Analysis Of Jimmy Santiago Baca's Broken Is What God Blesses

There are many things in life that can transform a person. Jimmy Santiago Baca’s transformation came through prison and poetry. A Place to Stand is a memoir written by Baca to depict his life-long struggles. He starts it off by explaining his bumpy childhood and rough upbringing. He goes on to explain his incarceration, the struggles he faces while in the prison, and how he learns to make the days go by quicker and stay out of trouble until the day he is free. His tough prison life is turned around when he learns to read and write poetry. Baca explains to the reader that, “Language gave me a way to keep the chaos of prison at bay and prevent it from devouring me; it allowed me to confront and understand my past, and it opened the way

Descriptive words such as “broken” (11), “helpless” (14), “darkness” (15), “despair” (22), and “emptiness” (51) show the grief and pain the speaker experiences due to his loss. Lowell’s diction also shows a shift in the poem from the “sweet” (2) and “calm” (4) that dramatically change into “tattered surges” (7) and “breaking gulfs of sorrow” (13). Furthermore, Lowell’s use of “drearily true” (34) and “dull shock” (42) show a bitter and sarcastic animosity within the speaker indicating his difficulty in falling for his friend’s comfort. In the final two lines, Lowell’s diction reaches a new level as he discusses the “emptiness” (50) that argues the friend to be incorrect and makes his “wisdom down” (51). Lowell’s use of diction shows how difficult the speaker finds it to recover not only from the shock of losing his daughter, but the difficulty to mend the empty hole within

The structure of this poem is 3 stanzas with all the lines in the poem except Lines 9 and 15 in iambic tetrameter. In this metric pattern, a line has four pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, for a total eight syllables. The internal structure of the poem is the narrator talking about the mask the African American people wear and the oppression that hurts them. Then the second stanza is sarcastic and negative towards the idea that it will ever change. Then the last stanza shows that they cling to Christ and the journey will be long.

The theme of poem “Crossings,” by Judith Ortiz Cofer is evaluating and reacting upon the tough decisions that come up in life. The cracks represent the flaws you can find and the inevitable accidents that will occur. “But each day more and more fissures / crisscross your path, and like the lines/ on your palms, they mean something.” (6-8) These lines show that each days more incidents and troubles, “the fissures”, will come up in your life, the bad things will happen in your life time, “crisscross your path, and like the lines on your palms, they mean something,” however, every time you experience a bad accident or disaster, which it seems at the time, you will learn something. It also seems like fate is a big theme in this piece and the human reaction to fate’s doings. On lines 8 and 9, “on your palms, they mean something/ you cannot decipher,” shows fate’s working in manufacturing these cracks. What they incidents mean, or what you can learn from them however, is still a mystery because it is brought on by fate, such as the example of lines on your palms, and how some people believe they are a representation of one’s future. The lines “Finally you must choose between / standing still in the one solid spot / you have found, or you keep moving / and take the risk: / Break your mother’s back.” (10-14) show the choices humans have to make in relation to the events brought on like fate. This poem describes that like in Romeo and Juliet fate isn’t just responsible for Romeo and

Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem “Oppression” discusses the importance of remaining emotionally and mentally strong when enduring oppression. For those suffering from the emotional trauma of being held captive illegally, singing is one solution a poet offers to those who are oppressed as he states, “Look deep to find the grains of hope and strength,/ and sing, my brothers and sisters” (Baca 6-7). Singing is an act that a person can generally freely participate in, which is why Baca suggests it since it is a small symbol of retaliation against the oppressors. Even though captors may rob a person of his physical freedom, the person can still show self-control by choosing to make the best of the situation by singing to uplift his emotional state. In

In the fourth stanza, Clark uses imagery to talk about segregation. She also uses the simile, “I-40 bisected the black community like a tourniquet of concrete,” which means they cut off the flow of traffic and really segregated the black community from everything else. Also in this stanza, the violence of the 60’s was shown through the imagery of the lines stating, “Ambulance siren driving over the house that called 911, diminishing howl in the distance,

In the profile article “Jimmy Santiago Baca: Poetry as Lifesaver” author Rob Baker, who also is a creative writing and English teacher proves to not only the readers but also the National Council of Teachers of English the significance of poetry. The authors main point is that poetry saved Jimmy Santiago Baca’s life, he shows us how by explaining the emotions when Baca began to read poetry; he then went on to write poetry and even publish his own works while still in prison, after Baca’s release, he became a dedicated teacher who also works with gang members and teaches workshops.

