Amichai bears witness to the Israeli and Palestine conflicts through different lenses. In the poem “An Arab Shepherd Is Searching For His Goat On Mount Zion” we see an Arab man and a Jewish searching for things that are dear to them. This poem displayed a common ground even in times of high tension. The poem “Try to Remember Some Details” takes a darker turn because it discusses the violent end of the Israeli-Palestine conflict. This point of view is of someone who has lost someone due to this violence because it advises the reader to remember details about their loved ones because anything could happen.
Author: Emily Rivera
“When You Are Old” is obviously a very romantic poem but it is also about aging.
“When You Are Old Poem” is a love poem, but it is also about how age affected other people’s love of the woman the speaker refers to. The poem describes the many reasons why people love this woman based on her looks. It is revealed that the speaker looked passed her appearance even as she aged. Because this is a story of unrequited love the speaker is never loved back by the woman and believes that she will regret it as she gets older. Age is significant in this story because typically as people age their exterior deteriorates, therefore the one thing that the speaker claims to be why so many people loved this woman will disappear and it will be revealed that the speaker was the only person to see past that.
Consider the role(s) of betrayal and infidelity in the story.
In “The Gilded Six Bits” betrayal and infidelity change Joe and Missie May’s relationship significantly. At the beginning of the story, their relationship is playful and loving. Joe would play game sand give gifts to Missie may and in return, Missie May would take care of Joe. Their relationship was so secure to Joe that he even showed off Missie May to Slemmons who was known to be a womanizer. This ended up backfiring because Joe caught Missie May and Slemmons together. After the incident Joes was still kind to Missie May, but the games stopped and he was no longer as loving as he was in the past. Missie May noticed the change in their relationship and just hoped he would just leave her because she couldn’t understand why Joe was still kind to her. Infidelity and betrayal changed their relationship tremendously because both people felt heartbroken by the incident by they also still loved each other.
What does Wharton want us to consider about the ways in which we do or do not know certain people in our lives? E.g. friends, lovers, family.
“Roman Fever” depicts friends, family and lovers in a more negative way than people generally do. On the surface these specific relationships are suppose to be intimate and loving. They are suppose to be executed with trustworthy people. In this story Wharton depicts these realtionships as judgemental, dishonest and sad through the the conversations Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have. The reader learns that their friendship is toxic because of envy. The relationships these women had with their husbands were not honest. The thoughts these women have about their daughters did not always come from a loving place and are in fact judgemental. Wharton wants depict that even the closest people in someone’s life can have a side to them that is unknown to the public. Mrs. Slade and Mrs.Ansley both kept a put together personna on the outside, but in reality they were keeping secrets from the most important people in their lives.
What do you make of the fact that we learn a great deal about Gretta’s youth at the end of the story? How does this change your view of Gretta and her relationship with Gabriel?
At the beginning of the story, Gretta is introduced as Gabriel’s wife without much background or even characterization. Gretta almost seems as if her character won’t have a huge impact on the story. It’s interesting how the author chose to introduce her in such a subtle way, but by the end, we learn about her background and how it has a profound impact on Gabriel. The author did a good job of drawing minuscule attention towards Gretta throughout the text and describing who she is towards Gabriel as you continue to read. This allowed the reader to realize Gretta would eventually be a crucial part of Gabriel’s development. Her tragic background changed her relationship with Gabriel because he realized that she had more depth and experience then he once knew. Gabriel also realizes that he has never known a love like the one Gretta describes. This reveals that their relationship wasn’t built on love, but instead, it was about how Gabriel felt about Gretta on the surface.
How is his work a commentary on the mores, religious temperament, and society in which he lived in late eighteenth century England? What aspects of this commentary are still relevant today?
Willam Blakes poems depict a society that is filled with misery. He discusses Satan’s situation and how he will always be recognized in a negative way. This theme continues in the poems because Blake illustrates the dark events of his society. He suggests that the situations these people are in are not temporary. Even though people may try to find solace in religion it will not change their state of living. This is relevant today because people often use faith and religion for comfort and even hope like they did during eighteenth-century England.