"Why I Want A Wife"

     "Why I Want a Wife" (1972) , by Judy Brady, is a short essay that gives a list of what an ideal "wife" does and she says that she would love to have a "wife" if the wife does all these things. The author explains why she wants a "wife" by listing all the things a "wife" does from physical needs to the children. The author wrote this in order to tell what society said was an ideal "wife". The intended audience is most likely men as it shows what a "wife" is supposed to be and how partners should share equal responsibility.

     Personally, I loved this essay. When I was reading everything that a "wife" is to do I could easily understand what Brady was trying to say. Being in a relationship and raising a family requires a lot of work and all the responsibility shouldn't be placed on one person. Such things should be shared equally between the two people. If the concept of a "wife" that Brady described existed I'm sure everyone would want a "wife".

     The essay is written in a way that describes an ideal "wife" and finishes by saying "My God, who wouldn't want a wife?". In this essay, the "wife" isn't an actual person but an idea. This assumptions is confirmed by the fact that no pronouns are used whatsoever. The idea of a person who does all the things she talked about is wonderful in theory but in practice is ridiculous. Only one person taking care of the responsibilities of the relationship is unfair and she is indirectly saying that both people in the relationship should share responsibility.

"The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society"

                In this story “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” from the book Illiterate America written by Jonathan Kozol (1985) suggests that the number of illiterate adults exceeds 16 million in 1980.  Kozol provides lots of facts and real life situations to support his opinion of what people who are illiterate go through on a daily basis. 

            I enjoyed reading this story because I never thought of what people who are illiterate might go through on a daily basis.  The little things that I take for granted are the things they struggle with.  In the story Kozol uses the example of being able to recognize simple words like ambulance, police, and fire in case of emergencies.  Of course I understand the importance of being literate but to the ones who are illiterate everyday life is difficult.  Even in his example about the lady and the Crisco.  I laughed when I first read that she thought she was buying chicken to make a meal for her daughter.  I thought where her common sense is but once I let the information settle I had another thought of maybe she wasn’t from this country.  It’s amazing of how many immigrants come to this country everyday and don’t understand the simplest things.   

            One of the things I will that from this story is to make myself approachable for people who need help can ask for it.  I know it’s not my responsibility but if I can help then I will.  I think us as people should be open to people asking for help whether it be directions or to get a clear understanding something means.

The Deer at Providencia

         Annie Dillard the author of "The Deer of  Providencia" (1982) explores in the her narrative the suffering that takes place in both cultures of developed and under developed countries and the different reactions to these sufferings.The narrative depicts village life in the Amazon jungle seen through the eyes of city travellers on some sort of a pleasure tour.The travelling party comprised of mostly men with one young woman among them enjoying the food and tropical delights that the villagers of Providencia provided. A suffering deer was  the focal point of the story, which suggests that its struggles and suffering is a part of the preparatory ritual of venison in the village. In a carnivorous society, the methods of harnessing meat for eating have long been traditionally staged. The hunter seeks his prey with traps and weapons to kill. Some of these inflict and causes great suffering on the animal before death arrives. This action for some presents a very cruel picture, for others its just a part of the cycle of life. Where there is life, there is suffering. They both walk side by side.

I could not help feeling sad at the examples of suffering in this story, the deer in the village and the man burnt badly laying in the hospital. What is puzzling about this narrative is the strong contrast posed by the author between the unflinching reaction to suffering by all, yet some eyes were on this one woman expecting her to react differently from the others. Of course some women are extremely sensitive to the suffering of animals and humans alike and would have reacted differently as one of the visitor suggested about his wife.

The purpose of this narrative was to sensitize the reader that suffering does exist in our world today that has been accepted as a must without any feelings for the sufferer. I think having seen so much of it around us, in the press, sometime causes us to lose that concern, that care, that compassion. The question of what is going on is posed by the writer to create a kind of cause and effect twist to the writings. Animals must suffer in order to die and be a part of the delightful meals in the food chain. On the other hand suffering from severe burns for the second time in thirteen years was a good enough story to draw the media's attention to the sufferer's question of "Why does God hate me". Sad to say his query did not ease the pain nor solve the mysteries in a world filled with suffering and pain.

