We chose to use this story in our podcast. I read it actually for fun on a long trip one day. It had quite an impact on me. It really made me sad to think about how so many young adults feel like children. They feel as though they cannot make their own decisions, and that they will compromise the love of their parents by making a mistake. This seems absurd to me. Parents should make it very clear to their children from the time they are able to comprehend spoken language, that while there is definitely a difference between what is right and wrong, that they will ALWAYS love their children no matter what they do, and that there is NO problem that does not have some kind of solution. Although I know this short story is fiction, it was written in response to a real scenario that seems to be ocurring more and more. It seems to me also that young adults should also be made more aware of the options that they have given these difficult situations. For example, in this story, even an abortion in secret would have been much better for the couple than what they chose to do. I also believe that young adults should be more encouraged to seek counseling, and to be ensured that it is normal for almost everyone to need some type of counseling at some point in their lives. Those who never need it are the strong ones. However, there are many who need it who never get it. I feel lucky to know that I can talk to my parents about my problems, and also that I feel adult enough to make my own decisions and find my own rational solutions to problems that arise.

Planet earth has become a place dominated by a species hell-bent on destruction...humans. For many life is intolerable, for others the joie de vive is a quest for power and mastery. Atomic bombs, improved weapons, computerized music, overeating, drinking, gambling, and latency run amok. Kurt Vonnegut addresses both the horrors and pleasures that human beings are confronted with on a day to day basis in his sardonic and witty "Timequake" by transporting everyone back 10 years. Having to relive all of our mistakes, successes, accidents, pleasures, mundane work, and being unable to stop ourselves or change course, means a harsh wake-up call once life drops us out of auto-pilot.
The slide-show I have created has many images, both disturbing and wonderful that are meant to illustrate the importance of exiting auto-pilot. Human beings as a species must wake up and realize the reality of our situation. We are equipped with wonderful imaginations, which have too often been used to move us closer to extinction. Life can be hard to endure, but rather than accelerating toward doom, why not stop take a look around at what is great about life. Vonnegut's last novel shows us that even through horrific acts of violence and depravity, humans must laugh and work to make things better. Kilgore Trout (Vonnegut's science fiction writing alter-ego) would have us be more like the good sisters of the planet Booboo and use our empathy and imagination to create rather than destroy. Yes Yes!!!

Before this assignment, I had always been able to quote certain lines of Emily Dickison's poetry, those lines which are most well-known and easy to interpret. However, through doing this project I have certainly realized that there are so much more profound aspects to her poetry that are often overlooked, simply because of the abstract language that she uses. It can tend to frustrate the reader and cause him to lose attention. If you actually break up the poems phrase by phrase, and in some cases word by word, it is possible to extract meaning that is much more conceivable to modern-day readers. Using wiki to explore the poems was extremely helpful in my interpretations, because it allowed me to freely build upon the work of others. As the saying goes, two heads work better than one, well certainly 15 heads work better than one, and it is interesting to see other people's interpretations of certain parts that never would have occurred to me in the first place, yet inspires further interpretation on my part.

http://www.teachmix.com/litwiki/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&ta...

22:53, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"Because I Could Not Stop for Death" (top)
22:53, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"Because I Could Not Stop for Death"
22:49, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -" (top)
22:48, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -"
02:32, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "The Tint I Cannot take - is Best -"
02:31, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Solid Town (top)
02:31, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "I Started Early - Took My Dog"
02:29, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) And made as He would eat me up (top)
02:29, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "I Started Early - Took My Dog"
02:27, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Plucks at a twig of Evidence (top)
02:27, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "This World is not Conclusion"
02:25, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Beckons (top)
02:24, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "This World is not Conclusion"
02:22, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Doe (top)
02:22, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -"
02:20, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Corners (top)
02:19, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -"
02:17, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Portion of me (top)
02:15, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) When I died (top)
02:15, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Quivering and chill (top)
02:11, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) House (top)
02:10, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) He kindly stopped for me (top)
02:09, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Bog (top)
02:07, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) To tell your name (top)
02:05, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Frog (top)

