The story, "Adversaries" written by Frankie Lennon, is a story about a relationship between a young girl who is the narrator and her aunt. In the story, the narrator's aunt is babysitting her because her parents are out of town for a meeting. During her stay with her aunt, the girl always finds herself getting scolded for doing everything and anything wrong. The title "Adversaries" which means opponents or enemies relates much to the story because the narrator ponders what it was between her and her aunt that made them adversaries. After all it was obvious, she didn't like her auntand her aunt didn't show any likeness towards her either. Through out the story, she talks about their relationship and how she wishes her grandma was still alive to take care of her at times her parents were out of town.
One of the themes of the story was facing death. As the narrator is collecting switches in the backyard as a punishment by her aunt, the narrator reminisces about her grandma. The memory of her grandma's funeral comes back and wishes she was still alive so that she didn't have to get stuck with her mean aunt. Remembering every part of the funeral day her thoughts, on page 29, last paragraph, "It hurt to remember. Hurt badder than when I scraped both my knees bloody. Badder than when somebody stole Silky my cocker spaniel. I didn't want to feel any more hurt in my chest so I pushed the picture memories back into the shut away place, locked it and made myself think of magic spells. If I could make the right one, I would swoosh my magic wand and made Grandmamma come back right now, and auntie disappear. It was then that I suddenly remembered Evelyn telling me that she had overheard her mother saying that my grandmamma had passed away...............The thought pierced my heard deep in its core". This shows how painful the narrator feels as she tries very hard to lock the memories of her grandmamma deep down inside.
Another theme is religion. The narrator mentions how her aunt considers playing games such as marbles and Jacks as "sinful idleness" and a waste of time. That is the reasons why her aunt never liked or allowed her to play any games in the house. The narrator also mentions of her aunt speaking aloud to God. For instance, whenever the narrator got yelled at by her aunt, she spoke of sins and screamed out to the Lord saying things like, "Lord!Lord! I be speakin yo truth! Lord have mercy!" It scared the narrator hearing it. Her aunt also uses the Lord to threaten the narrator by saying, "You better pray to the Lord yo Mama don't leave this world cause if she do, you ain't gon have no body to take care of ya." It shows how religion plays a big part in her aunt's life and how much she worships God.
Religion and facing death were the main themes I found that relates to the story, "Adversaries." The story talks about the narrators relationship with her aunt leaving her to question what it was that made them rivals. She also talks about how she wishes her grandma was still alive and reminisces feelings of the painful day of the funeral. Her aunt in the other hand preaches out to the Lord in difficult times and lets her anger out to him.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Who Am I
My name is Hazel and I was born and raised on the island of Oahu. I often ask myself who am I and why I am the way I am and sometimes I can't quite find the asnswers to all of my questions. If I had to describe myself in four words, it would be shy, family oriented, contemplative, and funny. Others may see the first two right away because I am one who stays reserved and quiet at first if I don't know you. However, once you get to know the real me, I'm not really quiet and shy behind it all.
I've always been a shy person and I'm pretty sure many are when you first meet someone. But I know there's more than that to me and I leave it up to people to be able to see beyond it. I could say that I'm very cautious when it comes to trusting people and it's why I often keep myself distant from others at first. At the time, I had been with someone for almost 3 years and I made a mistake of kissing someone else. I told a really close friend of mines who I trusted very much. She was the first person I thought would understand me the most. I vented out to her telling her I'd reveal my secret to my significant other when I was finally ready. Before I could even explain myself to my guy, he confronted me about the situation. He told me he had found out from his friend who actually was told by the first and only person I told. I asked over and over if she had told anyone but she denied it until she finally gave up and said the truth. I was mad but more so in total shock that she had even told anyone in the first place when she promised not to. She didn't even allow me to handle it on my own. I didn't expect anything like this from her. This was a lesson to be learned. I've had the people I least expect betray me and it helped made me realize that I need to be more careful with the people I choose to trust and dbe friends with. From that, I learned it's just better to keep the worst in the back of my mind and be prepared for it in any situation. Aside from that, I don't foreget to have fun and laugh. Once I'm comfortable being around a person, that when my humor and silliness is revealed.
