The Tell- Tale Heart By: Edgar Allan Poe

The first time I read The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe was in 7th grade when I was at Clissold. When we read it then I was told what it was about and who the characters are. There was no room for our own interpretations then but a few days ago when we reread it in class we got to form our own ideas and thoughts. When I read it again it strayed from what I was told. I think the relationship between the old man and the narrator was a master servant relationship. In the story the narrator said when the man wakes up every morning he is there to greet him (which is servant behavior). Also to help this conclusion is after he killed the old man and the police came he had to explain and prove to them that he was supposed to be there. He also had to show them he didn’t take any of the man’s riches, a son or daughter would not have to prove that. He also knew where all his riches were which is what a servant would know. I also think the narrator is psychologically ill for one he mentioned he was burden with a disease in the first sentence and he keeps trying to prove to the readers that he is not crazy. While reading it though it seemed that the narrator was trying to convince himself more than us that he is not crazy. Since I think he is psychologically ill I think the whole murder was a dream, I don’t think he actually murdered the old man. I think in real life the vulture eye of the old man annoyed the narrator so much he dreamed about killing him. One reason I think it was a dream or a series of dreams is night after night he is stalking the man while he sleeps then when he wakes up he is there to greet him. When is he sleeping if he is up all day and night? How is he functioning with enough strength to kill someone? So I think he is stalking the man in his sleep every night then he finally kills him the dream on the ninth night. The evil eye bugs him so much in his conscience life that it also haunts his dream too enough to kill the old man who he said he loves in his dreams.

Just Perfect

Golden light sprinkles across my room as my eyes slowly shake off the heaviness of sleep. I can hear my little sister soft breathing in the lower bunk bed of our small dark room. I try to detangle myself from my sheets as beads of sweat start to form on my forehead. The summer has been scorching and unfortunately, today is no exception. I quietly crawl down my ladder and out into the hallway, its dead silent everyone is still asleep. I inch down the creaky stairs to get ready for the fun day that awaits me. Today is the annual barbeque with our neighbors the Natalinos. I do not know when it really started but it happens every year like clockwork. As I wait for my family to wake, I throw on my Jessie the cowgirl bathing suit underneath my favorite summer dress which flows in a way that every time I walk it looks like I am flying instead. I try to put up my hair but the tight curls resist all my attempts so I let them flow down my back like a stream.

As I hear people stirring up stairs my excitements builds as well, it takes everyone twice the time it took me to get ready. We finally step outside at just past noon with the sun in the center of the sky causing a hot and humid afternoon, however nature is trying to cool itself with a gentle breeze blowing our hair back. My siblings and I, exploding with excitement scurry across the street and leave our parents to carry all the food. We run into their backyard and make a beeline for the pool. As were running, we are striping off our clothing as to not waste any time when we finally reach our destination. I am the last one to make it to the pool since my short legs don’t carry me as fast as my little sister’s and older brothers’s. When I reach the pool, I jump as high as I can then when gravity starts to push me back down I feel all the air rushing around me right before impact. The impact with the surface of the water sends relief through my body as the cool water chills my sunned skin. As my whole body is submerged water rushes into my ears and nose and when I surface it’s the best feeling of them all as the excess water rushes from my hair down my face. It’s the feeling of Summer. We splash and swim around with Nick and Tony our neighbors for what seems to be hours when we are all called in for food. As soon as we finish all the kids are itching to jump back into the cool blue water, you’d think we were fish by how much we liked the water. We all run straight back to the pool and dive right back in. Nick and Tony are brothers who live across the street from us, we have known them are entire lives. The Natalinos are my second family I grew up with our families equally caring for each other through thick and thin. Our parents always joke that that Tony and I are going to grow up and get married since he is 6 years old and I am only a year younger but when they say this to us our faces blush rosy and a smile creeps up on us as we run away giggling like any little kid would. As we swim around we play all the usual pool games like Marco polo, fish out of water, sharks and minos, volleyball, basketball, king of the deck, and water gun fights. Everything was building to be the perfect day.

We have been in the pool the entire day when it starts to get dark out and we notice our hands are shriveled up like prunes. Our parents finally drag us all out of the pool, when we are walking towards the house our bodies seem stiff and waterlogged. I insist on changing myself even though my parents can clearly see I am wiped of all my energy and could fall over with exhaustion at any moment. When I walk out, I have my dress on backwards and my sandals on the wrong feet but in my sleep blurred vision everything still appears perfect. When I am walking down the hallway towards the door I pass a mirror and see my favorite dress now looks strange against my angry looking burned skin which makes my hair look even more blond with every second in which the red grows darker. Even this however doesn’t take away from my perception of this perfect day. I walk outside into the cool night to find Tony and my brother Ryan running around chasing the blinking lights that illuminate the night sky. I join the fun only for a few minutes until I am really too exhausted to take another step. I lie down on a cushioned lawn chair and count the stars watching as lightening bugs drift in and out of my line of vision. The last thing I see before I drift off into dreamland is a lightening bug land on my nose and blinking once to tell me goodnight. I drift off to sleep with a smile and the memory of a perfect summer’s day.

