Rita describes the mental struggle parenthood truly entails. Most days are busy and a full time job, but during the still and uneventful days loneliness and depression can take over. This poem can act as a elegy, since the poet expresses grief, sadness, or loss. The mundane days put us into the mind and personality of the mother, as she struggles with her day to day life.
She wanted a little room for thinking: but she saw diapers steaming on the line, a doll slumped behind the door. So she lugged a chair behind the garage to sit out the children’s naps.
Rita depicts the realism of parenthood and her use of specific details describes the day to day struggle of being a parent. The point of view is also in the third person to illustrate more information about the individual.
An ecstasy
The use of ecstasy is interesting here since it implies a different meaning from the denotation of the word. Wilfred is not simply talking about joy and pleasure, but the fight and flight instinct of these soldiers as they struggle to survive.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
After reading this poem and analyzing it I believe this poem is a elegy. In this specific type of poetry the author and speaker is expressing grief, sadness, and loss. Wilfred tells the true horror of war and all that it entails!
To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
Wilfred speaking to the audience and readers directly expressing how to die for ones country is admirable but truly a lie. There is no beauty in war only death and disturbing experiences.
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, —
Wilfred uses anthropomorphism here to illustrate war as a cancer. Cancer a nonhuman figure is given emotions and physical traits to depict the hell of war. We truly get a glimpse into the devastating acts he witness firsthand.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
Helps the audience understand not only the physical, but the emotional trauma soldiers in war truly experience. Wilfred is haunted mentally in his dreams by his experiences.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime. — Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
Wilfred provides a true image into warfare, depicting graphic scenes scenes full of life and emotion. We as the audiences are pulled into his personal experience and visualize what Wilfred saw as well.
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
The author is keen on expressing modern warfare, realism and depicts the true events of war with honest emotions.
Oh, the feel of the wolftail on the silk, the strength, the tense precision in the wrist. I painted them hundreds of times eyes closed. These I painted blind. Some things never leave a person: scent of the hair of one you love, the texture of persimmons, in your palm, the ripe weight.
I think the author is trying to express how memories can be either traumatic or pure, however we hold on to them whether they bring us love of pain.
This year, in the muddy lighting of my parents’ cellar, I rummage, looking for something I lost. My father sits on the tired, wooden stairs, black cane between his knees, hand over hand, gripping the handle. He’s so happy that I’ve come home. I ask how his eyes are, a stupid question. All gone, he answers.
I believe this could be a saudade. The author uses this saudade to express a yearning for something that might have been or is lost. A very powerful moment and poetic term is illustrated in these lines
The sun, the sun.
The author uses repetition to covey a deeper meaning. It illustrates how the sun and his mother is associated with the persimmons.
My mother said every persimmon has a sun inside, something golden, glowing, warm as my face.
The author uses the persimmons here to give figurative meaning to inanimate object to convey a happy moment to the audience.
fight and fright, wren and yarn. Fight was what I did when I was frightened, Fright was what I felt when I was fighting.
Here is a great use of alliteration in this poem. The author helps illustrate how of English language can easily be misinterpreted to foreigners.
she is beautiful as the moon.
The author uses an anthropomorphism here to attribute human traits and emotions to an object.
Donna undresses, her stomach is white. In the yard, dewy and shivering with crickets, we lie naked, face-up, face-down. I teach her Chinese. Crickets: chiu chiu. Dew: I’ve forgotten. Naked: I’ve forgotten.
This is a very well written metaphor. The author in this poem compares this intimate moment to how the persimmon is undressed in the lines above earlier. The creative use of vocabulary is apparent and is very visual to us as the audience here.
In sixth grade Mrs. Walker slapped the back of my head and made me stand in the corner for not knowing the difference between persimmon and precision.
The author begins the poem with enjambment which captures us as the reader.
walking past her children as if they ~vere strangers
Displacement and estrangement has forged a bond between Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi. They both seem connected with one another and have lost their connection with their partners. I know now for certain the major themes of this narrative are loneliness, displacement, estrangement, and dysfunctional relationships.
Mrs. Das had taken an interest in hi
Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das are both estranged from their partners, thus are forming a connection. They share the same loneliness and dissatisfaction in their lives. The theme of this narrative keeps on repeating throughout the story.
f ever she referred to his posi-tion, she used the phrase "doctor’s assistant," as if the process of inter-pretation were equal to taking someone’s temperature, or changing abedpan. She never asked him about the patients who came to the doc-tor’s office, or said that his job was a big responsibil
The theme of loneliness, displacement and dysfunctional relationships are being shown in this narrative again. We as the reader feel bad for both Mr. Kapasi and the Das family. Each individual is struggling to find their own identity mentally and culturally.
I look forward to it, actually," Mr. Kapasi said as they continued ontheir way. "The Sun Temple is one of my favorite places. In that way it isa reward for me. I give tours on Fridays and Saturdays only. I haveanother job during the week.
Unlike the Das family, Mr. Kapasi is in tune with his culture and emotions. Mr. Kapasi provides an excellent contrast to the Das family.