Thirty-Eight saw it... Not one reported it

“Thirty-Eight who saw murder didn’t call the police” (1964) is an article written by Martin Gansberg and published in the New York Times Newspaper. This article describes a shocking scenario in which a woman is stabbed on three different occasions in a thirty minute time span, and none of the neighbors who witnessed it called the police. I believe Gansberg is trying to provoke feelings of shock and overall dismay at the lack of compassion people sometimes have regarding others. The article is written as a timeline of horrible events, which eventually lead to the death of twenty-eight year old Catherine Genovese.

Miss Genovese had only been living on Queens New York a little over a year before she was brutally stabbed and murdered outside of her Key Gardens apartment complex.  At 3:20am she followed her normal route of entering her apartment through a rear entrance. She noticed a man standing at the far end of the lot so she tried to make it to a call box to alert the police. The man then stabbed her and fled the scene as a neighbor yelled out of a window. He returned less than 15 minutes later and stabbed her again. Although neighbors were aware of the commotion, no one called the police. The man returned a third time and killed Miss Genovese. Around 3:50am is when the police received the call that the woman was dead. When the neighbors were asked why they hadn’t called, most replied “I didn’t want to get involved”.

This story may be shocking to many people, however; it is a normal occurrence in many urban neighborhoods. I grew up in a very urban area and there were many occasions where police would knock on our door and ask us if we had information on various crimes that had occurred near us. Fear is the common factor that makes people avoid Calling or talking to the police. It becomes a “Him or Me” situation where you have to decide if helping stop or solve a crime is worth risking your own life. Also in our generation the street slogan “Stop snitching” has caused many people to feel like they would lose respect or street credibility by talking to police. This is a very sad but true depiction of what goes on in urban neighborhoods across the country.

Black Men and Public Space

     Black Men and Public Space (1986), a short story by Brent Staples, claims that just because he is black people fear and avoid him when he is simply walking down a street. The author supports this by giving examples of situations when people avoided him or acted as if he had done something wrong when he had in fact done nothing. The author's purpose was to inform his audience in order to show how people will assume things about him simply because of the color of his skin. The author establishes a somewhat personal relationship with the audience by using personal pronouns.

     After reading this text I found myself not shocked at all. The actions taken by the people who saw him are something I see all the time. Though the actions aren't generally performed against me they are taken against people I know. By simply walking down a street others become intimidated and feel the need to move somewhere else. Sadly, this kind of thing isn't uncommon, at least in my experience.

     The text is written to show the prejudices against black people because of assumptions made. For example, the author gave an example of a time when he was walking behind a woman at night because he couldn't sleep and "after a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest." She had assumed the worst despite the fact that he had made no hostile movements. This text shows how quickly people make assumptions based on appearance.

"How to Mark a Book"

In this story “How to Mark a Book” from How to Read a Book, Revised Edition by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren (1972) claims that there are two ways you can own a book and there are three book owners. Adler also says that you have to read between the lines to get the most out of the book.  He also thinks that you should make notes in the book so you won’t lose the idea of where the author is taking you.

                This story was a little dry.  Adler says that there are two weeks you can own a book.  The first way is when you purchase it.  The last way is when you make the book apart of you are.  This means to make notes in the margins on the ideas the author was trying to convey to the readers.  Then he goes on to say that there are three types of book owners.  The first is the individual who owns wood-pulp and ink not the book.  The second owner have read some but not all of them.   And the last are the ones who own the books.  They have read them, marked them with notes from front to back.

                This article was a little dry for my taste.  It gives you seven ways to mark a book.  It even tells you to read between the lines. I think that i'm book owner two and three.  I'm in the middle.  Some of my books I make notes in and some I just read.

Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall

" Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall" by Diane Ackerman(1990), informs us of the reasons behind the brightly colored process of change that occurs in leaves during the season best known as Fall. It was important to note that the author created a colorful setting earlier on in the narrative by employing every descriptive words she could conjure up, like ' red-winged blackbird ', or a ' goldfinch perching 'producing a great scene. This sets the story up nicely. Several reasons were given for this slow and colorful dying of the leaves. The starving of the leaves by the tree and the redistributing of nutrients to other parts of the tree as the main reason. She also points out the unique change in the leaves because of not producing chlorophyll and the presence of a pigment that is responsible for the bright colors of the leaves.

