Saudade

Authors Note: Coming from a Portuguese background I was influenced a lot by this word Saudade, used for the the nostalgic feeling in your gut when you miss something or someone. Possibly a home, like the people from Portugal when they arrived in a new country for a better life. Or wanting to feel those certain feelings again or seeing that place. It means a different thing to each person, just depends how you define your "Saudade". 

As feet lose ground, 

as memories lose focus,

a feeling high in longing. 
Saudade.

                                                                                             

As longing grows to miles 

And miles to years,

A feeling high in hope.
Saudade.

As years fly by 

and nostalgia remains,

here’s to hoping,
Saudade.

What was once

For the wind to decide,

Our feet graze earth

and pictures become reality.

Saudade.

Bored or Intrigued?

Authors Note: I analyzed two poems "Summer Grass" and "Song for a Surf-Rider" Both used figurative language to enhance their pieces. Using tone and mood to make their poems both intriguing and interesting. 

Most people start to yawn and get sleepy eyed mid way through the first chapter of a book. Maybe the plots boring or the theme is not what they prefer, or maybe figurative language should have been used more? That’s exactly what they did in both “Summer Grass” and “Song for a Surf-Rider” figurative language was used to enhance tone, mood, and interest in each poem.

In “Summer Grass” by Carl Sandburg and “Song for a Surf-Rider” Sara Van Alstyne Allen, imagery and figurative language was used immensely. Mostly to dramatize the text and add desire. For instance, in the stanza “His eyes flash with an emerald fire” it seems through this type of imagery that the author tries to replicate passion and aspiration, it also adds drama which makes the piece appealing. Also some metaphors and anaphora’s were used emplace of tiresome word choice. The anaphora in “Summer Grass” really emphasized the chronological order of the rain’s actions. It also mixed  in personification, giving it that extra significance.

The two author’s used this type of imagery to add importance of the events taking place. Also making it much more engaging and easy to read (it all flows together). In “Summer Grass” the imagery and anaphora’s made the author’s tone very calm and cool, almost effortless. Also in “Song for a Surf-Rider” the personifications made the tone seem strong and ready to overcome anyone and anything. Making both of these pieces very intriguing!

Although the figurative language in these pieces made the tone show through they also made me, as a reader, feel certain ways. For example, the different personifications from “Summer Grass” make it seem like your wildest dreams could come true and that bad times in your life will get better. Just like it did for the grass. But in “Song for a Surf-Rider” strong word choice and personifications made it a very powerful piece, giving you the feeling of invincibility and that you could overcome any obstacle. I for one gained different moods from each piece.

In both, “Summer Grass” and “Song for a Surf-Rider” figurative language made each poem sound a lot more sophisticated and anything but boring. Also affecting the tone and mood of the reader.  So maybe, from quality figurative language, instead of a yawn or stretch you can be smothered by the book pressed in to your face.

Thrills and Chills

Authors Note:The Point of view can make or break a story, particularly in Tales of Mystery and Terror . The point of view it was in made it confusing and made you feel a bit foolish for believing it in the end. In this piece I analyzed the point of view of Sphinx.

Point of View

Thrilling Story’s and fictional objects make Edgar Allen Poe’s, Tales of Mystery And Terror, perfect for a complicated and exuberating read. At first many of these stories didn’t make sense to me; Sphinx being a prime example. It’s children’s story demeanor and “Scary Monster” cliché make this story seem far from what it is. A man seeing a monster that is bigger than an elephant but it’s actually known to be the size of an insect? Maybe he has problems that are much larger then they seem, or anxiety, or maybe he’s just plan crazy. But more importantly what is his friend thinking?

In Edgar Allen Poe’s Sphinx, the main character give the impression that there is truly an immense creature ready to attack him.  You feel the chills that run up his spine and sheer terror that envelopes him. It made me feel confused just like the main character! Only because you hear  his point of view; what he is feeling during his encounters.  He even states “As this creature first came in sight, I doubted my own sanity – or at least the evidence of my own eyes;” so he was admitting to the thought of this creature being preposterous! “and many minutes pass before I succeeded in convincing myself that I was neither mad nor in a dream.” But quite oddly I started to believe him too, this is a real thing. His confused words made me believe this distraught man.