Mr. and Mrs. Das behaved like an older brother and sister, notparents. It seemed that they were in charge of the children only for theday; it was hard to believe they were regularly responsible for anythingother than themselve
The author is providing information about Mr. Das and Mrs. Dave from a different point of view. I believe this helps illustrate the major themes of displacement, loneliness, estrangement, and disfunction to the audience.
he little girt stuck out a hand. "Mine too. Mommy, do mine too.""Leave me alone," Mrs. Das said, blowing on her nail and turning herbody slightly. "You’re making me mess up
The author is illustrating the dysfunctional and distant relationship between mother and daughter. Mrs. Das seems dissatisfied with her life, and thus is becoming estranged from her family.
While Mr. Das adjusted his telephoto lens, Mrs. Das reached into herstraw bag and pulled out a bottle of colorless nail polish, which she pro-ceeded to stroke on the tip of her index finge
The author includes these specific details to show how physically and cultural distant Mrs. Das is to her cultural and her family. I believe this also illustrates a major theme of displacement and loneliness as I've stated above.
but Mrs.Das said nothing to stop her. She sat a bit slonched at one end of theback seat, not offering her puffed rice to anyone.
This could indicate another example of displacement both culturally and physically.
dragging her shaved, largely bare legs across the back seat.
This is a prime example of tactile imagery and gives us the audiences a truly visual representation of what is occurring in this narrative.
, she iscritical of the superficial adoption of elements of either culture, andshe readily admits that she feels neither Indian nor American
The author helps illustrate the mindset of Jhumpa as she struggles with her identity and sense of displacement. It early in the narrative but I believe the major theme could be displacement and loneliness.
Indian and American cultures in shapingher perspective on llfe
The author starts off this with direct characterization to describe Jhumpa Lahiri and provide the setting where the narrative takes place.
e felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha morethan his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead,
The cost of Jimmy unrealistic love is starting to have an affect on his soldiers lives and his leadership skills. Jimmy is facing not only a physical war but an internal war as well. Jimmy's mental health is deteriorating and his imagination is killing him internally, as well as killing his men externally.
They carried their own lives.
I believe this illustrates the major theme of the narrative and that's why the author focused so much on all the specifics of what each solider carried.
They carried chess sets, basketballs, Vietnamese-English dictionaries, insignia of rank, Bronze Stars and PurpleHearts, plastic cards imprinted with the Code of Conduct. Theycarried diseases, among them malaria and dysentery. Theycarried lice and ringworm and leeches and paddy algae andvarious rots and molds. They carried the land itself—Vietnam,the place, the soil—a powdery orange-red dust that coveredtheir boots and fatigues and faces. They carried the sky. Thewhole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons,the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity.
This helps illustrate the burdens that every solider carried and the gravity of their situation. Not only did they carry personal items, but they also carried the land itself. A very powerful line here.
Imagination was a killer
The author uses this incredible line to illustrate how deadly imagination and a persons mind can be. These soldiers are not only dealing with physical stress and pain, but mental pain as well. It helps show the reader how an individuals mental health can deteriorate and be the real killer.
They all carried ghosts.
This line here is very symbolic and can illustrate a variety of different meanings. The carrying of ghost sets the mood of how each solider is carrying his own burden or baggage. The ghost as mentioned above can also illustrate those who have fallen in the war, and how each solider is carrying the memories of the fallen.
they carried whatever presented itself, or whateverseemed appropriate as a means of killing or staying alive.
I feel like the major theme of this narrative is staying alive. I believe the author focused so much energy and time on what everyone was carrying to foreshadow the fact that each item was important to the individual in order to survive. Everyone carried their own burdens in order to live and survive.
They carried him out to a dry paddy, established security, andsat smoking the dead man's dope until the chopper came.Lieutenant Cross kept to himself. He pictured Martha's smoothyoung face, thinking he loved her more than anything, morethan his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because heloved her so much and could not stop thinking about her.
Jimmy is not only battling in an external environment for his life, but he is also struggling internally in his head. Jimmy has been focused and consumed about Martha, the so called love of his life. Now one of Jimmy's men has died and he cant help but feel responsible and guilty. Jimmy is a lieutenant and essentially responsible for each of his men's lives, but cant stop focusing on Martha back home. Jimmy feels his irrational love of Martha is affecting his judgment and costing his men their lives..
They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross washoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of hisrucksack. In the late afternoon, after a day's march, he woulddig his foxhole, wash his hands under a canteen, unwrap theletters, hold them with the tips of his fingers, and spend the lasthour of light pretending.
The author uses tactile imagery to give us insight into Jimmy Cross. The use of this tactile imagery also illustrates indirect characterization. The writer reveals Jimmy to us through his thoughts, word and actions. jimmy, thus becomes more personable and real to us the reader.
Yet it had happened and here I was, talking about algebra to a lot of boys who might, every one of them for all I knew, be popping off needles every time they went to the head
This express the protagonist internal conflict with in himself. While struggling to teach college algebra to his students he is constantly reminded on Sonny, and how no matter how innocence someone seems they can always take a turn for the worst. This can also be considered an external conflict as well, since our protagonist lid left questioning if heroin did more for an individual than college algebra could do. This definitely sets the mood and plot for the narrative.