Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Facing It” is poem about the author’s visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and his personal experiences in the Vietnam War. The most well known part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, which is the focal point of “Facing It”. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall is located in Washington D.C. The wall features the names of over 58,000 men and women who have either lost their lives or who remain missing, due to the Vietnam War. “Facing It” presents a Vietnam War veteran’s powerful emotions when he sees the more than 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and remembers his past experiences.
English 1B Essay #2 Quotes * What does it mean to be a truth-teller? What makes Baca a truth-teller? What truths does he tell? Quotes by Baca, “I inherited this darkness. I am familiar with the ax and hoe, the obdurate silence of dirt that blisters my working hands.
Theme For English B (1951) The poem, “Theme For English B”, written by Langston Hughes is greatly unique. The way that Langston Hughes expresses himself through writing is like nothing I have seen before. His style of writing is very smooth and precise but sometimes written in metaphoric slang. The main ideas that I will focus on when composing the explication of this poem are, the true meaning of this poem, the author’s personal attachment to this particular poem, and also the imagery and word use of the author. In the poem “Theme For English B”, by Langston Hughes, Hughes talks about the African American struggle for equality.
At the beginning of the poem, his “black face fades, hiding inside the black granite.” It seems as if memories from the past have come back to the mind of the speaker, putting him back into these moments of terror in the war. The third line of the poem says, “I said I wouldn’t, dammit: No tears.” He seems to have been thinking about this moment of confrontation, and had previously convinced himself that he would not break down over the emotion that this lone, black granite wall brought to him. In the fifth line, “I’m stone. I’m flesh.” tears the speaker into two realities. He sees himself in the real world as living and human, but also visualizes himself inside the wall of the Memorial.
Fortunately, his name disappears as fast as it appears, but his inner turmoil has not. Komunyakaa’s poem is full of symbolism used to bring us closer to his physical being. He speaks of the color of the granite memorial that matches the color of his skin. By saying “My black face fades, hiding inside the granite (Komunyakaa 1,2),” he lets us know that he is an African American man. He talks about turning this way and that, and it appears the stone let’s go of him…depending on the light.
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” both share significance about journeys. When read on their own both authors showed symbolic factors as to their stories. Authors chose to use symbolism in their writings to catch the reader’s attention to help them better understand the purpose behind the author’s story. These two stories are both different in their own way; one story speaks of death while Robert Frost’s poem speaks of a decision that will change someone’s life. These two stores are both different as one is a poem of course, and the other is a short story.
When the dreamer in Skrzynecki’s poem says “That hang over you in a dream”, he is talking about his distinct sense of separation between himself and the shadows that are surrounding him. This use of enjambment explains to us how the shadows are haunting him and that his poor link to his family heritage - that he doesn’t know – demonstrates that his heritage is an unknown. There is also the use of the second person pronoun “you” invites us as the reader to belong and become positioned in the text and see from the personas point of view. There is also the use of the rhetorical question “why do they never speak”, the emphasis and emotive language demonstrates the personas frustration with the lack of verbal communication and therefore their importance in his life. To represent the growing sense of alienation to the shadows there is also the use of “they” as he becomes further and further disconnected from the shadows.
Thematic Response to “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien has honed his story-telling into an exact science. He has written a number of books on the Vietnam War, most of which he has based upon his own experience “half a life time ago.” This traumatic event in his life pointed him towards writing as an outlet for the burdens he carried from the war. Tim O’Brien embraces the suffering that he endured during the Vietnam War in order to tell stories of the reality without the boundaries of truth. The theme of the story is that Tim O’Brien uses storytelling to create a meaning in his life. Rather than dwell in the regrets of his past, he welcomes the memories into his imagination and the outcome of his life’s work.
The story is told by a narrator and can be factual or fiction. The essay has a plot that typically is told chronologically or in spatial order, and there is creative tension which holds the audience’s attention. Descriptive writing is often referred to as painting with words. The descriptive pattern avoids general words in favor of specific terms to vividly portray a person, place, or thing. This style of writing allows the reader to visualize the topic and step into the writer’s experience.
The spider’s work is a metaphor for a man’s struggle to create something substantial in life. The next line presents a shift in which the narrator begins to speak about himself instead of the spider as he says “O my soul where you stand.” This shift causes the reader to begin to see the true meaning of the poem. The following sentence’s adjective, “detached”, and phrase “measureless oceans of space”, creates a feeling of loneliness and despair. The narrator is trying to show that his soul is set apart from everything else in the world. The next lines phrase