I got a strong sense of purpose from the author's view point that every thing in life has its own reason for happening. Researching the reasoning behind the causes and effect of what goes on around us will definately give us a better understanding of the beauty of dying, as in this case the dying of the leaves. This point of view was evident in the first four paragarphs of the narative. I felt like a new world of information was now opened to me or any reader because of Ackerman's story. I also felt that it was her intention for the reader to connect other notable stories in the bible when she made reference to Adam and Eve in the garden dressed with leaves. " Leaves have always hidden our awkward secrets", the author stated profoundly to provoke the reader I thought, to want to read more of this narrative.

I was impressed with her careful mixture of poetry and science in presenting a story that had color and contrast which probably was intended for the wider audience and not any specific group. She wrote of children liking to play in falling leaves and pilots doing a maneuver called a "falling leaf" to give us a picture of how wide her topic was and points of interest that covers just about everyone. Anyone who has experienced this happening, the dying leaves,the fading green, slowly drying and finally falling off will see Ackerman's analogy of the leaves to life itself and the unchanging cycle of those things that fall away and cease to exist.

"That's How I Roll"

              

               That’s How I Roll (2009), by Ginny Donaldson, is a short story that explores the origin of the phrase “that’s how I roll”, slang, and why some slang sticks and some doesn’t. Donaldson begins by giving the results of her searching for the phrase “that’s how I roll” on Google and goes on to as what slang is and why some slang sticks and some doesn’t. The author most likely wrote this in order to bring attention to slang and how some phrases stand the test of time. Donaldson probably wrote this for an audience of people who may be curious about the phrase “that’s how I roll” and slang.

                Reading this made me realize how frequently people use slang and I find it very interesting. I, as well as a number of people I know, use slang without even pausing to think about how it may have even come about. It also makes me wonder how many words that we use every day actually began as slang and eventually just became a part of the language. Maybe English in general just started out as slang and over time just became a language. The text makes me want to research some of the things I say every day and find out just where they came from.

                The text went a little deeper into the phrase “that’s how I roll”, mentioning how the author looked up the phrase on Google and Urban Dictionary Online to get more information. After reporting her findings Donaldson moves on to ask what slang even is. Donaldson sates that “According to Buzzle.com, whose slogan is “Intelligent Life on the Web,” “Slang seems to be ubiquitous. Its use crosses time, culture, and language. Just as with ‘normal’ English words, the meanings of the words used in the other English language can be found in online dictionaries.”” Donaldson goes from here to explain how some people explain why some slang sticks while some doesn’t. She ends the text by telling how she came up at a “dead end” when she attempted to continue researching the phrase ”that’s how I roll”, somewhat questioning the English language, and coming to the conclusion that the words with hard to find origins are just as important as those with easily found origins.

"Spanglish"

Spanglish by Janice Castro, Dan Cook and Cristina Garcia from TIME (1988) states that Spanglish is a common linguistic currency wherever concentrations of Hispanic Americans are found in U.S.  Spanglish consists of one part Hispanicize English, one part Americanized Spanish and more than a little fractured syntax.  Spanglish sentences are mostly Spanish with a quick interruption of an English word or two.  There are a variety of forms of Spanglish spoken by different cultures from Southern California Anglos to Cuban Americans.

In this article, it is explained how Spanglish has become a popular language spoken in America.   In the English language some words simply don’t exist in Spanish or it’s just easier to say in English. Since more American students have signed up for Spanish speaking classes in the last ten years, Spanglish has begun to turn into a national slang.  English has collided more often with Spanish everywhere. With this advertisers have began to promote their product with attempts to use a little Spanish within their ads.  Miller Lite slogan told readers the beer was “Filling and less delicious.” Also a Braniff airline ad tried to tell Spanish speaking audiences they could settle back en (in) luxuriant cuero (leather) seats, but instead said they could fly without clothes (encuero). 

I realize that I also incorporate Spanish into my everyday language. Part of it being that I’m currently trying to learn to speak it fluently and the other part being that my friends speak to me in Spanish sometimes. I think that Spanglish is great thing to know here in America.  Spanish tends to mix with the native language in every country that it is spoken in.  There is a variety of the language.  The way people speak Spanish in Spain is different from the way they speak Spanish in Mexico and Cuba. Some speak Spanish from their throat and some speak it through their nose.  Spanglish is just one of the different ways a very interesting language is spoken so that Americans can comprehend and communicate along with Latinos.   Espero que hayen disfrutado mi blog.

