Jack A. Hardin
English 1109 at 10:30, M-W
Aug 31, 2020
Journal Two
Hello there! My name is Jack A. Hardin and my major is Film Studies. I love watching classical films and enjoy reading books that take me to unique and amazing settings. I am currently writing an adventure book that takes place in 1925. It’s about this British archeologist who discovered that his diseased father was discredited for believing in something that did not exit. So the archeologist heads out to the Arabian Desert to find this mythological place and bring back honor to his father’s name. I try to be descriptive as possible without making it repetitive. Sometimes, I would take pictures of the scenery and try to write two sentences or even a passage describing what I saw.
Out of the many themes that I found in Mango Street that stood out to me was identity. In the chapter, “My Name,” the author talks about her mother and how free she was. How wild and untamed she was before she was married off to Sandra’s great-grandfather. After that, the book perfectly uses the theme of identity. For example, “She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn’t be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window.” (Cisneros 11) I feel like this is probably one of the most important passages in the book. It tackles a problem a lot of people face in their lives. People that want to become something great. To become extraordinary. I have experienced something like this before. Throughout middle school I wanted to become an avionics engineer until I realized I was horrible at math. I was drifting around like a sailing ship stuck in an ocean current. Doing the same things over and over again until I found my passion for writing and storytelling. A passage that I absolutely adore in Cisneros’ book is “…windows so small you’d think they were holding there breath.” (Cisneros 4). I thought it was brilliant how she compared the windows to human movements. Even though windows are not, in any case, human at all.
Jack, I really like how you tied what Esperanza expressed to your own experience. You talked about running into the challenge of having to adjust your dreams and goals, which is a life long process. Bitterness is a root that takes hold in many lives, young and old, and it is a poison. One must learn from setbacks and keep an attitude of yearning to try new things and meet new challenges. So much of life is mental, and tied to our outlook. You are doing some great close reading and thanks for the post!
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