August Wilson's "Fences"

Fences seem to encompass many facets of life, in its original time period but also in present day: financial distress, blended families, parental issues, mental issues to name a few, the hardships of everyday living.

I felt compassion for each character in its own individuality of the story. Each had their own issues they were dealing with as they tried to exist congenially as a family. Troy portrayed the harsh father, head of the household. The gruffness of his character could have come from the idea of Wilson’s own father, in his absence. I had felt Troy to be a man trying to make a living to support his family, even though I did not agree with all the choices he made. However, it was hard to accept his disloyalty to Rose after he had expressed such love and admiration for her. His reasons seemed compelling and one could almost feel sorry for him; however, my beliefs do not allow for such behavior regardless of reasons or excuses. What was most saddening was Rose’s commitment to Troy and his denial of her hurt and frustration. He never seemed to understand the pain which he had caused her or the idea of her experiencing the same feelings which caused him to seek out someone else. He thought he was the only one not happy, needing something else to fulfill a void he felt in his life and marriage. Wilson may have written of this topic from his experience of his father’s leaving.

Rose is to be admired for her commitment to her family and husband, to the point of being willing to restore the physical part of their relationship even after the infidelity Troy had committed. She was a strong woman, always trying to keep the peace in the family and take care of everyone. She was portrayed as a loving woman as she accepted the newborn baby to raise resulting from the extramarital affair of her husband.

I think the supporting characters were interesting. I believe their purpose was to include the many issues and problems families have to face from day to day.

Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl"

The reading of the biography of Jamaica Kincaid leads me to envision a sad, young girl feeling unloved and oppressed. It is heartbreaking to know that Kincaid doesn’t look for happiness, “absolutely not at all interested in…happiness”. It would make one wonder just how harsh life with her mother truly was. However, in life, we aren’t guaranteed to be happy, hopefully to find joy in what we have and contentment in it. It sounds as if this is what Kincaid was able to do. Many of us might be able to lead a less stressful life if we could resign ourselves to this belief.

Reading the account of the “Girl” made me think of my relationship with my daughters. As a parent, I have always been concerned how my girls feel about me as their mother. Some of the lines in the passage make me think of myself: I was always trying to help them learn what I felt was the right way to act to be an accepted member of society. They tell me sometimes I went overboard in this area of instruction. However, I know my coaching was done out of love for them. I am not sure about the feelings of the mother in this reading. I can’t fathom saying to my daughter “not like the slut you are so bent on becoming”. What a horrible thought to have about your child.

If “Girl” is a personal account of Kincaid’s life, I can understand some of the discontent she could have felt toward her mother. I would be curious as to the degree of difference in the relationship between her and her mother before the other children were born and afterwards. Was she loved and treated like a child before and then simply turned into a chore doer afterwards? What was the mother’s motivation in the story? The style of the writing, as constant commands, makes we wonder also if this is the way the mother sounded: constantly sounding off demands without any relief.

I would be curious as to the manner of Kincaid’s relationship with her children.

Amy Tan's "Half and Half"

I found Half and Half to be an enlightening cultured read from the standpoint of the difference views of faith and commitment. I wasn’t sure my interest would be met with a story concerning a Chinese family but there was enough plot and American twists that I enjoyed the narrative. Being a mother myself, I found it interesting Tan writes quite a bit concerning the “anguished experiences of mothers….and their daughters living in today’s America”. There is normally an abundance of material one could write about involving painful experiences concerning the mother/daughter relationships. I am thankful I have never had to endure anything as excruciating as the experience of the mother and daughter in this story. My heart would go out to anyone ever experiencing such a tragic event.

It does sadden me to read the mother lost her faith as a result of the death of her child. It is vital at such a time to gain strength from your faith. However, with the Chinese beliefs that she had, it would have been hard for her to trust when everything she knew should have brought her son back failed. It also pains me to think of her Bible as a wedge for her table. I appreciate the explanation the daughter gave as a correction to the imbalances in her life and the fact that she keeps it clean, but the Bible is what it is, THE BIBLE: handled with the most reverence!

I love the commitment of the mother concerning her desire to save the things which are important: she hardly was able to give up on finding her child and even the attempt to retrieve the body but also the marriage of her daughter. The daughter knew her mother would insist she “save it”. Even though the mother had not approved of the marriage from the beginning, once the couple had taken their vows, it became sacred, a commitment to be honored.