A lasting impression

Author Debra Anderton composed her short story entitled “a lasting impression” (2010) very similarly to a personal diary entry. She goes through a timeline of events all centered around her mother Dorothy. Adereton adored her mother and appreciated the hardships she overcame in order to provide for her and her siblings. As the timeline progresses we find that the struggles and trials her mother endured over the years eventually caught up with her. The author seems to try and evoke feelings of love, pain, hope, and sadness all in one simple yet effective story.

The mother in this story struggled through life ever since she was a young child. By the age of 27 she was a widow with four children to take care of. Even in the hardest of times she is described as having strong faith in God and an undying love for her family. Aderton dreamt of being able to one day help her mother with the financial troubles she faced; however her mother got married before she could offer any help. The marriage only added to the list of troubles her mother faced. The abuse she faced eventually leads her to abuse alcohol. Adertons love for her mother made it difficult for her to confront her mother about her alcoholism, but eventually she did. Although her mother died before receiving any treatment, aderton never forgot the day that she tried to help her beloved mother.

The author shows throughout this story that regardless of the mistakes her mother made, the lasting impression she left was a great one.  I have dealt with alcoholics in my family and I know the devastating effects this disease has on everyone close to that person.  Aderton was able to make a distinction between the great person her mother was, and the horrible addiction she faced. Her mother’s strength and courage is what she remembers, not the negative effects of her alcoholism. I believe anyone who has a loved one affected by alcoholism should try and get them help. Even if they never get help, don’t forget the person they were before this disease affected them.

This Battle Will Not Be Lost

 
 "This Battle Will Not Be Lost" by Sandi Millwood (2008) is a short story explained by Millwood that informs the audience of a significant event that occurred in Millwood's life. Millwood tells how she came to find out about her young daughter's illness beginning from the day her sickness became apparent to the time her daughter was able to overcome it. Millwood's intent when writing this was to tell of something she experienced in order to inform people of how important life is.
   Millwood had entered her daughter's room one morning to find her daughter with blue lips and struggling to just take in air. Millwood immediately phoned the hospital then followed the ambulance to said hospital. After many tests were run Millwood was informed that her daughter had a tumor. After the removal of the tumor the doctor tells Millwood that her daughter has cancer, to be more specific, pluera pulmonary blastoma. Millwood and her daughter fought with this illness for four years and won. Her daughter had survived.
   Through this experience Millwood came to realize that life is truly a gift and a very precious thing. People tend to go through life wasting time and worrying about things we can't control. Usually people don't realize how fleeting life is until something life changing happens or it's too late. Millwood came to this realization through her daughter's cancer. I came to this conclusion in a similar way when my cousin died of cancer a couple of years ago. Reading this story only reinforced my belief that life should be cherished because it won't last forever.

A Man in the Woods

" A Man in the Woods" by Andrew White ( A freshman majoring in psychology and human services. Spring 2010), portrays a vivid and descriptive picture of a poor town, northwest of Atlanta's city called Bankhead. In the narrative, the author focused on a man in the Bankhead Village, as it was called by the men who lived there, its proximity to a gravesite and the poor social conditions he saw during the latest of his visits with Becca his sister. They were on a humanitarian visit, carrying food and water to the eight men who braved the grueling cold of winter while living in substandard houses.

One man of the eight stood out in the author's view. His friendly and unselfish demeanor spoke volumes of the fact that sharing and being respectful to others ensured his survival during the hardest of time. James, as the author called him, was a man who did not allow his circumstances to define him. He gave without expecting anything in return, Andrew noted. It was evident of how Andrew depicted the guided tour of the village by James, that he wanted the reader to capture the settings, the piles of uncollected trash, the ash from burnt rubbish, and the rats its pungent scent drew as well as James's unwavering commitment to the community in sharing what was brought by Andrew and Becca.

This is a moving story that dispays caring for those that are less fortunate, or those who fell behind in a fast- paced society with a down turn in the economy.It is clear from the narrative that he had visited this community before and was committed to helping the man he admired, in the woods. The story's message highlights a greater effort from members of the greater society to reach out to others that are struggling in dilapidated conditions not fit for human habitation. The essay ends anticlimactically with a hand shake, an appreciative thank you, and the dawn of a new season, spring, and the prospects to come of another visit to the man in the woods.