At the beginning of the semester, I would have considered myself reasonably “computer savvy”. Heck, I could do plenty of tricks on the computer practically by second nature that my parents cannot even fathom. However, when I began to work on the projects for this class, I came to the striking realization that I didn’t know as much about producing work on the computer as I thought I did. The blogging was simple enough, the worst part was finding the time and internet access spot to do it. I was really in for it when we got to the playlist project.
Of course I had used iTunes before, but I had never tried to “legally” link a sound file from iTunes to a personal web space. The directions that Dan gave were easy enough, but I found the process slightly meticulous and time consuming. I am of the type who likes to do things very quickly, and see an instant result. It is challenging for me to do tedious linking in order to produce a result. However, I got it done, slightly late, but done nonetheless. It was still in need of a few graphics, which I added later.
The next project was the collage project. This one was also in a realm of the computer world that I had never visited before. I had no clue how to use photoshop. However, once again I spent a long time, doing what proved to be even more tedious and time-consuming work than the playlist. I pasted, erased, re-erased, re-pasted, and finally came out with something that was decent, for me, anyway. Afterwards, I realized that the images could be tweaked a little more, so I touched them up a little bit, and added a couple of things, but then, I decided that I didn't like them that way, and I felt like they were beginning to look overdone. For example, I tried to blur the lines around the angels at the top left of the screne in my poem collage, but then I decided that I liked the more surreal straight lines. They kind of make them look like a little television box in the sky. It gives a kind of futuristic spin to an old poem. The first collage I did on The House on Mango Street is my least favorite. I became extra frustrated with this one because I wanted my idea to work, but it seemed like with the images that I could find, it kept having an extremely elementary air. I still do not in any way claim to be great with photoshop, but at least now I can say that I am somewhat familiar with the program and I could do certain simple alterations to images. I think that my second collage turned out a lot better than the first, because I incorporated more elements, but also I feel like it just turned out better because of the image that I decided to create. The original idea that I had for the first collage which was based on the book The House on Mango Street, seemed like a great idea when it was conceived in my head, but it just didn’t look quite as good on the computer screen as it had in my mind. This was my least favorite project, and the one of which I am least proud of the results. I find it much easier to express myself in words than in a visual way.
After the collage project came the annotations project. When I first read what the assignment was, I thought to myself that this was going to be the most difficult yet. However, once I made myself the wiki account, I got the hang of it, and actually finished this project faster than any of the others. I liked the idea that I was doing something that other people would be able to see. To think that Wikipedia, a source that I often site for works that I do for other classes, could be open to my own personal input was pretty cool. I also enjoy interpreting poetry, and it was very interesting and fun to read what other people thought of certain words, lines, or stanzas, and follow this up with my own commentary.
Since I found out at the beginning of the course that we were going to be doing a podcast, I was somewhat intimidated. I had heard that these could be especially difficult, so much that the fun of the actual material contained in the podcast would be lost. However, the way that we ended up doing them was great for me because Dan did all of the hard technical parts, and my group got to do all of the fun parts. I also liked how it was a group project and so I could count of the support of my group members, instead of feeling like everything was on my shoulders. Again, just like with the annotations project, I liked the idea that other people would be able to access and listen to what I had to say about pieces of literature. Although I was a little nervous about what I was going to say since the project was supposed to be mostly improvised, I know that my group did a great job. I was quite satisfied with the results.
Finally, we were assigned the video project. This was probably the hardest one of all for me, but one of the ones that turned out the best, because I decided to put the time into it and seek the help I needed to make it good. I think that the theme of my video project was one of the more profound out of all of the other projects, and it definitely was the assignment that most inspired me to contemplate life on a deeper level. I figured out how to do some pretty cool effects with the images, and in spite of a few technical difficulties in decreasing the file size, I think that the results were well worth the effort.
Unfortunately, I didn't participate in the class as a group as much as I should have. This is what I regret the most. I did most of the assignments remotely and independently. This is mostly due to the fact that I work full time and do class as night, and also because I do not have internet access at home. Therefore, it was dificult to find the time to get somewhere where I could access the internet and put the thought iinto the commentary. Needless to say, I did enjoy briefly looking at the thoughts and projects of other students, and I often used this as inspiration for my own assignments.
As you can tell, this class has certainly not been one of the easiest for me. It was unlike any other class that I had taken at UNC before. While it was more difficult in some ways, it was easier in others, because I could enjoy the freedom of writing about, or producing work about material that I was actually interested in. This made the somewhat difficult assignments much more fun, and being passionate about the material inspired me to endure the technical frustrations that accompanied the projects. I imagine that I won’t encounter many more classes like this one if any during the remainder of my academic career, but I certainly will not forget it, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to experiment with technology in a way that I never had before.

