New and Improved Short Story Intro with Outline

Seamus Heaney uses characterization in "Digging" to create a speaker who first thinks he doesn't measure up, but then realizes he has a valuable skill. Immediately, Heaney shows that the speaker, a writer, values the hard work ethic and skill that his father and grandfather have. The speaker becomes unsure that his abilities as a writer will measure up to the legacy his father and grandfather have left behind. Heaney ultimately empowers the speaker with a spark of self-confidence, and he begins to believe in the power of his pen. Heaney uses the speaker as an example of how we should believe in our abilities as we reach for individuality.

I.               In the beginning of the poem, Heaney shows us that the speaker respects hard work.

A.                 “By God, the old man could handle a spade. / Just like his old man.”

B.                  “My grandfather cut more turf in a day / Than any other man on Toner’s bog”

II.             Throughout the poem, the speaker does not believe that his writing measures up to the hard work of his father and grandfather.

A.                 “Once I carried him milk in a bottle / corked sloppily with paper”

B.                 “But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.”

III.           At the end of this poem, Heaney turns the speakers view and gives him some self-confidence.

A.                 “Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests.”

B.                 “I’ll dig with it”

Post 4: DRAFT Introduction Paragraph for Process Essay

Characterization is a tool that has as great importance as any character in a story. Without characterization in "Digging", the poem would have no muse, no voice to give meaning and value to the words of the poem. Characterization in “Digging” provides crucial information about the character and insight into his reactions to the world. Heaney uses the characters in this way to relate to the challenges that we confront when trying to become individuals.

Blog Post 3: Miniver Cheevy (Wishes and Dreams)

In the poem "Miniver Cheevy", Miniver is not living in the past, but wishes he was born in that time. Many people often wish that they had been born in a different era, but Miniver takes this dream to a whole new level.

Miniver destroys the life that he has for something that he really cannot control. He wishes that he could live in a time, "When swords were bright and steeds were prancing" (Robinson Line 6). Obviously this dream that he has is not at all possible. He frets and complains throughout the day because he cannot have exactly what he wants. I think that Miniver is extremely arrogant and ridiculous, to want something so much yet do nothing about it.

Miniver makes me want to hate him. I bet that many other readers feel the same way. In a childish way, it seems that he is dreaming of some happily never after, when really he is just a pretentious guy drinking his valuable life away. I could see how one would feel sympathy for Miniver, blocked from the bright light of life, as his brain sulks in misery.

Robinson is trying to tell us to pull ourselves out of the situation that faces us and realize that there is more than that. I think that Miniver represents a blip in our everyday lives that most of us see as adversity and take on, while some can get stuck like Miniver, just, "Scratching his head" (Line 30).

Post 2: Isn't it Ironic?

Sometimes funny, sad, or mostly misinterpreted, irony is around us every day. In the poem "Barbie Doll", the irony is heavy and laid on thick by Marge Piercy. She conveys an often portrayed message of being who you are, but in a very different way. Piercy uses irony throughout the poem to make her point. An example of this Irony when Piercy says in lines 5 and 6, "Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:/You have a great big nose and fat legs" (Piercy). Magic, a word that normally has a positive connotation has suddenly taken a dark turn for the worse. Piercy uses the word magic to signify childishness and and innocence, but it has been completely turned around in this situation. A great example of verbal irony is in the last line of the poem, "To every woman a happy ending." In this short line Piercy is able to say a lot to gather up the poem. the girl in this poem has all of the characteristics, except one, of a girl who would have a fairytale happy ending, but instead she took the beauty that she had within and traded it for a twisted kind of acceptance into society.

Post 1: Which Text Spoke to Me The Most?

"The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas" by Ursula Le guin, was my favorite text from the summer reading. The text got my attention right away and it still holds my attention long after reading it. The book captured my attention by confusing me, rather than the excitement of the plot that usually gets me. I was struck by the decision that the citizens of Omelas needed to face, or decide not to face. It was horrifying to me to realize that if a utopian city has to sacrifice the happiness of one child, what we must sacrifice to simply function as a state, nation, and world.

In the story, the citizens know about an old musty room, and "[i]n the room a child is sitting" (Le Guin). The child is suffering, but the people of the city do nothing about it. For some reason, I love that they did nothing because it makes for a better story for me. The most outstanding and "rebellious" thing that these citizens do is to leave, and not live knowing it is at another's expense. My favorite part of the story when the speaker says, "Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing" (Le Guin). For me this passage provides all of the excitement that I could need from a story. Sitting on its own between two paragraphs, it jumped out at me and spoke to me directly, but left me dangling off a cliff. Sometimes I find myself in a situation of "should I stay or should I go" and usually I don't fully realize the consequences of either decision until after I make it.