Analysis Of Snapping Beans By Lisa Parker

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Wish Upon the Evening Star
“Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high. Like a diamond in the sky.” In “Snapping Beans,” by Lisa Parker, there are numerous symbols, but the most significant and sentimental one is the evening star. Lisa exploits the evening star to demonstrate how the same thing can still emerge worlds apart, yet at the same time tie people together. “I wanted to tell her/the evening star was a planet,” but the speaker knew her Grandma wouldn’t understand. “Grandma hummed ‘What A Friend We Have In Jesus.’” That song is old and isn’t really sung by the new generation, reveling that the elderly Grandma wouldn’t understand her granddaughter’s age group. Another prime example of the speaker and her grandma being old-fashioned is how they “snapped beans into the silver bowl/that sat on the splintering slats of the porchswing.” …show more content…

The speaker is visiting “home for the weekend, /from school, from the North,” and her grandma asks her, “How’s school a-goin’?” The speaker replies with “School’s fine,” holding back her emotions on her lifestyle in college. “I wanted to tell her/about the nights I cried into the familiar heartsick panels of the quilt she made me,/wishing myself home on the evening star./I wanted to tell her/the evening star was a planet,/that my friends wore noserings and wrote poetry/about sex, about alcoholism, about Buddha./ I wanted to tell her how my stomach burned acidic holes at the thought of speaking in class,/speaking in an accent, speaking out of turn,” Understanding is a vital part of the bonds people share. She knew her grandma couldn’t comprehend any of it. The speaker sensed her grandma would deem her friends inadequate. “I was tearing, splitting myself apart/with the slow-simmering guilt of being happy/despite it all.” In spite of the hardships, the speaker enjoyed it

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