I am family oriented. Family plays a big role in my life and being away from home and the people I love is the hardest thing I've ever had to do considering my entire family live on the island. My parents and I have always had a close and affectionate relationship. It's been difficult adjusting to being on my own especially missing family outings and parties but I've had to accept it is what it is. I grew up with two very dedicated, loving, and hard working parents who try to provide everything they can to help my brother and I be successful in life. Through many of the mistakes I've made like lying, sneaking out, and disrespecting them, they understood me and allowed me to grow. Doing so, they've taught me integrity, courage, and responsibility. My parents are the two people I look up to because I hope to be as good of a parent as they are in the future. In some ways, they've helped shape me to be the person I am today.
I'm one who does a lot of deep thinking about everything and anything in life. Whenever I have the chance to, I like to refelct on the past and present and try to figure out why things happen the way they do. Life is confusing sometimes and I would just like to figure out the possibilities and be prepared for anythingd. During the process, it helps me evaluate myself and understand how much I've changed and grown as a person in the past years. Sometimes I tend to hold on to the past too long that I get stuck and "change" is something I'm still learning to adjust to.
To me, identity is a set of characteristics that make a person entirely who they are which develop from the experiences one encounters in the course of their life. I may know a lot of things there is to know about me but I'm still in the route of learning more about life and myself each day.
I've always been a shy person and I'm pretty sure many are when you first meet someone. But I know there's more than that to me and I leave it up to people to be able to see beyond it. I could say that I'm very cautious when it comes to trusting people and it's why I often keep myself distant from others at first. At the time, I had been with someone for almost 3 years and I made a mistake of kissing someone else. I told a really close friend of mines who I trusted very much. She was the first person I thought would understand me the most. I vented out to her telling her I'd reveal my secret to my significant other when I was finally ready. Before I could even explain myself to my guy, he confronted me about the situation. He told me he had found out from his friend who actually was told by the first and only person I told. I asked over and over if she had told anyone but she denied it until she finally gave up and said the truth. I was mad but more so in total shock that she had even told anyone in the first place when she promised not to. She didn't even allow me to handle it on my own. I didn't expect anything like this from her. This was a lesson to be learned. I've had the people I least expect betray me and it helped made me realize that I need to be more careful with the people I choose to trust and dbe friends with. From that, I learned it's just better to keep the worst in the back of my mind and be prepared for it in any situation. Aside from that, I don't foreget to have fun and laugh. Once I'm comfortable being around a person, that when my humor and silliness is revealed.
I am family oriented. Family plays a big role in my life and being away from home and the people I love is the hardest thing I've ever had to do considering my entire family live on the island. My parents and I have always had a close and affectionate relationship. It's been difficult adjusting to being on my own especially missing family outings and parties but I've had to accept it is what it is. I grew up with two very dedicated, loving, and hard working parents who try to provide everything they can to help my brother and I be successful in life. Through many of the mistakes I've made like lying, sneaking out, and disrespecting them, they understood me and allowed me to grow. Doing so, they've taught me integrity, courage, and responsibility. My parents are the two people I look up to because I hope to be as good of a parent as they are in the future. In some ways, they've helped shape me to be the person I am today.
I'm one who does a lot of deep thinking about everything and anything in life. Whenever I have the chance to, I like to refelct on the past and present and try to figure out why things happen the way they do. Life is confusing sometimes and I would just like to figure out the possibilities and be prepared for anythingd. During the process, it helps me evaluate myself and understand how much I've changed and grown as a person in the past years. Sometimes I tend to hold on to the past too long that I get stuck and "change" is something I'm still learning to adjust to.
To me, identity is a set of characteristics that make a person entirely who they are which develop from the experiences one encounters in the course of their life. I may know a lot of things there is to know about me but I'm still in the route of learning more about life and myself each day.
