Hills like White Elephants

   Allow me to start off by saying the first time i read this story i was completely confused, i did not understand what was going on in the story . At first i thought this story was about something completely different then it actually was. My first thought was maybe he was pressuring her into changing her psychical appearance though some kind of medical procedure but then i thought about it and realized that, that couldn't be it. I sat there for a long time trying to figure out what the poem was about. I had no idea what it was really about until someone said they thought it was about abortion. Then i thought about it realized that that actually fit. I don't know why i didn't think of that in the first place.

    In my opinion it sort of seems like the American man is forcing what he wants on the young girl. He has clearly already made up his mind and is fully aware of what he wants. The young girl however seems to be on the fence and really unsure of what she wants to do with this baby that she is carrying. I think that this man might have gotten this young girl pregnant and did not want anyone to know about it or did not want to have to deal with taking care of a baby so he is trying to convince her to go through with the abortion. Throughout the whole story you can see the girl struggling with her inner thoughts on what to do. It seems like she wants to keep the baby but she is feeling a lot of pressure from this American man to terminate the pregnancy.  At the end of the story the woman is faced with two choices which is represented by opposite sides of the train tracks. One side represents fertility (green, lush) the other side is barren and dry and this represents the woman going through with the abortion. As we know she chooses the fertile side and chooses to keep the baby. I think this was very brave of her considering how hard of a choice this would have been for her to make in that time period.

  I liked this poem because it showed a young woman who was struggling under pressure with a choice of weather or not to keep her unborn child while facing enormous pressure from this American man. I think it was empowering for women of that time period because regardless of the pressure she faced and her internal conflict she chose to keep her child regardless of the consequence's.

My Mistress Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun

When i first read this poem i found it rather insulting. It seemed to me that this man was insulting his mistress. When a man talks about the woman that he loves most people would think he would say flattering things. However in this poem the speaker does not. At first one might think like i did that it seemed almost insulting but that however is not the case. What he is really doing is describing this ordinary woman that he loves dearly. The speaker tells us that even thought this woman may not be goddess like or fit what most men in that day would consider to be a perfect woman he still loved her. He makes comments to say that her breath does not always smell the best, her hair resembles wires . He says that her cheeks are not Rosy and "her eyes are nothing like the sun". Would you be offended by that? I would , but we need to look at the deeper meaning . When reading this poem one must keep in mind that this sonnet was amongst many written for "the dark lady" and that is exactly what the lady described in this poem resembles.

   I personally liked this poem because it draws on reality rather then fantasy. The speaker does not lie and gives the raw truth about his mistress's appearance and her imperfections. But it is because she is not perfect that he loves her. He is saying basically that regardless of what she looks like he will love her unconditionally . I think that is romantic because he does not base his love on her appearance rather her personality. This was my favorite poem written by Shakespeare that i have read .

Dead Man's Path

Dead Man's Path written by Chinua Achebe shows how people are ignorant towards other's cultures and their individual beliefs. Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in the 1930's and having grown up in Africa witnessed the effects of western culture being imposed on Africa. Through his work the readers are allowed some insight on what went on during the Apartheid.

   This story takes place in 1949 where we are introduced to a young School teacher names Obi who has just gotten a job as the headmaster of Ndume Central School. Obi is not satisfied with the school and feels that he needs to change it to make it more modern and fit his vision of how he thinks the school should look. He attempted to change the standard of teaching within the school and planted a garden on the school's compounds to better the appearance of the school. Michel was not aware that there was a path connecting the villagers to their place of burial that went through the school compound. One day Michel witnessed an old lady hobbling off into the bushes that lay on the other side . Michel decided that he would step up some sort of block to block of the rarely used path. This did not sit well with the village elder because Michel was soon paid a visit by the village elder asking the he re-open the path. The village elder argued that that path had been there long before Michel was even born and this path lead to where their dead relatives departed, and was also the path for the children coming in to be born. The village elder tried to emphasise the importance of this path to the villagers. Michel chooses not to listen to the village elder and two days later pays a price. He finds the school vandalized by the villagers. Part of his school was ripped down and his flower beds that he and his wife had spent time planting were trampled. As a result the supervisor wrote a Obi a nasty report and also stated that there was a war developing between the school and the village
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   This story brings about the point that traditions and cultures should not be changed. In other words just because you view you beliefs as superior to that of other's it's wrong to try and change the way they live. As much as one may try it does not mean that people are going to be willing to be subjected to these changes and change their lives. Obi was so blinded by the fact that he thought his ways were best and everyone needed to change along with him that he did not realise the importance of the path that he blocked off to the villagers. He chose not to listen to what the villagers wanted and did not respect their wishes so the villagers rebelled against Obi. If he has of just listened to the village elders and respected what he had asked then Obi would not have had his school vandalized . I like this story because it teaches people that they should respect all different cultures try to learn from them as opposed to trying to change them because they feel that their beliefs are superior