Would I believe this man if someone else were telling the story? Of course not! My mind sways by the judgment of the narrator, thus, if the narrator was the host I would most definitely be thinking this man was crazy. Possibly delusional! If I wanted a clearer perspective on the whole situation I would want a 3^rd person point of view. Someone who is not part of the situation just an outsider telling the story, similar to myself. This way the opinions would be toned down and I would see each side. No one’s making me think things that are not quite correct or the way they play out to be. But, if it were to be a 3^rd person narration the story could have become meaningless and boring. Morals of the story would have been absent. The way it was really narrated made it intense and it made you think, although it made you think as crazy as the character did.

Although thrilling, this story is more of a delusional mans thoughts. Tricking you in to thinking this could be real. He learns to find his sanity in the end but he still made you undergo his fearful foolish puzzled mind-set. So depending on who recites the story makes a large difference on how you comprehend the tale and each character in it! 

Lives

Authors Note: I wrote a Haiku poem because of my lost interest in poems recently! I thought that writing a haiku could pull me back in to figurative language and give me some practice. 

Lives

Lives begin to fall

 Like the leaves during autumn  

Decaying with time

Just one jump ahead

 Discovering life’s assets

Success pulls me up

Illusion

Author Notes: When monsters turn to insects and life becomes confusing you feel scared and a bit crazy! But that is only when its written from the crazed point of view. What if its in a bystanders point of view? That's exactly what I showed in this piece. 

Thrilling Story’s and fictional objects make Edgar Allen Poe’s, Tales of Mystery And Terror,  perfect for a complicated and exuberating read. At first many of these stories didn’t make sense to me; Sphinx being a prime example. It’s children’s story demeanor and “Scary Monster” cliché make this story seem far from what it is. A man seeing a monster that is bigger than an elephant but it’s actually known to be the size of an insect? Maybe he has problems that are much bigger then they seem, or anxiety problems, or maybe he’s just plan crazy. But more importantly what is his friend thinking? What is this story like in a different point of view? That is what I want to demonstrate…

The friends version of Sphinx:

---

Finally, I had found the opportunity to get away. Finally, I got to free myself to a cottage with my friend for the weekend. Finally, I got to sit down and read a classic book. Until I hear my friend stand from his chair and peer intensely through the glass window. Close and opening his eyes, as if trying to get rid of an image. Weird? I wait for him to turn; instead he falls to the ground. As impulse I jump to his aid! Maybe he's ill? Maybe just passed out? Maybe different air pressure in the woods? No, definitely passed out. I poke him a bit before he has awoken, dizzy and confused.

“What happened?” I questioned. With no expression he shook his head.

“Th-there was a thing,” he stuttered, “it ran over the naked part of the hills.” He gives a scarce description of the beast that I presume is just a dream. He retrieves his book, which may I say looks like one from my library, and goes to his room. I sit pondering the thought of this creature.

Within four days my friend sits in the lounging chair near the window where he first saw this creature; without notice he screams in absolute terror. Failing to use his words he rambles and points.

"What?!" I yell in annoyance.

“Right there! Its running up the hills!” I step closer to see nothing and come to the realization that my friend either- one, had too much to drink or two, has gone mentally insane. Either way he is hallucinating; I see no beast in the distance. I decide that I will ignore my insane friend, but he will not shut up about this so called "monster"  so I pull out my synopses of Natural History. As we flip through the pages we only find one animal that fits his description- thick as the body of an elephant,  immense black shaggy hair at the root of his trunk, 2 tusks, wings, metal scales. Only could be classified as the Sphinx. Although, it turns out to be a bug. My mind tries to wrap itself around this problem. The only place to go is where his screaming attacks frequently happen.

I look through the window he first discovered this monster and find an insect dangling on a web right in front of my eyes. Could this huge monster turned out to be an insect a sixteenth of an inch? It's Nowhere near the size of his description. Obviously this is only an optical illusion playing tricks with my friends mind! But does this mean much more?

---

A cold heart

Authors Note: Theme is a big part in every book./novel, that's exactly why I wrote an essay providing the importance of theme in the book A Christmas Carol while comparing it to two other wonderful books. 

