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In "Everyday Use" By Alice Walker, the narrator Mama describes the encounter that she  has when her daughter, Dee, comes to visit them after years of not seeing her. The story depicts a Dee that has adopted new African customs and that has even changed her name to "Wangero." Ironically, Dee wants to keep her grandmother's quilts and take them home with her--the same quilts that she once rejected because she thought they were useless. The story conveys a feeling of alienation from the main character, Mama, towards Dee. The story though, mainly depicts irony, as Dee idealizes her African heritage, yet she rejects her American heritage, and hence, her family heritage. Dee herself comes up as a very shallow, superficial person, whose motives for her actions are mainly to follow fashion trends rather than to follow what she truly believes in.

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In "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke, the speaker reflects on his childhood when his drunk father would violently drags him back and forth in a very unusual " waltz" before taking him to bed. The speaker uses the second person point of view so that the reader can further visualize what the speaker must have been experiencing when he dances with his drunk father the waltz. The speaker conveys how despite depicting the father as violent towards his son, the rather aggressive gestures and actions were his way of showing his love and affection towards his father. The speaker is trying to convey to his audience how much he cherishes these moments of the past. He remembers these moments with his father as love shown between father and son.

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"We should read poetry because only in that way can we know man in all his moods -- in the most beautiful thoughts of his heart, in his farthest reaches of imagination, in the tenderness of his love, in the nakedness and awe of his soul confronted with the terror and wonder of the Universe."
--Amy Lowell
"Why Read Poetry?"

I think that in this quote, Lowell is conveying that people should read because literature helps us understand each other in all of our different facets in life. We can be very complex beings with many different kinds of emotions, but reading poetry can help us understand not only others' emotions but also our own emotions.

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IN "Those winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden, the speaker reflects on his childhood when his father every Sunday would heat up the house for the family. For example, when the speaker asserts "what did I know /of love’s austere and lonely offices?" (13-14) the speaker conveys his feeling of regret of the past. the speaker even mentions, "No one ever thanked him." (4) The speaker feels like his father had his own particular way of showing love--by looking after him and providing him with a warm home despite hisaches and pains. Through the poem, the speaker demonstrates regret for not understanding his father's way of loving a son and instead fearing his father. Now he knows that he cannot go back in time for all those moments that he did not show his father how much he loved him.

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In Judith Ortiz Cofer's "Quinceañera," the speakers discusses her feeling about her transitioning from being a girl to becoming a woman. The title of the poem is very important to the central meaning of the poem, as a quinceanera is a Hispanic tradition in which the family will throw a party to celebrate that a daughter in the family will come of age and officially become a woman. The speaker also demonstrates being scared as she describes how she begins to notice the change in curves in her body and she describes her menstruation as "fluids of my body [that] were poison." (13) The speaker is conveys her confusion as she does not know as whether to identify as a girl or woman. the speaker knows that she cannot avoid the changes happening to her body but conveys that she is not ready for such changes.

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In "I, Too", the speakers describes how despite being black, he too, is proud to identify as a part of America. The reference to being sent to "eat in the kitchen" (3) is symbolic of the discrimination and oppression people of color have faced throughout American history. This poem in particular shows a mix of emotions from the speaker. First of all, the speaker of the poem demonstrates frustration as he acknowledges how people of color have been oppressed and not given their rightful place in society. However, the speaker also conveys hope as he is optimistic that one day he will not have to "eat in the kitchen" any longer.

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In "Harlem" by Langston Hughes, the speaker talks about those dreams that sometimes people have to give up or put aside for any particular reason. The speaker describes various possibilities of what could happen to those dreams put on hold, such as "dry up," (1) "stink like rotten meat," (4) or "[sag] like a heavy load. "(8-9) Afterwards, the speaker contrasts all the different possibilities for these dreams with the line "Or does it explode." (10) The speaker conveys his felling of hope for the future. The speaker believes that people should fight to accomplish those dreams that they could have potentially given up on. Also the poem, through the explosion that the speaker depicts in the last line, the speaker also expresses it almost like taking a weight off his shoulders by working to fulfill dreams.

