Persi's Blog

One of the biggest reasons for the harsh punishments that slaves endured over minor offences was that their masters were trying to keep them under their control. Slaves were very cut off-they were not allowed to read or write. They were also sometimes separated from their families at young ages. As slaves are free-minded, free-willed people, there is always the possibility that they would rebel. The whole point of this was to keep them from rebelling. And if a slave did something majorly against the rules, they were punished even more severely to ensure that it would not happen again. The slave masters thought that if they used harsh punishments for even the most simple things, then the slaves would not want to step out of line again.

     Out of all the poems that we have read so far, my favorite was Monologue for an Onion by Suji Kwok Kim. Almost the entire poem was an example of figurative language, each stanza with its own underlining meaning. The poem focuses on the point of view from an onion, which is something you don't really see in poetry very much. I really liked the way the author used an inanimate object-the onion-to voice strong emotions. She compares the many skins of an onion to herself, saying that she is only made up of layer upon layer, with no center. Speaking directly to the reader-she explains that we can never get to her heart. Through cutting the onion, we are getting nowhere, although the tears we shed seem to be proof enough to us that we should continue. Overall, I think the author did an amazing job of portraying the onion as herself and the words she used to go through with this idea were just right.

    Today the IHSS class went on a field trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, specifically to visit the Out of the Amazon exhibit. the displays focused on telling the story of 13 tribes, showcasing headdresses, clothing, and woodwork among other artifacts. The biggest amount of artifacts were the ceremonial headdresses which were mostly made of bird’s feathers and only used once. Many of the other pieces focused on animals: peccaries, bees, bats, tarantulas, scorpions, monkeys, bullet and fire ants, and jaguars, to name a few.     Overall, I thought the exhibit was well done and respectful of the people whose culture was being showcased. All of the artifacts in the exhibit were used once by the people of the tribes and then given to the museum, because the tribespeople believe that after the first time they use a religious object, it loses it’s powers. There are countless dangers when living in the Amazon. Most of the tribes are vegetarian, relying heavi...

    Prompt;  What is the difference between the speaker of the poem and the poet, and why is it important to understand the distinction?       Everyone reads the underlying messages of poetry differently and, in doing so, takes away different meanings from it. The original author starts with a set opinion of the meaning of their writing, but as it is read by others, or speakers, it's meanings can change and grow. Similar to how a tree starts off as a seed and grows more and more branches until it has become a tree, and even then, it continues to grow.       The poet’s work is like a piano piece, the words are set, and can be changed and modified, and it is up to the speaker to say the poem the way they want to. A piano piece is always played a different way unless it's recorded, just like a poem. The speaker can evoke and put whatever emotions they wish to into their reading, while a poet has already put emotions that may n...