This Room and Everything in It

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcAeCqCAwpo

This was undoubtedly a love poem and Lee said it was about his wife. I think it could be presumed that is their first time and is basically what this poem is centered around. It includes his memories all the way to his childhood and what his farther taught him about memory. “Your sunken belly is the daily cup of milk I drank as a boy before Morning Prayer.” I felt that this poem expressed the fear of gratefulness of love. This room that he describes will be the place that he goes to in his memory to remember this special moment in time. “Ill close my eyes and recall this room and everything in it:” His descriptions are incredible to where you felt like you were there. “Your scent, that scent of spice and a wound, I’ll let stand for mystery. It’s like time has paused in the poem with every descriptions and little detail you would think he was looking at a picture afterwards because it would take some time to realize particular things like the book on the windowsill. “The book on the windowsill, riffled by wind the even numbered pages are the past, the odd-numbered pages, the future. The sun is God, your body is milk. I think this poem because even more special since they eventually married.

Persimmons

This poem was particularly confusing I couldn’t find real connection. The symbolism with the persimmon basically was something that gave you that good feeling or a bad feeling. Obviously it is some sort of fruit but when the persimmon is brought up it represents a particular time to remember in a way. At first the persimmon is a hassle because he couldn’t quite figure out the difference between that that precision. “In sixth grade Mrs. Walker slapped the back of my head and made me stand in the corner for not knowing the difference between persimmon and precision.” I looked up what a persimmon: An edible fruit that resembles a large tomato and has very sweet flesh. The descriptions were very detailed by describing how to eat the persimmon. “How to eat: put the knife away, law down newspaper. Peel the skin tenderly, not to tear the meat. Chew the skin, suck it, and swallow. Now, eat the meat of the fruit, so sweet, all of it, to the heart.” Again, I couldn’t quite grasp the underlying meaning of this poem but it had a very nice flow. The only really connection I found was maybe the precision in finding the perfect persimmon.

Sexy

Wow! I loved this story! The title really explains it all. I found it rather a coincidence that her friend's cousin's husband had an affair, but then there was Miranda participating in an affair with some lady's husband, Dev. Hypocrite?.. Maybe. I really liked the relationship between Dev and Miranda but the whole time the fact that he had a wife lingered in the back of my mind. He treated Miranda so well. "Dev was the first always to pay for things, and how doors open, and reach across a table in a restaurant to kiss her hand." He seems like a true gentleman until you realize well he has a wife already so now he becomes a scumbag. I think Miranda starts to realize that she wants to be with someone she can tell other people about. “Miranda began to wish that there was a picture of her and Dev tacked to the inside of her cubicle, like the one of Laxmi and her husband in front of the Taj Mahal.” Miranda was basically living the life with Dev with all of there excursions and they seemed to get a long so well. You can sense the sexual attraction between Dev and Miranda but at the end of the day she is just #2. I think Miranda feeds into Dev’s lines because he called her sexy, and this made Miranda feel empowered in a way. When Miranda went to a great deal of effort to get a few sexy things to wear, Dev didn’t even notice what she was wearing when he came over. Miranda ultimately creates an imaginary relationship with him that occurs only on Sundays, but she seems him as perfect. Finally when the young boy Robhin tells her she is sexy she then realizes what Dev and her have going on is wrong but she still longs for him. In the end I was quite disappointed when she said she would see him again but then as time went on they couldn’t make it work to meet and I think finally she could move on.

Walker

The relationship between Mama and her daughters kind of disgusted me in the fact that she didn't take pride in either of them. This isn’t the typical relationship that you see with a mother and a daughter. Instead of taking pride in her children and lifting them up she kind of just stood by feeling threatened or put out. "She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know." This quote pretty much sums up how Mama felt about Dee and her getting an education. It made Mama feel inferior and instead of a sense of pride in Dee it was seen as sort of a threat. Most parents want the children to go off and succeed because they may not have had the opportunity but Mama is ultimately upset because she didn't get the chance. Then on the other hand with Maggie she is seen as sort a burden but she's isn't as threatened by her like Dee. You get a sense that Mama likes Maggie over Dee because Maggie is faithful and isn't selfish like Dee. "Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? This is the way my Maggie walks. . . . She knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passes her by." Mama clearly doesn’t have much respect for Dee after reading this quote comparing her to an animal and a dumb one at that. I really don’t think Mama gives credit to her daughters as they deserve.