Video Assignment

Planet earth has become a place dominated by a species hell-bent on destruction...humans. For many life is intolerable, for others the joie de vive is a quest for power and mastery. Atomic bombs, improved weapons, computerized music, overeating, drinking, gambling, and latency run amok. Kurt Vonnegut addresses both the horrors and pleasures that human beings are confronted with on a day to day basis in his sardonic and witty "Timequake" by transporting everyone back 10 years. Having to relive all of our mistakes, successes, accidents, pleasures, mundane work, and being unable to stop ourselves or change course, means a harsh wake-up call once life drops us out of auto-pilot.
The slide-show I have created has many images, both disturbing and wonderful that are meant to illustrate the importance of exiting auto-pilot. Human beings as a species must wake up and realize the reality of our situation. We are equipped with wonderful imaginations, which have too often been used to move us closer to extinction. Life can be hard to endure, but rather than accelerating toward doom, why not stop take a look around at what is great about life. Vonnegut's last novel shows us that even through horrific acts of violence and depravity, humans must laugh and work to make things better. Kilgore Trout (Vonnegut's science fiction writing alter-ego) would have us be more like the good sisters of the planet Booboo and use our empathy and imagination to create rather than destroy. Yes Yes!!!

Music Used:
"Can't Get No Peace" by Al Campbell
"Lexicon Devil" by The Melvins
Soundbyte from "Napoleon Dynamite"
Soundbyte from "Friday Afternoon in the Universe" by Medeski, Martin, and Woods

Image Links:
http://www.earthharvest.org/Free-Clipart-Nostradamus-Astrology-Horoscope...

http://www.tmn.fio.ru/works/29x/308/images/Atom_bomb.jpg

http://www.night-movesclub.com/image/4381964.jpeg

http://www.vietnamwar.com/coverb_med1.jpg

http://vivirlatino.com/i/2007/03/anorexia_narrowweb__300x479,0.jpg

http://www.mag.hometanningbed.com/images/06-canopy-big.jpg

http://www.uoguelph.ca/research/news/articles/2006/November/smoking.shtm...

http://www.wisebread.com/files/fruganomics/wisebread_imce/burger4.jpg

http://www.jasonchow.net/images/couch_potato/couchpotato.jpg

http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/images/fat_1.jpg

http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/55/39/22183955.jpg

http://www.geetarz.org/reviews/direstraits/cocaine.jpg

http://psych.wisc.edu/henriques/resources/bulimia_ad.jpg

http://www.acedmagazine.com/websitepictures/bulimia.JPG

http://www.readersdigest.ca/mag/2002/08/images/debt.gif

http://www.biologyreference.com/images/biol_01_img0018.jpg

http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/Sections/Newsweek/Components/Photos/M...

http://cdn.davesdaily.com/pictures/453-funny-halloween-costume.jpg

http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/uploaded_images/Prescription%20Drugs.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/content/images/2007/06/22/drugs_460_460x350...

http://psych.fullerton.edu/mentors/computing_stress.jpg

http://djescalade.com/db1/00021/djescalade.com/_uimages/ClubScene2.JPG

http://www.ekundayo.com/gallery/self%20destructive.jpg

http://www.tendringdc.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/51200D74-A40B-4104-AE7E-BD2FED...

http://www.sflifeandjustice.org/images/pollution.jpg

Podcast Assignment
For the podcast assignment, we had to choose a somewhat broad literary theme, and discuss our intepretations of various selections of literature from a wide variety of media sources. Our group chose to do the project on the consequences that result from various actions. We first discussed the movie "Scarface", and began by playing a clip of Al Pacino claiming that he would kill for a green card. We related this to the current immigration situation in the United States. After that, we played a newsclip about a newborn baby being found in a dumpster, and proceeded to discuss the story "Love of My Life" from the textbook. We contemplated the current pressure that students face to excel in school, and that sometimes that pressure rises to an unhealthy level and young people are compelled to take irrational actions with dire consequences, such as the ones faced in the short story. Finally, to end up on a lighter note, we finished up with the reading of a poem entitled "The Fish" which was a little more inspiring. Each of us seemed to have a slightly different iinterpretation of the significance of the fish in the poem and the significance of the speaker deciding to let it go at the end. It was interesting to consider the opinions of my group members. I felt very mature and professional doing this project. It made me feel like what I think matters. This is something you rarely feel as an undergraduate, where you are drained to draw your arguments from opinions of people who have better credentials than you. You can listen to our podcast by clicking on this link:

