There are times in life when the intangible and abstract become as concrete as the ground we stand upon. This is the way I felt after reading Susan Perabo’s “The Payoff”. What particularly holds the most significance is the ending of the story. When a young girl peers past an elderly woman’s earthly armor. Through looking beyond, the armor which had been bolstered by the heartbreaking lose of the love of her life. She was able to see a young woman only besmeared by old age and the labyrinth of a fulfilled life. The importance of peering beyond the earthly armor we develop through out our lives cannot be understated. Perception often changes easily for better or for worse. When we choose strengthen our resolve to read between the lines understanding …show more content…
Since I read “The Lady, or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton in eighth grade. I have developed a great admiration for them. I specifically chose this scene because it’s poetic quality helped create stronger sense of love. In addition, it created a desire to see beyond people’s toughened exterior and the hope of reciprocation. “When Mr. Payne was alive…” “Mrs. Payne, a pain in the butt, a punch line of the joke to every fifth grader. Yesterday she’d been as flat and clear as a pane of glass. Today I gazed through her sagging breasts and jowls and saw her as a young woman, as young as Ms. McDaniel, a mystery slipping out of her nightgown and into the arms of her beloved” (Perabo) It is 8:30 on a Wednesday night at Dunkin Donuts in North Haven. I am sipping my latte as I finish Susan Perabo’s “The Payoff”. Dunkin Donuts has become like a second office for me. Since my sister had decided to use my apartment as an office for planning her wedding. I should have known better after living with her for eighteen years than to give her a key. If I were to return it would have been four to five hours of listening to the pros and cons of serving Chilean sea bass. Furthermore, she would have been beleaguered me about my opinion on wedding
...through and seen as a child, she really overcame the battles of the community as an artist gathering bits and pieces of memories from the trash just to make something out of it. But, to Saar it meant the world to her to have that doll that was repaired for her on Christmas. She really didn’t see it trash but as treasure in her eyes.
She alludes to the idea that as people we must look deeper into our lives and see were we may have been given unearned privilege whether is be from race, gender, or sexuality.
As she sat at her work table she, “was drawn away,” by the screeching sirens outside her window. In this example, the author uses the word “was” as an indicator of her recollection of the events of that evening. The way they quickly grasped her attention reveals how focused she was on these specific occurrences surrounding her. We also notice how she is reflecting on the bad things that happen in society, yet we find ways to overcome them in order to continue to live our lives. In the following paragraphs, we see the judgment she has towards people who fail to consume themselves within the events happening around them. More specifically, we see her judgment towards the young man across the street who is so dedicatedly working on his table and in fact she wonders why he takes, “all those pains to make it beautiful?” She fails to understand his outlook on life by presenting us with a rhetorical question that she herself could not answer in the very moment. She fails to understand why and how a person can cherish life so deeply when his surroundings consist of nothing but chaos. As we continue to read through her essay we come across a moment that changes her perspective on the idea that people can quite possibly live a life that is consumed in something they love rather than the fear of
These lines demonstrate the stage of adulthood and the daily challenges that a person is faced with. The allusions in the poem enrich the meaning of the poem and force the reader to become more familiar with all of the meaning hidden behind the words. For example, she uses words such as innocence, imprisonment and captive to capture the feelings experienced in each of the stages. The form of the poem is open because there are no specific instances where the lines are similar. The words in each stanza are divided into each of the three growth stages or personal experiences.
Despite the current scrutiny that her race faces she asserts to the reader that her race and color define her as a person and does not determine her identity. Despite the mindset that most of her peers keep about the inequality of race, she maintains an open mind and declares to the reader that she finds everyone equal. Thus proving herself as a person ahead of her own time.