The Party By: Frankie Lennon The Mee Street Chronicles
"The Party" written by Frankie Lennone is a stroy about the author's life in the eigth grade where she is confused about her sexuality. There is a dance at the party held at her friend's house without any parental supervision. Her friends are always trying to hook her up with random boys but she is never interested in any of them. Whil the party is going on, she observes everyone around her and is extremely nervous at the fact that she might be asked to dance by a boy. She doesn't want to be there. She wants to leave but is afraid that the others will wonder or even find out the truth about her sexuality. To be safe, she has no choice but to stay at the party as her inner voice constantly speaks to her. I believe that inner voice in her head is her conscience speaking.
Through out the story, a voice speaks to her in her head. Not knowing how to handle a situation, she would ask a question in her mind and the voice would suddently answer back to her, or sometimes it didn't. A character has a set of qualities that make him or her up which includes an individuals personality, behavior, or appearance. In my opinion, the voice that speaks to her in her head is not a character, but instead her conscience speaking making her aware of the truth of her sexuality.
The voice also appears in other stories such as, "No Escape". In that story, the voice plays the role of the narrator's god fairy mother helping her get through her fears of the monsters she believes exist in the house. In my opinion, the voice helps me better understand how the character is feeling and what the character is thinking throughout the story. The voice helps the narrator overcome her worries and fears. With the voice, it even allows me to imagine myself in her shoes.
In the story, "The Party", the voice plays a role as her conscience telling her how she really feels deep down. Again, the voice helps me understand how the narrator is feelinging all through the story. The voice also tells the narrator a truth she tries to hide from herself and from the reader. The truth of how she knows what's different about herself but don't want to accept it. Being worries that the other kids will find out the truth about her sexuality, one of them eventually figures her out at the end. The voice kicks in and tells her, "You ain't had no boyfriend cause you didn't want none. Never did and never will". She becomes worried about her other friends finding out, but is determined that no one will. She knows that no one can prove it.
Through out the story, a voice speaks to her in her head. Not knowing how to handle a situation, she would ask a question in her mind and the voice would suddently answer back to her, or sometimes it didn't. A character has a set of qualities that make him or her up which includes an individuals personality, behavior, or appearance. In my opinion, the voice that speaks to her in her head is not a character, but instead her conscience speaking making her aware of the truth of her sexuality.
The voice also appears in other stories such as, "No Escape". In that story, the voice plays the role of the narrator's god fairy mother helping her get through her fears of the monsters she believes exist in the house. In my opinion, the voice helps me better understand how the character is feeling and what the character is thinking throughout the story. The voice helps the narrator overcome her worries and fears. With the voice, it even allows me to imagine myself in her shoes.
In the story, "The Party", the voice plays a role as her conscience telling her how she really feels deep down. Again, the voice helps me understand how the narrator is feelinging all through the story. The voice also tells the narrator a truth she tries to hide from herself and from the reader. The truth of how she knows what's different about herself but don't want to accept it. Being worries that the other kids will find out the truth about her sexuality, one of them eventually figures her out at the end. The voice kicks in and tells her, "You ain't had no boyfriend cause you didn't want none. Never did and never will". She becomes worried about her other friends finding out, but is determined that no one will. She knows that no one can prove it.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
On Being a Cripple By:Nancy Mairs
The essay, "On Being a Cripple" written by Nancy Mairs discussed the topic on being what others would call handicapped or disabled, but she chooses to describe herself plainly as a cripple. The narrator uses the word cripple because she says it has a clean and straightforward meaning, having lost the full use of her limbs. When she is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, it changes the way she lives her life physically but never seems to give up on life itself. She struggles of course and as time passes, the disease progresses having more chances of complications. She learns to accept the truth rather than dwell on having the disease and chooses to live her life like any normal human being would with some restrictions on activities.