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In "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros, the narrator, Esperanza, describes in first person the experiences of her transitioning into a young woman while growing up and disdaining the place where she lives in. She even shows that she is ashamed of living in her house and repeats several times how the house is not what she expected when her family first moves in. As the novel progresses, Esperanza begins to change through her life experiences and even acknowledges towards the end of the novel that her wish of leaving Mango Street was "such a selfish wish." The story conveys different emotions as Esperanza progresses. At first, Esperanza demonstrates a very self centered existence in which she thinks of only her ambitions. As she grows up and matures, Esperanza thoughts and motives changes and she become much more compassionate of others and shows a sense of pride of her origins.

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"SPEECH TO THE YOUNG. SPEECH TO THE PROGRESS-TOWARD"

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"SPEECH TO THE YOUNG. SPEECH TO THE PROGRESS-TOWARD"

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In  “Speech to the Young. Speech to the Progress-Toward” by Gwendolyn Brooks, the speaker is an older person speaking to a younger audience and gives the audience advise about how to respond to people who are negative or pessimistic. By asserting to the reader that "it cannot always be night," (7) the speaker tries to convey that people must push through the negative experiences in life and move on to make the best out of their lives. The reader finishes by letting the audience to "live in the along," (12) following the theme of carpe diem. the central theme of the poem concerns the reader convincing the audience to seize the day and be optimistic. Through the poem, the speaker is conveying the hope that he has to overcome obstacles and not let others take that hope to progress away.

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In "A Pair of Tickets" by Amy Tan, the narrator, Jing-Mei reflects throughout the story on how she has become more connected to her Chinese identity through this trip to visit her sisters and her other relatives in China. In the beginning of the short story, Jing-Mei reflects how during her teenage years she almost completely rejects her Chinese identity and how she saw herself as an American. Now, she begins to feels very identified with her Chinese heritage. When she arrives at the train station in Guangzhou she does not feel intimidated by the large crowd and she feels the environment  as "right. The narrator conveys a feeling of very strong pride as she now identifies much more with her heritage and her roots. She now acknowledges her past and that of her ancestors. The narrator also conveys a sense of belonging as she describes that she can "also see what part of [her] is Chinese."

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In Claude McKay's "America," the speaker describes how he feels about being an American. The speaker first starts by personifying American and saying "she feeds [him] bread of bitterness," (1) conveying how there is certain aspects of America that he does not like. However, the poem ends with the speaker asserting that despite any parts of America that he does not like, he "stand[s] within her walls with not a shred / Of terror." (9-10) Through the poem, the speaker conveys a feeling of pride of being part of America. He acknowledges that America is not a perfect place by any means and that there are certain aspects of America that he does not like, but overall, he is proud of being an American.

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my favorite work of literature from the semester course is "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros because of the growth that the main character showed throughout the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Esperanza comes up as almost immature and ungrateful for the home that her parents have given to her. Eventually, Esperanza demonstrates maturity and even shows that she has learned fro her experiences and realizes that she has acted selfish in the past. Overall, the novel gives a very realistic depiction of what the life of an average Mexican-American girl in Chicago would experience growing up.

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The song "Zombie" by the Cranberries is a very good example of what emotions a writer or a speaker can narrate through poetry, or in this case, music. The song was based on the IRA bombing in the town of Warrington, England in which two children were killed. In the lyrics "It's the same old theme/
Since nineteen-sixteen/
In your head, in your head, they're still fighting" the singer conveys how absurd the fight between Ireland and England over the North Ireland has been. The song overall conveys a feeling of anger for the death of innocent lives that had nothing to do with political ideologies. The song calls for peace and a cease for the terrorist attacks from the IRA.