http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/files/choicefinal.mp3

Annotation Assignment

Before this assignment, I had always been able to quote certain lines of Emily Dickison's poetry, those lines which are most well-known and easy to interpret. However, through doing this project I have certainly realized that there are so much more profound aspects to her poetry that are often overlooked, simply because of the abstract language that she uses. It can tend to frustrate the reader and cause him to lose attention. If you actually break up the poems phrase by phrase, and in some cases word by word, it is possible to extract meaning that is much more conceivable to modern-day readers. Using wiki to explore the poems was extremely helpful in my interpretations, because it allowed me to freely build upon the work of others. As the saying goes, two heads work better than one, well certainly 15 heads work better than one, and it is interesting to see other people's interpretations of certain parts that never would have occurred to me in the first place, yet inspires further interpretation on my part.

http://www.teachmix.com/litwiki/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&ta...

22:53, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"Because I Could Not Stop for Death" (top)
22:53, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"Because I Could Not Stop for Death"
22:49, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -" (top)
22:48, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -"
02:32, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "The Tint I Cannot take - is Best -"
02:31, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Solid Town (top)
02:31, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "I Started Early - Took My Dog"
02:29, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) And made as He would eat me up (top)
02:29, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "I Started Early - Took My Dog"
02:27, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Plucks at a twig of Evidence (top)
02:27, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "This World is not Conclusion"
02:25, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Beckons (top)
02:24, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "This World is not Conclusion"
02:22, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Doe (top)
02:22, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -"
02:20, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Corners (top)
02:19, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -"
02:17, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Portion of me (top)
02:15, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) When I died (top)

02:15, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Quivering and chill (top)
02:11, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) House (top)
02:10, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) He kindly stopped for me (top)
02:09, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Bog (top)
02:07, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) To tell your name (top)
02:05, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Frog (top)

Poem Collage

I have included the text of the poem, which helps interpretation upon viewing the collage. The two lovers on the sea are representative of the narrator of the poem and Annabel Lee, and I thought that having them seem to "walk on water" would give a mystic effect that perhaps suggests the afterlife or dreams in which the narrator will be united with his lost love. The moon is supposed to add to this effect, since Poe mentions the moon in the poem as a catalyst for his reunion with his lost love through dreams. Perhaps the narrator can visit the spirit of Annabel Lee in her "sepulchre" by the sea. The castle in the distance represents a dark kingdom, dark, because that is certainly the vibe that one gets from reading the poem. The angels above, which seem to be sour and jealous represent the envy that the angels have of the love that the narrator shares with Annabel Lee.

Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee--
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
I and my Annabel Lee--
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me--
Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we--
Of many far wiser than we--
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:
And so, all the night-tide, I lay down by the side
Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea--
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/87

Character Collage

The House on Mango Street- Esperanza's internal conflict collage

This represents Esperanza's struggle with abandoning the typical role of Mexican women to seek out a more fulfilling, Americanized lifestyle. The little girl who is sitting with her back towards the house represents Esperanza's frustrations with her life, which seems to go nowhere, except into the kitchen, which is portrayed inside the window of the house, which represents the house on Mango Street. Also the Mexican Flag with La Virgin de Guadalupe, a typical symbol of Mexican pride and tradition, hangs over the part of the house that is farthest away from the outside, or "the outside world", in this case implying the cultural realm of the United States. Inside the house, Esperanza will be confined to carry out the traditional roles of Mexican women. If she is able to escape the house, she will have the chance at moving on to other career opportunities, hence the career woman who is standing on the street outside of the house.