Nancy has Multiple Sclerosis and what it is, is a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous ssytem in which the myelin that sheathes the nerves is somehow eaten away and scar tissue forms in its place, interrupting the nerves signals. During the course, a person can loose a number of functions such as vision, hearing, speech, ability to walk, control of bladder or bowels, sense of humor and the list goes on. Those functions I just mentioned are just a few and I can imagine how difficult life would already be without them. Just knowing some of the complications the disease carries along with it makes me imagine how depressed I would be if I was in her position. COnsidering there is no cure, I'd lose hope in life and think I'd mine as well die. But Nancy in the other hand has an entirely different perspective on everything with having such a disease. She continues to be a grad student and also is a professor at colleges. She continues doing poetries and continues the roles as a mother and husband. She struggles being cripple physically and mentally and yet she inspires me because she still has the motivation and strength to continue living her life with the acceptance of the fact and truth about herself.
Nancy's physical appearance continues to progress and change but she mentions in the essay, "At my age, I don't spend much time thinking about my appearance. The burning egocentricity of adolescence which assures on that all the world is looking all the time, has passed, thnk God, and I'm generally too caught up in what I'm doing, to step back as I used to, and watch myself as though upon a stage". It goes to show how she has far more other important things to worry about than to be saddened by how she looks physically. Quoted by Nancy, "I've been limpin along for ten years now, and so far George and the children are still at my left elbow holding tight. By saying that, she's thankful that her husband and children are still on her side treating her as if she didn't have the disease. Like many others who suffer from cancer and other diseases, she could live every day saying and asking herself things like, "I hate my life" or "Why me?", but she's an inspiration because she doesn't. Instead, she continues to live each day as it comes positively.
Nancy has Multiple Sclerosis and what it is, is a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous ssytem in which the myelin that sheathes the nerves is somehow eaten away and scar tissue forms in its place, interrupting the nerves signals. During the course, a person can loose a number of functions such as vision, hearing, speech, ability to walk, control of bladder or bowels, sense of humor and the list goes on. Those functions I just mentioned are just a few and I can imagine how difficult life would already be without them. Just knowing some of the complications the disease carries along with it makes me imagine how depressed I would be if I was in her position. COnsidering there is no cure, I'd lose hope in life and think I'd mine as well die. But Nancy in the other hand has an entirely different perspective on everything with having such a disease. She continues to be a grad student and also is a professor at colleges. She continues doing poetries and continues the roles as a mother and husband. She struggles being cripple physically and mentally and yet she inspires me because she still has the motivation and strength to continue living her life with the acceptance of the fact and truth about herself.
Nancy's physical appearance continues to progress and change but she mentions in the essay, "At my age, I don't spend much time thinking about my appearance. The burning egocentricity of adolescence which assures on that all the world is looking all the time, has passed, thnk God, and I'm generally too caught up in what I'm doing, to step back as I used to, and watch myself as though upon a stage". It goes to show how she has far more other important things to worry about than to be saddened by how she looks physically. Quoted by Nancy, "I've been limpin along for ten years now, and so far George and the children are still at my left elbow holding tight. By saying that, she's thankful that her husband and children are still on her side treating her as if she didn't have the disease. Like many others who suffer from cancer and other diseases, she could live every day saying and asking herself things like, "I hate my life" or "Why me?", but she's an inspiration because she doesn't. Instead, she continues to live each day as it comes positively.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
The Mee Street Chronicles- Adversaries
The story, "Adversaries" written by Frankie Lennon, is a story about a relationship between a youn girl, the narrator, and her aunt. In the story, the narrator's aunt is babysitting her because her parents are out of town for a meeting. During her stay with her aunt, she finds herself always getting into trouble for doing everything and anything wrong. The title, "Adversaries" which means opponents or enemies relates much to the story because the narrator ponders what it is between her and her aunt that makes them adversaries. After all it was obvious, she didn't like her aunt and her aunt didn't show any likeness towards her either. Through out the story, she talks about there relationship and how she wishes her grandma was still alive to care for her at times her parents went out of town. The story showed two themes, one being facing death which the narrator explains her feelings about her deceased grandma, and the other
being religion which relates mostly to her aunt who is religious.
