The Road Not Taken

Road not taken is pretty short poem consist of four stanza. The poem is about making a choice between two road. Main theme of the poem is that everyone has to make decision in life. In the poem, decision are made by deciding between two road. The first stanza, the narrator talks about two different roads. He is sorry that he can't take roads at same time. Also, one of the road is bend which represents the roads we have to take to achieve our goal are not straightforward. Second stanza talks about the second road which is about the same as the first one. Third stanza discusses about notice that the leaves were both fresh fallen on them both and had not been walked on, but then again claims that maybe he would come back and also walk the first one sometime, but he doubted he would be able to, because in life one thing leads to another and time is short. Fourth stanza, at the being of the story the narrator talks about both of the road being the same distance. However, at the end of the poem the narrator talks about he took the one less traveled road. This tends to emphasize the importance of this last stanza and ignore the previous stanzas where the narrator reveals the roads are about the same. Narrator of Road Not Taken discusses great detail about how any choice we make is going to make “all the difference” in how our future turns out.

The Journey By Mary Oliver

After reading The Journey twice, i understand what the author was talking about. From my point of view, Mary Oliver is talking about the journey everyone has to take in life. In that journey, everyone is going to face tough time in life. There are going to be people that give bad advise and criticize, and there are going to be people that are helpful. However, the poem says you don't need to listen anybody ,you must listen to your heart and obey your rules. During this time you can meet many difficulties but you must be patient and determined. Last four line of the poem was surprising to me in some way. "Determined to do the only thing you could do--determined to save the only life you could save." Eventually, a person realizes they can't save anyone in life other than him/herself. I think that author implying that the author was held back by other people to complete his Journey. Maybe that is why his sound little bit selfish at the end of the poem. I don't know if that is right or not but that is what i think of the poem. This poem is really good because it is straightforward to the point. This is definitely one of my favorite poems. Mainly, this poem is about survival and achieving your goals. Nice poem.

Poem

One of the main reason I hate English is because of poetry. My dislike of poetry is because of the wording. Most of time when I read the poem I don't understand the main point behind it. Therefore, I end up using the internet to get analysis of the poems. However, the last poem I remember is The Chimney Sweeper. First time i read the poem, i didn't understand the main theme behind the story. Then I went online and search the topic and it all make sense. I don't remember much about the Chimney Sweeper but i know it is about a young boy. how young boy was when his father sold him when he was so young that he couldn't even cry the traditional street cry of the chimney sweepers (sweep, sweep, sweep). The stanza finishes by describing the poor conditions that the child has to live in. The second stanza then goes on to describe another chimney sweeper called Tom Dacre, a child who is crying because his hair has just been shaved off, the other child comforts Tom, telling him that his hair color will no longer be spoiled by the soot. This a very sad poem because it reflects how the Chimney Sweepers were suffering but they didn't show it nevertheless they were trying to be happy by imaging positive thing such as Angels and God. I am surprised that I remember this much about the poem.

Internet or newspaper

The use of internet in 20th century has rising dramatically by the people. The internet is used to do many thing from shopping to reading news. As a result, the use of newspaper are declined. I think that we aren't going to have newspaper in future because the advance technology in internet. Everyday more and more people are using internet for in-depth information. For example, i was sitting in my U.S. class last Thursday taking notes, and i got a text saying that MJ is dead. I didn't know it was a rumor or not, so i went on the internet from my blackberry to learn more about the news. In less than two minute, I found an article about MJ's dead on CNN.com. I read the entire story in less than ten minute. However, If I relied on the newspaper then I have to wait until my class was done. After that I have to stop at a gas station to pick up the newspaper and pay for it. Therefore, I usually use internet to find out about the news instead of wasting my time to finding a new paper.

Even though sometime many newspaper has more information on the news subject, but i prefer internet use because it is faster to find. Sometime, you can find false information about the news but you used reliable website then information would be more accurate. There is always going to be a side effect for both newspaper and internet use.

should cell phones be allowed in schools?