At first I wasn’t sure of the significance of the two stories, the divorce and the death of the child. But I believe Tan was writing about losses. In the story she talks about “when something that violent hits you, you can’t help but lose your balance and fall.” I believe this is what happened to her husband and also her mother. I do agree with your statement that you can’t trust anyone to save you to some degree: part of survival comes from finding the inner strength to deal with losses. However, I do disagree with the part that others can’t help you and especially the idea that God can’t. I am witness personally how God can lift you from the darkest places and can be fully trusted to restore one’s balance. As a Christian, this aspect of the story was hard to handle. We can’t just believe in God when everything goes smoothly all the time, we have to trust and have faith in him even when the hard times come along.

It would be hard to understand the death of a child such as Bing, and one might believe it was fate. We could discuss the “what-ifs” of the day’s happenings but nothing will change the facts of what happened. I also don’t believe it had anything to do with luck, as the family had believed “their luck would never run out, that God was on their side, that the house gods had only benevolent things to report and our ancestors were pleased, that life-time warranties meant out lucky streak would never break”. The only thing anyone is sure of in life is that one day they will die. Other than that, there are no warranties. We have to live with the faith that whatever happens there is a plan in it for God’s glory which is why we are here in the first place.

I think the title of the story comes from description of the cove “like a giant bowl, cracked in half”. One half was clean and safe, protecting the beach from the surf and wind. The other half was jagged, pitted with crevices. This was a good description of life: there are places where we can be protected but then we can wander into the other half where the crevices can be “full of wet shadows… and specks... (that) made it hard for us to see the dangers”. The dangers in our lives sometimes lie in the strangest and most invisible places. If one believed in fate, it would seem in abundance that day: the tug of the father’s fishing line at just the right moment, the confusion with the fight between the older boys, and the slip of Bing’s feet on the reef all within seconds of each other.

The love of the family was strong and evident as each one began to take the blame for what happened; even though it truly was no one’s fault. Just as things happen in our lives, as Bing disappeared into the water, as the daughter had seen her marriage falling apart, we find it hard or impossible to fix things or try to save things before they are too far gone to rescue. We have to find a way to live with the events that happen in our lives and try to maintain a strength to carry us through, because there will surely be more storms to weather.

Nikki Giovanni's Poetry

After reading a brief biography of Nikki Giovanni, I understood her poetry a little better. She is recognized for her outspokenness and speaking the truth. She is a strong supporter of civil rights and equality. She is known for speaking to the individual, not so much the group, as to the power one person has to make a difference in one’s own life as well as the lives of others. Her work has been widely acclaimed receiving many awards and recognitions. She as an individual has also been recognized by many, including Oprah Winfrey who includes Giovanni in her group of “Living Legends”.

The first poem Nikki-Rosa leads to me to wonder if she is comparing and/or talking about herself and Rosa Parks, an activist she wrote much about. Parks lived during the time of the 50s when times were very difficult for the American black person. If Giovanni was writing of her own childhood, she divulged some sincere information about her family. However, I believe this could have been ideas for many of the black race during this time. I also believe this too could have come from many white people during this time. I like her ending of the poem, though, stating “all the while I was quite happy”. I think she is expressing the idea that for the most part it doesn’t take a lot to make a child happy. Sometimes just having the love and presence of your family is all a child needs, even when bad things are going on or there isn’t enough means to provide for all the needs.

Poems for Black Boys was somewhat disturbing for me as I read it. I do not like confrontation and in many ways, I believe this speaks of blacks standing up against their oppressors. Even though this may have been necessary for their safety at the time, it still makes me very uncomfortable to think about. I am very thankful I don’t live in the times when riots were commonplace. It sounds as if she is talking about the ways in which the blacks physically sought revenge against those fighting to take their freedoms and chances of equality from them. She is encouraging the young men to think of new ideas of violence and to teach them to the older people, the old ways weren’t working or had been figured out by the white man. For me, this was a harsh poem in content even though I know it represented the emotions of the time period.

Bobbie Ann Mason's "Shiloh"

It is strange to look at the dates and see the author is still living; we have read about so many that are deceased. This one has lived in the times of my life. It is appealing she would write about common people and their life happenings, but many readers want to read about people and lifestyles which stretch their imagination and take them out of their every day routine lives. I found “Shiloh” readable, but not very exciting. This could possibly be from the fact that divorce is such a common place happening today. Even though the sanctity of marriage had begun its decline in the early eighties, rates have soared in the twenty-first century.

