Two of my latest revision paper. Please grade them. Thanks

Bhutia Lobsang

Professor Medsker

Eng 102

2/21/12

 Biographic Criticism of Maya Angelo’s Poem: “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing” and  “Still I Rise”.

 Maya Angelo’s poems “I know why the  caged bird sing” and “still I rise” reflects her personality and her dramatic experiences of being a African American in the midst of last century in America. Among her multi-talented personality, she is hailed worldwide as a celebrated poet and civil rights activist.

Her poem “I know why the caged bird sings” is her first published poem  depicting the scenario of black people being tortured and maltreated by white people in the name of racial discrimination. Angelo was born on 4^TH April, 1928, in Missouri where racial discrimination against black people was most severe at the time. Before she wrote this poem at the age of 42, she underwent lots of personal and ethnic tumultuous period which however shaped her strong personality at the course of time. Abandoned by her parents, Angelo and her brother spent their childhood moving to and for between her mother's home and grandparents. Her life turned into hell when she was raped by her mother's boy- friend at the age of 8 and remained totally devastated and depressed for several years after the incident. Later on she took different role as waiter, dancer and many other odd things to survive. Being and living as a black woman at the time was much harder as discrimination against them was at its peak. She later joined black American Civil Rights Movement and became an active member of it.        

Inspired by pawl Laurence Dunbar, a black American poet, Angelou likens the caged bird to the chained slaves and free bird to the privilege white people. Her poem opens with "the free bird leaps on the back of wing......dares to claim the sky”. She signifies the privileged white people were enjoying in limitless freedom and opportunity while black people were denied of all these and even mangled with chained and put behind the bar for those who dared to resist. As she further continues, “but the birds that stalk down his narrow cage.........his wings are clipped… and his feet are tied...so he opens his throat to sing”. These imaginary comparisons are easy to understand to every walks of people and could give lasting impression to the readers down the years. If Angelou depicted the suffering and biased life that black American underwent through her poem, “I know why the caged bird sing” her later poem especially “Still I Rise” signifies the victory of her personal life and the black civil rights movement.

                   Angelo artistic skill in writing poem and her undying fighting spirit gained word wide recognition. Her poetry biography gained national book award in 1970 and remained two years in New York Paper-back best seller list. Moreover, she was twice nominated in Pulitzer book award. Due to her fame, she was requested to deliver a poem in honor of then the president of United States of America, Bill Clinton’s inauguration office ceremony. She delivered the poem, “Still I Rise” which was life streamed and watched by several millions of people throughout the globe. She compares the past racial discrimination of 60’s with “nights of terror and fear” and the victory against it with, “day break that wondrously clear”. With each line she put the words, “Still I rise” to make it clear that ultimately the truth that they have sided has won.

                     Maya Angelou, though born and brought up in a disadvantage and violent period of time and places, doesn't succumb to her purported fate and defines her own life. From bad parenting to becoming victims of child rapist and to racial discrimination, she suffered series of hellish events in her life which would chill our bones even by listening. However, like a legend bird phoenix, she rises from the ashes of her devastated life and shoot to fame in the endless world of fame.

               

           

Bhutia Lobsang

Professor Joshua Medsker

Eng102

2/21/2012

          Psychological Criticism of Joyce Carol Oates’ Short Fiction, “Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?

In this short fiction, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” author Joyce Carol Oates casts the main character as a 15 year old teenage girl name Connie whose own confusing life is misunderstand, abuse and make miserable by her own family and the society she lives with.

The story opens with some feature of   protagonist such as her name, age and her characters, “Her name was Connie. She was fifteen and she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right”. The main reason behind giving such facet to her is to reveal the true innate nature of typical teenage girl who undergoes outer physical looks and inner mental cognitive changes in such a way that she is confused of her own identity. However, society as a large is ignorant or seems ignorant of such natural changes and look at them in their own perspective. As Connie mother would say “stop gawking at your-self. Who are you? You think you're so pretty?”. Even though her mother was pretty like her, she is trying to interpret and inculcate her understanding of fleeting nature to Connie who is just beginning to explore her new identity and independence.

Oates also highlights some of the characteristics of teenage such as role confusion, peer grouping, daydreaming, isolation from family. Connie’s mother  make her life miserable by comparing her with her adult older sister, June  who works as a secretary in some public school and stays with them,   “ Connie couldn't do a thing, her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams”. As for Connie, her interest is always with her friend in going outside and hanging with them whole day. “ The father of Connie's best girl-friend drove the girls the three miles to town and left them at a shopping plaza so they could walk through the stores or go to a movie, and when he came to pick them up again at eleven he never bothered to ask what they had done”. Her best friend’s father seems to know how absurd it is to stop teenage girl from going with their peers who are more important than their own parents at this stage. Connie is however living a confusing life   . “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” she is disoriented and doesn’t know which role to play in her life. This kind of living a double life sometimes become an easy target for some evil people who take it in a negative way.  Arnold Friend and his friend has been watching Connie and waiting for the opportunity to take advantage of her. On that fateful day, when all the Connie family left for party at relative’s house, they showed up and asked the Connie to go out for a ride. When she told them she didn’t know her they replied, “But I know what it is. I know your name and all about you, lots of things”, they were literally arm with the every detail of her life and her family member’s activity. Finally through their sheer shrewdness, Connie was put into double bind position where denying their offer would mean losing her family and agreeing means ruining her own life.

