My Favorite Text This Quarter

My favorite read this quarter was The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy. There were so many different topics of the environment that Duffy chose to focus on, yet they all came together to create one cohesive, lovely collection. It reminded me that every aspect of the environment matters, whether that is the way we treat Mother Nature, or our fellow countries, or even the bees. Not one element of nature deserves to go unnoticed. Everyone and everything matters, and I believe Duffy reminded us of that.

"Brown Girl In the Ring" by Nalo Hopkinson

I was very interested in the magic present in Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson, so I decided to do a little bit more research on it. The specific magic used in this story is called obeah, and it was derived from the many different kinds of magic combined when slaves were imported from different parts of Africa. Obeah consists of both benign and malignant magic, like charms, mysticism, and luck. Obeah was originally used by the slaves against their owners, typically in rituals and fetishes.

"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid comes from the small island of Antigua, and the history of this island influenced her writing of this poem. Antigua was under British rule until the 1980’s, and the history of mistreatment of slaves and natives to the land is extensive. This is paralleled in the poem “Girl”, for Kincaid is showing a female who is being condemned and belittled, the same way the natives of Antigua were mistreated for centuries. The girl is somewhat of a symbol for the island of Antigua and its people.

"I'm a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy" by Louise Erdrich

"Who I am is just the habit of what I always was, and who I'll be is the result" (Erdrich, 148).

This first line could have several meanings in my opinion. 

Potential Meaning 1:

If you don’t change who you are now, you will be eternally stuck in your habits.

Potential Meaning 2:

If you are bored or unhappy with yourself, you can always change.

Potential Meaning 3:

There is a big difference between the present and the future. In order to change the future, you must immediately change the present.

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates

I was very interested in the discussion we had about the relationship between this story and Bob Dylan’s music. Not only was this story inspired by Bob Dylan’s music, it was inspired by the time period. During this time, women were asserting their right to be sexually independent of men. However, Connie ends up being taken by a creepy man who is most likely not going to agree with the newfound social justice. This creates irony that points out the importance of women having their own sexual independence.

Hear the song that inspired Joyce Carol Oates to write this story by clicking here!

"The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane

This story reminded me so much of The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Both stories feature people who find themselves taken by the sea, in a both a physical and emotional sense. The Old Man absolutely refuses to give up the fish even though it is controlling him, while some men on the dinghy do not want to return to land even though they are in constant peril. In both stories, the characters misjudge the sea and the power it possesses.