Write an essay (250-300 words) based on ONE of the following questions:
- Compare the portrayal of the parent-child relationship in any two poems in our week 7’s readings, focusing especially on the poems’ tones and themes.
- What words in Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays” suggest the son’s feelings toward his father and his home? What words indicate that his attitudes have changed since the time depicted in the poem? Write an essay in which you compare the speaker’s feelings, as a youth and then later as a man, about his father and his home.
- Kelly Cherry’s “Alzheimer’s” uses contrasts—especially before and after—to characterize the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. What evidence does the poem provide about what the man used to be like? What specific changes have come about? How does the setting of the poem suggest some of those changes?
- Jimmy Santiago Baca’s “Green Chile” uses different chiles to symbolize different generations’ attitudes toward Mexican culture. What different qualities do the red and green chiles have? Which words in the poem help personify the chiles? How fully do these words reflect the differences between the speaker and the grandmother?
45 comments:
In this poem, the word, “slowly” showed the differences between the son and his father’s lives. His father was in working class, did blue-collar job, so he still needed to work in Sunday often considered as a day for resting. In the beginning of this poem, the father got up early in order to support his family. But “no one ever thanked him” showed the son’s ignorance of his father’s devotion. Besides, the son was not rush as his father and has no duty to get up early. And in the sentence, “fearing the chronic angers of that house,” it meant that the son hated his home filled with the atmosphere of their poor economy. Then, the word “indifferently” indicated the son’s cold and be rude to his father. By the way, the word “cold” also showed the weather and the son’s attitude. Their relationship had a far distance to understand each other. Nevertheless, the father was still silent, self-sacrificial and kept dedicated devotion. In the end of the stanza, the poem showed the change of son’s feeling and attitude to his father. It mentioned that “what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” which indicated the son eventually knew father’s strict situation, just like the cold weather would cause his cracked hands ached, supported their poor economy, and nobody appreciated him. Even though, the son understood his father’ s love to himself ultimately. I think this poem had a wonderful and meaningful ending. Because it not only indicated the great love about parents to their kids but also gave all readers’ a remind to take care of their beloved people in time.
According to the poem, the man may use to be a happy, caring, and home-loving person. First, what he still remembered is almost the trifling things of household. The walkway he once built up between the front room and the garage, the flowers he planted, and the car he used to drive. Three small things but deeply carved in his mind, and they may represent how much he loved his family and house so that he made an effort to fix or set up the path by his own and decorate the surroundings by gardening. But they also reflected the fact that the man didn’t remember too much concerning his life. Second, the speaker said that he loved music made us associate happiness with him. Generally, someone who is interested in music gives an impression of positive. However, the man with Alzheimer’s disease was directly described as a crazy man, and his brain was nearly empty and confusing like the suitcase he held which packed with three seemingly useless stuffs. With regard to his mind, it was struggling as two kinds of flowers fighting each other against the brick wall. Furthermore, the pleasing music which he used to be fond of was no longer attractive. It became a torturous noises to him. And he didn’t recognize the old, white-haired woman who was actually his wife. Based on those things, we can easily tell the man changed a lot after having Alzheimer’s, and his life virtually turned upside down. Besides, the poem contains some abstract concepts which might need some efforts to understand, but it showed the Alzheimer’s patients’ apprehension, confusion, and changes. All in all, Alzheimer’s is a gigantic obstacle to patient and his or her family and friends; but once people become more patient and learn more about it, it may not be as hard as we think.
410502030 英美一 呂冠葦
In “Green Chile”, red and green chiles have different qualities: red chiles are less spicy and represent strength and history. Baca states that he prefers red chile over his eggs. He then says, "Red chile ristras decorate my door, dry on my roof, and hang from eaves." showing the red-colored versions are used frequently as decorations. It also demonstrates the importance of chile in the community. The green chiles are more spicy and represent youth and passion, Baca describes that by saying, "she holds the green chile pepper in her wrinkled hands" and "an air of authority and youth simmers". Sentence “and she serves me green chile con carne…, her sacrifice to her little prince.” shows grandmother has given up her youth and to raise, protect grandson. It makes green chile sound more sacred and mysterious, while red chile is not as special. Baca is likening the red chiles to wise elders, who recount riveting tales of their livid past. “I can hear …, licking the breeze." he treats the chile as if it were human and compares them to "old tongues of old men", who are storytellers which tell the history and tradition of communities he grew up in. The elderly grandmother prefers the chile represents sensuality and passion, while the youthful grandson prefers the chile represents tradition and formality. It is more usual to associate tradition with the aged. The green chile is like a fiery young lover to the grandmother. She compares it to “a well-dressed gentleman at the door” whom she “takes sensuously in her hand.” The green chile is a metaphor for the grandmother’s passionate love, though it may be unfulfilled. Baca personifies both green and red peppers to illustrate not only that special bond, but also the historical significance of the Mexican-American community.
ISSAC DEIRERAGEA-410421312
The poem "Green Chile" BY Jimmy Santiago Baca is about the two Chile's green and red. The Chile's are really important in the poem because it gives us a clear understanding of what the poem is about. In the poem the writer uses the grandmother to explain why green and red chile don't have allot in common either than the taste itself. For example, the grandmother prefers green chiles over red chiles for some reasons. The writer described the grandmothers feeling when describing the green chiles as "voluptuous", "masculine", "an air of authority" and "youth simmers" this, almost referring to the green chile to a youthful young man. On the other had when the writer described the red chile in the poem it has a different tone, the writer described the red chile as; "haggard", "yellowing" and "crisp" almost as if describing the red chile to an aged man a total contrast of a young healthy youthful man.