http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/85

Playlist- The House on Mango Street

I chose to do my playlist on this novel by Sandra Cisneros, because I have a intense interest in Hispanic Culture, especially the study of the transitions that hispanic children born in the United States undergo upon trying to fit in with the new culture in which they are being raised, while at the same time trying to remain loyal to the culture of the mother country. The playlist should basically reflect the mood of the narrator, Esmerelda, through the moods of the songs. The mood begins as somber, depressive, and helpless at the beginning of the playlist, because this is the way Esperanza feels. She feels that she is stuck in a rut that she may never escape trapped in an ugly, cheap house with a family that does not understand her, or her desires to do more than just be a housewife. She undergoes several coming-of-age experiences throughout the novel, which I have tried to document via the songs, finally coming to the realization that she absolutely does not belong in the environment in which she is growing up. However, there is not much she can do, simply because of her age. Therefore, she undergoes an intense episode of anger and frustration, hence the Linkin Park song at the end which screams about the frustration of feeling that you do not belong anywhere. This is revolutionary for Esperanza, since she is rebelling against her family and friends in the neighborhood. I have not quite decided what type of song to put at the end of the playlist, but it needs to be much more tranquil and satisfied, reflective of one who finally realizes that things change, and bad situations are not forever. It should be the indicator of a newfound hope for the future.

Chapter One The House on Mango Street
Dido Life for Rent

I chose this song because it really seems to reflect the way Esperanza feels in the first chapter of the book when she talks about how many times her family has moved from house to house. She recalls earlier residences, and problems with them, such as robberies, leaky faucets, etc. The tone of the song corresponds to the mellow, somewhat melancholy attitude that Esperanza has about her housem yet the simplicity of the lyrics reflects the simplicity of the childish diction used by Esperanza to describe her situation.

"I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go." -Ezperanza, Chapter 1 Page 5

Chapter 12 Those Who Don't
Garth Brooks "We Shall Be Free"



At this point in the book, we can see the first instance of racial tension between the hispanic and white neighborhoods. I chose this song to go along with this section of the book, because it deals with racial issues and it is upbeat yet frustrated, kind of like Esperanza when she describes the situation. She doesn't seem particularly affected by the inability to mesh of the different ethnic neighborhoods, but at the same time, she realizes that it is somewhat ridiculous the way that the two groups behave when they come in contact with each other.

"All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes." -Esperanza Chapter 12, pg. 28

Chapter 13 There Was an Old Woman
Aventura "Amor de Madre"

At this point of the book, we can see the embodiment of an all-too-typical situation in the urban hispanic barrios. The classic disfunctional family where the father abandons the mother with the children, and then she ends up losing control over them and eventually gives up trying to raise them at all. "Amor de Madre" by Aventura describes a perfect example of the same situation, of a mother whose husband abandons her while she is pregnant, and although she tries to be a good influence on her son, the pressure of being mother and father proves to be too much, and she is unable to maintain him out of trouble, and he eventually ends up in jail for murder. Although the situation described in The House on Mango Street is not quite so extreme, it is the same general idea, except it is about a woman who lives in Esperanza's neighborhood. However, one of her sons did jump out of a window to his death.

Chapter 15 Darius and the Clouds
Louis Armstrong "What a Wonderful World"

Darius is a classmate of Esperanza's who although is a pain towards everyone else in the class all of the time, teasing and taunting the girls, when he looks up into the sky he is strangely mesmerized, completely enthralled with the beatuy of nature. His annoying, boyish ways are replaced by traits of someone who is contemplative and spiritual. Darius believes that God exists in one of the clouds that he sees above. For obvious reasons, I chose "What a Wonderful World" for this part of the story, since the voice of the song seems to do exactly the same thing that Darius does; appreciate the immaculate beauty of nature and life, those things that most people ignore on a daily basis.

Chapter 17 The Family of Little Feet
Deanna Carter "Strawberry Wine"

In this chapter of the book, Esperanza becomes aware of her blooming sexuality for the first time. A family in her neighborhood is known for its small feet. Esperanza visits the lady and the lady gives her a pair of high heels, which Esperanza has never worn before. She likes the way they make her legs look, and even gets much attention on the street, but when a homeless person tries to offer her a dollar for a kiss, she is all of a sudden disenchanted with her newfound appeal and takes off the shoes and they sit around until her mother throws them away. The song "Strawberry Wine" also talks about the coming of age, the loss of sexual innocence, and therefore I felt it appropriate for this part of the book, especially since it emphazises, the bittersweetness of it, the good and the bad, which is exactly what Esperanza is coming to terms with at this point in her life.

Chapter 22 Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark
John Mayer "Daughters"

This is the point in the story when Esperanza's Grandfather dies suddenly, and her father wakes her up in the middle of the night sobbing. This touching part of the story emphasizes the relationship between father and daugher, and the uniqueness of that relationship. This song by John Mayer also preaches the importance of having a good relationship with your parents, especially between fathers and daughters.

