Grandpa Joe Character Analysis

From the first-time read through, the poem gives a basic understanding of the narrative: a daughter telling the audience about her mother’s struggles

He had this look on his face like he was trying to remember and after a couple minutes, he answered, “I was born in 1928, and I was lucky compared to some. We were farmers, and while things were tight we came out better than many. God provided what we needed, and after things started looking better he started blessing us with even more.” My grandpa continued to tell me how those first 11 years or so of his life taught him to use everything sparingly, be smart about what you throw away, and if it isn’t broken you don’t need a new one. These lessons he learned during that time didn’t disappear. To this day, he still thinks about it and remembers the tougher times and remembers how bad the world can get. Then, going with the second question I had he continued on about how with the Depression ending there was a new problem to take its place, World War II. At first, he only heard about the war, the U.S. wasn’t that involved, but even so, everyone was working. “Donations were sent, shops needed extra help, anyone who was old enough and able-bodied was waiting for the day they’d be called up. In ‘41, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, that’s when it got bad. The U.S. joined the battle, and local men were going to war. At the time, you had to be 21 to be drafted, but with there having been an attack on U.S. it was lowered to 18. I was 13 or 14 at this time. I didn’t turn 18 until ‘45. By that time we had won, but I still signed up. I was sent to Japan in ‘46, and it was bad.” My grandpa didn’t go much further than that, but he said that every person did what they had to, everyone worked together, everyone supported. He says that he’ll never forget what some of the aftereffects were of the war and that it’s not something you can fall asleep after and just forget. The last event I inquired about was the 1969 Moon landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. My grandpa said

Looking back, I was lucky to have the teachers I had. Most of them would try to help me, but didn’t know how to. There was something about the way the school was designed that it just didn’t work for me. The summer after my 8th-grade year was when I realized I needed to try a different form of education.

Even though we come to school to get an education by our own free will or by our parents making us get out of the bed and dragging us here every day, we have learned so much about other facets of life outside of our classes. We have learned many important things like how strong friendship can be, how life can be unpredictable and throw you some curves, forgive yourself, your friends and your enemies, how it's okay to fail, and don’t be afraid to show others you care about them. Life is about taking risks and making mistakes so we can learn from them even if they have a negative effect.

Both Rowan and Rose begin their essays by describing a particular teacher who left a strong impact during a pivotal point in their lives. In his piece “Unforgettable Miss Bessie,” Rowan sets up an impression of Miss Bessie as a highly respected educator who knew how to conduct her classroom in a way that “there was never a discipline problem” (168). With a firm hand, she guides them to the road of success. She once told Rowan to “make most of what you do have- a brain” (168). Miss Bessie reminds Rowan to not think about what he does not have; instead, he needs to embrace the one thing no one can take from him.

Throughout his poems “Forgetfulness” and “On Turning Ten,” Billy Collins establishes a melancholic tone that is rooted deeply in the concept of forgetting. While Edna St. Vincent Millay establishes a similar melancholic tone, the sadness conveyed throughout “Sonnet II” is rooted not in forgetting, but rather in remembering.

Memory is something all humans struggle with. A person’s memory is everything. It shapes the entirety of a person’s being. The fear of losing your memory is a uniquely human phenomenon, and to some degree I believe it must haunt every person. In these two poems, both titled “Forgetfulness”, two poets explore the idea of losing yourself and being human. Although their voices are very different, and the techniques which they employ to get their message across, the topic of the poems is the same. The truth is that forgetfulness is a many-headed beast, and it’s entirely valid that two different viewpoints could explore different aspects of it. Hart Crane’s poem focuses on the image of forgetfulness, the effect it has on humanity as a whole, and

The relationship between a parent and a child can be a complicated, difficult to understand concept. Factors such as complications that occur in the lives of either of the figures, separation from the other, and the protection the parent is willing to give to the child all contribute to the idea of this messy relationship. However, all these factors seem to fall away in comparison to the immeasurable amount of love the parent and child carry for each other, and the strong relationships that last a whole lifetime. In many poems, authors such as Theodore Roethke, Li-Young Lee, and Rita Dove use literary devices such as imagery, tone, symbolism, metaphor, and simile to show the unbreakable bond between parents and children.

The poem “The Mother” written by Gwendolyn Brooks in 1945, is a poem that focuses on the immeasurable losses a woman experiences after having an abortion. The poems free verse style has a mournful tone that captures the vast emotions a mother goes through trying to cope with the choices she has made. The author writes each stanza of the poem using a different style, and point of view, with subtle metaphors to express the speaker’s deep struggle as she copes with her abortions. The poem begins with, “Abortions will not let you forget” (Brooks 1), the first line of the poem uses personification to capture your attention. The title of the poem has the reader’s mindset centered around motherhood, but the author’s expertise with the opening line, immediately shifts your view to the actual theme of the poem. In this first line the speaker is telling you directly, you will never forget having an abortion. Brooks utilizes the speaker of the poem, to convey that this mother is pleading for forgiveness from the children she chose not to have.

Frederick Douglass, an African-American writer once said “We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.” This quote was meaningful to me during my 8th grade year. The beginning of my 8 th grade year, it was a dry hot autumn day. My first day of school, learning all my teacher’s name and learning were to go around the school. Then, midday I look up and saw my next class… English. I hated English with a passion, I always got put in the slow class, being bored out of my mind. I sat on the last chair, next to the last window in the corner of the classroom. My teacher rushes into the room with a stack of papers to hand out to the class. I search through the paper and found that it was a test. Great, a test on the first day. The test had 10 questions, each one was about how much you know about English. I answer each with ease, but the test is going to easy and it was about lunch time. We all turned in the test at lunch time. After lunch time, we enter the English class again. The teacher passes out the graded test. I got a 90%,. How… How did I get a 90%?

A child’s future is usually determined by how their parent’s raise them. Their characteristics reflect how life at home was like, if it had an impeccable effect or destroyed the child’s entire outlook on life. Usually, authors of any type of literature use their experiences in life to help inspire their writing and develop emotion to their works. Poetry is a type of literary work in which there is an intensity given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinct styles and rhythm. These distinct styles include different types of poems such as sonnets, villanelles, free verse, imagist poems, and many more. And these distinct styles are accentuated with the use of literary devices such as metaphors, similes, imagery, personification, rhyme, meter, and more. As a whole, a poem depicts emotions the author and reader’s can relate to. In the poem’s “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden, and “My Papa’s Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke, we read about two different parent and child relationships. These two poems help portray the flaws and strength’s parents exhibit and how their children follow their actions and use it as a take away in their grown up lives.

“I'll be all around in the dark. I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look—wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there,” a quote said by Tom Joad from John Steinbeck’s novel Grapes of Wrath. Written during the great depression, John Steinbeck depicts a Oklahoma family traveling to California for work after losing their farm. The main character Tom Joad is first seen as caring only for himself and his family. By the ending the novel Tom has grown from caring about himself to caring and seeing the whole world as his family.

Public school systems need to be more sensitive to their students. Parents play the major role in determining a child’s academic outcome, but the school system needs to notice children who don’t necessarily acknowledge their gift. These children need guidance -- I believe it is the schools’ responsibility to provide it to them. I have been through a situation that makes me feel strongly about the subject. My example is an indisputable case in point.

This poem that the mother has written for her daughter is better seen as a “guide” to adulthood due to her use of an extremely long run-on sentence and choice of diction. The run-on sentence consists of a list of commands like “this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard" (22-24). Not only does the run-on sentence depict that this is a guide, but so does the constant repetition of “this is how” and “don’t

John Dewey, a leader for the progressive movement in education in the United States once said, “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.”