Cloudy Day Essay

Baca writes, “ Through language I was free. I could respond, escape, indulge; embrace or reject earth or the cosmos.” (Baca, 1992, pg55) Baca found a voice that allowed him to express himself and that is how he was setting himself free. Later in the paragraph Baca refers to his childhood saying, “The child in the dark room of my heart, that had never been able to find or reach the light switch, flickered it on now; and I found in the room a stranger, myself, who had waited so many year to speak again.” (Baca, 1992, pg55) In my opinion I believe this is the most powerful quote to describe Baca’s engagement of being released from his ordinary world in prison. Since as a child Baca did not know how to read or write, he didn’t know his inner voice. Baca found his inner voice through language and childhood Baca that could not reach the light switch because he didn’t know how to read and write could now reach it. This quote can really make someone picture Baca as an innocent boy that was unable to do things back then because he didn’t know how to read and write, being able to do them now but now he’s stuck in prison. It feels Baca went through a cycle or

This book is made up of two cycles of poems, each confronting the same subject: the characterization of a black man in white America. In this book, I plan to focus mainly on the first cycle and touch briefly on the second. The first cycle includes four different sections. In section one of cycle one, Eady writes about Susan Smith and Charles Stuart, two murderers who blamed their crimes on nonexistent black attackers. The first poem is called “How I Got Born” (Eady 5), in this poem the fictional young African American man is conjured up. In the upper right-hand corner of the page, Eady writes a note that explains who and what the speaker is: “The speaker is the young black man Susan Smith claimed kidnapped her children” (Eady 5). In the first few lines of the poem he says, “Susan Smith willed me alive/ At the moment/ Her babies sank into the lake” (l. 1-40). So right away he gives us a pretty straightforward explanation for what this poem is about and what this section will be about. In the next few poems, the narrator discusses his “existence” and reason for being created. Eady uses a lot of metaphors, similes and imagery in his poems, and he does a phenomenal job with imagery.

In Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, numerous references are made to different conditions of weather. Even the title of the novel suggests the storminess present in nearly the entire book. The often-changing weather serves to signify the characters’ personalities, as well as the changes that they go through during the course of their lives.

In “There Will Come Soft Rains” Ray Bradbury suggests that technology is very destructive and dehumanizing. Bradbury shows this through talking about a house in the year 2026 that does everything for the humans that live in it. The house makes their food, cleans the dishes, cleans the house, and even reads to them. To some people this may sound like a good thing, but Bradburry shows how the house is not a human and it just is not the same. These are things people are meant to do and can have some meaning. Having a house doing nearly everything for you truly is dehumanizing. When he describes the houses jobs he makes them sound useless. The movements are useless because there are no people in the house, due to what Bradbury suggests was an atomic bomb by writing that the house was the only one not destroyed in a whole city, and there was a green radioactive glow throughout the city. Another way bradbury showed the house was destructive was when

Julia Alvarez writes a poem, On Not shoplifting Louise Bogan’s, that shows readers the journey of explorations and self awakening that the speaker in the poem goes through and the impact the self awakening has on the speaker. Julia is able to convey the discoveries of the speaker by the use of tone, vivid and expressive imagery, and selection of details in the poem.

This freedom Baca finds in his memories is contrary to the effect prisons are “supposed to” have on inmates, yet it’s this sense of freedom that saves his mind. He is well aware that isolation causes others to lose their minds, “The numbing effects of isolation time in the hole… numbed a prisoner’s desire to fight to stay human… I didn’t want this to happen to me” (Baca, 149). He hones his abilities as a self-defense mechanism, but in turn, he changes. He wasn’t actively trying to change himself, only stay sane in an insane situation. The mental freedom he obtains releases him from the bondage prison has on his body, and it also helps re-create his identity as a person. On one such escape to his past in Estancia, he is “filled with a serene, communal sense of belonging… lying on my cot in an isolation cell in total darkness... I felt the many lives that had come before me” (Baca, 151-152). This is another pivotal moment in Baca’s life that comes at a time when he is in isolation. Through his mental journeys, he connects in a spiritual way with his ancestors and goes from feeling alone, unwanted, and forgotten to being accepted, loved, and important. He also says, “I felt…my people’s irascible desire to live, which was mine as well. I felt their will was growing inside me and would