One of most modern advance in technology in 20th century is cell phone. Cell phone has many positive attribute to helps us better our life. Now day, cell phone is like a mini computer that allows people to do anything from communicating with people to shopping online. Now people are trying to put limitation on the use of cell phone in certain place such school because of distraction cause by the use of cell phone. Many people are arguing that student are using texting as a new means of cheating and it is latest form of corruption. Even though cell have few negative effects if used in school but i think it many more positive effect than negative effects.

one way the cell phone will help the student is when they are put dangerous situation. In our recent history, the school shooting has increase dramatically. The most recent one is the Virginia Tech shooting where 33 student were dead. It could have be many more if it wasn't for the use of cell phone in the school. The student use cell phone to alarm their friends of shooting. Most importantly use cell phone was to call the police for help. Situation like this remind us that cell of phone is needed in school. Argument that student are using texting to cheat is nonsense. Well, my argument is that we pay enough money to teacher to do there job. One of their job is to make sure none one cheat by walking around the class during the test. Basically, if teacher do there job then there shouldn't be a problem.

Another thing that modern cell phone comes with GPS system with allow police officer to track the person down if they get lost or kidnapped. The argument about how cell phone is latest form of corruption is stupid because it is up to the person if he or she want to get corrupted. In conclusion, the argument to me are nonsense we you really think about it. Therefore, cell phone use in school has many positive effects compared to negative effects.

My Paper

I think that this paper is straightforward and clear about the symbolism in three short stories. I tried to put everything that came to my mind on the paper. Things I could I have improved on includes:

The introduction talks mainly about the definition of symbolism and then the thesis statement. I really didn't like the thesis statement because it is to simple, but I couldn't come up with anything else. In the first body paragraph, I discuss about the symbolism in "A Clean, Well Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway.I got straight to point and talk about symbolism. I think I should have add more transition sentence to make the paper sound better. However, i think that the paper should be straightforward, instead of adding transition sentence to make the paper complicated, so I just kept it the same. In the second body paragraph, I talked about symbolism in Good Country People. This story didn't have much symbolism, so it was hard for me to write about symbolism. However, i tried my best to talk about symbolism in the story. I could have talk more about symbolism in the story but i couldn't think, and I was afraid I was going to make the paper to long. In the third short story, I used lots of examples to show the symbolism in The Things They carried by Tim O' Brien. I think that this was the best paragraph of the paper because I included lots of detail from the story. Conclusion was alright and pretty simple.

Symbolism in The thing they carried

In “The Thing They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the use of symbolism is really used in the story to express the materials that solider really carry other than material like object. The title of the story “The Thing They Carried” is great symbolism in sense of literal and figurative. At the beginning of the story, Tim O’ Brien discusses about material objects they carried in the war which include, p-38 can opener, pocket knives, heat tabs, sewing kits, canteens of water, etc. “Together, these items weighed between fifteen and twenty ponds, depending upon a man’s habits or rate of metabolism(O’Brien).” Other things that the solider carried that reader don’t really realize is figurative thing. Some of the figurative things they carried are fear, emotional burdens, and guilt. For example, the solider didn’t realize the reality of the war until Ted Lavender was shot in the back of the head by a sniper. The reality and fear of the war was realized after death of Lavender. Even, Jimmy cross carries guilt for Lavender’s death. He felt that it was his fault that lavender dies because he was fantasying about Martha. He felt that “he had loved Martha more than his men and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war (O’Brien)”. Even though his men didn’t think that it was his fault, this guilt will always stay with him. He even burns that picture of Martha to show how devastating he felt. The solider carried some much of emotional burden that it was heaver than material object. Even after the war many of the solider can get forget about the war. For example, Henry Dobbins a machine gunner who was gentle and kind became a monk after the war was over. Even after the war, the psychological burdens of the men carry during the war continued to define them. O’Brien does a fantastic job to show what solider really carries through out the war.