Adolescent, a human stage of developing one’s identity is sometimes so overwhelming that many like Connie become confused. At this critical period, parents understanding and knowledge is pivotal  in giving them safe and happy development. Parents should take notice of vital signs of teenager and should also create open conversation to know their dramatic changes that is going inside them.

Maya Angelo’s poems “I know why the caged bird sing” and “still I rise” reflects her personality and her dramatic experiences of being a African American in the midst of last century in America. Among her multi-talented personality, she is hailed worldwide as a celebrated poet and civil rights activist.
Her poem “I know why the caged bird sings” is her first published poem depicting the scenario of black people being tortured and maltreated by white people in the name of racial discrimination. Angelo was born on 4TH April, 1928, in Missouri where racial discrimination against black people was most severe at the time. Before she wrote this poem at the age of 42, she underwent lots of personal and ethnic tumultuous period which however shaped her strong personality at the course of time. Abandoned by her parents, Angelo and her brother spent their childhood moving to and for between her mother's home and grandparents. Her life turned into hell when she was raped by her mother's boy- friend at the age of 8 and remained totally devastated and depressed for several years after the incident. Later on she took different role as waiter, dancer and many other odd things to survive. Being and living as a black woman at the time was much harder as discrimination against them was at its peak. She later joined black American Civil Rights Movement and became an active member of it.
Inspired by pawl Laurence Dunbar, a black American poet, Angelou likens the caged bird to the chained slaves and free bird to the privilege white people. Her poem opens with "the free bird leaps on the back of wing......dares to claim the sky”. She signifies the privileged white people were enjoying in limitless freedom and opportunity while black people were denied of all these and even mangled with chained and put behind the bar for those who dared to resist. As she further continues, “but the birds that stalk down his narrow cage.........his wings are clipped… and his feet are tied...so he opens his throat to sing”. These imaginary comparisons are easy to understand to every walks of people and could give lasting impression to the readers down the years. If Angelou depicted the suffering and biased life that black American underwent through her poem, “I know why the caged bird sing” her later poem especially “Still I Rise” signifies the victory of her personal life and the black civil rights movement.
Angelo artistic skill in writing poem and her undying fighting spirit gained word wide recognition. Her poetry biography gained national book award in 1970 and remained two years in New York Paper-back best seller list. Moreover, she was twice nominated in Pulitzer book award. Due to her fame, she was requested to deliver a poem in honor of then the president of United States of America, Bill Clinton’s inauguration office ceremony. She delivered the poem, “Still I Rise” which was life streamed and watched by several millions of people throughout the globe. She compares the past racial discrimination of 60’s with “nights of terror and fear” and the victory against it with, “day break that wondrously clear”. With each line she put the words, “Still I rise” to make it clear that ultimately the truth that they have sided has won.
Maya Angelou, though born and brought up in a disadvantage and violent period of time and places, doesn't succumb to her purported fate and defines her own life. From bad parenting to becoming victims of child rapist and to racial discrimination, she suffered series of hellish events in her life which would chill our bones even by listening. However, like a legend bird phoenix, she rises from the ashes of her devastated life and shoot to fame in the endless world of fame.

Evaluation paper

Bhutia Lobsang

Professor Medsker

Eng 102

1/26/12

                Maya Angelou, one of the most respected modern American poets and authors has always inspired and intrigued me. Despite her miserable and prejudiced life, she resurrected herself among the rubbles and ashes of her cursed life like a phoenix and never looked back again. Her undying spirit of relentless fight and resistance against unjust system is the main reason I adulated her so much as my own country man (Tibetan) has been fighting for justice and human rights under the harsh and unreasonable occupation of Red Communist China Regime since 1959. Ironically the then chairman and founder of China’ s Communist Party, Mao Tse tung, himself has said, “where there is oppression there is resistance’. And the whole writing of Maya Angelou, especially her two poems, “ I Know Why The Caged Bird Sing” and “Still I Rise” are about her  struggle and ultimate victory against tyranny and inhuman treatment.

                Angelou composed her first and world –wide famous poem “ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing” in 1969 which was a year after the end of Black American Civil Rights Movement. In this poem, she metaphor the free bird as white people enjoying the limitless freedom and opportunity and caged bird as black people who were deprived of all these freedom because of racial discrimination. In her poem,

                                                                The free bird leaps

                                                                On the back of wing

                                                                And float downstream

                                                                Till the current ends

                                                                And dips his wings

                                                                In the orange sun rays

                                                                And dares to claim the sky.