"Fathers, be good to your daughters.
Daughters will love like you do." -John Mayer

Chapter 43 A House of My own
Linkin Park Somewhere I Belong

In this point in the story, Esperanza becomes fed up with her life and her home and decides that she wants her own house where she will be allowed to do whatever she wants and no one will tell her how to clean it. I chose this song because it expresses a sense of wanting to belong, and a frustration with the current situation. It also sounds angry, just as Esperanza seems in this chapter.

Blog Links:

As I mentioned earlier in my cover letter, this area of my portfolio continues to be the weakest, since I have not posted hardly any blogs due to previously mentioned circumstances. Therefore, here is what I have. most of what I have done is commented on the work of others, especially the collages and the playlists. I did one original blog back at the beginning of the semester about one of the first reading assignments we had where we had to read poems. I made a last attempt at blogging the night I was working on my portfolio. I did it on a short story from class that had the most impact on me. It can be read here: http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/175

http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/21#comment-27
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/comment/edit/28
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/6

I have included the text of the poem, which helps interpretation upon viewing the collage. The two lovers on the sea are representative of the narrator of the poem and Annabel Lee, and I thought that having them seem to "walk on water" would give a mystic effect that perhaps suggests the afterlife or dreams in which the narrator will be united with his lost love. The moon is supposed to add to this effect, since Poe mentions the moon in the poem as a catalyst for his reunion with his lost love through dreams. Perhaps the narrator can visit the spirit of Annabel Lee in her "sepulchre" by the sea. The castle in the distance represents a dark kingdom, dark, because that is certainly the vibe that one gets from reading the poem. The angels above, which seem to be sour and jealous represent the envy that the angels have of the love that the narrator shares with Annabel Lee.

Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee--
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
I and my Annabel Lee--
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me--
Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we--
Of many far wiser than we--
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:
And so, all the night-tide, I lay down by the side
Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea--
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

This represents Esperanza's struggle with abandoning the typical role of Mexican women to seek out a more fulfilling, Americanized lifestyle. The little girl who is sitting with her back towards the house represents Esperanza's frustrations with her life, which seems to go nowhere, except into the kitchen, which is portrayed inside the window of the house, which represents the house on Mango Street. Also the Mexican Flag with La Virgin de Guadalupe, a typical symbol of Mexican pride and tradition, hangs over the part of the house that is farthest away from the outside, or "the outside world", in this case implying the cultural realm of the United States. Inside the house, Esperanza will be confined to carry out the traditional roles of Mexican women. If she is able to escape the house, she will have the chance at moving on to other career opportunities, hence the career woman who is standing on the street outside of the house.

I chose to do my playlist on this novel by Sandra Cisneros, because I have a intense interest in Hispanic Culture, especially the study of the transitions that hispanic children born in the United States undergo upon trying to fit in with the new culture in which they are being raised, while at the same time trying to remain loyal to the culture of the mother country. The playlist should basically reflect the mood of the narrator, Esmerelda, through the moods of the songs. The mood begins as somber, depressive, and helpless at the beginning of the playlist, because this is the way Esperanza feels. She feels that she is stuck in a rut that she may never escape trapped in an ugly, cheap house with a family that does not understand her, or her desires to do more than just be a housewife. She undergoes several coming-of-age experiences throughout the novel, which I have tried to document via the songs, finally coming to the realization that she absolutely does not belong in the environment in which she is growing up. However, there is not much she can do, simply because of her age. Therefore, she undergoes an intense episode of anger and frustration, hence the Linkin Park song at the end which screams about the frustration of feeling that you do not belong anywhere. This is revolutionary for Esperanza, since she is rebelling against her family and friends in the neighborhood. I have not quite decided what type of song to put at the end of the playlist, but it needs to be much more tranquil and satisfied, reflective of one who finally realizes that things change, and bad situations are not forever. It should be the indicator of a newfound hope for the future.

Chapter One The House on Mango Street
Dido Life for Rent

I chose this song because it really seems to reflect the way Esperanza feels in the first chapter of the book when she talks about how many times her family has moved from house to house. She recalls earlier residences, and problems with them, such as robberies, leaky faucets, etc. The tone of the song corresponds to the mellow, somewhat melancholy attitude that Esperanza has about her housem yet the simplicity of the lyrics reflects the simplicity of the childish diction used by Esperanza to describe her situation.

