Searching

In his poem “Fog”, Carl Sandburg uses enjambment and personification to create the effect of fog. He makes it seem more real by saying “it sits looking” and “comes on little cat feet”. The poem has a nonchalant tone to emphasize again, how the fog casually passes by. Diction serves the same purpose. The use of casual words help to create the fog-like feeling.

In the poem “Constantly Risking Absurdity” Ferlinghetti juxtaposes a poet and an acrobat. Time imagery along with a nonchalant but yet exciting tone manages to represent the similarities between both. When he states “the poet like an acrobat”…. “Paces his way to the other side of day” he means that as time passes they both learn and finally get to the place close to perfection. The lack of punctuation and structure of the poem emphasize what the author is trying to transmit. The lines are in disorder as if they were swaging, just like the acrobat does on his ropes. And the lack of punctuation show the continuation and flow.

The poem In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound has an optimistic tone that demonstrates the unexpected beauty of nature in the city. There is an analogy since Pound compares nature to the city life while juxtaposing the “faces in the crowd” with the “petals on a wet black bough”. The word apparition applies to both of these and although they are being compared, the word unites them. And it shows how nature and the city can be similar.


*I have the first three and the other two timed writings hand written.*

Milkman´s Tale

Song of Solomon tells a tale
About a guy whose name went with pale.

He had two sisters and a mother
Who left him without a brother.

It was said that he was born with wings
Of course we all know there´s no such thing.

He´s real name is Macon
And no, he doesn’t like bacon.

They all call him Milkman
Because of his mother´s game plan.

While searching for gold
Found out that Circe was very old.

At the end of his journey there was no gold
And realized there was a story untold.

Now he wanted to know his family history
Which everyone knew was a true mystery.

His trip was a way to escape his past
But he went back to that real fast.

Following the steps of his great-grand-father
He left Hagar without a lover.

And what does this have to do with flight? Morrison says:
“If you surrender to air you could ride it” (337).

That way Milkman lets go
And decides to grow.

Toni Morrison

When I started reading Song of Solomon there were a few questions I wanted to ask Toni Morrison. I kept those questions in mind. On Monday, when I opened the blog page to see my assignment for the week I was surprised to see we had to watch an interview with Toni Morrison. Before watching it I thought to myself that probably my doubts would be all cleared up.

The first thing I saw made me a little confused. Below the video window a sign appeared and said: “a conversation with author Toni Morrison about her book A Mercy” I though it was going to be an interview about the book I was reading but I watched it anyway.

Even though she talks about a different book Morrison shares a lot about her writing in general, what she does before writing a novel, what´s most important to her, and she connects with the characters. I realized that Morrison (and I think other authors as well) don’t just have an idea and write about it, they do research because “you can´t say anything unless you know what was there” (minute 2:39). After talking a little about her other book she talks about slavery, “when everybody was for sale and for rent” (minute 3:24). Morrison mentions that her books, Beloved as well as her new novel talk about African American people. What vary are the story and the characters. She tries to portray new characters in each of them to reveal a different aspect of an African American life. This is the same for Song of Solomon. She narrates the story of a black family and how they suffer. She shares each characters thoughts so that the reader can understand them they way he or she wants. Morrison shares with us that she does not describe her characters that much because she does not want the reader to see them as she does. She wants to reader to connect to them and with that understand the character and role he or she plays in the novel.

Later on Morrison says :”everybody changes, all the time”. As I mentioned before characters are very important throughout her novel and the change their characters experience too. She compares that change to the one of a country because by changing they not only affect themselves but also their surroundings. When Macon Dead decided to become an arrogant complex man he was affecting his wife and his children. In the same way, Ruth´s attachment to her father hurts Macon. And as they learn new things and remember the past they change and make the relationship they have with others also change.

One of my main questions, was why did Morrison starts her book with Mr. Smith´s anecdote. Charlie Rose asks Morrison if she always starts her book with a question, and she yes. They discuss the “I wonder who, I wonder what, and I wonder what if” (minute 20:42). But then they both agree that why is the best. What happened to Mr. Smith is not exactly a question but by beginning her novel with that and then moving on to talk about the Dead family she creates doubt and the readers or at least myself asked why. Why would Morrison do that? She never relates Mr. Smith to the other characters but what happened to him is related with the other characters. He was able to express himself and think that he can fly. That is contrasted with the other character´s problems. All of them are fighting against something and its that something from their past that make the miserable while Mr. Smith was able to overcome that. Some of them like Guitar try to find something were they can release their anger and try to understand what is bothering him, that is why he decided to kill whites but still and Milkman knows for example that he is not cured, something still bothers him.

At the end Rise mentions president Obama. Since everything that Morrison has written has something to do with race Rose ask her how she feels. She says that Obama is a special case he is “that African American”. What Morrison portrays in her novel is the fear the characters experience due to racism and how they live because of it. This has changed know and she sets Obama as the example to show that they are not scared anymore.

Although the interview was not about the book I was reading I really liked Morrison’s honesty. By sharing with the reading what she does before every one and why she chooses the characters the way he does makes me see the novel in a different way. After watching the interview some point of why she writes about what she writes is also clear.