Analysis Of Jimmy Santiago Baca's Who Understands Me But Me

Depending on which perspective someone has, values are either shaped by the crippling society one lives in or caused by human nature’s favoritism for one species of man becoming exalted above the rest. Therefore, to escape the harsh reality of environmental injustice, a beloved pastime includes not only reading literature but being swept away into the story under the guise of fictional characters. Evidently, this experience is prevalent in Judith Cofer Ortiz’s “Abuela Invents the Zero” and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, where Constancia and Tom Sawyer reflect on their actions that were causing family anguish, disputing whether their pride is worth destroying their loved ones’ confidence. Through similar circumstances, Constancia and Tom realize that to make themselves feel justifiable to others, they must reduce their self-assurance to appreciate others, sooner rather than being outcasted again.

I Am The Grass by Daly Walker details the primality of war that strips man of his essence and sends him into a perpetual state of conflict within himself. The story is a testament to the fact that while one cannot fully heal scars incurred by horrors such as war, reparation can lessen the suffering caused by the affliction. Daly Walker utilizes the juxtaposition between two cultures (American, as represented by the narrator, and Vietnamese as represented by Dinh) in order to draw a contrast between those who accept and relent, and those who are forever stuck in the past because they cannot fully come to terms with the horrors of war. The exposition of the piece is primarily concerned with the atrocities and horrors that the narrator experienced

A Place to Stand In Chapter 2 of his memoir, poet and author Jimmy Santiago Baca recounts about being thirteen years old the first time he was incarcerated. He was made ward of the court and placed in a boys detention center for running away from the orphanage on various occasions. During his stay in the detention center, he was around other chicano boys who concealed their fears and suffering with a defiant pride, they taught him how to fight and intimidate others. The director of the facility decided to give him the opportunity to attend a local high school where he met the school’s football coach, and soon after joined the football team.

In the book, The Cage Riva once said, "But we need much more than laughter to make us well. It does not cure tuberculosis or put calcium back into my bones. " The Cage to bring us back to the dark times of the holocaust he also makes us believe that in the darkest times there is still hope to move on. Even when they take all you love and something you have affection for all go away, but there is still hope to live for no matter what times you are going through. One of those things is family and that is important because they could take everything you love and all your personal belongings but you still have a family which is more important than anything, like Riva said “But we cannot let the Nazis destroy our minds.

In The Cage, by Ruth Minsky Sender, a poignant tone is created through the uses of sympathy, narration and control. A poignant tone means that a characters, or person’s emotions are affected strongly by something. The Cage is about a young girl and her brothers whose lives are destabilized when their mother is taken from them by the Nazis during the Holocaust. The siblings must learn to live on their own and make their own decisions through the hardest time in their lives.

When the prisoner was looking "towards the South", he said "There was some sense of freedom in the vast expanse, inaccessible though it was to me, as of compared with the narrow darkness of the courtyard. Looking out of this, I felt that I was indeed in prison, and I seemed to want a breath of fresh air, though it were of the night" (lines 38-41). Along with this, a feeling had overcome the captives body and he said, "I feel the dread of this horrible place overpowering me; I am in fear-in awful fear-and there is no escape for me; I am encompassed about with terrors that I dare not think of" (lines 55-56). The use of the first person point of view of the prisoner was able to establish the central idea of the fear that he was imprisoned and was not going to be able to

Julia Alvarez, in her poem “’Poetry Makes Nothing Happen’?”, writes that poems do play a role in people’s lives. She supports her idea by using relateable examples of how poems might change someone’s life. Her first example is simple, poetry can entertain someone on long drives. This does not only aply to long dirves however, Alvarez uses this to show that poetry does not have to have a big influence on someone’s life, instead it can affect a person in the smallest of ways, such as entertainment. The second example describes poetry comforting someone after the loss of a loved one.

In this memoir, Elie Wiesel uses imagery in order to develop the presence of animal-like behavior on people when they are being dehumanized. At this point of the story, Elie and the other prisoners are in a wagon traveling to a different concentration camp, and they are trying to survive in inhuman conditions. To begin, Wiesel describes, “We were given bread… We threw ourselves on it… Someone had the idea of quenching his thirst by eating snow.”

In How to Tame a Wild Tongue, Gloria Anzaldua uses rhetoric and personal anecdotes to convey and persuade her argument that Latin Americans are forced to relinquish their cultural heritage, and to conform to white society. The evidence she provides comes in a variety of platforms, both literal and rhetorical. Rhetorical, being through emotional, logical, and credible appeals through her text. Literal being explicitly stated, without any further analysis necessary. When she utilises the modes of appeals, they are subtle within the texts, which leads the reader to analyse as they read.

Literal Meaning and Fugitive Meaning: The poem is about a circle in hell which deals with ‘false shepherds’, meaning those who claim to aid and/or guide a group of people to ‘salvation’. This ‘salvation’ can be spiritual; as in the case with many cult members; or even members of various religions themselves Even in a more secular world, leaders of governments, politicians, even teachers can be ‘false shepherd’ who abuse their ‘flock’. However, their ultimate goal is not ‘salvation’ but it is some sort of benefit for themselves at the cost of their ‘flock’. They essential abuse their ‘flock’s’ trust and faith to achieve their own selfish goals and desires.

Evil is not usually defined as something so minimalistic as boredom, but in french poet Baudelaire’s poem “ to the reader” this is exactly that he is saying. The poem starts of with the chilling phrase “ Folly error, sin and parsimony preoccupy our spirits and work on our bodies” and then continues in an a full poem of shocking statements. He ends this poem with a statement, which in the surface seems anti-climatic, but in reality is very eye opening: that even more “ ugly evil, fuller than the rest” is the simple act of boredom. Baudelaire is stating that not accomplishing something with your life is the most horrific thing you can do Every person has the ability for evil; for the most part though they are content and see no need for it.

In Dante’s The Inferno, each part of his journey through Hell is broken up into different cantos, often according to which circle or sin he is choosing to focus on. The Dante that is being written about needs Virgil, Dante’s beloved hero of a poet stuck in Limbo, to guide him. Ultimately, Virgil also guides us by teaching a lesson both Dante and the reader in every canto. One of Virgil’s biggest explanations to Dante takes place in Canto II when he tells Dante why he’s so special to be able to journey through Hell alive.

Edgar Allan Poe is an illustrious writer from the 19th century, notorious for his ominous, melancholic, and lugubrious writing style. The characters and situation in Poe’s story often depicted figures and events from his own life. In “The Pit and the Pendulum” the narrator has been captured by the Spanish Inquisition and sentenced to death. After numerous methods of torture and various obstacles, the narrator is rescued by General LaSalle of the French army. This reflects on the periods of depression Poe has gone through and how they have been alleviated by his romantic relationships.

In the darkest times in our lives, recalling the happiest memories is just human nature. Lust is easily seen to those under the spell as a lifesaver, but on the outside looking in, it is a storm of destruction. Love can become obsessive and change the grip on reality into a distorted and untrue perception of life itself. The power of love and lust is unavoidable in a lifetime, understanding how much love can control life is crucial to avoiding destruction of lives. In the story, Lusus Naturae, werewolf girl battles the feeling of loneliness and when finally given an opportunity for the love she desperately craves, disaster flounces.

I chose these poems because of their imagery and theme. The two poems talk about the human’s experience and struggles in everyday life. Also, they present the miseries and dissatisfaction of an individual. This individual is presented in the text as the ‘self’, the identity of a person which is continuously negotiated according to the norms and standards set by the society. So, who am I?