410502036 英美一 蔡欣庭
The title of this poem “Those Winter Sunday” can reflect the relation between the son and the father was as cold as the frozen winter. With the words used, we can guess that the poet shows the son and his father got a cold relationship by the visual and images. The word “winter” illustrates that the unpleasant and the cold relationship between the speaker and his father is just like the frozen winter, lack of frigid. The “blueblack cold” not only present the weather but also the image of his father, the low-paying job. “No one ever thanked him.” present this family’s distant relationship. The words “splintering”,” breaking” indicates the cold become more concrete instead of abstract. And “cold”,“ahed” and the “chronic anger” show the son‘s emotion toward his father and his home. Especially using ”chronic anger” to demonstrate the atmosphere around the house which have been last for a long time, and probably is the problem of the family financial. What’s more, the word "indifferently" also shows the speaker's attitude toward the father. The last line “love’s austere and lonely offices?” let us know the son’s realization and his understanding of his father’s love. Even if he is plain or poor, he also dedicate a lot and work hard for the family. Therefore, in the last line “what do I know, what did I know” emphasized that maybe it is too late to recognize and understand the love hidden behind the “driven out the cold” and the “polished good shoes.” The word “offices” is the father’s attitude towards the family, he thinks it is a kind of duty . However, I think this poem is also presented the deep regret toward his father.
410502012 英美一 陳姿蓉
The man used to be a loving, joyful person. He used to enjoy music a lot. He remember the walkway he built, the rhododendron he planted, and also the car he used to drive. Those things represent that he cares about his family very much so he make some effort to build his house on his own. But now he has Alzheimer. The disease dramatically changes his life and makes his enjoyments disappears. He couldn’t understand the book anymore. When he was young, music was very important to him; but he has no time for music now. It used to give him a lot of pleasure; however, the melody now is only a terrible noise to him. According to the poem, the man’s mind is in conflict after he had Alzheimer. Phrase like “a crazy old man”, “his mind rattling” indicates that his mental is not very stable. The sun shines in the afternoon, it supposed to be warm and pleasantly; but to him the sunshine is unfamiliar and too dazzling, just like a smithy striking the iron grillwork. Things the man still remembered now are almost trifle things. He can recall the detail about the color he painted on the household, but he can’t recognize some ordinary things he used to familiar with in his daily life anymore. Alzheimer is a horrible disease because it not only influences the patient but the people who love them too. It is sad that when he walks through the door and has to “decide who this woman is, this old, white-haired woman standing here in the doorway, welcoming him in.” The moment is so heart- breaking that a person who used to love his family so much now can’t even recognized his beloved wife.
410502010 英美一 陳宇新
In “Those Winter Days”, with the setting of the poem being on winter weekends, the house was described as “in the blue-black cold,” and the speaker did not like any of the coldness; he could also feel the anger coming from the house and he feared it.
Knowing that the speaker did not like waking up to the extreme weather, the father would always warm the house for him, but the speaker felt indifferent toward the father and his action. In the poem we can tell that the father was always occupied with work, even on weekends, and that’s the cause for the speaker not having a strong bond with the father. It is obvious that, between the two of them, there was indeed a wall distancing them.
But, as time goes on, things change and people grow, the once little kid starts to acknowledge what the father has done for him and the house all these times. Noticing how he’s never thanked his father for waking him up with warmness and polishing his shoes, and how nonchalant he was toward the father. Moreover, the speaker understands that the father has a stern, strict, and low-pay job; how the exhaustion the job that causes for the father and why the father cannot always be around and bond with the speaker. He feels anguished seeing the father’s “cracked hands that ached from labor.” In the end, the speaker is somehow disappointed in himself for being the way he was when he was young and wished he showed some gratefulness in the past.
410402039 英美二 陳雋哲
“Green Chile” is a poem symbolized two types of chile peppers which simile is green ( more spicy) and red chile(less spicy) but metaphor actually is about sacrifice and love , the speaker is a grandson who hate green chile but love red chile. Baca said that “red chile ristras decorate my door, dry on my roof, and hang from my eaves”, showing that the red-colored things are used and frequently decorate the speaker’s house, giving an “air of festive welcome”. To him, red chile represents historical, old, experienced and strength, however, his grandmother prefers to green chiles for their youth and passion. Baca said the red pepper's “historical grandeur” like “haggard, yellowing, crisp, rasping tongues of old men, licking the breeze” .In contrast, the green chile is “voluptuous, masculine”, it means “authority and youth”. In here, Green chiles represent younger generation. Green chiles are unripe like green bananas, so it fascinates the grandmother. Their “air of authority and youth” comes from them literally being younger than red chiles. The grandmother prefers sensuality and passion, while the grandson prefers the pepper of tradition and formality. The speaker used "voluptuous", "masculine", "an air of authority" and "youth simmers" to describe green chile, green chile refers to a youthful man. In contrast, the speaker used "haggard", "yellowing" and "crisp”, “rasping tongues of old man” to describe red chile with a reverse style. He described the red chile as an elder man. Owing that the grandmother prefers green unlike her grandson’s case, and the words represent the gap and attitude between the two generations.
英美二 410408025 Alvin 陳彥宇
In Kelly’s “Alzheimer’s”, the speaker started with the narration of the man who was standing at the door and sent back from the hospital. Throughout the work, we can tell the contrast between the past and the presence. For instance, the speaker’s father was depicted as a musician when he was young; however, when his health condition turned to be worse, he was no longer capable of engaging in his hobby. Moreover, the mental circumstance was vividly described by Kelly’s words. The man’s mind was portrayed as a swinging suitcase containing shaving cream, a piggy bank, and a book that he pretended to read, implying that the speaker was frustrated and impatient about the man’s declining health condition. Nevertheless, the time was still going on, the sun was shining as usual, and the rosebushes were blooming. Kelly cleverly reflects the painful situation with something never changed to make a sense of aggravation. Later on, we notice that the man who seemed to slightly remember the house, the rhododendron, and the car he used to drive; meanwhile, we perceived that the man had a great passion and always kept his faith in his adolescence. Sadly, he could figure out few images related to his own past, but ironically, he entirely forgot his white-haired wife who waited for him so eagerly. It was really urgent to make him reminiscent of his beloved, but he could not help it. Kelly remained a sad conclusion, but we all know the character suffer from Alzheimer was pathetic and irreversible, which not only destructed his life but brought a negative impact on him and those who were close to him.