Analysis of Honey Bee

Girl I been thinkin’ ’bout us

And you know I ain’t good at this stuff

But these feelings piling up won’t give me no rest

This might come out a little crazy

A little sideways, yeah maybe

I don’t know how long it’ll take me

But I’ll do my best

            Country music is mostly straight to the point, when listening you know exactly what’s going on. I am not saying country music is not deep because it can be but it does not have those mind twisting analogies and metaphors like other music occasionally has. In this song, the speaker is a man since he is writing a love song and the speaker refers to the other person that the song is for as “girl”. In the first stanza, he is explaining to her that he really likes her but he does not know how to express it to her. He not good with words so he is afraid what he says might not be the right thing to say. He is not good at confessing his emotions with other people especially someone he likes. Although he is going to tell her no matter how bad it comes out because he wants her to know how he feels about her.

Chorus 1:

If you’ll be my soft and sweet

I’ll be your strong and steady

You be my glass of wine

I’ll be your shot of whiskey

You be my sunny day

I’ll be your shade tree

You be my honeysuckle

I’ll be your honey bee

            In the first chorus the speaker is expressing to the girl that they are exactly what each other needs. He needs someone soft and sweet and she needs someone strong and steady. She’ll be his smart, level headed, and a sophisticated person while he’ll be fun, crazy, and spontaneous for her. She’ll be a sunny day meaning she will be the positive aspect in his life, the joy of his life, while he will be her comfort and protector. “You”ll be my honeysuckle, I’ll be your honey bee” meaning they will depend on each other. Each of the metaphors that build the chorus is explaining how they are different but they balance each other. They complete each other’s needs in another person. Through all the metaphors he is trying to express that they are perfect for each other.

Yeah that came out a little country

But every word was right on the money

And I got you smilin’ honey right back at me

Now hold on ’cause I ain’t done

There’s more where that came from

Well you know I’m just havin’ fun

But seriously

            In the third stanza, the speaker tells us he told the girl he likes her but it didn’t come out how he wanted it to but he already knew he wasn’t going to get it right like he stated in stanza 1. Even though nothing came out exactly how he pictured it to it was still completely true. The girl’s response to him was happiness meaning that she feels the same way and she is happy he feels the same way also. But also that what he perceived as the wrong words to say were actually right since she is smiling and she is happy. Words alone cannot explain to her his feelings for her, his feeling are much deeper than words can ever express. He likes her more than she will ever know.

Chorus 2:

If you’ll be my Louisiana

I’ll be your Mississippi

You be my little Loretta

I’ll be your Conway Twitty

You be my sugar baby

I’ll be your sweet iced tea

You be my honeysuckle

I’ll be your honey bee

            Like the first chorus, the speaker uses metaphors to express his feeling that the two of them are perfect for each other. They complete and balance each other. They are exactly what they need for each other.

Your kiss just said it all

I’m glad we had this talk

Nothin’ left to do but fall in each other’s arms

I could’ve said a “I love you”

Could’ve wrote you a line or two

Baby all I know to do

Is speak right from the heart

            In this stanza we officially find out that the girl likes him back. He expresses his emotions for her through words however she expresses how she feels through a kiss telling him she feels the same way about him. Now there is not anything left between them, they each know what the other person is feeling. There are no more secrets to keep them apart so now they can be together. He is so sure of his feelings but he does not know what to. He could tell her he loves her at that moment or write her a song but all he can do is tell her how he feels straight from his heart. All he knows is he is sure he loves and wants to be with her.

Chorus 1

Chorus 2

I’ll be your honey bee

            Repetition of chorus’ and the phrase “I’ll be your honey bee” just keeps emphasizing how much the speaker actually cares for the girl he loves.

