The Great Blue Heron

“The Great Blue Heron” is a stanza free verse poem written in memory of Kizer’s mother, Mabel Ashley Kizer. It depicts a young child seeing a tattered looking heron on the beach when she is young, and seeing it again when spreading her mother’s ashes on the beach fifteen years later. The heron’s tattered appearance is described using simile and metaphor. Kizer uses detailed imagery and connotative language. The tone of the poem is mournful and nostalgic. Enjambment is used throughout the poem and creates a unique flow to the poem. Kizer uses foreshadowing in the poem to help create structure in the poem. When the narrator shows her mother she realizes, “My mother knew what he was.” This foreshadows the future death of the mother. Herons are symbols of life prosperity, so Kizer’s use of it as a harbinger of death is paradoxical. The theme of this poem is to describe death and its effect it has on memories. The poem is mostly spent in reminiscence of the past as the narrator remembers standing on the beach “fifteen summers ago.” It is shown the beach was a place of many happy memories in the lines, “So many rockets ago/So many smokes and fires/And beach-lights and water-glow.” But the happy memories serve only as time passed between the appearances of the heron. Most of the poem is spent describing the heron. It is the narrator’s awareness of the possibility of her mother’s death. As time passes, its physical form becomes more substantial. At the start of the poem the heron is, “Shadow without a shadow,” but at the end of the poem when the narrator is spreading her mother’s ashes, the heron is “Denser than my repose.” The heron is a “Superimposed on a poster/Of a summer by the strand.” The memories of summers on the beach are blocked by the heron that foreshadowed her mother’s death. “The Great Blue Heron” showed mourning and how it can alter and overshadow memories using vivid imagery, foreshadowing, and enjambment.

Outliers

Outliers: A Story of Success is a novel written by Malcolm Gladwell. It discusses how extremely successful people came to be. Gladwell uses numerous studies and examples from history to prove his points and draw conclusions. The book is divided into two sections: Opportunity and Legacy. In Opportunity, Gladwell describes the stories of Canadian hockey players, geniuses, a man named Christopher Langan, and New York lawyers in 1950s. In the second part of the book, Legacy, Gladwell illustrates how our heritage and culture we inherit affects how our personalities. Gladwell uses examples of family feuds in the Appalachians, airplane crashes, Asians’ ability to excel in mathematics, and KIPP Academy. Gladwell writes in an informative tone, but manages to avoid becoming dry facts. He uses vivid descriptions of the background of each of the stories he tells to give the studies and history life. Gladwell breaks down the romanticized view we hold of incredibly successful people, and thoroughly explains what factors in their lives and background attributed to their success. Gladwell explains that success is not just a matter of hard work and talent. He uses the example of Christopher Langan, an incredibly brilliant man with an IQ of 195, who ended up a college drop-out because he could not get opportunities to help him finish a higher education. Langan was talented and hard-working but he was not able to succeed. In Opportunity, Gladwell concludes that success is a matter of being born into the right circumstances, with a drive to succeed and work hard. The second part of the book was what I found the most interesting. In this portion of the novel, Gladwell describes and explains how the cultural legacy we inherit from where we’re from and our family distinctly affects our personalities and how we act. One example he uses is the phenomenon of Asian countries success in mathematics. To explain this, Gladwell goes back to the history of southern China and their dependence on rice paddies. The process of rice farming is incredibly labor intensive and needs constant care and attention. Since China had such a need for rice it created a culture that put an extreme value on hard work. Meanwhile in European countries, the crops grown needed to be rested every few years and is much less labor intensive than rice paddies. This difference in agriculture created the idea in European culture of the necessity of rest. Gladwell proves that this phenomenon is still relevant today by talking about standardized testing scores. The TIMSS is a standardized test that has a 125 questionnaire and is very difficult to finish. The students that were able to finish the questionnaire were the same students that did well on the math section. These students were mostly from Asian countries. Gladwell correlates this success to the cultural legacy from the rice paddies. Outliers: The Story of Success is an incredibly interesting read that helps create a new perspective on the idea of success and what leads to it.

Carolyn Kizer

Carolyn Kizer is an award winning American poet. I have read a few of her poems, the two I have looked into the most are "A Child's Guide to Central Ohio" and "Afternon Happiness." In both of these poems she creates a new perspective on romaticized moments of life. "A Child's Guide to Central Ohio" reveals the trapped and suffocated feelings of a child. It uses strong imagery and diction to depict an angry child riling against its captors. She uses a formal diction and strong connotative language. In "Afternoon Happiness" she takes a jab at those who believe art must be about pain and suffering in order to be profound and meaningful. Kizer also looks at love and realizes that although in the present it is wonderfully happy, it will end in heartbreak. Her poems have strong imagery and connotative language. In both poems she is able to depict the feelings of the narrator beautifully and convey her ideas. She reveals unseen perspectives on different aspects of life. Carolyn Kizer's poetry is incredibly beautiful and amazing to behold.