41054b005社會一白佳宜
The author used the “chronic angers of that house ” to express his feelings. Living in this house made him feel the stress between his father and him. Growing up during that time, he had some embarrassed things. Not wanting to talk to his father, that’s the reason why he spoke indifferently to him and ignored the fact that his father “had driven out the cold and polished his shoes”. But he realized the true love from his father before he wrote the poem. So I think the poem was written in memory of his father. He used the image “put his clothes in the blueblack cold with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather” to indicate that his father fought the unknown future for his family. The father’s concern about his family was described vividly in the first stanza .
The word “The Winter Sunday” suggested the attitude the author changed toward his father. It was clear that the speaker had matured a lot since his childhood, and he was able to recognize his father’s labor in and outside of the home as a form of love. From the sentence “No one ever thanked him”, we can learn that the author actually feels remorse not to say thank you to his father, until his father was dead. In spite of the fact that his father sacrificed himself, making the environment around the author more comfortable, like the sentence “drive out the clod and polish my good shoes as well” The author in youth was too young to realize the love of his father and he still “rise slowly and dress” to respond it. So I compare the first stanza, one is the recollection of his father and the other is his lack of understanding his father’s love. When he truly understood , he was unable to accompany with his father, which is the regret throughout his life.
The poem "Green Chile" BY Jimmy Santiago Baca is about the two Chile's green and red, also in some of the lines it talks about cultures, history and cuisines. The Chile's are really important in this poem because it gives us a clear understanding of what the poem is all about. In the poem the writer uses the grandmother to explain why green and red chile don't seem to have allot in common either than the taste itself. For example, the grandmother prefers green chiles over the red chiles for many reasons. The writer shared to us the grandmothers feeling when describing the green chiles as "voluptuous", "masculine", "an air of authority" and "youth simmers" this, almost referring to the green chile to a youthful young man and seem to have enjoy having green chile. On the other hand when the writer described the red chile in the poem it has added a different tone to it where the writer described the red chile as; "haggard", "yellowing" and "crisp" almost as if describing the red chile to an aged old geezer or old man a total contrast of a young healthy youthful man. The poem also detailed to the readers about how different and interesting Mexican cuisines, history and culture can be when comparing to the others like in the United States.
英美四 410202075 李家欣
In "Alzheimer's," the author presents the symptom of Alzheimer disease by giving many contrasts, especially in stanza three and four. In the first stanza, the speaker gives us some information about the character, “a crazy old man / back from the hospital, his mind rattling / like the suitcase.” The old man is returning home and his mind is like the suitcase, rattling. He knows something about him has gone and he is confused what it is, but all he can do is pretending normal by reading books. The second stanza is describing the scene the old man see, like the sun shining on “the house,” which he doesn’t recognize that’s his house at that moment. The next two stanzas are focus on the symptom an Alzheimer patient has: the memory will suddenly fades away and making him constantly confused. In stanza three, the old man remembers the house is his house; it is where he spends his adulthood. The house symbolizes his memories, those he still remember and the others he has already lose. Every part of the house reminds him his past, the walkway he built, the garage and the rhododendron he planted. He also remembers himself used to be a young man in a tweed hat had passion for music. But now, like the speaker says, “other things have become more urgent.” The passion for music has gone, and the melody is no long enjoyable but a noise to him. He seems to realize his situation that the memory is taken away by the disease and it scares him, and that’s why other things have become more important. The problem he need to solve right away is recognizing the woman standing in the doorway. The entire poem presents the severe and helpless situation an Alzheimer patient has. The character was a music lover, but now he loses his passion and all he can work on is figure out what he used to love, like the white-haired woman.
英美1 410502034 蕭昀偉
Q4
In "Green Chile",two different chilies represent two different values. Grandma's love of green chile symbolizes the New Mexican culture, and instead, the red chile which is speaker's favorite represents the American culture of the young. The speaker uses food to explain the cultural estrangement between the two.He also described that he like red chile aside eggs and potatoes as his breakfast, which reveals the speaker’s mixture culture background. The red chile needs to be dried before using. So the speaker depicted the red chile as old men that talking with haggard, yellowing, crisp, rasping tongues in the wind. To the speaker, red chile is no so spicy as green chile that he don’t have to drink a tall glass of cold water when eating them. And it is also not merely a food for him because the red chile is unlike the fresh green chile since We have to dry them before using. So the scene of red chile hanging from eaves usually inspired him with nostalgia.
As for his grandmother, she prefers the green chile. The green color usually stands for young, immature and vigorous images. In the second STANZA, the speaker described that his grandmother handling the green chile in such a voluptuous way. For his grandmother, it is also not just a kind of food. It is more like a lover that she has a sexual relation with it. Comparing with the red chile that given a haggard, yellowing, crisp feeling, the description of the green one is more concrete and lively because the older generation as his grandmother has a deep cultural connection with it.
410502046 英美一 沈靜汝
3. We can see the changes of the ravaged by Alzheimer's disease from the poem. The old man with Alzheimer's disease was a very successful and professional businessman, but now, the old man is just a "crazy" person coming back from the hospital. His mind was rattling like a suitcase, means his sickness and confusion. The setting is very rural with brick walls, flowers (roses), bushes, and small forest remembers house “This is his house.” He remembers it as his. He remembers himself as a younger man and recalls loving music, but once again he is drawn back into a state of confusion. In the state of forgotten memories music is only a noise. He pulled into the present away from comforting memories and he is there. He had lost his memory, so he hardly knew the old woman standing at the door of his house. However, the old man remembered the exact memories of his childhood. This is a typical syndrome of Alzheimer's disease. And here come the most despaired part of this poem, He struggled because he saw the white-haired woman standing in front of the door and welcoming him in, but he didn't know who she is. This part appeal the ugliest part of Alzheimer. It tears down every pieces memory of this old man. He might remember the thing he had, but he couldn't remember the one he loves. The author used this young and old contrast to emphasize the impact of Alzheimer's disease on the human mind. Alzheimer's is a horrible disease because it not only influences the person diagnosed with it but the people who love them too.
