Even so, we both understand that it’s something that we need to work on because we want to have a good relationship. There's things both of us need to work on for that to happen and we’ve talked about it. Amy is very loving, she always tries to include me in whatever they are doing, which is nice and makes me happy. She tries to always be there for me when I need it, but I don’t like sharing and talking about my problems and so she respects that. 

MOTHER TO SON

by Langston Hughes

Discussion Questions: 

What is your favorite passage? 

“So boy, don't you turn back.

Don't you set down on the steps

'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.”

Why?

Because she's encouraging him to keep climbing the steps to get to where he wants to be. And to not give up. She is trying to be the person that pushes him beyond what he thinks is his limits so that he can have a better life, so that he knows that no matter what his mom will be there to help him and tell him that he has to keep going.

Based on what the mother says to her son, what kind of a life has she had?

She has had a hard and rough life. She’s had to fight to be where she is. She has been through many lows and has had to pick herself up many times, so she knows how he is feeling and why he needs to keep going. 

What message is she offering her son?

To keep fighting, keep getting back up. She is showing him that he is capable of much more than he thinks which will, in the long run, make him a stronger person. She is guiding him, caring for him, and teaching him what he needs to know so that he can get back up and keep going even though it’s hard.

FIRST LESSON

by Phyllis McGinley

Discussion Questions: 

What is your favorite passage? 

“Men are worriers. It is difficult for them

To learn what they must learn;

How you have a journey to take and very likely,

For a while, will not return.”

Why? 

Because it implies that they care about their daughter so much that they are disregarding the fact that she’ll have to go on her own someday. All they want to do is protect their little girl, and that really no matter how old you get, to your father, you’re always going to be his little girl.

What words does the speaker use to describe her father? 

The speaker only uses the word ‘men’ to describe her father but for men in general she uses two words.

men in general? 

She uses the two words ‘worriors and dragon-seekers’ this it to show that men worry about their daughters and will always look for the scary things in what they are doing, because they just want to keep their little girl safe.

Who has learned the first lesson: father or daughter?

The father. He learned that his daughter “has a journey to take and very likely,

For a while, will not return.” He learned it first because it’s harder for him to come to terms with the fact that his little girl will be all one her own, doing things that would make him worry, when she’s just exploring the world, which can be a scary and harmful place but can also be super loving and kind, it all depends where it is you go and who you meet. 

My relationship with Amy connects with both of these poems. This is because both of these poems describe characteristics of people. ‘Mother to son’ is of a mom encouraging her son to pick himself up and be strong. In the poem ‘First lesson’ the daughter is explaining the love and power of a father, or a man.

Mother to son, describes how the mom just wants her son to keep going and get back up. Amy always pushes me to do my best, and when I fall she makes me get back up because she knows “I’ll make it better than she did one day” and I don’t see it now, but I’m sure she has fallen and had to pick herself up many times. She makes sure that I’m strong enough to handle things and that I am able to keep going even if I don't want to and I’m super tired. She helps me understand that nothing is impossible to do. I can keep going when it feels like I can't. I just have to remember who or what it is for. Amy reminds me that everyone has ups and downs, no one is perfect, so I shouldn’t be ashamed of anything. She encourages me to do my best and that even if it's not enough for teachers or friends, it’s the best I can do, and as long as I try my best I can always be proud of myself no matter the opinion of others.

The poem ‘First Lesson’ is of a daughter describing who a father is. She describes them as ‘worriers and dragon-seekers’ because all they want to do is protect their daughter. Amy does the same thing, she does her best to keep me safe. She does it in a way that lets me have my own space, and she understands that someday I will have to go on my own. Just because she understands that doesn’t mean that she does not worry, because she does, alot, she just knows that if she lets me do my thing, I won't go crazy the second I move out. Amy will always worry about where I am or if I’m safe, but that’s a parent's job, it’s the kids job to do things and create trust so you can go out without them being worried that you’re going to do something that’s going to get you hurt.

By William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   

The darkness drops again; but now I know   

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The mood of the poem ‘The Second Coming’ by William Butler Yeats is dark and gloomy. This

is shown by how he describes things and the words he uses. For example the quote

‘The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere 

The ceremony of innocence is drowned’

From the poem depicts a dark image by mentioning how ‘the innocence is drowned’ and how

‘The blood-dimmed tide is loosed’. These lines are gloomy which is what he wanted them to be

depicted as.

The Euoropeans showing up to the Igbo people was not because the Europeans where discontent with where they were or who they already controlled, it was because they wanted more people and they did not have the Igbo people yet.

Our God has not vowed to make a change just because we are unhappy with some aspect of our lives. He will not change for us if we are not willing to change for ourselves, because his changing will not help us, we have to change for ourselves. Just like in the novel, the Gods did not change their views or customs, because the people were unhappy, the people learned to live with the way that the Gods worked and were able to be happy that way.

Oftentimes discontent is the first step to action because if you are unhappy that is when you will realize that something needs to change. 

In Things Fall Apart even though they were discontent they did not do anything, this is because they white men were already in charge and they knew it. They did not want to hurt them because some of their family members had gone to stay with them and left the clan.

It starts with him getting the draft letter in the mail, and then for the rest of the summer that's what he is thinking, but he is also working and thinking about school, and how the ones who want to start a war should be putting their own family on the line, not innocent people.

Then he runs away to the Tip-Top Lodge which is right across from Canada, he wants to run away to Canada so that he does not have to go to the war, but he is embarrassed about what his community will think.

He goes out on the boat with Elroy Berdahl, and Berdahl is willing to take him across to Canada as he goes fishing, but O’Brien cannot get himself to go overboard and run away because he is scared of the embarrassment and so he chooses to go to the war instead.

In the end he survives war and calls himself a coward because he does go to war because he was scared of the embarrassment.