Reading Analysis 11/7/07

Olivia Silvestri

“Serving Up Hope,” is an uplifting story about a married couple who has devoted their lives to helping others. Galen and Bridget Sampson set the ideal example of serving the less fortunate, which is a popular Jesuit teaching. The Sampson’s combined their talents and dedicated their time to helping recovering addicts and convicts, giving them another chance at life. Galen Sampson said that he has always wanted to give back and use his skills to make the most difference. Tyrone Lewis is thankful for the Sampson’s help and service because of the opportunity they gave him to get his life back on track. “Serving Up Hope” relates to the Jesuit teaching, shows the Sampson’s devotion to service, and provides an excellent example of how we should all help others.

Rudolfo A. Anaya’s short story “B. Traven Is Alive And Well In Cuernavaca,” tells of Anaya’s journey in Mexico to find motivation to write his story. While searching hard, he is blinded by the fact that his inspiration for his story is right in front of him. He spends a great deal of time with Justino, a jardinero who took care of Anaya’s friends garden. He has an encounter with an old man, who tells him that a writer’s job is to find people like Justino because they are the source of life. It then hits him; Justino had come into his life, giving him a story to write. Anaya’s message in “B. Traven Is Alive And Well In Cuernavaca,” is that sometimes we look too hard for something when it is staring us right in the face the whole time.

In Phillis Levin’s poem “End of April,” she uses imagery to express the loneliness the speaker is feeling. We comprehend the meaning of the poem more clearly through the images we form in our head. For example, we can picture the heartbroken speaker sitting alone under the “cherry tree” analyzing this broken robin’s egg. The broken egg represents the speaker’s empty heart, because he has lost a loved one. “End of April” mainly uses literary devices such as imagery and metaphors to illustrate the speaker’s empty heart and loneliness.