410502006 英美一 李宛容
Q4.In Jimmy Santiago Baca’s “Green Chile”,the red chile is less spicy and in this poem the speaker said ” Red chile ristras decorate my door, dry on my roof, and hang from eaves. They lend open-air vegetable stands historical grandeur, and gently swing with an air of festive welcome ” . From this sentence, the speaker said they will use red chile to decorate the house when the festive is coming, use red chile to decorate the house is a tradition, so the red chile is also representing tradition and history. The green is more spicy and in this poem the speaker said “A well-dressed gentleman at the door my grandmother takes sensuously in her hand, rubbing its firm glossed sides, …”. From this sentences, we can know that grandmother is very enjoying in touching the green chile, so the green chile is also representing sex and passion. In this poem the speaker also used some words to personify the chiles, tongues of men is used to personify the red chile and voluptuous, masculine, a well dressed gentleman is used to personify the green chile. These words also reflect the differences between the speaker and the grandmother, red chile is the tongues of old men, the tongues of old men represent tradition and history and this is also the speaker’s view of red chile. Green chile is a well dressed gentleman, a well dressed gentleman represent sex and passion and this is also represent grandmother’s desire of sex and love. After finished this poem, I think that grandmother is the victim of the traditional love. In the traditional society, women couldn’t pursuit their own love and they couldn’t love so wild, so grandmother just can release her desire on the green chile.
410502050 英美一 林劭儒
In the beginning of Green Chile, to author, his preference is the red chile. He describes them as something that has a “historical grandeur” but when it comes to green chile the description differs. The green chile is hot, spicy and is compared to a “well-dressed gentleman”. They are younger than historical grandeur of the red chile. Red Chile stands for traditional Southern American with a distinctly personal statement that established his intimate experience. Baca uses unique characteristics tell us how this changed between generations. Author compares red chile to tongues of old man. In fact, red chile seems blend in with the background and much like old men, can tell stories from past, but also can be ignored due to old men “ licking the breeze”. Green chiles represent Baca’s memory of home, but they are not his favor, grandmother prepares the green chile for him as he is analyzing her relationship with it .he says” my mouth burns and I hiss and dink a tall glass of cold water”. However, he does not refuse to them. The poet mentioned that grandmother sacrifices to feed him. We can see how she relationship between her generation and the special blend of New Mexican culture. In conclusion, since red chiles originally star as green chiles, Baca signifies the age between the two colored chiles. A practice we learned from our ancestors and remains in our families, symbolizing our great legacy and pride. I think this story keeping the youth alive and sacrificing it all together to create a cycle of love and tradition.
410202079 英美四 黃柔羽
Q3
In Kelly Cherry’s “Alzheimer’s”, we can see very evident contrasting between the before and after of the very afflictive disease Alzheimer’s. The author was inspired to write this poem due to her father having the disease. The poem begins by describing a “crazy” old man standing by a door with a suitcase in his hand. Cherry mentions him holding which contains only a handful of items, making it rattle as it swings in his hand. This make it seem as if he is a simple, but orderly man. She says that his mind “rattles like the suitcase,” as a way of saying that his brain has decayed by his age and because of the disease its functioning has become very strenuous, causing it to “rattle” as it is working.
The old man has just been released from the hospital, presumably a mental hospital due to his implied disease. The author notes that it is a sunny day outside, even though it had just rained earlier in the day, “as it does late in the afternoon in England”. This statement could mean that the old man remembers England just as he used to before coming out of the hospital.
He goes to his old house and “remembers it as his.” He also “remembers the walkway he built.” This means that he probably used to be an engineer or a builder in the past. Cherry also mentions that he used to have a garden to tend to. Soon after, he starts remembering his old self; a younger man in a tweed hat, who loved music. But there “is no time for that now,” because all of his thoughts have been distorted by the Alzheimer’s
The disease has changed his way of thinking, making his thought processing skills very different to what they used to be before. His priorities have changed, and the author mentions that he has more important things to do than to think about the past. Then the author mentions him not knowing who his wife is, as an obvious but heartbreaking effect of his disease. The old man wonders who he is and wonders why she is welcoming him in. The setting of the poem makes the reader reflect on how sad the effects of Alzheimer’s are on the person affected and all of those who surround him, by having the past and the present contrasted to each other.
410502002 英美一 林怡汶
Q4:
Indifferently and chronic angers are the words in “Those Winter Sundays” suggest the son’s feeling toward his father and his house. Indifferent is the attitude how the speaker treats his father while he was a child, and chronic angers is the feeling that the speaker thinks about the house. Since his father has to go to work even on Sunday, he doesn’t has too much time to accompany with the speaker, it brings out the result that the relationship between father and son are not close and intimated. Other wise, the speaker’s family financial situation is not wealth, he feels the house has some hostility to him. The house is not luxurious and splendid enough, even more, it’s not warm enough. I think the austere love and lonely are the words indicate the speaker’s attitude have changed since the time depicted in the poem because if the speaker is still a innocence child, he won’t realize the sacrifices that his father do for him: if he just a child, he would takes what his father do for him for granted but not the austere love from his father. He may thinks what his father done is the duty of parents, what's worse, he won’t discover the love from his father since he just a innocence child and the love from his father is quiet and brave, it only can be discover when the speaker grow up as a adult and retrospects the unshowy love from his father. The speaker won’t deserve a kiss or a hug from his father, all he gets are his father try very hard to keep the house warm and polish the shoes for him.
410502020 英美一 陳亮妤
“Those Winter Sundays” is a poem about the relationship between father and child and it is also concerned about love, admiration, fear, misunderstanding and even hate. When the speaker was a youth, he was too ignorant to realize what is love. Besides, he kept distance from his father because of their tense relationship and his deep fear of him. Therefore, he spoke indifferently to his father and never expressed his gratitude to him even though his father tried hard to support the whole family and took good care of him. His father had to work every day without resting and his hands are cracked and achy because he was a blue-collar worker instead of being an officer who could work in the office. Despite the fact that his father was so tired, he still got up early lighting the fires to make the house warm so that his son can dress up slowly. His father even polished his shoes before he went to school which was an expression of fatherly love. However, the house was filled with chronic anger because their domestic life was not good.