                               

                                                                But the birds that stalk

                                                                Down his narrow cage

                                                                Can seldom see through

                                                                His bar of rage

                                                                His wings are clipped and

                                                                His feet are tied

                                                                So he opens his throat to sing.

Angelou was an active member of civil rights movement and had struggled arm to arm with the great personality like Dr. Martin Lurther King and Malcom X. Years later, when they both are assassinated she went through a traumatic life for several years and give birth to this poem.

                 In the year 1993, she wrote yet another scintillating poem called “Still I rise” on the request of the then president Clinton request on his inauguration event. Even though she still  advocated  the rights of black people, the tones are not the same as with her first  poem. At the last stanza she wrote,

                                                                Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

                                                                I rise

                                                                Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

                                                                I rise

                                                                Bringing the gifts that my ancestor gave

                                                                I am the dream and hope of the slave

                                                                I rise

                                                                I rise

                                                                I rise

                She was trying to convey the message of the sense of victory and success of the black people after a dark tunnel of tumultuous years in their struggle for justice.

Reader response critisicm take on Woolworth's for Greg Fallon.

Well Hillringhouse ‘ poem Woolworth’s for Greg Fallon is about a sad and dramatic ending of many of Woolworth’s store across the nation which left thousands of people’s lives devastated including his own life. Woolworth is one of the world most well- known and oldest shopping stores was recently forced to close down many of its key stores  because of stiff competition from other new emerging store. Since its inception 100 of years back by a potato farmer turn business tycoon, Frank Woolworth has many ups and down in his life’s journey. He was the first store owner who introduced the new system of “self- service”. Before that all the merchandises were kept behind the glass and customer had to give a list of what they want to buy to the store staff. Because of his ingenuity and hard work he had good start in the beginning of his venture, though he had his own share of misfortune.

            This particular poem of Hillringhouse is divided into four stanza which having its distinctive idea. In the first stanza, author cleverly illustrated the gloomy downfall of this old business center in a very plaintive way, “the ancient names of old stores fading like the last century” and “sun light dipping down the stone facades”. The Woolworth is woven with the life of the concerning city that he was wondering how they are going to survive (this city that has no more memory of itself than river has of rain).

            In the second stanza, author is reminiscing his experienced in that once big and variety store. From line 1 to 6 author says, “I can still smell the hotdog counter and the pretzel carousal. I loved the sound of birds as I entered , the watery bubbles from acquarium filters over the plants. If I imagined like a child walking with my mother, the store part rainforest, and closed my eyes I was in some tropical country”.

            The third stanza shows how the once blooming store is now emptied as heavily discounted goods are randomly stack one upon another.

            The last stanza shows how this has an adverse effect on many people. “swaying to regain my balance behind the men who walk home from sweaty jobs with clenched fists”.

Marxist criticism take on William Carlos William's "the red wheel barrow"

            If Williams Carlos Williams was anything more than a physician, a career which spanned over more than 40 years and as an aesthetic artist which brought him much fame as one of the most distinguished modern American poets, he was a revolutionary and a radical leftist. His most popular poem, “the red wheelbarrow” is the living evidence of it.

            Born in New Jersey to an Puerto Rican immigrants in 1883 and his formative years much influenced by the new surge of communism across the United States in the beginning of 1900’s and spending numbers of time among middle and lower class people, he became an ardent follower of Marxism. In the year 1923, when he was 40, he did justice to his generative stage and his ideology by calling up for a revolution through his famous “the red wheelbarrow” poem which he believed would bring change in the life of poor and unfortunate people that he love. Indications are clear if one look and discern his poem in general and synonymous manner.

                                                           

                                                            so much depends

                                                            upon

                                                            a red wheel

                                                            barrow

                                                            glazed with rain

                                                            rain

                                                            beside the white

                                                            chickens.

            Williams deliberately wrote all the poem’s words in simple and lower case which divulges his endeavor to relate and identify these with ordinary masses. Even though so much has written, analyzed and admired his poem as laden with meter, enjambment and other literature terms, one should not be carried away by the beauty of these and fail to appreciate his real intention of composing this poem with well-chosen, limited and condensed with double meaning words. Unlike the rest of the poem, the first two stanza “so much depend” and “upon” do not have identical meaning other than stress and importance of words themselves. However, in the next part, “a red wheel” and “ barrow” the author choose red as this color equals with communism and intentionally separate the wheel and barrow in disguise of enjambment to give double meaning to wheel which also means revolution. The third couplet, “glazed with rain” and “water” he also gives double edge meaning to glaze as it also means cover and rain equates with flood and torrent, which means overwhelmed by oppression. In the last verses, “beside the white” and “chickens” the white color connotes successful beginning while chickens to the masses, which makes sense because chickens are the most abundant and abused animals in our realm.

            Essentially, the poem mirrors Williams’ aspiration for his lofty dream:  revolution from people who were discriminated by the system of society. He successfully wrote down his call for revolution.