Released in 1988, writers Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow created a compelling story by introducing many to the world of autism. These two writers brilliantly plotted the dramatic story of a brother's greed developing into love in the 1988 Oscar winning movie Rain Man. Charlie Babbitt, the first main character played by Tom Cruise, is an arrogant, selfish businessman, striving to be wealthy, but his business is failing. The second main character in the film is Raymond Babbitt, played by Dustin Hoffman, who is an autistic savant who lives and is cared for at a mental institution. Charlie receives word that his father, whom he hasn't had contact with in years, has deceased. His father left an inheritance to Charlie and his unknown (or

When arriving at Florence State Prison Jimmy Santiago Baca’s life changed. Upon resaving a letter from a man named Harry he became interested on learning to read and write. Harry’s letter gave Jimmy some sense of belonging. He stated his feelings on the letter, “I was eager to communicate with someone to alleviate the boredom of the dungeon.” All it took was a paper with words to take someone away from that place they despised. Harry had sent Baca a dictionary so he could learn new words. To Jimmy this opened a new world to him. This gave him an opportunity on having control over something the prison couldn’t take from him.

Incarceration, a program that not only punishes criminals, but changes each individual in a different way. Keep in mind, the transformation doesn’t always have a positive outcome. Jimmy Santiago Baca, author of A Place to Stand, had a very hard time adjusting to the life in prison. After two years of being depressed and sitting in the “hole”, Baca found his affection for poetry that changes his life for the better. Baca states, “I was able to reach out and find a finger hold on the fragile ledge of hope.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued warnings for parents, public health officials following the death of two local Tennessee teens due to a lethal ‘racing fuel and soda’ cocktail drink mix.

Before the Rain, filmed on location in the Republic of Macedonia and in London is a trilogy that focuses on the conflict between Muslims and Orthodox Christians in the Balkans. The three chapters of the trilogy are " Words," " Faces" and " Pictures." Director Milcho Manchevski states; " Before the Rain, refers to the feeling of heavy expectation, when the skies are pregnant with the possibility of an outburst, when people are silent, waiting for a tragedy of cleansing"(1).

James, the narrator in Ernest Gaines' "The Sky is Gray" is an eight-year-old African American male who is still a child but being the oldest male in the household he faces more responsibility than a normal young boy would. His father is deployed to fight in World War II, so his mother; Octavia is forced to take care of the household. She in turn must teach him how to be a gentleman, which he becomes at the end of the story. Influenced by the women in his life, James, the protagonist in Ernest Gaines' short story "The Sky is Gray" makes a transition from boyhood to manhood.

A thorough analysis of subject material and literary style exhibits the complexity of establishing a strong thematic base, which does not deter from the ebb and flow of a poetic medium .  In Thom Gunn’s In the Tank, a felon is overwhelmed by emotion at the state of his existence in prison.  In what appears to be a moment’s reflection, Thom Gunn’s narrator in In the Tank reveals an abundance of sentiment pertaining to his environment.  From meticulous description of the prison environment, to the exasperated feeling of loneliness and dejection, Gunn lures an audience into a seeming first-hand account of prison-life.

It was a cloudy day in Escondido on Friday morning it usually gets busy such as cars honking at others and groups of students walking to school. I always see similar faces everyday when commuting to school. To do the observation I picked at the Escondido transit I always go there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. In the mornings when I do not feel like taking my car I go on the bus than when I get to the transit I head to the sprinter that leaves at 7:33. There was a variety of people to observed many of them were students, some were workers, and people who were traveling. When I commute from the house to school it takes me an hour if

“Big Two Hearted River”, a semi-autobiographical short story by Ernest Hemingway, is a story about the main character, Nick, returning to Big Two Hearted River in order to recover from his inner wounds. Nick Adams goes on a journey alone in nature for a therapeutic purpose as he suffers from PTSD. However, Hemingway purposely avoided any direct discussion regarding to Nick’s mental wounds. The absence of the discussion is contributed by Hemingway’s writing style, the Iceberg principle. Hemingway focuses explicitly on what occurs on the surface without mentioning actual theme. This indicates that the theme of self-healing cannot be uncovered by simply looking at the text itself. In order to comprehend the actual theme of the story, the character development of Nick must be examined. This is possible since Nick Adams is a recurring character of Hemingway’s stories. The two preceding stories of “Big Two Hearted River”, “Now I lay me” and “A Way you’ll Never Be”, directly discusses Nick’s suffering from shell-shock and how he comforts himself by returning to Big Two Hearted river in his mind. The two short stories will be analyzed and connected to “Big Two Hearted River” in the essay first. This will provide a strong understanding of Nick’s psyche and the reason behind his return to nature. Then, “Big Two Hearted River” the short story itself will be carefully analyzed.