After the speaker was growing up, he realized that love which his father gave him was more than his expectation. His father’s love was quiet without doing intimate behaviors or saying a lot of sweet words. What he did was to make his son’s life comfortable and carefree. However, it was too late for speaker to know these things and he felt considerably regretful for what he did before. I think all of us have to treasure our family and appreciate what they did to us. Don’t be remorseful after losing them.
In the poem “Those Winter Sundays”, the speaker used a depressed tone to describe the strict love and his guilty of his father’s sacrifices. We can saw his father was labor class from the description of his father’s cracked hands and job. Thus, we knew the speaker and his family were in a poor economic condition. Besides, the job his farther got was a low paying job and no one ever thanked him, which made the speaker feel sympathetic for his farther. However, despite the speaker knew his farther sacrificed so much, including making fires in cold weather, getting up early to warm their house and polish speaker’s shoes , he still interacted with his farther indifferently. It is because he looked down upon his father’s job; yet feeling a little ashamed of this reaction he gave to his father. The relationship between him and his father is complicated, because despite the speaker know how much his father loves him and how bitter the love’s sacrifice, he can never really understand his father’s circumstances. In contrast, the relationship in the second poem “My father’s song” is sweet and very close. The speaker used a details description to record each images of his father, such as his slight catch, thin chest and the tremble emotion. And in a vary warm and retrospect tone, the speaker stated a song that he and father dug out a nest of a mouse when planting corn and how peacefully and tolerantly his father treated other animals. The interaction between the speaker and his father is very harmonious, so the son has a close relationship between him and his father.
410502014 英美一 趙思婷
In Kelly Cherry’s “Alzheimer’s”,the man used to be a young man that have dreams to pursue, have sweet family to love, have music to enjoy. However, after he got sick,he was called a "crazy man". every thing in his mind become shattered and difficult to distinguish like the suitcase contains nothing useful. The most sad thing is his interest music become a thing that only makes him feel uncomfortable and non-sense.This is a terrible change for himself and his family.But in his deep heart, he remembers his house, his car, the rhododendron he planted in back, and also himself as a young man with tweed hat. From these we can know the man used to put his energy on his family and what he really enjoy, which is a more intensive compare after he got sick. Besides, the most part that broke my heart is that the first important thing he need to do when he came home, is to remember the white hair woman welcoming him. How hurt could it be for this family. Though, the act that his wife welcoming at the door, makes me feel the special love between this family. They didn't give up him because of his sickness, but being brave to face it and learn how to deal with it.Last but not learst, The author didn't use any straight statement telling us how Alzheimer destroy the family's life. But use many appropriate description to let us experience the same dilemma. No emotional words but still write into our hearts.
英美一 丘力龍 410502008
Q4:
The words are, “fearing the chronic angers of that house”. The anger might refer that the people living in the house are furious or the house itself is being angry. Perhaps the speaker’s parents were in an unhappy marriage, or perhaps they struggled financially. The only thing that’s clear is that it was an unhappy household and the speaker was terrified of it. The words, “No one ever thanks him” indicate that the speaker has eventually realized the thing that his father has done for him and the family. He began to feel grateful for his effort and think that he should thank him for his sacrifice.
As a youngster, the speaker couldn’t feel the behaviors of his father as a gesture of love. He took it for granted and never appreciates it. What he only kept in mind was how early his father got up every single day and how his father kept the family warm in freezing cold days. However, after the speaker grown up as an adult, he has retrospect what his father had done for him. He felt regretful and sorry for his dad that he and the rest of his family members just ignored the hard work that his father has done and the sacrifices his father has undergone in order to protect the family. He has recognized that his father took all his responsibilities to took care of the family and never complain about their attitude towards him. He felt extremely thankful for his dad. In sum, the house made him feel warm-hearted after he recognized the endeavor his father has done.
英美一 丘力龍 410502008
Q2:
The words are, “fearing the chronic angers of that house”. The anger might refer that the people living in the house are furious or the house itself is being angry. Perhaps the speaker’s parents were in an unhappy marriage, or perhaps they struggled financially. The only thing that’s clear is that it was an unhappy household and the speaker was terrified of it. The words, “No one ever thanks him” indicate that the speaker has eventually realized the thing that his father has done for him and the family. He began to feel grateful for his effort and think that he should thank him for his sacrifice.
As a youngster, the speaker couldn’t feel the behaviors of his father as a gesture of love. He took it for granted and never appreciates it. What he only kept in mind was how early his father got up every single day and how his father kept the family warm in freezing cold days. However, after the speaker grown up as an adult, he has retrospect what his father had done for him. He felt regretful and sorry for his dad that he and the rest of his family members just ignored the hard work that his father has done and the sacrifices his father has undergone in order to protect the family. He has recognized that his father took all his responsibilities to took care of the family and never complain about their attitude towards him. He felt extremely thankful for his dad. In sum, the house made him feel warm-hearted after he recognized the endeavor his father has done.
英美一 沈棣文 410502042
Q3:
According to the text, we can discover that when the speaker is still in his youth, he does not really appreciate all the hard work his father has done for him and his family. Rather, he is kind of afraid of his father or even the house itself. For example, in stanza one, the speaker first pointed out how his father worked hard for the family, but even with all the effort he contributed to the family, “No one ever thanked him.”. We could see that the speaker’s family was not even thankful to the father. This implies that the speaker’s feeling towards his father, at least during his childhood, was ungrateful and inconsiderable. The speaker further indicated that he was a little afraid of his father, “slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house,” points out he still has not yet realize that he should be grateful for everything his father had done for him. In the last stanza, we could assume that the speaker is now older, and he started to recall all the events which happened before. Most importantly, he acknowledged that even though he was feeling the “chronic anger” of their family household, his father still did the best to convey love to the speaker himself by driving out the cold and polishing his shoes. For the last two sentences of the last stanza, the speaker finally spoken from the view of a man, he was totally regretted for not knowing his father’s love towards him. “What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” is the sign of him realizing that love is not only composed of actual behaviors, it is actually the duty that makes up the establishment of love.
