An Analysis Of 'Blackberries' By Yusef Kounyakaa

The author uses tone and images throughout to compare and contrast the concepts of “black wealth” and a “hard life”. The author combines the use of images with blunt word combinations to make her point; for example, “you always remember things like living in Woodlawn with no inside toilet”. This image evokes the warmth of remembering a special community with the negative, have to use outdoor facilities. Another example of this combination of tone and imagery is “how good the water felt when you got your bath from one of those big tubs that folk in Chicago barbecue in”. Again the author’s positive memory is of feeling fresh after her bath combined with a negative, the fact that it was a barbecue drum.

In Ron Rash’s “Blackberries in June,” it was easy to be immediately drawn into the story. People can relate to the life of Matt and Jamie. Their life of being married after high school and having a house of their own is a plan many people work to strive towards when in love after high school. Their life seems almost perfect or typical throughout the story. A wonderful and happy marriage with the wholesome relations with the other family members, and some tenseness between an in-law shows how Matt and Jamie’s lives are what seems to be, normal. When Charlton (Jamie’s brother) has an accident and loses his leg, Matt is determined to still follow their dreams and plans

In Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Power of Context,” includes a series of short anecdotes in which are all defined by environment and how society shapes mankind. While reading these short stories Gladwell put into the novel, the audience can conclude that the rules of society have the power to shape a person or community. When reading “The Power of Context,” the reader must be able to grasp the understanding of how environment can affect an individual. One would say nature is the setting in which a person is brought up, nurture is the care variable one has the power to influence how they behave or how the setting can define who they are. In this style of writing Gladwell uses, shifts in societies behaviors tell stories of how the setting can influence behaviors of the main characters.

Whether good or bad, past memories can either motivate people to change and grow or cause people to remain stagnant. This is especially true for Madame Ranevsky, Lopakhin, and Firs from The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekhov. The Cherry Orchard is a comedic play about a widow, Madame Ranevsky, who is in the process of losing her beloved cherry orchard due to the debt that she has collected following the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. Madame Ranevsky, Lopakhin, and Firs all have different memories of the past. Both Madame Ranevsky and Firs have good memories of the past - Madame R with her childhood and Firs with his happy days of being a serf. Lopakhin, on the other hand, has bad memories of the past because of being born into a family

"The garden is delightful. The fruit trees and flowering shrubs form a pleasant variety. We have green peas almost fit to eat and as fine lettuce as you ever saw. The mockingbirds surround our evening and morning. The weather is mild and the vegetable world progressing to perfection. We have in the same orchard apples, pears, peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums of various kinds, figs, pomegranate, and oranges. And we have strawberries which measure three inches around." (“Biography Of Nathanael Greene”)

Written in 1980, Galway Kinnell's Blackberry Eating is a poem which creates a strong metaphoric relationship between the tangible objects of blackberries, and the intangible objects of words. The speaker of the poem feels a strong attraction to the sensory characteristics (the touch, taste, and look) of blackberries. The attraction he feels at the beginning of the poem exclusively for blackberries is paralleled in the end by his appetite and attraction to words. The rush the speaker gets out of blackberry eating is paralleled to the enjoyment he finds in thinking about certain words; words which call up the same sensory images the blackberries embody.

While Kinnel’s imagery is mainly for the positive sense in this first section, he describes the stalks as “prickly,” which is “a penalty.” The negative connotation associated with these words provides a different view on the blackberries and their effect on the speaker. This effect is the speaker wants to incite feelings of carpe diem, which means to “seize the day.” The author continually employs imagery to not only compare language and blackberries, but also to emphasize the idea of carpe diem. Overall, the imagery in the first section of “Blackberry Eating” details the blackberries and sets the stage for the comparison later in the

The poems “Blackberry-picking” by Seamus Heaney, and “Blackberry Eating” by Galway Kinnell are both excellent depictions of the essence of the blackberries. Something beautiful can be said of poems that were written about blackberries. The descriptive words poets use, can make a simple fruit into something truly amazing. These poems all compare blackberries, making them seem like more than they are. These two poems are dedicated to different seasons of blackberry picking, describe the fruit itself to be something different, and are written with different writing styles.