"I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go." -Ezperanza, Chapter 1 Page 5

Chapter 12 Those Who Don't
Garth Brooks "We Shall Be Free"



At this point in the book, we can see the first instance of racial tension between the hispanic and white neighborhoods. I chose this song to go along with this section of the book, because it deals with racial issues and it is upbeat yet frustrated, kind of like Esperanza when she describes the situation. She doesn't seem particularly affected by the inability to mesh of the different ethnic neighborhoods, but at the same time, she realizes that it is somewhat ridiculous the way that the two groups behave when they come in contact with each other.

"All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes." -Esperanza Chapter 12, pg. 28

Chapter 13 There Was an Old Woman
Aventura "Amor de Madre"

At this point of the book, we can see the embodiment of an all-too-typical situation in the urban hispanic barrios. The classic disfunctional family where the father abandons the mother with the children, and then she ends up losing control over them and eventually gives up trying to raise them at all. "Amor de Madre" by Aventura describes a perfect example of the same situation, of a mother whose husband abandons her while she is pregnant, and although she tries to be a good influence on her son, the pressure of being mother and father proves to be too much, and she is unable to maintain him out of trouble, and he eventually ends up in jail for murder. Although the situation described in The House on Mango Street is not quite so extreme, it is the same general idea, except it is about a woman who lives in Esperanza's neighborhood. However, one of her sons did jump out of a window to his death.

Chapter 15 Darius and the Clouds
Louis Armstrong "What a Wonderful World"

Darius is a classmate of Esperanza's who although is a pain towards everyone else in the class all of the time, teasing and taunting the girls, when he looks up into the sky he is strangely mesmerized, completely enthralled with the beatuy of nature. His annoying, boyish ways are replaced by traits of someone who is contemplative and spiritual. Darius believes that God exists in one of the clouds that he sees above. For obvious reasons, I chose "What a Wonderful World" for this part of the story, since the voice of the song seems to do exactly the same thing that Darius does; appreciate the immaculate beauty of nature and life, those things that most people ignore on a daily basis.

Chapter 17 The Family of Little Feet
Deanna Carter "Strawberry Wine"

In this chapter of the book, Esperanza becomes aware of her blooming sexuality for the first time. A family in her neighborhood is known for its small feet. Esperanza visits the lady and the lady gives her a pair of high heels, which Esperanza has never worn before. She likes the way they make her legs look, and even gets much attention on the street, but when a homeless person tries to offer her a dollar for a kiss, she is all of a sudden disenchanted with her newfound appeal and takes off the shoes and they sit around until her mother throws them away. The song "Strawberry Wine" also talks about the coming of age, the loss of sexual innocence, and therefore I felt it appropriate for this part of the book, especially since it emphazises, the bittersweetness of it, the good and the bad, which is exactly what Esperanza is coming to terms with at this point in her life.

Chapter 22 Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark
John Mayer "Daughters"

This is the point in the story when Esperanza's Grandfather dies suddenly, and her father wakes her up in the middle of the night sobbing. This touching part of the story emphasizes the relationship between father and daugher, and the uniqueness of that relationship. This song by John Mayer also preaches the importance of having a good relationship with your parents, especially between fathers and daughters.

"Fathers, be good to your daughters.
Daughters will love like you do." -John Mayer

Chapter 43 A House of My own
Linkin Park Somewhere I Belong

In this point in the story, Esperanza becomes fed up with her life and her home and decides that she wants her own house where she will be allowed to do whatever she wants and no one will tell her how to clean it. I chose this song because it expresses a sense of wanting to belong, and a frustration with the current situation. It also sounds angry, just as Esperanza seems in this chapter.

I liked this poem because it is the true embodiment of the "I hate my job but I still work here" jingle. It really creates the somber mood that these women who work cleaning fish must experience on a daily basis. This life is the only life that they have ever known, and will probably be the only life that they ever will know. The reference to the smell seemed very significant to me. "They wear old clothes because the smell will never go." This to me represents the permanence of their situation, as well as the lack of desire or ambition to escape it. The idea that all of the women who do this particular job are named "Rose" or "Grace" tends to suggest that this is a predestined way of life, one that is inherited like a curse. Although the tone is dismal, this poem still turned out to be my favorite of the packet.