410502004 英美一 黃崇睿
For question 2, the speaker uses the phrase “blueblack cold” to describe the weather and the environment were full of the bad impressions. Even though his father’s hands were cracked, the father still banked the fires. No matter the weather is, the father just hard-working for the family. But the speaker didn’t know his father’s painstaking effort at that time. So he wrote down the sentence ”No one ever thanked him.” The weather was still cold, his father was used to call him when the house has got warm for him. For the second stanza, the speaker uses the word ”splintering” and ”breaking” to describe the freaking cold. Here, we can discover that the speaker’s daily routines were in progress as usual, but the last sentence implied the house was full of terrible things otherwise it won’t be filled with chronic angers. We can conjecture maybe his father and his mother don’t have a harmony relationship, so they fight or quarrel often. In the final stanza, the speaker finally talked to his father. Although the speaker’s attitude was indifferent, but his father still had driven out the cold and polished his shoes as well for him. At that time, the speaker finally knows these years what did his father do for his whole family. The speaker used to take the entire things which his father done for granted. But now everything was different. He didn’t understand those things like shining the shoes or lighting the fires was the expression of his father’s love before, but now he totally knows. Father’s love is different from mother’s love, it is less profile and more unnoticed than mother’s. When he grows up he knows more about the austere love eventually.
410502016 英美一 李欣璉
I would like to compare Eden with Mother of the Groom.
In Eden, the theme of the poem is wanting to preserve the innocent and naïve nature of children. In the first three stanzas, the child keeps distorting the fact by believing everything will eventually be OK as long as mommy comes and fixes it. The child’s mother explains it to him/her that the squirrel is dead, but the naïve child refuses to accept it. The mother doesn’t try further to persuade him/her, perhaps she thinks it’s best for the child to be hopeful and optimistic. In Mother of the Groom, the theme is a mother accepting the reality that her child has grown up and will take off. ‘’It’s as if he kicked when lifted / And slipped her soapy hand’’ It suggests that a son marrying a wife is like he getting away from a mother’s control. The mom might be a little bit sad in the first, but she eventually comes to terms with it. In Eden, the mother still takes her child under her wings, but in Mother of the Groom, the mother knows that her son has become independent and will have a new companion in life. The mother in Eden wants to shelter her kid from the world of evil, but she knows she can’t. The mother in Mother of the Groom realizes her son is walking into another phase of his life and it must be done. The tone in Eden is light-hearted in the first few stanzas, but it soon shifts into the mother’s worry for her child. While the tone of the Mother of the Groom is never light-hearted, rather it’s pretty solemn. However, in both poems we can definitely get a touch of how mother’s love for her children can be so dense.
英美四 410202074 賴祖兒
Q2
In Those Winter Sundays, the feelings and tones of the speaker have changed from coldness to regret, turning to respect the labor of his father of those winter Sundays. In the first stanza, the speaker describes his father got up early even on Sundays, which are supposed to be rest days, and his father’s cracked hands ached from labor, and nobody ever thanked his work for the family. That the father has to do these manual labors suggest that they are not rich, belong to the working class. The second stanza describes the speaker got up when the sunshine broke in the room, and he would slowly rise and get dressed, and feared of the anger-looking of the house. It suggests that the speaker doesn’t like the house, thinking it full of hospitality and strangeness to him, not warmness, harmonious, happiness, or sense of belonging, because they are in a poor condition of economic statues. In the final stanza, the speaker turns into a sad and regretful tone, pointing out his father’s fatigues have never been thanked, and everybody just took it for granted. The speaker regrets for not knowing it earlier, and also saw his devotion as a matter of course. He finally figures out his father’s strictness was come from love, and his duty was a lonely one. The speaker, growing up as a man from a youth boy, has regretted his indifference to his father in his teenage years, and turned to realize he should be appreciated for what his father had done for him and this family.
410502026 李宜庭
In “Those Winter Days”, the word “indifferently” indicates that the son was cold to his father, and the word “chronic anger” tells us that the son feared the house which distributed anger for a long time. And from the title “winter”, it represents the relationship between the son and his father was coldness and gloominess. However, these words “Blueblack cold”, “cracked”, and “ached” that we can know the speaker’s father was devoted to his family. The father got up early to work in blueblack cold, and his hands was cracked and painful that means he is a physical labor. And his father feared his family would get cold, even heated the fires in the early morning. From the last sentences, “what did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices”, we can see the speaker is looking back and realizing how much more grateful he should have been for everything his father did for him. Now he realizes that he spoke to his father indifferently too much in the past, though his father had driven cold for him that he could rise and dress slowly. His father would polish his shoes as well, and these movements were done in silence by his dad. The sentence “No one ever thanked him” also expresses that the speaker’s repentance, why when he was a child did not think his father had paid for him, but has a bad attitude to his father. Maybe only we bring up our kids that we can realize the difficulty of being parents.
410502024
英美一
夏 正
2.
When the speaker was a boy, he didn’t understand his father’s love to him. Got up in the melancholy, desperately blue-black dark before dawn, the only thing to cheer him up was warm the rooms and polish shoes for his little boy then go to work to raise his child with no complain. The crackling voice from the fireplace splintered, broke the cold. Though the house was warm, the little speaker still felt cold, the little speaker still felt cold in his heart because his father never play baseball with him in the backyard, take him to ride on Ferris wheel or merry-go-round. He thought his father didn’t love him because Tom’s daddy always takes him home after school and he always go home on his own, alone. He could only feel the “chronic” angers from the house like it be “diagnosed” as having some kind of chronically disorder. He couldn’t realize how difficult and bitter those days were under the dumb care of his father. After so many years, the little boy grown up, he became a man, a father. When he finally went home from office, his kids were all in sweet dreams. It was 3 p.m. He watched the tarnished photo of kids’ grandpa and papa, he cried. All those days in the humble place came flooding back into his mind. He missed his papa’s warm and big rough hands; the gentle touch on his little cheek and the kiss on the forehead. He missed the moment when he peeked through the door crack and saw his father polished his shoes for him. But he never expressed his gratitude to him. He spoke indifferently to the one who lighting fires in the early morning and polished his nice shoes for him. Even though his father was not a wealthy man, he still did his best to give the speaker a decent life. He finally realized that love is an obligation, a duty. The speaker’s father did everything for him wholeheartedly and asked for no return. All he had done is worth a thousand words. If only the speaker could back to the moment and say something to his daddy. But it was too late, all he could do was regret.