Known for its comforting leisure effects, sage infusions are like a spa expertise in a cup. For a sweet, fruity road to calmness, add 1/4 cup crushed raspberries, 1/4 cup beaten pineapple and two fresh sage leaves to sixteen ounces Of the water. The carbohydrates within the berries enable your brain to provide calming, feel-good just right brain chemical serotonin. Allow it to refrigerate for no less than two hours. If you are in a hurry, freeze it for ten minutes, or until cold. Stir your drink well good then sip it mindfully, if possible slowly and with out distraction for added

Seamus Heaney 's “Blackberry Picking” also presents the beauty of nature however in contrast to Hughes and Hopkins, Heaney’s poem explores man’s relationship with nature as a resource and how man exploits it and becomes greedy. The poem itself is about when Heaney was much younger and would go blackberry picking. It begins very positively but the second stanza ends the poem negatively containing sorrow and regret. The blackberries are described as “a glossy purple clot” suggesting their attractive beauty. The “clot” does also represent bloodshed. The word “glossy” shows the shiny surface of the skin and “clot” is describing the big juicy size of it creating a “lust for picking” it. Man 's greed is a dominant theme throughout the poem as the speaker has a “lust for picking” as the blackberry’s “flesh was sweet”. The speaker wanted more of the fruit because they were so nice but soon the “sweet” flesh turned “sour” in the second stanza, which creates disillusionment and unhappiness.

I watched the video “Strange Fruit” which is about a song named “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday that was banned from the radio. This song was about lynching and wasn’t payed as much attention as it should have. How can a song promote social awareness and social change? A song can promote social awareness and change because the song can be heard by anyone, anywhere. Also, the good part of music is that as soon as a person becomes aware of a song they most likely go and share it with more people. Furthermore, the text mentions alternative social movements and how “They are usually issue oriented, focusing on a singular concern and seeking to change individuals behaviors in relation to that issue” (Conley, 707). This is what songs have the

Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney, entails of picking blackberries that get old and sour over time. This poem can have different meanings; the literal meaning can still be determined. If examined closely, the poet is presenting the reader with a memory from the past; the lesson that good things don’t last forever. The poet uses diction, imagery, and form among other literary devices to depict this deeper meaning. Heaney’s diction plays a major role in the time frame of the poem.

Heaney uses the structure in ‘Blackberry Picking’ to show the romantic human nature. The structure is two uneven stanzas with half rhyming couplets which does not imposing too much harshness, which reflects the romanticised view of human nature.

"Late August given heavy rain and sun" tells us that this isn't a one off event, the 'rain' and 'sun' is a perfect envirnomental condition for the blackberries to ripen. "At first just one, a glossy purple clot." The 'glossy' berries carry a richness in tase, 'clot' highlights a soft juiciness of sensual pleasure for young, excited hope. "Hard as a knot" compares with the first berry, 'clot' and 'knot' is one of the two rhymes, this emphasises the difference of the berries. "And that hunger" tells us that they had a desire to pick every berry in sight. "Milk cans, pea tins, jam jars." This indicates that the children were so eager to collect berries that they just grabbed whatever they could. Along with their eagerness, it also suggests a rural environment, the milk would have came from cows and the jam would be home made. "Briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots," even such harsh conditions wouldn't stop the children going out berry hunting. "Round hayfields, cornfields, potato drills" listing all of the places they have been helps emphasise their desire. 'Peppered' suggests that they are getting pricked by the berries but even that doesn't bother them. "We hoarded the fresh berries" indicates a hope to keep them young and beautiful, as if it's a precious item. The word 'stinking' reinforces how disgusting it is, especially since it was referred to as wine. "Sweet flesh would turn sour" tells us that evil is taking over good as the berries turn replusive. This relates to the theme of nature, reinforcing how all good things must come to an

We all have childhood memories that we can reflect on and feel a sense of happiness, but some memories we can look back in disgust at the competency we had as children through silly accomplishments that we had been praised for. In “Blackberry-Picking,” by Seamus Heaney uses symbolism and diction to suggest power and repugnance as the poem’s tone as a means to emphasize the narrator's success that he felt while picking blackberries, as well as compare the gruesomeness of Bluebeard to the senses brought forth by the harvesting of the first blackberry. The author writes about the narrator eating the blackberries using gruesome words such as, “clot,” “flesh,” and “blood,” to give the reader a negative connotation towards the taste and texture of the berries. Heaney compares the hands of the children to Bluebeard, a fairy tale character who killed all of his wives; he uses references to gore to exemplify the comparison between Bluebeard and the berries that stain the narrator’s hands.