June had an affair with another man, Gerry Nanapush, and after Lipsha was born, passed him off to Marie. Upon first hearing the news, Lipsha is surprised and denies it entirely. However, as the story continues, he becomes more and more at peace with it. The final scene of the book has Lipsha staring over a bridge into the water below, thinking of June. He thinks of her as “part of the great loneliness being carried up the driving current” (366), meaning that she has always been a solitary individual one with wild.
Phoenix is an elderly black woman who is attempting to retrieve well needed medicine for her suffering grandson. She herself is suffering from poor eyesight and interprets things before her as other things. She has to walk from her hometown north to Nanchez. A very long path requiring dedication, especially for a colored woman walking in Mississippi, a state slavery was widely supported because it was needed for the survival of the cotton economy. During her path she faces many obstacles before reaching her destination to get the medicine for her grandson.
Samantha Shapter ENG 101-13 Essay #3 4/4/11 I see “Buzzards” by Lee Zacharias as a memoir; she even alludes to it herself: “It’s a rare family that cheers to learn one of its members is writing a memoir” (263). Zacharias uses her knowledge of buzzards to deal with her father’s death. Although she shows she has extensive knowledge of the birds, I found it overwhelming and boring to read paragraph after paragraph about the frightening birds. Losing a parent myself, I can identify with her methods of coping, but I found myself more interested in reading about her father than the buzzards. However, though the central topic of her essay may be boring, Zacharias is an excellent writer.
“A Worn Path” written by Eudora Welty outlines the struggles of Phoenix Jackson, an old Negro woman on one of her many treacherous journeys through the Natchez, Mississippi wilderness to a medical clinic in town sometime after the Civil War. She makes the journeys for her infant grandson who is in need of medicine for his throat which he injured by drinking lye on a previous occasion. Phoenix is very determined and persists to overcome all the obstacles encountered on her journey and demonstrates her determination, unselfishness, and courageous nature even though she obviously suffers from dementia. We join Phoenix on her latest journey down the worn path through the thick woods where she is determined to accomplish her ultimate goal. She must keep the animals from scurrying under her feet by swishing the cane about her feet.
The “Chippewa Woman” poem portrays a Native American woman stranded in the wilderness by a storm trying to keep herself and her sick baby alive. She is so desperate for survival that she resorts to using her own flesh for fish bait. This is a small enough price for the Chippewa woman to pay for the life of her sick child. She faces a long and difficult journey and cautiously braves the perils of the wolves that surround her on her way to safety or home. In “Bwalla The Hunter” there are no comparable language examples with the “Chippewa Woman” poem.
These women enchanted them with their singing and put them to sleep. When the men woke up Pete was missing and the remaining two assumed he turned into the frog that jumped out of Pete’s clothes that were still there. After leaving the river Everett and Delmar come across a big man blind in one eye who takes them out for a picnic in order to attack them and steal their money. When the men get back to Everett’s hometown they find out that his wife, Penny, has taken up a new man to be her husband and told their girls that he got hit by a train so they thought he was dead. All of it resembles the blind singer on the island of Scherie, the Sirens, the Cyclops, and Ulysses’s wife
Eudora Welty “A Worn Path” “She wore a dark striped dress reaching down to her shoe tops,…,all neat and tidy, but every time she took a step she might have fallen over her shoelaces, which dragged from her unlaced shoes”,- an elderly woman named Phoenix Jackson described as very poor, old person, living in desperation. She is making a journey into town to find medicine for her sick grandson, which we realize later, when she finally arrives at the town. She is old and probably not healthy, we can understand that liong trip to the town is not easy t5o her, but she is still very lively, because she is willing to go through this intricate journey yet again, and it also seems that Phoenix is very fond of life itself, since she talks to the animals in the forest, “out of my way, all you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits...”. Welty writes, “her hair came down on her neck in the frailest of ringlets, still black” , which shows that she is still far from being dead. When Phoenix meets the scarecrow, another symbol for death, she dances with it, as if representing that death is not near.
Kendall Madoo 2-02-12 Period 1 In the “the worn path” the protagonist, Phoenix, goes through her journey towards town to get medicine for her grandson. Her journey is block by many obstacles, yet she over comes it because of her determination to get through life. Phoenix’s journey is similar to everyone’s life for how we have to overcome or adapt to the obstacles in our way to get to things that we want. Phoenix faces many obstacles, some that can be overcome and others that she couldn’t overcome. Many people can relate to this lady’s journey, that they had obstacles maybe not as the same, but had a difficulty just like it.
In both short stories, the main characters struggle to accept the change they see taking place and in the process gain a more insightful, mature understanding of the world. The White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett is a story about a nine year old girl named Sylvia who lives on a farm with her grandmother. She is very close with nature and has enjoyed her move away from the busy city nearby to her current residence in the country. Sylvia’s routine lifestyle is interrupted one day by a hunter who asks Sylvia and her grandmother if he can stay at their house for a day. Sylvia is smitten by her visitor who is on a mission to hunt down the rare white heron.
Hwawon Bae AP English 3 – 2nd period 12/10/09 IWA #2 Mary Oliver is a poet who is an “indefatigable guide to the natural world.” “Owls” shows us Oliver’s detailed perspective and emotional feeling on the big eyed, flying creatures; her love and respect towards them. Oliver’s style in writing conveys the complexity of her response to nature. Mary Oliver greatly exaggerates reverence to owls. Although they are simply animals, birds to be more specific, she refers to them like they are gods and very elevated. Oliver uses words like glory and delicate to show her thoughts on the owl.