Author Archives: KAICY GAYNOR

I chose this picture to compliment the poem “The Lamb” by William Blake because it helps me to better understand the “Lamb” (Jesus Christ) that Blake alludes to and mentions directly. This picture functions in that way because Blake uses a lot of comparison to explain who the Creator of the Little Lamb is, and that symbolism leads the audience to understand the Creator’s person in terms of the traits of the Little Lamb in the poem. When describing the Lamb and the Creator, Blake writes, “Softest clothing wooly bright, Gave thee such a tender voice…For He calls Himself a Lamb: He is meek and he is mild.” This picture comes into play because after describing the Lamb and Jesus in that way, it helps me to visualize how Jesus would relate to a lamb He created by seeing Him hold the lamb so loving and tenderly.

: a)explain what drew you to select this poem b) identify a line, pair of lines, or stanza that seems to you to be particularly meaningful or perplexing c) offer some analysis or explanation of your selected passage and d) connect it to the overall theme of the poem.  Please post your work before our Zoom call

I chose The Lamb because it gave me an understanding of Blake’s faith, and helped me to understand his perception of who God is. A pair of lines that was particularly exciting and enjoyable, yet slightly perplexing, for me to read was in stanza 15, where Blake describes Jesus as the lamb, meek, mild, and a child. This was enjoyable because I could understand that the author perceived Jesus as being humble, kind, and meek, and it was also perplexing to me because although that is a prevailing characteristic in the scripture, I believe Blake left out a lot Jesus’ more authoritative side, in having describe himself in scripture as a king, and also in facing life or death situations with no fear or compromise whatsoever, when he was in danger after sharing the truth and giving people his beautitudes and commands. I think Blake’s description of Jesus connects to the overall theme of the poem because it was a means to expound upon how gentle and meek Jesus is, by comparing the Lamb of God (Jesus) to the Lamb that He created.

After reading An Essay on Man, a line that really stuck with me was when Pope wrote, “In Pride, in reasoning Pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere and rush into the skis. Pride still is aiming at the Blessed abodes, men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, aspiring to be angels, men rebel.” This resonated with me because of how Pope views pride, and how he blames pride as the reason for why men and angels fall from their original position that God placed them. To me, Pope was explaining how pride blinds people to sound thinking, and is the reason people view themselves as being much more important or impactful than they really are. Pope describes pride as being the central error for our vain, rebellious pursuits of trying to live life beyond God’s leadership, and it was especially interesting to me how he even capitalized the first letter in pride, which to me emphasizes the impact of pride. This decision to capitalize the first letter in pride gives an anthropomorphic effect, because this is usually only done to people’s names, and leads me to wonder the reason, to which I believe is to reinforce  the enormous influence pride had over the actions of men in that time. I believe Pope was communicating that pride fueled humanity’s ambitions to make discoveries that were not dependent upon faith or spirituality. During the Scientific Revolution at that time, the discoveries that were made, according to my understanding of Pope’s premise, were the result of men who were driven by pride in the developing idea of humanity being self-sufficient, and that man was not dependent on God to exist and thrive. In my opinion, this was the real reason for the explorations and findings of the Scientific Revolution, and the pride that drove this era was an attempt from much of humanity trying to circumvent any need to depend on God. Men at that time perhaps were trying to understand how the world works for themselves, through scientific exploration and discoveries, and were putting aside any practice of seeking God for guidance or provision. In a way, these were some of the early beginnings of the popular ideologies of today, such as atheism and agnosticism, because this was a revolutionary societal shift from a society of people who all believed in one sovereign  God who rules and provides for the needs of the world, to a world of people with mixed and varying ideas of what, how, and who constituted the world as they knew it.

I chose this picture of Marilyn Monroe after reading the story “Bewitched” because I felt the idea that any attribute of strong or authoritative femininity was associated with faulty and consequential leadership. In the story, Manago, the demon in human form, relentlessly pursues Toyo-o in hopes of imprisoning him in an eerie love affair. Toyo-o resists upon understanding that Manago has dark, supernatural qualities, but this just makes Manago’s pursuits all the more passionate. Clearly the audience is shown that the strongly driven Manago is the antagonist in the story. In this light, passionate feminine pursuits are framed in an undesirable light, as Manago is often called a devil, as in page 641, paragraph two, when Toy-o says, “That devil has come after me here. Keep away from her!”

Marilyn Monroe relates to the concept of strong femininity being intimidating and dreadful that was represented in “Bewitched” because in her career, and even today, Monroe had been praised as an American Treasure, due to her promiscuous and seductive qualities represented in her career, which has been carried by her ability to balance promiscuity with a strong, manipulative personality. In the many movies Monroe had been featured in, she often played the role of a voluptuous, illicit love interest that worked to ruin a relationship, among others things of that nature. This was attempted and accomplished through manipulative schemes and traits of robust femininity, that produced intimidation in the people who she engaged with. Manago relates to Monroe in this way, by showcasing attributes of strong, passionate femininity that was expressed through their pursuits of the men of interest.

Hi everyone, my name is Kaicy Gaynor, and I am a freshman at Baruch College. I was originally born in Jamaica, and throughout my life I’ve lived in over three countries, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and America. I moved to New York a little less than two years ago after living in Florida for almost 10 years, and I’m excited to see how student life will be like in New York. My major is Marketing Management, and I chose this major because I hope to market and manage my own business one day. Apart from business and marketing, though, I really enjoy cooking and reading literature, especially dense intellectual and theological literature like the Bible. I’m a passionate Christian, and my faith in Jesus Christ means a lot to me. One text that has left a lasting impact on me is the short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin, because it’s a short story that very impressively captures the essence of the power and capability of conformity, and shows that even the simplest ethics of morality can be tested in the presence of peer pressure. The short story is about how a community of people are given the choice whether to live a life of abundance, riches, and prosperity, without lack of anything, or to walk away from this perfect community to a place in which they probably won’t live as lavishly, and where they may even be in need. The only catch is that if they choose the lavish life, a young, innocent, undeserving child has to suffer. This child is cold, alone, hungry, and has a completely opposite life than the rich people have. Every person in this community makes a conscious decision either to stay in Omelas, at the expense of the well-being of the innocent child, or to walk away from the community, to a place that they have no idea is going to be like. This profound short story examines the choices people make under conditions of conformity and carelessness to a minority’s suffering. What this story means to me is that I should love my neighbor as myself, even if I’d be losing a huge benefit, and even if that means I’d be performing an uncomfortable act of nonconformity.