Reading Analysis 10/17/07 Will Appelt

The poems that we were assigned had a common theme of how we perceive each other and acceptability within a society that has shown what we today call a boiling pot of different cultures. Each one of these poems is based on a time of segregation and racial tension. This influenced who people are and how they are perceived through one person’s eyes and thoughts.
In the poem “this morning (for the girls of eastern high school)” by Lucille Clifton shows the view of African American women who was one of a few in a predominantly white high school. The poem shows her life with so few words. These few powerful words showed her courageous attitude and her strong sense of self. She is who she is and no one can take it away from her. In the end of the poem she shows her excitement of passing the test of survival. The survival is through the perception of those who didn’t except her. This woman is just one of many who have gone through the same thing during this time of inequality.
In the “Fork” by Jeffrey Harrison, he shows his perception of this teacher he had. This poem show a narrow minded teacher who only accepts there way of writing. His different style makes him different from this teacher and maybe the class. This poem shows that there is more then one way of looking at something. There isn’t just a black and white, but there are other colors. Just like there are different views and perceptions, he escapes this so called normal style. The fork that he steals from her house seems to have taught him more then what the teacher ever did. The fork represents different culture and how no one person is alike just like in writing. Everyone has there own style and beliefs and has the freedom to write about it through there own eyes and not through a normal standard view.
Langston Hughes’s “Theme for English B” represents how he sees the world and how we should see the world. He is assigned to write a paper and let the truth come out. He talks about how he eats and falls in love just like everyone else. This shows that he has a view of equality that others didn’t share with him. He is as part of America as much as the professor. Hughes shows that he is not a one sided man. Whites and blacks can learn from each other whether they like it or not. America is the land of the free and a boiling pot of cultural views. We as Americans should as a true American accept these beliefs of equality and freedom. This poem really nails the views of what our world should be.
In Julia Alvarez’s “Queens, 1963” is the view through a little Latino girl’s eyes of the forming of the boiling pot on a street in Queens. Her first hand account really shows the way of life in the early 60’s and how different culture lived together. Each religion and race that has landed in America on this street is trying to belong, but there is a feeling that that she describes in the poem that she and these other culture will never feel like a real American. This one trait that makes them not feel like a true American is of freedom in this country.
These poems have a main view of an outsider looking in. they show this view to us in the way of there writings and help us see what they see. The Jesuit tradition accepts all kinds and different views. Jesuits feel a need to learn about other culture and learn from other people weather they be purple or green. We as a Jesuit community treat everyone as we would treat ourselves and our family. Jesuits are color blind to all race’s and religion and accept all who live in this world. Jesuits have a worldly view of equality and all of those in need.