According to Kelly Cherry’s “Alzheimer’s”, I think that father used to be caring man who loved home and enjoyed reading and listening to the music. First, in the beginning of the poem, there was a book in his suitcase. Accordingly, we could suggest that he enjoyed reading, or he could read at least in the past. However, Alzheimer’s would cause a decline in reading and understanding skills, so he couldn’t catch the information from the book, and he only used it to pretend to read. Second, he said, he remembered he built the walk way between the front room and the garage, and he planted the rhododendron in back. These are the evidences showing how much he loved his house and family. He made lots of contribution to them for better living quality. But after having disease, he would find difficulty completing those familiar tasks and forget any details of them. Third, when he was a young man, he enjoyed those loving music. But at that moment, music was an annoyed noise for him, and he couldn’t find any enjoyment anymore. After reading the poem, I think the changes are order by significance to his father in the setting in this poem. At first, it took time for him to recognize the exterior condition of his house. Then, he tried very hard to recall the memory about domestic affairs that he has done and hobby he used to have. Finally, he couldn’t even remember the memory about his family. His wife was nothing more than just an old and white-haired woman for him. The poem revealed that her father had severe struggles with Alzheimer’s and how sorrowful he was about losing those memories.
英美一 曾圓安
According to the poem title, the author immediately guided the readers to the point of the poem. It described her father who had a crippling disease called Alzheimer's. The man who was healthy and rational previously, but he suffered from the disease his behavior became differently. In line four, it mentions that the old man pretend to read the book. We can guess he used to love to read the books, but now he didn’t know why he hold the book. In line sixteen, he built the walkway between the front room and the garage and planted the rhododendron in back. He also like to drive the car because that can remind him who you are. He loved music and wore the tweed hat. Those thing he was really like. In addition, the author used the sentence” Roses and columbine slug it out for space, claw the mortar” to demonstrate the man had not taken care of the plants for a long time. In the next few lines,“this woman is, this old, white-haired woman standing here in the doorway, welcoming him in.” It means that he did not know that woman is his wife. I can't imagine that my family suffer from the disease. It is horrible for me to bear the disease go through every day. In addition, the author used the phrases like “a crazy old man” indicates a subtle bitterness towards her father and his illness. She expressed her father became irrational and could not control of his temper. From the poem, we can also see how Cherry’s attitude shifts from bitterness to sympathy. The poem also inspired me that we should live in every moment and cherish the time we have with our family, because you never know when you will lose them.
英美一 方拓為
Both types of chile have different meanings in the poem, and such differences are deeply engaged in Mexican culture.
The red chiles are personified as the tongues of old men. It represents the history and the change between generations. The author eats eggs and potatoes with chile for breakfast. His American lifestyle strongly shows in his breakfast, leaving the Mexican part of him for flavoring. However, he has an admire for Mexican history because of the words from the elders.
The grandmother’s love for green chile is lusty and joyful. The green chile is personified as a well-dressed young gentleman, an oily rubbery serpent and the flanks of tiger. The green chlies are slender and muscular at the same time. It is fresher and spicier than red chile. Growing up in Mexican culture, she also likes to have green chies for food, which is different from the author. Her mysterious passion for green chile is the symbol of Mexican lifestyle. She is used to preparing green chiles for food in traditional way, feeling their glossed surface and beautiful shapes. She devotes herself to her dear grandson and the culture. The speaker accepts her love while feeling the burn in his mouth.
The metaphor of the chiles explores the cultural difference, but also enhance his relationship with her grandmother. Whereas, he describes the green chile without sexualizeing his relationship with the grandmother.
He gives clear views toward his thoughts on different chiles and how his grandmother cherishes her ritual in the author’s childhood. He doesn’t say how much he loves his grandmother, but the feelings shows between words.
410402043 英美二 陳姿妤
I would like to answer the question 2.
In “Those Winter Sundays”, although this poem only has fourteen sentences, we can see a clear change of the relationship between the son and his father.
In stanza 1, “No one ever thanked him” shows that not only the son but also the whole family did not care about what his father had done for them. Stanza 2 illustrates the son’s feelings toward the home. “…the cold…” and “…the chronic angers of that house.” show us that the atmosphere which given by the house was cold. In stanza 3, according to the sentences “Speaking indifferently to him, … and polished my good shoes as well.”, this shows that the son took what his father had done for him for granted and did not feel grateful for him. In the last sentence of this poem, the son changed his thought about his father when he grew up. In my opinion, I think that when the speaker was young, he didn’t feel grateful for everything that his father had done for it. But when he grew up, maybe he has become a father, he understood that what his father did was showing his love to him or the whole family without saying any word. And when he was little, he felt his home was cold. After growing up, he didn’t want the home which was consisted of his children and his wife to become the cold one again. So personally, I think that the speaker’s attitude to his father and his house has changed when he grew up and became an mature man.
410502032 英美一劉子瑜
The speaker doesn’t really ever experience that “blueblack cold ” as his father does. He only wakes to find the cold “splintering, breaking. ” It’s like the cold is something visible that he can hold in his hand—something that can break. And his father breaks the cold by lighting fires in all of the fireplaces. Then the speaker tells us that he’d get out of bed and get dressed “when the rooms were warm.” The little sleepy boy can wait to get out of bed till the whole house is toasty and there's no need for slippers. The speaker also gets to take his time. He gets out of bed and gets dressed “slowly.” This image seriously contrasts with the one we have of his dad, laboring at the crack of dawn every morning to support his family and keep them warm. When he's a grown-up, he understands that even when family members are emotionally distant, that doesn't mean there's not love there. “Actions speak louder than words.” The speaker, as a boy, doesn’t seem to recognize that lighting fires in the fireplaces and polishing the good Sunday church shoes is a kind of love. This moment of recognition that the adult speaker knows so much more about his father, and his father’s love, than he did as a child.