This is Water

David Foster Wallace gave a commencement speech at Kenyon College, and it is published in the novel, This is Water. In the speech he talks about what makes up the daily grind of life. The boring, frustrating, tiring, endless grind of adult life. After foretelling this future he presents the choice we have to make in that crowded supermarket at the end of a long day. We can give in to our natural desire to be angry and frustrated or to make the choice to think the best of those around us. The world is boring, frustrating, and tedious. This is an undeniable fact. But there are two options from that point. We can fall into the belief that we are the center of the universe and the universe should conform to our needs and desires and be angry and frustrated when it does not. Or we can look at those around us and see the possibilities of the circumstances that surround them. It is easy to forget that everyone around us is just as complicated as we are. Everyone has had their own unique circumstances that brings them to that supermarket. Those circumstances may be tragic or heroic, but in any case we don’t know what has made them into the person that is now standing in that supermarket line. The recognition of these possibilities help us see the humanity in people. They are not just obstacles in our way, but people with hopes, dreams, frustrations, and feelings as complex as our own. So when we stand in that crowded supermarket at the end of a long day, we can look at others and see the infinite possibilities that surround them, we can see that they are humans making their way through life just like us. We are not the center of the universe, so we might as well appreciate the universe that we are a part of. We have to make the decision to imagine others complexly. When we can make that choice, to see others as people and not just things, we give ourselves the option to love others. When we can love others, life becomes so much brighter and less of the frustrating, boring, tedious grind. So when you are in that supermarket and every cell in your body just wants to go home and for everyone to just not be there, you can stop and make that choice of seeing the beauty and complexity in others. Everyone is human, this is water. 

The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent is a novel written by Joseph Conrad telling the story of the attempted bombing of Greenwich Observatory. Mr. Verloc is an agent provocateur that is posing as an anarchist. He lives a domestic life with his wife, Winnie Verloc and her family. In the beginning of the novel, Mr. Verloc is called to the Embassy to have a meeting with his superior Mr. Vladimir. During the meeting Vladimir severely reprimands Verloc and tells him to attack the Greenwich Observatory and to make it look like an act of sheer madness. Mr. Vladimir says, ““Madness alone is truly terrifying, inasmuch as you cannot placate it by threats, persuasion, or bribes.” Mr. Verloc feels this meeting is the beginning of the end for him. If he cannot complete this act of the madness then he will lose his way of life. This quote foreshadows how Mr. Verloc will actually lose his life. When Winnie discovers that Mr. Verloc was responsible for her brother Stevie’s death, she goes into a trance of madness. Her entire being is filled with the thought that Mr. Verloc killed Stevie and he must pay. In that state of madness Winnie stabs Verloc. The quote foreshadows this event because while Winnie is dealing with her grief and mourning Mr. Verloc is continuously talking about the future and their plans to live abroad. He assures her of his fondness for her and the security of their future together. These words do nothing to soothe Winnie, and actually cause her more suffering. In her mental state of madness Winnie is terrifying and powerful. She will not be soothed by any words but is simply a force of nature. Her madness will not be placated by Mr. Verloc’s words and there is only one course of action for her to take. Winnie takes the carving knife and plunges it into her husband’s chest. 

Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex is a tragedy written by Sophocles. It tells the story of Oedipus, the hero of Thebes as he tries to discover the truth behind the death of the former King Laius. Oedipus discovers dark secrets about his past, and the truth destroys him. A major theme of the play is the power of prophecy. Characters are constantly trying to avoid prophecy but in their efforts they fulfill the prophecies and cause their own doom. But when the truth becomes revealed, many of the characters choose to ignore the truth. A key quote is from Jocasta trying to comfort Oedipus. She says, “Fear? What should a man fear? It’s all chance, chance rules our lives. Not a man on earth can see a day ahead, groping through the dark. Better to live at random, best we can. And as for this marriage with your mother—have no fear. Many a man before you, in his dreams, has shared his mother’s bed. Take such things for shadows, nothing at all— Live, Oedipus, as if there’s no tomorrow!” At this point in the play the Messenger that eventually reveals that Oedipus is Jocasta and Laius’s son has appeared, and the pieces of the puzzle are coming together. Although she says that everything is random and the future cannot be predicted, all prophecies in the play come true. Her flippant treatment of the prophesized incest comes back to haunt her. Although Jocasta says to ignore all prophecies and to live life freely, she did not follow her own advice. When faced with a prophecy that said her son will kill her husband and bed her, she abandoned her baby and caused the events to happen. If Oedipus also did not react so strongly to his prophecy, then he would not have met Laius on the road and caused his own doom. This quote depicts the irony of the play and the forces of free will and prophecy that create Oedipus’s doom. 

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird contains many conflicts and the protagonists face many challenges. Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Atticus takes on the case, he knows he will not win. Despite this Atticus gives the case his all. When Atticus Finch takes on Tom Robinson’s case he ignites what seems like the entire world against him. Even members of his own family turn against Atticus for his decision to take on the Tom Robinson case. His stand against racism in Maycomb County has severe consequences, but Atticus will not sacrifice his morals. When his children question his decision and reasoning, he uses the struggles he is facing as deliberate lessons for his children. Atticus tells Scout, “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” Atticus has the ability to understand the gravity of small struggles in daily life and applies them to display the fundamentals of true moral behavior. He stands up for what he believes even when the entire world is against him. Atticus does not without even the smallest hope of victory. From the second he took on the Tom Robinson case, Atticus knew that he would never successfully acquit Tom. But he took on this case anyway, because he knows what is right and what must be done. Atticus is a role model for his children and the reader. He represents courage in the face of assured defeat and he fulfills the role without a moment’s pause. Atticus has courage to fight for what is right in the bleakest of circumstances, and stands up unflinchingly against the world that is against him.