Complete and utter loneliness is the life Ebenezer Scrooge walks in. He can’t saunter down the icy street of Great Britain without people giving him weird looks and straying far away from him. A normal human would feel disowned by this, but Scrooge was far from normal. This rudeness made Scrooge pleased that he didn’t need to come in contact with such idiotic pedestrians. Even during the merry time of Christmas! His cold heart wouldn’t warm one degree during the cold harsh season! That was until the night three phantoms haunted him; sent from his dead pal Marley. The ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Changing his misery to jolliness just in time for Christmas day. Although Ebenezer Scrooge changes he still has the past of his lonely life growing up and running his business. That is why I consider Loneliness a large theme in the book “A Christmas Carol”.

Ebenezer grew up in a family that found him as a disgrace. He lived most of his childhood years in the lonesome boarding school, not even taken home for the Holiday Season. Obviously making Christmas a spiteful time of the year for old Ebenezer. Even the poorest of people had felt the warmth of Christmas, but Ebenezer felt nothing. It’s quite sad and a tragedy that Scrooge as a boy never received the unconditional love that every young child should. Making him envious of the people who did.

But that envious attitude didn’t end there, it went through his adult years as well.  Once Marley becomes desist he spends each day alone. Accompanied by his underpaid clerk, which he would not consider a friend.  Scrooge lives a solitary life keeping each door double locked, separating himself from the world outside. But once in contact with peaceful pedestrians he becomes irritated and cold. No one chooses to talk to him because of his negativity. Making him the most solitude man in town.

Having a solitary life wasn’t the result for only Scrooge in  A Christmas Carol  but, also many other books. Speak being one of those.  A adolescent girl becomes an outcast due to a huge misunderstanding. No one knows her true story and what she’s been through. Although, the kids at her school still end up giving her rude glares and ignore her completely. Just like the people on the street do to Scrooge. No one knows their stories. Along with Pictures of Hollis Woods. A lonesome orphan runs away from every family she’s been with, never feeling wanted or loved. Just like Scrooge as a boy. As you can see each book illustrates the theme of loneliness and demonstrates it quiet nicely.

Life for the lonely is bitter and cold. Only the heartless can deal with that and Ebenezer Scrooge, although it may seem otherwise, had a heart. A heart that just needed to find a purpose and thanks to the three phantoms Ebenezer found that purpose right in time for Christmas. Along with the girls from Pictures of Hollis Woods and Speak. They just needed that purpose and at the end of each book that purpose was fulfilled. Making loneliness sometimes turn in to a, cliché, but very happy ending.

Life and death.

Author's Note: I became a little confused with this piece and I would like to have it graded and see what I need to do to make it better and then make those corrections! 

                Death, possibly falling in to a deep sleep; drifting to heaven as memories, good and bad, rush through your head. Or possibly it could be being brutally raped, dismembered, and then buried and never found again. Watching every agonizing second of your family falling apart, just as Susie Salmon had done in the book The Lovely Bones.

                Although I have not read the ending of this book I have pretty good prediction of what will happens next and this is my version…

P.S. Susie Narrates the story from heaven and Susie’s Mother is on her way to Vegas.  

…

I watch my family as if flipping through pages of the life I will fail to ever see in my physical body. My little brother playing with the neighbor boy in the backyard. Lindsey in her room with Sam venting about the affair my mother is committing. Father, fast asleep in the old worn leather chair in his office. But my per say “world” comes to a halt when my mother has found herself on the side of the road quietly weeping as she crushes my old charm bracelet in the palms of her hand. The one Mr.Harvey dumped on the side of the road states away from the deep hole I was murdered in. Evidence. My mother  frantically dials my father’s number.

“Hello?” His deep voice bellows through the phone. I yearn to hear that voice again. 

“I’m coming home,” my mother gives no time for my father to respond and ends the call. It’s a slow painful ride home.

Mother opens the front door and gazes into the eyes of Detective Len Fenerman. She instantaneously snaps her head in to a different direction. Out of embarrassment? Or out of selfish moments she’d failed to erase with that man? This, I will never know. She looks ahead to only find my sister staring straight through her almost as if she is nothing to her anymore. Then she resorts to putting her head down and explains the situation holding out the bracelet nearly like a peace offering. Rarely looking up to see the face she had so easily fell for. The tension  the room elevates. Everyone shocked and focused on the small metal bracelet in the center of the table. Len stands puts the bracelet in a small baggy and retreats to the door.

