We Did Not Fear the Father

This week in English we went over our assigned poems. The one that I found clear but confusing at the same time is We Did Not Fear the Father. It is a poem by Charles Fort. He wrote it from what I think is the perspective of children and how they see their father. They saw their dad as a hard working man who had three jobs. Their father was a landlord, a barber, and a factory worker. The children liked that their dad was a landlord, he could spend time with them and they got to look over old newspapers that they found in the walls of the property. They also liked his job as a barber just because they remembered him and he was a nice guy at that time. When he went to the factory to work his night job the children feared their father. He was so tired and looked so mean covered in grease, the father just had a lack of patience at the end of his factory jobs. This scared the children, but they knew that their dad was a good man who loved and cared for them. He worked all those jobs so that he could provide for his family and give them the best life that he could while still being an honest man.

Persepolis

Most of this week’s class was filled with watch Persepolis, a movie that started as two graphic novels. I really enjoyed this movie, even though I have not read the book to compare. My favorite person in this movie was the Grandma because she was her own person and never seemed to lose sight of what was important to her. She tried to help guide her granddaughter from doing wrong and losing sight of what their family had fought and died for. Towards the end of the film we learn that the Grandma went against society’s belief by getting a divorce; I was taken back when she said “The first marriage is just practice for the second.” When thinking about parts of the movie that somewhat disturbed me I must say that the grocery store stands out the most in my mind. When the mother is at the grocery store with her daughter a man tells her to pull down her headscarf and that he bangs hundreds of women like her every day. I just found it so offensive that a women has to stand there and endure that kind of insult from someone that she does not know and that a mother could let her child grow up to talk to women like that. It was pointed out that some people may be offended by the depiction of God that was given in the movie, but to be honest I had not thought about it. I just saw the image and thought the author could draw this image however they wished. Overall I thought that Persepolis was a great movie, but not something that I would show to children until high school just because of some things that occur throughout the film.

New Direction--ENG 110

Just to clarify the new focus of this blog for anyone who is still reading it, I am now converting it to an extra credit opportunity for ENG 110 Introduction to Literature class.

Since classes have just started there is only so many readings that we can choose from, so today I am going to give my opinion on Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants. When we read this poem out loud in class I had no idea what it was talking about, but after some discussion I learned that it was talking about abortion; something I never would have guessed. After hearing that abortion was the main focus I picked up the clues that others had found within the poem. For example, the man says “I won’t worry about that because it’s a perfectly simple” and “You don’t have to be afraid. I’ve known lots of people that have done it.” These two quotes seemed to be the main clues for understanding the topic that was being discussed by the couple. I feel that Hemingway’s approach was much thought out because he is talking about a subject that was not seen as socially acceptable at the time. I can honestly say that if another classmate had not said the underlying message I would have been there all day scratching my head. I have no real like or dislike towards this poem, it was just something that I had to read for school.