Women will do almost anything for love, to be loved, or to keep love. That is their mission. When women become jealous, however, the love they want to hold onto disappears, becomes selfishness, and one does not know if it is love anymore. In the short story “The Lady, or the Tiger?” written by Frank R. Stockton, a semi barbaric princess motions which door her lover, the accused man, must open to either receive punishment or a reward. The punishment is to be devoured by a fierce tiger and the reward is to be married to a lovely damsel of the court. This semi barbaric princess loves the man and chooses which door the man deserves to open. Like many women in love, this princess would not dare to let another woman take her lover away from her. Instead, jealousy takes over and the door that opens will emerge a tiger because she will go berserk to see her man happy with another woman, and will prefer to have him eaten by a tiger and await the princess herself on a heavenly earth.
She has asked herself, how do mistakes lead us to face our fear? Mistakes made her realize that it leads us to experience which then leads us right to the heart of our
Many people take the act of seeing for granted and don’t realize the dazzling sights surrounding them. Caught up in our own preoccupations of life, we usually miss what is happening around us. The author Annie begins with an anecdote from her childhood. She writes of how her impulse and curious compulsions led her to see new perspectives of the world. Followed by her explanation of how people hardly care to take their time and embrace the things right in front of them. There are free surprises and unwrapped gifts, as the author states, that many pass by everyday. Seeing was not the only way she experienced new perspectives. Annie goes on to tell of sitting in the darkness to feel and hear what is going on around her. Blindness was another
It has often been said that what we value is determined only by what we sacrifice. The novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, includes one specific character who makes a sacrifice that demonstrates what she truly values in life. Mariam, a major character in the book, sacrifices her life in order to save Laila and her children. This sacrifice allows the reader to view what Mariam truly cares about: the survival of Laila, her happiness, and her children. Mariam’s sacrifice highlights her willingness to do whatever it takes to save the ones she loves, allowing for a deeper understanding of Mariam and how sacrifice is a major theme in the novel.
...s for change in society, and I could not help but grow. It was just inevitable that if I looked out and saw people in all their radiant fighting beauty, then I would just stuck with love for them” (Sealeve, 1998). In this conversation, I found out that Walker has found her inner self and trying to help others find themselves in this painful world. This conversation talks about Walker’s experience through life, but I have also found out that she has realized it was worth the experience to through because she found out that life is tough and if you stay tough you can get through life. Walker felt pain in this world back then, but time went on and now she feels good about herself and trying to get her word across people.
Adrienne Rich’s “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” and Maxine Kumin’s “Woodchucks”, both have a lot in common when discussing the focus of each poem. Moreover, the poems convey various symbols that are portrayed by the presence of two different animals. In “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” the tigers are shown being very active, beautiful, and quite brave as “they do not fear the men beneath the tree” (3). This ultimately goes to show how Aunt Jennifer’s life has been hard and unhappy, yet she still found a way to find her inner “tiger” (1). This can be seen further in line 6 where “even the needle” (6) is “hard to pull” (6) and the “massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band” (7) sits “heavily upon” (8) her hand.
In her essay “Seeing”, Annie Dillard focuses on showing how different people have different perceptions. Dillard gives multiple examples to support her main idea, which is that preconceived and inherited notions influence our perceptions. Dillard discusses the different ways of seeing, how people with different backgrounds have different experiences with seeing, and many more. While Dillard’s idea about perceptions is definitely relevant and accurate, but are certainly not complete as there are multiple things that influence our perceptions.
Therefore, when she “laid down her flowers”, it symbolised her leaving her childhood and entering the world of adulthood. Both texts implore that the recognition that perspectives of the world are being shaped by factors, allows more growth emotionally and psychologically, however it does not necessarily
By not cherishing the gift of sight and using it properly, many discoveries are left unfound. In the writing piece, Seeing, Annie Dillard speaks of nature and the small things that we all are unconsciously blind to and not appreciative of. Seeing explores the idea of what it means to truly see things in this world. Annie Dillard’s main point is that we should view the world with less of a meddling eye, so that we are able to capture things that would otherwise go unnoticed. There’s a science to how we view things in nature.
“Ring, ring,” you hear as you walk into Dunkin’ Donuts. You can smell the freshly made donuts. You can see the coffee smoothly brewing through the coffee machine. You can slightly hear the oven baking the donuts to the perfection. This is the priceless Dunkin’ Donuts.