“I will do the best I can to find your daughter’s killer. I’m sorry we hadn’t gotten him earlier,” Mr.Fenerman courteously tips his head to my mother then father and slowly closes the door. My mother watches him leave out of the front window as if she will never see him again. As if those were her last words to her secret lover.

Abruptly a vase smashes against the wall. Everyone spins to see my father squatting, hands covering his face in aggravation. He sits for several seconds before recoiling to his office to find himself thinking of me. Of my face and warmth. My smile and voice. I’m upset although flattered. Someone could love me with such passion, but a love that brings much sorrow. I wish so much to comfort him but all I can do is watch. As I walk to my balcony I wish for Mr.Harvey to die. It would leave my family with relief and wash away some of the pain. But I know only a physical person could kill Mr.Harvey. So I wish for my father to reap revenge.

Several days go by as my family’s energy level drops and they find themselves in grief coma unable to awake, almost as bad as the day I was perceived dead. Although, I can sense a higher energy and I know something is terribly wrong. I start to flip through the pages once more. Lindsey is taking a jog around the neighborhood, safe. My brother in his afternoon nap, safe. Mother is knitting, safe. Father working in his office, safe. An ache goes through my body. I go back to my sister, there.  Deep in the tree my sister had once rested was Mr.Harvey.

He stalks her from a distance. I remember everything from that day as if it were yesterday. My terrifying shrieks and his stale breath. He speaks. 

“Lindsey, right? Susie’s sister?” Lidnsey looks for the source of her name. I want to scream for her to run.

“Yes?” Lindsey turns to him and a shiver runs up the spin of her back.

“Oh, hi there! It’s Mr.Harvey! I’m back to the neighborhood just wanted to see how everybody was doing. You holding up fine?” He speaks to her with such kindness. A kindness I find repulsive. I know now that he just couldn’t resist my sister. He desired her blood.

“Yeah I’m good, thanks. I better be getting back now. Nice to see you!” I realize she might just get away. She knows he’s my murderer.

“But Lindsey, don’t you want to catch up? I’ve got some refreshments in my car, you must be thirsty?” He takes a few steps closer.

“No, I’m good but thank you” She stumbles back.

“Come on Lindsey, I was your neighbor?” His voice starts to sound quiet irritated.

“I’m sorry I have somewhere to be” she tries to find any reason to leave.

“Lindsey please. Come with me” His voice become stern and cold. He leaps forward in to a full sprint after my sister. She screams and my father awakes. Lindsey’s fast as her long lanky legs gracefully run along the pavement. Mr.Harvey pants as he tries to keep a steady pace. Sweat leaks down each of their faces. The murderer becomes steps away.  A race for life or death.

“BANG!” One shot.

“BANG!” Two. The shots still ring in my ears as my father because still with his finger clenched around the pistol in his hands. My sister turns back to see Mr.Harvey lying on the pavement blood and all the lives he has stolen gushing out of his chest. The life fade’s out of his eyes and It appears that death was chosen for Mr.Harvey. I grin as my sister falls to the ground in my father’s arms. He drops the gun and weeps tears of happiness.

~

As you can see I chose a “Happy Ending” because I assumed a book of despair should lead to some happiness. Just like in the book My sister's Keeper it had a twist at the end but I feel it was the only way the book should have ended. Therefore making it my version of a "Happy Ending". Obviously, I may not have gotten every detail correct in my alternate ending but the main idea of Mr.Harvey dying was accurate. Instead of being shot by  Susie’s father though, an icicle had fallen on him killing him instantly and then leaving him to be covered and frozen by the white snow falling during that cold season.

The reason I picked this ending was because Susie’s father had vocalized several times how he was going to kill his daughter’s murderer. He hated Mr.Harvey with a passion and couldn’t wait to steal his life like he had done to Susie. Also I tried to add in specific details from the book like Susie’s  charm bracelet, her mother’s cold personality, Mr.Harvey’s stale breathe, and Mr.Salmon’s old chair. All of this to make this alternate ending relate to the book.