Prisoner 9762, Jimmy Valentine, has been released from prison. Jimmy Valentine, a prisoner for stealing money from banks and served 10 months before being freed, but it wasn’t long before he was back at it. Suddenly, Jimmy Valentine disappears and emerges Ralph D. Spencer who has taken Jimmy’s place. Jimmy Valentine was trying to live a moral life because he was honest, respectful, and responsible.

David Gushee spoke about the 2016 Presidential Election and how religion has played a role in the current outcome of Donald Trump as the GOP nominee. White Evangelicals specifically have played a crucial role in this outcome. Gushee explained why Donald Trump appeals to Evangelicals in comparison to other elections. He also spoke about the other GOP candidates and why, from a religious perspective, they did or did not appeal to voters. Gushee did mention the Democratic Party, focusing on Bernie Sanders Jewish background and Martin O’Malley’s Catholic background. He very briefly touched on Hillary Clinton’s religious background.

Although Duffy narrows into the rape at first with a subtle manor by saying “One saw I was alive. Loosened his belt.” The enjambment between ‘loosened’ and ‘belt’ draws the attention to the horrific fact that this woman is actually about to be raped. Duffy goes about it in a very subtle way, but the graphic description we get next is enough to make anyone feel the sheer impact of what has just occurred. The horror of what is happening to the poor innocent Jew continues as Duffy says “My bowels opened in a ragged gape of fear” I believe this is one of the lines in the poem which has most impact toward the reader. The long vowel sounds and the graphic imagery of the event is etched into your mind. The single word ‘gape’ mirrors the word rape which leaves the horrific image in the readers head of what is happening to the Jewish girl and it makes you empathise with her situation. “I could see a child” the soldiers had no morals, the meaning of right and wrong had been torn away from the soldiers and acts of brutality were happening to women and children. “I shot her in the eye” Duffy says this so carelessly within the poem to highlight just how carelessly the soldiers shot the innocent child in the eye. In addition links with the clear horrific imagery Duffy is using whilst building up toward the main event of the poem which is the murdering of the persona. The unashamed soldiers continue their horrific acts and take no notice of

No Church in the Wild - Task 3 The central idea found in the song, “No Church in the Wild” by Jay-Z is that the significance of power relies on it being acknowledged. Kanye West introduces this idea in the hook of the song when he says, “What’s a king to a god? What’s a god to a non-believer?”

Immediately in A Heart Breaking Work Of A Staggering Genius, we see that Eggers is conflicted in how to deal with many of his relationships, especially those that he holds with Toph. Eggers is suddenly thrust into Loco-Parentis, leaving his relationship with Toph to be presented as vulnerable but for the most part, safe and secure.

God’s Ear was written by Jenny Schwartz in a very lyrical style with the lines constantly flowing. This makes the production far more about the emoting of the actors than the words many times and proves to be highly effective in providing a story to follow as well as a definite theme. The primary plot of the play is of a family dealing with the recent loss of a child who drowned, in various different ways. The show opens with Mel calling Ted from the hospital informing him that the doctors did not mention hope and that the couple should consider organ donation. The story then continues with a constant stream of phone calls between the couple with interruptions from peculiar characters such as G.I. Joe, the Tooth fairy, and Guy. Eventually, Ted comes home in a real sense according to his daughter Lanie and soon afterwards Mel is able to finally deal with the loss completely, instead of trying to push it back. This irregularly written play is dealing with the theme that when dealing with loss, there is a lot of confusion and mixed emotions that are all involved in taking the time to heal, which can be seen through not only the acting, but also in the scenic, lighting,

“What if I told you, Jesus came to abolish religion?” asks Jefferson Bethke in the first line of his world famous spoken word, “Why I hate religion, but love Jesus”. Hoping to emphasize his views on religion, Bethke has published many spoken word videos that are reaching well into millions of views. His life motto is “I'm just a messed up guy trying to make Jesus famous”. Although the author is most famous for the piece “Why I hate religion, but love Jesus”, he has published other spoken word videos. While most of society finds Bethke's work inspiring and enlightening, others have a more harsh critique of the poets use of biblical references and word choice.

How can Andrew Bolt point to a graph as showing a "pause" in global warming, when it unequivocally shows the opposite? He's a propagandist of the highest order.