Summary Of The Poem 'The Layers'

A significant event in one's life forces a person to reevaluate their current situation and decide how they will adapt to a new situation, or cause them to look back on the steps they took to get into that situation. In life as well as in the literature Crosswalk In The Rain, and THE TENT DELIVERY WOMAN’S RIDE, people have to adapt to what is happening in their lives, despite conditions they may have been through in the past. In life at some point there will be crossroads that a person must cross, they can either look back at what they have done to end up in that position or they can look forward and see what they must do to continue moving forward.

The Past, an ever growing pool of time, is always biting at the heels of a person. It reminds him of what they have done wrong, done right, or when he did nothing. For most people, recalling the past leads to loose ends and blanks where memories should be. No matter how much a person may want to return to the past, it is not possible. It is lost forever. These forgotten moment lead to uncertainties and confusion in the present, and chaos in the future. Forgetting the past leads to spirals, spinning downwards as people look to what they have lost. They retrace their steps hoping to find a sliver of who they are and what may become of them. In the poem, Itinerary, Eamon Grennan shows how an individual searches through his past, but can never return to it. Through the poem and with a personal experience I will explain how individuals deal with uncertainties in their pasts.

Many individuals often aspire to pursue their own aspirations in hopes of achieving greater accomplishments while abandoning their past. However, despite their numerous achievements they may accomplish in the future, individuals are incapable of altering the initial perception others have already formed upon them despite the significant character changes they experience themselves. In the “Prodigal”, Bob Hicok suggests that when individuals aspire to pursue their own personal ambitions and motivations, they will experience an internal feeling of pride and self-satisfaction within themselves but people who thoroughly understand the individual from the past will still perceive him/her the same way as before. It is through the understanding or

Memories are important, they are a personal record of our past experiences, and could be called the history book for our life. In the poem "The Heroes You Had as a Girl", author Bronwen Wallace tells the story of a woman who meets her high school hero later in her life, reflects on her memories of him, and ultimately decides not to talk to him. The effect that this topic has on everyone is the knowledge that we can be captivated and let our memories control us, and by knowing that our memories hold that much power, it may make it more mentally efficient to make accurate, and personal decisions in a fraction of the time. The topic and overall meaning that this idea holds convey a message that resonates with the idea that memories are in fact the central hub of our decision making. People remembering memories can affect their perspective on their lives to such an extent, that they prefer to immerse their mind in their past memories rather than the current reality.

Often times we find ourselves thinking about the past only to try to force the memories away and return to our current delusion. We can never erase the past, but if the past is who we are, then should we just welcome pain back into our lives? Embarrassment, guilt, and pride betray us as we choose to bury our darkest memories in our head and look to a positive future without ever having to readdress them and acknowledge that they had ever happened in the first place. Thinking back now my weakest moment caught me by complete surprise.

The lyric poem “We wear the mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar is a poem about the African American race, and how they had to conceal their unhappiness and anger from whites. This poem was written in 1895, which is around the era when slavery was abolished. Dunbar, living in this time period, was able to experience the gruesome effects of racism, hatred and prejudice against blacks at its worst. Using literary techniques such as: alliteration, metaphor, persona, cacophony, apostrophe and paradox, Paul Dunbar’s poem suggests blacks of his time wore masks of smiling faces to hide their true feelings.

Although for those eight years Peter Skrzynecki was unable to change, at the end of the poem he shows that after everything it was within himself to find his sense of belonging even if he wasn’t motivated by the same reasons that his mother was. Does this then show a change in attitude and understanding by the character?

“every generation , every man is a part of his past. He cannot escape it, but he may

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Even we live in the moment. It’s also a scene of crossings, bridging past and present. People struggle ahead but often obsess themselves with the past and present.

There are clues throughout the poem that express the man’s past experiences, leading him to have a hostile tone. The speaker represents his past as “parched years” that he has lived through (7-8) and represents his daughter’s potential future as

“What you are afraid to do is a clear indication of the next thing you need to do.” (-Ralph Waldo Emerson). My parent´s divorce has shaped and influenced my whole life, with a lot of side effects. I fell into a state of depression. I learned not to dwell on the bad things in life. I found a person within myself that I could live with for a while, a kid that I could be proud of, someone I wouldn’t hate. Over the years, I’ve changed, little changes, big changes, it’s all happened, and I am who I am today because of it. Not all crummy circumstances stay awful, even though it may feel like it. I can’t tell if I’ve changed for the better or the worse, but everything starts with something, one thing. My parent´s divorce shaped me into who I am today, whether the changes were good or bad, little or big, this has changed me.

As human beings that regret past moments, we often have the urge to try to reverse our mistakes by reliving the past. Unfortunately, as learned from The Great Gatsby we must leave the past in the past and live in the present, as attempting to relive the past is impossible. Gatsby, a man who hoped to attain his love, Daisy, through fixing the past promises, “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before” (Fitzgerald 117). This hope of Gatsby’s was impossible, as Daisy had changed and moved on with her life, which resulted in Gatsby’s inability to obtain Daisy. So, remembering to live in the present allows for us to leave behind the moments of regret in the past which allows us to avoid demise similar to

“He dragged the last smoke from his raveling cigarette and then, with callused thumb and forefinger, crushed out the glowing end.” (11) The narrator describes Tom’s actions in chapter 2. This is during the first time the reader meets Tom. The seemingly unimportant action of smoking is actually a symbol.

Too often we get bogged down in our past, and in memories of events that we think define us and restrict us from moving forward. The truth is that we can decide today who we want to be. We may have some baggage, and we may have future dreams, but today is the only day where we can define who we are and what direction we want our lives to go.

“The Sky is Gray” by Ernest Gaines is a realistic example of a long epidemic has hovered over the African American community like an dark storm cloud just waiting to burst. Personally, this story called to me, like I was meant to read it. The mother in this short story reminds me of my own mother. Stepping into that masculine role to show strength and provide for her family. Then, teaching her son these harsh life lessons to ensure his survival in a society that is not welcoming to an African American man; act rationally, not emotionally.