Norma Jean reminds me of Mary Freeman’s Louisa. Her fiancée’ had been gone for fourteen years, trying to make his fortune, while Louisa waited patiently at home for his return. However, during those years, she had become very independent and set in her ways. It was very difficult for her to allow him into her life and daily routine without some annoyance. Norma Jean seems to be dealing with the same circumstances. While I believe she cared for her husband, I think she was able to handle the short visits while he was home between trips. I have known several truck driver wives who have had to learn to become independent and strong managers of the home in the extended absences of their husbands. Norma Jean seems to fit this description as well. Her life when her husband was gone seemed to have been very organized. Now that he is home, her routine has been disrupted and the facets of the relationship begin to irritate her. I find it sad that her husband is finally able to devote some time and attention to her and she doesn’t know how to adjust and accept it. I think she feels he is trying to control her while she feels she has been doing fine all the time.

This is a heartbreaking account of a relationship gone bad, due to no specific reason or circumstance. It is a preview of things to come in the area of marriages ending. Today, many people separate and divorce simply because they decide they don’t like each other anymore. It is a sad state of affairs in this modern day of free choice and no accountability.

Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"

Alice Walker’s story Everyday Use was an emotional account of a visit back home. It illustrates the different views of life people can have. Some of us can be content in the same lifestyle in which we were raised while others are always seeking something bigger and better. There is frequently the strife between the two thinking their way is better and how pitiful the other is. I sense the simplistic manner of writing in this story in which critics accuse Walker of writing. However, it contains the elements of writing that make a story successful. The plot revolves around a visit back home of a daughter that has moved away. The problem is the difference in the way of thinking between the mother and daughters that makes one feel successful.

One could feel Dee has come home to flaunt her success by the description of her attire for the visit. The dress she chooses to wear home to this quant area speaks of her crassness. A dress so showy, bright and colorful it “hurt her eyes” as described by her mother. Why would she not have just worn simple clothes that would have made her family feel comfortable and welcoming of her?

It seems from the Polaroid pictures, the name change, to the requests of the family heirlooms, she is only there to capture the idea of her past, not to appreciate it for its natural value but to have it to boast “this is where I came from, see how far I have come”.

The outlook Dee has of her sister is sad. Even though the sister has obviously led a difficult life with her burn injuries, Dee has no sympathy, compassion, or concern for her. I don’t really understand the resentfulness unless Maggie has become an embarrassment to her or a reminder of her past.

I was proud of the mother’s revelation at the end of the hatefulness of Dee and the stance she finally took for Maggie. Even though Dee tried to make them feel bad about not understanding their “heritage” as she did, they finally felt better about themselves having stood up to Dee and found a way to tell her no. They enjoyed the life they led and felt good about themselves. They lived their heritage every day; it wasn’t something just to talk about and show to others.

The title comes from the use of the items Dee found only to be pieces of history, while the mother and Maggie appreciated them for their value in their everyday lives. The mother told of the sinks in the wood from the everyday use of them while Dee was simply planning to use them as decoration pieces.

Sylvia Plath's Poetry

Sylvia Plath sounds like a woman who spent her life in turmoil, possibly trying to attain something she just couldn’t get, relentlessly hoping for something outside her reach. She sounds to be a very educated and intelligent person but not able to keep her psychological person in check. It’s sad to know she spent her life viewing the world as “bad dream”. One would wonder if there were ever any happy days and how much influence her parents actually had on her or if there was something simply neurologically wrong with her.

The feeling I get from reading “The Bee Meeting” is of a death, visitation, and funeral. It sounds as if the subject has died, not realizing it though, and see the people coming, possibly a vision of those from the village that have gone on before her. I think possibly the bees represent the people and their day to day business; how they simply go about their business as bees do: busy as bees. Even though this person has died, the people come to take care of the body and prepare it for burial. In the end she feels the coldness of death after everyone has visited and the burial has taken place and now she is alone in the “white box in the grove”.

“Lazy Lazarus” is an interesting account of her attempts at suicide. The reference to Lazarus I believe to be Lazarus in the Bible, the only man to be resurrected from the dead. He had died, been wrapped, and placed in the tomb. Upon Jesus’ arrival four days after his death, Jesus called him forth from the cave. Lazarus came out still wrapped in his burial clothes, alive as everyone else. Plath makes reference to this account in her poem. This is a sad account as it states she tries continuously to take her life, once every ten years, but as Lazarus did, arises from what others belief is death to her. It sounds as if she has become a spectacle of others and they come to witness yet another unsuccessful effort at suicide. This account implies she has burned herself possibly beyond some recognition, mentioning the scars and ash. Also, the wedding ring or gold filling may have been the only identifying items of who she is.

Plath’s poetry is intensely morbid in most of its content. It would not be something I would enjoy reading at any length. Her poem “Daddy” is a sad account of the relationship with her father. It sounds as if whatever relationship they had before he died was dreadful and she carried that with her throughout the rest of her life, encouraging the attempts of suicide until she was finally successful at the young age of thirty-one.