Response to Two Poems

For this assignment I chose the poems “Immigrants in Our Own Land” by Jimmy Santiago Baca and “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting” by Kevin C. Powers. The reason I chose “Immigrants in Our Own Land” is because I have seen so many of my friends and people I grew up with enter the prison system and struggle to stay out and clean. In this poem the speaker talks about his experiences in prison and his hopes for change, “Our expectations are high: in the old world, / they talked about rehabilitation, / about being able to finish school, / and learning an extra good trade.” (Baca lines 20-23) It is an escape from what he doesn’t want anymore. So many times I have heard this story from people I know when they enter the system. They are going to get their GED inside and learn a skill and everything will be better when they make it out. It rarely works out this way, I have seen many of my friends go in and out of the prison system multiple times and in extreme cases I have seen them come out as someone I don’t even know or recognize. The experience destroys the person that I knew and loved. I pray for my friends that all of them make it out and stay out. I am tired of seeing strangers, shells of the people I once knew. This is why this poem really struck a cord with me.

The other poem that I have considered is “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting.” This one hit home for me because I have many loved ones who have been to Iraq and Afghanistan and have some who are still fighting. This poem sounds like letters I have received. These friends talk about what they miss and it is always the littlest things that they miss the most. The speaker is talking to the woman he loves; he compares this love to the love of things that someone who is not in war would take for granted. “I tell her I love her like not killing / or ten minutes of sleep / beneath the low rooftop wall / on which my rifle rests. (Powers lines 1-4) These things are huge for him, when I would send care packages the things that my friends would ask for were the most mundane little things. I would always think, really? That is what you want me to send you? I really think that this poem is talking about how pointless things like war are once you realize the importance of the things that you take for granted the most.

Works Cited

Baca, Jimmy Santiago “Immigrants in Our Own Land” Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, 2011. Web. 22 June 2011.

Powers, Kevin C. “ Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting” Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, 2011. Web. 22 June 2011.  

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Summary V. Analysis

The difference between summary and analysis can be foggy at times but there are important differences between the two that every writer should be aware of. Summarizing is much like the book reports that you used to do in elementary school. You basically describe what the story is about and there is no way to argue about the plot of a book. Analytical writing is different because you focus on what can be interpreted about certain aspects of the novel. Like the Cinderella example that Mrs. Cline used in the lecture. My example is a short story by Chuck Palahniuk called “Negative Reinforcement.” In this short story the narrator is describing a woman he knows on a bus. He describes everything about her as if he has already witnessed all of it before. Then it turns out that it is not the woman he knew. It reads as if the narrator once was in love with the woman he knew but, he is describing all of her negative attributes to remind him that she treated him horribly. If I was going to write about this story in an analytical way I could argue that the things that the narrator describes are all the things that he loved about this woman. Or I could state that I believe the narrator is in fact a woman, I could also say that the narrator was never the boyfriend/girlfriend of the woman he describes. All of these “arguments” are open to interpretation by the reader. When you write an analytical essay you have to have a thesis about a specific part of whatever it is that you are writing about you can’t be vague. It is always a good idea to use the argumentative skills that you have acquired in previous English classes to help you learn how to write a good analytical paper. I may not be very articulate in describing the differences that are important but I hope this is helpful to anyone that reads this! 

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Good Readers Good Writers

Vladimir Nabokov is arguably one of the greatest writers in modern history with two of his novels ranking on the Modern Library 100 Best Novels. (http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/) He is most well known for his novel Lolita. Nabokov believes that a good reader has imagination, memory, a dictionary and artistic sense as he describes in this excerpt. I agree with him in this case. He talks about focusing even on the little things. You have to use your imagination to build the picture of the environment and characters in your head. The details that seem trivial are important for this reason. Memory is also very important because you need to remember as much as possible about the book to get the most out of it. I know it may seem silly to some but having a dictionary is a very important part of being a good reader. When I was younger I always had to stop what I was reading and look the hard words up in the dictionary. It used to make me embarrassed because I thought people would think I was stupid but, it really helped me understand the content of what I was reading a lot more and it also widened my vocabulary so I am very thankful that I took the time to do that and I still come across words that I have to look up every now and again.

I do try to use all the traits he pointed out that are supposed to make you a good reader. I like to think of myself as a good reader. I can’t think of anything that would make a better reader than the characteristics described by Nabokov. I really enjoy reading and this excerpt has given some good advice that I will do my best to use when I read in the future.

Introduction Video