"The Chase"

          In this story “The Chase” from the book An American Childhood written by Annie Dillard (1987) claims that she could have died happy for nothing has required so much of her since  being chased all over Pittsburgh in the middle of winter with her childhood friend, Mikey Fahey.  In the story she shares with us how, when she was seven years old, a man chased them in silence over picket fences, through thorny hedges, between houses, around garbage cans and across streets because they threw a snowball at his black Buick.  Dillard gives us the opportunity to imagine them running as fast and as hard as possible to get away from the angry man.  She also expresses the joy she got from one of her favorite childhood memories.   

          This story was lighthearted and a pleasant read.  Even though it was only three pages long it gave a lot of information.  Dillard gives a lot of detail as to how she felt when she finally stopped running. You can tell in her from the way she wrote that she really enjoyed this childhood memory.  She makes you think back to your own favorite childhood memory.  Dillard shares her thoughts on how her and Mikey listened perfunctorily to the furious skinny red-headed  man and in their minds the only point was that he had chased them passionately without giving up.  In that moment she was cherishing her own excitement.  You can feel the excitement by the progression of the story; it goes from slow and uneventful to full of excitement within minutes.  She didn't let her story become bogged down with the background information that lead up to that day.  Dillard gives just enough information on how she ended up there that day.

          After reading this story it feels like Dillard is reminiscing on how much fun she had as a child.  As a child she didn’t have many fears and the worst thing that would happen if they got caught for throwing snow was someone would “chew us out”.  (Paragraph 20 sentence 7)  And once they stopped running the only words the man could muster up was “You stupid kids” and a speech given more out of obligation than anything.  Even after they were caught she could only think of how excited she had been and the fun she'd had. 

The Garbage Man

“Nobody ever died of old age” is the book in which the reading “the garbage man” was derived from. The book is described as being “an anecdotal look at the aging and aged” from the author Sharon Curtain. The reading was very short yet packed with many elements of suspense and surprise, as well as vivid details which made the story easy to visualize. The reading is a flashback to the childhood memories of a girl fascinated with an elderly man known as “the garbage man” by the town in which she lived. The man is described as being dressed in “tattered and tainted clothing”, and being crippled in one leg. His nickname was given to him because he scuffled through garbage cans looking for scraps to feed his chickens. The children made up jingles about him and teased him as he wandered through the alleys of the town. The young girl in the story was determined to get a close up look at “the garbage mans” face, for no one had actually seen what he looked like. Her imagination ran wild with elaborate scenarios about the man’s looks, as well as why he lived alone in a big two story house. She began to follow him and play “detective” to feed her hunger for mystery and adventure. Eventually he changed his daily routes and the girl needed to involve the other kids in order to catch a glimpse of his face. Her sister came up with the idea to hide her in a garbage can. When the man came around and opened the can she would have the perfect opportunity to see his face and solve the mystery. The moment of truth finally came. Once he opened the can and reached in, both he and the girl were frightened. The can fell over and they both ran away. She came to realize that the man was not mysterious at all. She was disappointed to find out that he was simply an old man. Not ugly and deformed as she had imagined, just a regular old face. Upon this realization, she sat at the top of a tree house and cried.  

                The story is told from the little girl’s point of view. However, the details surrounding the “garbage man” made him a much more interesting character to me. I remember that mysterious old person in my neighborhood that all the kids (and some adults) made up stories about. He had a long white beard and walked around in a long black judges robe with a black top hat. We would run and scream in terror and delight when he would come around. It was like a game to see who would stay on the sidewalk the longest before running away because he was getting close to us. Just like the reading, I was curious about the real story behind this mystery man. As I got older I found that the man was actually a retired judge. He lost his wife to cancer and had no kids so he kept to himself. He didn’t murder kids and hide the bones in the backyard as we all suspected. He was simply an older person whom had been through some very hard times. The garbage man was the same way. We tend to be afraid of what we don’t know about people. Instead of taking the time to get to know the unknown, we judge and make up stories for our own entertainment. This is especially true when it comes to elderly people. The lesson I learned from reading this passage is to not let the mystery of others identity overshadow the fact that they are real people with feelings just like us. Hopefully this lesson resonates with all whom ever come across this reading.