The Elephant Man

The Elephant Man is a play that was written by Bernard Pomerance. This was a play that was a true story about a real person named John Merrick. Merrick was a young man that has a horrific crippling disease that changed his entire life. From the beginning John is one of the acts of a traveling circus. This was where the title and john got his name of the elephant man half elephant and half man. The circus got their money from him exposing himself and his diseased body. In return for doing this he received a place to live, food, and was taken care of. John and the circus traveled to Belgium and the police say that he is indecent for anyone to see him. After John was taken by the police they find a card that was given to him by Doctor Treves, in which he works at the London hospital. Treves accepts him to the hospital and begins to study him. He wants to help john be as humanly normal as possible and eventually tells John he can call it “home.” While John is staying at the hospital many people come to see him and see what all the talk is about. Also while there in his free time he built a model of St. Phillips and shows actually how intelligent he is. Many people were interview to be Merrick assistant and the only one that passed was Mrs. Kendal. She visits and helps him very often and starts to find out that all john wants is to be normal and in his eyes to be normal is to see a beautiful woman naked. Eventually Mrs. Kendall reveals herself to him to help him feel more normal. When she does this Treves walks in and yells at her to leave. I believe Mrs. Kendal was the only one that saw John as a real person and felt that he was just like her. After Mrs. Kendal left, John felt left out and alone, because no one really talked to him anymore. Merrick lives the rest of his life at the hospital until he dies. My last thoughts about the story was that he was in a nice place staying in the hospital, but I start to become just like Ross and the director. Ross and the directors shows off Merrick for money and Treves shows off Merrick

Snake

In the poem “Snake,” by D.H Lawrence, there is a man that travels to a water-thought to get a drink and on his arrival he sees a snake already there getting a drink of water.This man waits patiently while the snake finishes drinking. He waits and waits and begins to think of why he is waiting when he could be taking a stick and break him now, and finish him off. If I was in his position I would of killed the snake, so why doesn’t he kill the snake? When some people think of a snake, they think evil, or gross or dangerous and that it needs to be killed. I said it’s for some people but that is what the person meant in the poem when he said he must be killed. This snakes color was yellow-brown and if you look that up it means they are poisonous, so I kind of believe that he feels like he should kill it. He could also think that killing it could save others. If he even may feel like that everything is telling him to kill it, he still doesn’t.

For someone to stand there and not do anything, I wonder if he wants socialize with the snake. I notice that he never calls the snake “snake”, but him or king. So the question is why did the man see himself in the snake? The man seemed as if he was a lonely guy, but the snake was as well. The difference between them was that the snake could go anywhere, do whatever it wanted, and since he was one of the few of the snakes that were poisonous made him more noticeable and respectable. When we think of a snake even though most of us are afraid of them makes us show respect for them also. There are other types of people that would hurt or kill that snake, because they know they can and that there is no comparison between them and the snake. I see him more and more as the snake as each passage passes and that the man goes through each day and hope that he doesn’t get bothered, injured, or hurt. There is one part he will not compare but only wish of and that is that the snake is due to be crowned and that he wishes he could be as powerful and noticed as the snake is. No matter how low you or anyone gets everyone always knows that they will concur or be on top of something one day.

Blackberries

My other blog that I chose was from “Blackberries” by Yusef Komunyakaa. It was about a boy who picks blackberries from the woods and tries to sell them. As he collects them he eats them and while doing this he daydreams about history. A car passes him while he is near the road and the two children in the back seat brought him back to earth from his daydreaming. First of all, from “They left my hands like a printer’s / Or thief’s before a police blotter,” it is as if this is a daily job for this young Child, and this child had been doing this job for quite some time. The child does not want to do this job but he has no choice due to his family being so poor. I believe that  the author uses the word” Terrestrial sweetness” to describe how rich the berries taste. However, at the same time, the young child cannot enjoy the sweet juicy fruits. As I can see from the third stanza “An hour later, beside City Limits Road / I balanced a gleaming can in each hand, / Limboed between worlds,” after the boy fills out his basket, he aspires to sell his blackberries to make a little money. We understand that this young boy in the poem didn’t have a childhood corresponding to the childhood of the others. Instead of a child who plays, jokes, giggles and has fun, he must make money for his family. I feel sorry for this child, but this is his life and not anyone can change this for him. In the last stanza, “The big blue car made me sweat. / Wintertime crawled out of the windows” the author gives us a clear gap between lower class and upper class people, which is meaningful to how different their lives are. The upper class people, also called the “rich people” relax inside enjoying their comfy lives, while, the young boy suffers in the treacherous summer. Also, as we can see from the lines “I saw the boy& girl my age, in the wide back seat.” People who purchase blackberries must have a luxury car, and therefore, their children live in a very comfortable family setting in comparison to this, young boy, who is only ten years old, who lives in such a brutal environment. The young boy also has to face all kinds of problems that he isn’t supposed to deal with in his young age.