               

Native American Reservations

The term reservation comes from the preservation of the native American culture after being relocated by the government to new land that has no historical significance to them. Reservation life is hard but is in the process of change. There are only 310 reservations in the United States today even though there are more than 550 recognized tribes. Some tribes have more than one reservation, others have none, and some tribes even share. Slowly over the years however the reservations have been shrinking as government condenses them to take some of the land back even though reservations all together make up 2.3% of the United States. Life in the reservations is currently the hard part, many of the reservations are very isolated from the rest of the world. Many Native Americans dislike life in the reservation and eventually leave, when leaving they don’t just leave their family behind but their culture also. Native American culture has been lost over the years even as they attempt to recover what has been lost. They cannot be blamed for leaving a place that has become miserable, some reservations in the United States are considered the poorest places in the country. Alcoholism runs rampant through the reservation along with teen suicides and teens dropping of high school which is way higher than the national average. They have to deal with issue concerning infant mortality, life expectancy, nutrition, poverty, and drug and alcohol abuse. There is also high unemployment and even higher depressions rate from the poor housing and lack of opportunities. Casinos have started to spring up but they only benefit few. Reservation life is hard currently as their culture continues to slip away.

Propaganda 2011

prop·a·gan·da

–noun

1. information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

2. the deliberate spreading of such information, rumors, etc.

3. the particular doctrines or principles propagated by an organization or movement.

We have heard the word propaganda used throughout our history books or as we lay half asleep in class during a lecture, but do we ever think of it outside the class or just cramming for the test. Propaganda was not just used in history with Germany in World War II but it surrounds us in our present day modern society. We Chicagoans have a perfect example of propaganda everyday for the last couple week with our election for mayor. Every time we turn on the television we see one of the many candidates in a commercials or debate. Propaganda is telling and putting information out there for the public to mold their opinions and views about a certain topic or against other people. This is exactly what has been occurring the last couple weeks, candidates promising us to lower that and do this, but only if you vote for them. They try to convince you to vote for them because they are the right choice while at the same time tering down the competitors. They run others commercials just to bash on the others telling us at home they won’t be able to keep your children safe and money in your pockets but they can if you give them the chance. They run these commercials to convince you not to vote for the other candidates and change your view of them. This is all propaganda the spreading and influencing you just for a vote is one of the many forms of propaganda that we see today. From the big things like the election for mayor to the type of products you buy. In my opinion most of the commercials on tv are used as propaganda to influence to buy something you don’t need and tell you not to buy something else. Propaganda is a key part of American society in my opinion but that doesn’t mean we have to be influenced by it.

Beat Street

Beat Street

We are currently watching Beat Street in class which is an awesome movie because I actually like it. The movie is a combo of break dancing, music, and graffiti. When you are not distracted by the funny outfit and hairstyles of the 80’s the movie actually has a positive and important message. The characters live in the tough neighborhood of the Bronxs which is depicted as a very bad neighborhood throughout the movies. Many kids that grow up in a bad neighborhood get involved with drugs, alcohol, gangs, and illegal activities but this group of kids use dancing and djing to keep them out of trouble. Many kids who don’t have anything to work for end up going the wrong direction but the characters works towards their passions of music, dancing, and art which keeps them straight for the most part.

                Recently the city and many other city are trying to do the same thing as our characters. The city started an after school matters programs that gets kids off the street and into arts, dancing, science, sport, you name it. They want to prevent kids from being on the street after school lets out and then getting into trouble that could ruin their live. They want to give the kids in the city the chances to succeed and be able to someday grow up and have a bright future. i am a supporter of the after school matters program and think all kids no matter what their situation should be involved in it.

Hungry for Attention

Is Richard the only one hungry for attention?

Our new novel is Black Boy by Richard Wright, the main character Richard a young child at the beginning of the book searches for the attention he doesn’t get from his parents. He wants to be noticed by his father who is always sleeping because of his job and his mother who is busy trying to keep the family running. When Richard is fighting for attention with his grandma who is ill, he sets the curtains on file which leads to his house burning down. When his father doesn’t pay attention to him and only wants to sleep he hangs a poor, innocent kitten. All of Richard’s actions in the first chapter seem to be out of this hunger for the attention which he feels he’s not getting. Is he alone though? when we were babies we cried for attention, when we were toddlers we hid under our beds when no one paid enough attention to you, and when we got a little older and we didn’t get our hunger for attention satisfied at home we acted out at school. We got the attention when or moms who tried to get us to stop crying, our moms when they came and found us when we were missing, and from the teacher then by our parents when they had to come to school to come get us up. When Richard was hungry for attention he was destructive and but he still got the attention even if it was in the way he was hoping for.

          In my opinion everyone in the world is hungry for attention. This world is run off of selfishness and egos. Everyone strives to be the best so they can be praised for their accomplishments. Everyone wants the attention of being better than everyone else or standing out above the crowd. The world runs on everyone’s narcissistic ideas, thoughts, and actions on an everyday basis. We all like Richard strive to be noticed by our parents, family, and peers. So Richard is not alone in the sense that he is hungry for attention that was not received in the first place. But how we deal with not getting that attention is how we differ ourselves from Richard, don’t set the house on fire and don’t kill a kitten. Or at least I don’t.