英美二 410402042 李志東
in the Kelly Cherry's Alzheimer's. in the line 15.She writes"This is his house, he remembers it as his....remember.... Even if he is sick, he still remembered he built up the home which belongs to him. He supported whole family once. Maybe now he wants to but he can't protect this house anymore,but memory reminds him, he is one of this family. Refer to the music. It's connection between now and past. Even he had Alzheimer, he knows he was a young man, in a tweed hat. A man who loves music. He knows what attracted him before. But now, although he loves music. He has no time for music which was his beloved ever. The book he read before, he just could pretend to read, let along driving and protecting the family. Alzheimer this devil gradually devours his energy his memory. While he came home, the one always waits for him,loved him, even needs him, he doesn't know who she is. Although it is pathetic but he must to face it.The setting, the scene sets when he gets home, the whole life floats through his mind. He was the young mighty man before. but now? Everything is passing through with time.
臺灣一 陳美妤 41050A015
In Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays”, at first, the son thinks that it his father’s duty to get up early on cold Sunday, even though father’s hands cracked. Their family never says thank to him showing the son’s indifferent attitude. Here we see the bad and cold relationship between father and son, just like the frozen winter. The word ‘‘blueblack cold’’ is used to describe the down and hopeless situation, and also implies that his father is a low-paid worker. Despite the poor finance situation, his father still tries to make them feel better by making the house warm, and polishing the son’s shoes. The father serves his family silently, without expecting anything in return.
At the final of the stanza 2, the son thinks that his home is poor, cold, and uncomfortable since he fears “the chronic angers of that house”, which means the old houses had fallen into disrepair. But it also implies his anger to family, social, even his father in his mind.
In the Stanza 3, ‘‘what did I know, what did I know’’ we guess the speaker's become more mature now. In the poem’s final lines the speaker implies that he didn’t understand that his father’s behavior was an expression of father’s love before. But now he does and feels regret. ‘’love’s austere and lonely offices’’ is somewhat his father’s image of silent and responsible. Not until the speaker became a father, he finally realized what fathers love is, and what his father had done before.
企管二 邱嘉敏 410432033
1.
Robert Hayden's ''Those Winter Sundays''and Kellly Cherry's ''Alzheimer's'' have their similary and difference. ''Those Winter Sundays'' use child's view to mention what his father sacrifice himself for his job and his family no matter no one thanks him .At first, the kid didn't understand what happened to his father.He always gets up early at Saturdays and works hard,why there is not anyone appreciates him?Morever, father didn't complain when he was painful.Finally, the child figure out his question by using twice ''What did I know''. To me,''Alzheimer's'' also have the parent-child relationship.We all know Alzheimer's will gradually forget everything ,and become like a baby ultimately. Consequently , the old man just like the child and the woman who take care of him (his wife)become his parent.’'Alzheimer's'' use spectator’s view and the spectator survey the old man’s behavior carefully and naturally.These two poems both represent that the parents are locked by their family,thus, having no choice but to do their best working hard and taking good care of their child. However , these two poems make different ending. ''Those Winter Sundays’' become a comedy because of the child’s alteration of mental condition.His father's sacrifice is all for giving him a better life. On the contrary,this old Alzheimer’s patient won’t never realize what his wife done for him no matter he is died or not,and the old woman need to look after this old man who even forgot her until he past away.How pitiful are the man and the woman !
英美一 廖祐德 410502048
In this poem “Those Winter Sundays ” could make us realize that the relationship between the speaker with his father, and how his father loved him. However, the speaker didn’t realize that until when he grew up. From the poem title and “blue-black cold” we can know that not only the weather was extremely cold but also their relationship was cold either. “Cracked hands” present his father did blue-collar job and worked hard in the weekday. But his father still got early to banked fires blaze, and let him dress slowly. His father did these behaviors just wanted to keep him from the coldness. Moreover, his father even polished his good shoes before he went to school. All of these behaviors expressed his father’s love. Nevertheless, ”No one ever thanked him”, ”Speaking indifferently to him” presented that in the family no one had a grateful attitude forward his father and no one cared about his father’s love, but his father still continued to pay for this home. When he was a child, he took his father’s love for granted, he didn’t understand as a father’s mood, and what his father had done for him. As the time went by, the speaker became an adult, he was so disappointed at himself and finally found that his father's love for him was far better than what he had imagined. In my opinion, sometimes the love of our father didn’t reach what you expected, but we should know that he had already did his best to love us.
英美一 許美玲 410502054
Question 4
According to the Green Chile by Jimmy Santiago Baca is a poem contrasting red and green chile in the manner of personal preference and represent two generations traditional Mexican style and American style. One is where the poet living and the other one is his ancestral home. In the first stanza, The poet he preference of red chile. He describes the red chile as something that has a “historical grandeur” and “gently wing” they create an “air of festive welcome” and likens them to “harggard , yellowing , crisp, rasping tongues of old men”. The attitude to red chile from the poet is corresponding to the younger generation seeking for the mysterious of the historical festival.
In the second stanza, it is the personal preference of his grandmother. For grandmother, The green chile is much spicier than red. and is compared to a “ voluptuous, masculine, an air of authority and youth simmers.”,“well-dressed gentlemen”, who I envision as younger than the historical grandeur of the red chile. The attitude to green chile from “grandmother” is corresponding to the elder generation missing the old days, using the characteristic such as passion, energy, sexual attract between people, sex. They ar e both metaphor of looking back to the past days.
However, the younger generation are imagining the days which they have never had, they elder generation are actually recalling those days they lived. Those are two different kinds of untouchable space-time. And the two characters will be and was exchanged if you put them beyond the time.
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