"Inoculation" By Susan Donnelly

After I first read the poem, I did some research about Cotton Mather to find out the antecedent to the poem.  Cotton Mather was a reverend who was partly responsible along with Dr. Zabdiel Boylston for the first small pox inoculation in Boston, Massachusetts.  The slave that is mentioned, Onesimus, really was a slave to Mather.  Only because of Onesimus was Mather able to find out how to inoculate people.  At the time, experimentation on human kind was frowned upon by the Church and so was inoculation.  A word I did not know was providence.  It simply means divine guidance.  Going back to the poem, we now know that the antecedent is that Mather is talking to Onesimus about inoculation.  Because Onesimus already has had the disease, he cannot get it again.  The second stanza in the poem is talking about the antibodies that Onesimus has inside of his body.  They are part of the disease yet he still survives.  In the last stanza, I think Donnelly is making a commentary on slavery and how Onesimus is free of small pox but not of slavery, but I am not sure exactly how she is saying it.

Trip to the Supermarket

My brother and I drove in our car up to the local supermarket and parked towards the end of the lot because we like to think the extra hundred yards we have to travel counts as exercise.  My brother and I go our separate ways as he walks to the hardware store next to the supermarket.  It is a bright day with the sun shining in my face as I enter the store.  As I move past all of the carts because I am only there to get some milk, I notice the service desk lady look at me as I go by.  After I have examined all of the prices of the milk within reach, I grab the cheapest carton and make my way toward the self-check-out area.  There is a line, so I get behind a mother with her child who continually looks at me until her mother tells her to stop.  Nonetheless, the child continues to sneak glances at me until they eventually walk away.  Finally, there is an open station.  I scan my milk, and the attendant walks over and asks I if I need any help.  I say I don't and he continues on his rounds.  I leave the store and meet my brother back at the car.  He asks me how my shopping was and I say looking at myself, "It's like people have never seen somebody in a wheel chair."

Analysis of "Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle" by John Updike

At first, the poem seems like a person is attending a concert in the chapel.  The "violins vaunting Vivaldi's strident strength, then Brahms" are actually our "beating hearts."  The music from the concert is really the colorful light coming through the stain glass windows, yet the light is confined by lead walls which keep the light inside the chapel.  At the same time, the iron gives the light shape and form of "shield and cross."  Without the iron, the light would be nothing.  Updike uses alliteration to create images in the reader's mind about "blazing blues," violins vaunting Vivaldi's" with "strident strength".  Updike makes a comparison using light and music saying that eyes listen and hear whispers.  The light dances around the chapel as if it is dancing to music.  The windows are a form of art like music is, and just like music, they provide entertainment.  Our eyes see the light, and then our hearts bring out the images and the beauty of the windows.

Kite Runner

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini was a thought-provoking book.  The protagonist, Amir, is faced with emence guilt after not stopping his friend, Hassan, from being raped.  Amir tries several different methods of overcoming his guilt.  At first, he runs from the guilt by getting Hassan and his father, Ali, to stop being their servants, so Amir can try and forget what happened.  When Amir and his father flee to America, Amir sees it as another way to run from his troubles.  In the end Amir is presented an opportunity to redeem himself by resucing Hassan's son from Afghanistan which has turned into a war zone.  In Afghanistan, Amir must confront the person who is responsible for what happened to Hassan.  Only with the help of Hassan's son is Amir able to overcome his fear.  At the end of the book, Amir saves the boy and is finally at peace with himself.  As much as Amir tried to run from his past, it found a way back into his life, and he was forced to confront it. 

Blog Title

For those of you who can't infer what my title is, it is The Been Sitting Here for Hours Can't Think of a Clever Title Blog.  I spent several days thinking of titles and that was the best I could do.  I shortened it so that it would fit on hte computer screen in one line.