One theme of the story was facing death. As the narrator is collecting switches in her backyard as a punishment by her aunt, the narrator reminisces about her grandma. The memory of her grandma’s funeral comes back and wishes she was still alive so that she didn’t have to get stuck with her aunt whenever her parents went out of town. Remembering every part of that day, she explains how painful and sore her heart was. She replays the memory of the day of the funeral on page 29, last paragraph, “It hurt to remember. Hurt badder than when I scraped both my knees bloody. Badder than when somebody stole Silky my cocker spaniel. I didn’t want to feel any more hurt in my chest so I pushed the picture memories back into the shut away place, locked it and made myself think of magic spells. If I could make the right one, I would swoosh my magic wand and make Grandmamma come back right now, and Auntie disappear. It was then that I suddenly remembered Evelyn telling me that she had overheard her mother saying that my grandmamma had passed away………………..The thought pierced my heart deep in its core.” Trying to lock it up deep down in her memory showed how painful it was to even remember her grandma knowing she’d never see her again.
Another theme is religion. The narrator mentions how her aunt considers playing games such as marbles and Jacks as “sinful idleness” and a waste of time. That is the reasons why her aunt never liked or allowed her to play any games in the house. The narrator also mentions of her aunt speaking aloud to God. For instance, whenever the narrator got yelled at by her aunt, she spoke of sins and screamed out to the Lord saying things like, “Lord! Lord! I be speaking yo truth! Lord have mercy!” It scared the narrator hearing it. Her aunt also uses the Lord to threaten the narraator by saying “You better pray to the Lord yo Mama don’t leave this world cause if she do, you ain’t gon have no body to take care of ya.” It shows how religion plays a big part in her aunt’s life and how much she looks up and believes in God.
Religion and facing death were the main themes I found that relates to the story “Adversaries.” The story talks about the narrators relationship with her aunt leaving her to question what it was that made them rivals. She also talks about how she wishes her grandma was still alive and reminisce feelings of the painful day of the funeral. Her aunt in the other hand preaches out to the Lord in difficult times and lets her anger out to him, like when she’s yelling at her niece, the narrator.
being religion which relates mostly to her aunt who is religious.
One theme of the story was facing death. As the narrator is collecting switches in her backyard as a punishment by her aunt, the narrator reminisces about her grandma. The memory of her grandma’s funeral comes back and wishes she was still alive so that she didn’t have to get stuck with her aunt whenever her parents went out of town. Remembering every part of that day, she explains how painful and sore her heart was. She replays the memory of the day of the funeral on page 29, last paragraph, “It hurt to remember. Hurt badder than when I scraped both my knees bloody. Badder than when somebody stole Silky my cocker spaniel. I didn’t want to feel any more hurt in my chest so I pushed the picture memories back into the shut away place, locked it and made myself think of magic spells. If I could make the right one, I would swoosh my magic wand and make Grandmamma come back right now, and Auntie disappear. It was then that I suddenly remembered Evelyn telling me that she had overheard her mother saying that my grandmamma had passed away………………..The thought pierced my heart deep in its core.” Trying to lock it up deep down in her memory showed how painful it was to even remember her grandma knowing she’d never see her again.
Another theme is religion. The narrator mentions how her aunt considers playing games such as marbles and Jacks as “sinful idleness” and a waste of time. That is the reasons why her aunt never liked or allowed her to play any games in the house. The narrator also mentions of her aunt speaking aloud to God. For instance, whenever the narrator got yelled at by her aunt, she spoke of sins and screamed out to the Lord saying things like, “Lord! Lord! I be speaking yo truth! Lord have mercy!” It scared the narrator hearing it. Her aunt also uses the Lord to threaten the narraator by saying “You better pray to the Lord yo Mama don’t leave this world cause if she do, you ain’t gon have no body to take care of ya.” It shows how religion plays a big part in her aunt’s life and how much she looks up and believes in God.
Religion and facing death were the main themes I found that relates to the story “Adversaries.” The story talks about the narrators relationship with her aunt leaving her to question what it was that made them rivals. She also talks about how she wishes her grandma was still alive and reminisce feelings of the painful day of the funeral. Her aunt in the other hand preaches out to the Lord in difficult times and lets her anger out to him, like when she’s yelling at her niece, the narrator.
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