To My Brother Miguel in Memoriam

Brother, today I sit on the brick bench of the house,

where you make a bottomless emptiness.
I remember we used to play at this hour, and mama
caressed us: But, sons
Now I go hide
as before, from all evening
lectures, and I trust you not to give me away.
Through the parlor, the vestibule, the corridors.
Later, you hide, and I do not give you away.
I remember we made ourselves cry,
brother, from so much laughing.
Miguel, you went into hiding
one night in August, toward dawn,
but, instead of chuckling, you were sad.
And the twin heart of those dead evenings
grew annoyed at not finding you. And now
a shadow falls on my soul.
Listen, brother, dont be late
coming out. All right? Mama might worry.

Reaction Paper

To My Brother Miguel in Memoriam, the poet relives a moment of the childhood

game of hide-and-seek that he used to play with his twin heart. Speaking to his
brother, Vallejo announces his own presence in the part of the family home from
which one of the two always ran away to hide from the other. He goes on to remind
his playmate of one day on which the latter went away to hide, sad instead of
laughing as he usually was, and could not be found again. The poem ends with a
request to the brother to please come out so as not to worry mama. It is
remarkable in that past and present alternate from one line to the next. The
language of childhood, as well as the poets assumed presence at the site of the
events, lends a dramatic immediacy to the scene. At the same time, the language
used in the descriptive passages is clearly that of the adult who is now the poet. Yet
in the last verse, the adult chooses to accept literally the explanation that the
brother has remained in hiding and may finally respond and come out, which would
presumably alleviate the mothers anxiety and make everything right once more.
The knowledge that the poet is unable (or refuses) to face the permanent alteration
of his past may elicit feelings of tragic pathos in the reader.

Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening
BY ROBERT FROST
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sounds the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Interpretation of Stopping by
Woods on a Snowy Evening

My first response to this poem was

that it seemed simple. To me, the
speaker is simply stopping by the
woods on snowy evening and enjoying
the peaceful scenery. His senses are
heightened and he is taking in the
sounds of the falling snow and the
winter wind. However, he cannot
ignore urgency that calls him to keep
going. He wants to stay in the woods,
but realizes how many miles he must
travel before he can sleep for the
night. As I thought about the simplicity
of this poem, I knew that there had to
be more to a Robert Frost poem. I
began to compare this poem with the
way that Robert Frost usually writes.
He is known for writing about death
and darkness. I decided to reexamine
the poem and look for evidence of
death. It actually became quite
apparent. He describes the woods as
lovely, dark, and deep. Death, to
some, is lovely. It is definitely dark,
and the grave is deep. When he is in
the woods he is far away from the city.
The city can be considered a symbol of
life. There is always a lot going on in a
city. He knows that it is not his time to
die, and he cannot stay in the peaceful
woods. His horse reminds him that it is
not his time to die by making noise
and disturbing the tranquility of his
moment or death. At the end of the
poem the line referring to miles before
he can sleep lets the reader know that
the speaker has a lot more life left
before his death.

A Rose for Emily

by William Faulkner

As a child, Miss Emily Grierson had been cut off from most social contact and all
courtship by her father. When he dies, she refuses to acknowledge his death for
three days. After the townspeople intervene and bury her father, Emily is further
isolated by a mysterious illness, possibly a mental breakdown.
Homer Barrons crew comes to town to build sidewalks, and Emily is seen with him.
He tells his drinking buddies that he is not the marrying kind. The townspeople
consider their relationship improper because of differences in values, social class,
and regional background. Emily buys arsenic and refuses to say why. The ladies in
town convince the Baptist minister to confront Emily and attempt to persuade her to
break off the relationship. When he refuses to discuss their conversation or to try
again to persuade Miss Emily, his wife writes to Emilys Alabama cousins. They
come to Jefferson, but the townspeople find them even more haughty and
disagreeable than Miss Emily. The cousins leave town.
Emily buys a mens silver toiletry set, and the townspeople assume marriage is
imminent. Homer is seen entering the house at dusk one day, but is never seen
again. Shortly afterward, complaints about the odor emanating from her house lead
Jeffersons aldermen to surreptitiously spread lime around her yard, rather than
confront Emily, but they discover her openly watching them from a window of her
home.
Miss Emilys servant, Tobe, seems the only one to enter and exit the house. No one
sees Emily for approximately six months. By this time she is fat and her hair is short
and graying. She refuses to set up a mailbox and is denied postal delivery. Few
people see inside her house, though for six or seven years she gives china-painting
lessons to young women whose parents send them to her out of a sense of duty.
The town mayor, Colonel Sartoris, tells Emily an implausible story when she
receives her first tax notice: The city of Jefferson is indebted to her father, so
Emilys taxes are waived forever. However, a younger generation of aldermen later
confronts Miss Emily about her taxes, and she tells them to see Colonel Sartoris
(now long dead, though she refuses to acknowledge his death). Intimidated by

Emily and her ticking watch, the aldermen leave, but they continue to send tax
notices every year, all of which are returned without comment.
In her later years, it appears that Emily lives only on the bottom floor of her house.
She is found dead there at the age of seventy-four. Her Alabama cousins return to
Jefferson for the funeral, which is attended by the entire town out of duty and
curiosity. Emilys servant, Tobe, opens the front door for them, then disappears out
the back. After the funeral, the townspeople break down a door in Emilys house
that, it turns out, had been locked for forty years. They find a skeleton on a bed,
along with the remains of mens clothes, a tarnished silver toiletry set, and a pillow
with an indentation and one long iron-gray hair.

Chronological Order of Events in "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner

One of the things that makes William Faulkners A Rose for Emily intriguing and
memorable is its enigmatic plot. Events are not relayed in linear order; rather, the
story travels back and forth in time. The reader is yanked in and out of spaces and
across years, making Emilys crime hard to immediately discern.
While the plot can be a fun puzzle, it can also be frustratingly difficult to follow at
times. Here is a list of what occurs in the story in chronological order:
1. Emilys father dies
2. Colonel Sartoris pays Emilys taxes
3. Colonel Sartoris dies
4. Homer comes to town
5. Emily purchases arsenic
6. Homer goes missing
7. A smell emerges and becomes stronger
8. Aldermen try to collect taxes from Emily
9. Emily dies, and Homer's body is discovered

A Southern Gothic Tale

A Rose for Emily is an iconic example of Southern Gothic literature, a subgenre of
Gothic literature that developed in twentieth-century American fiction. Like Gothic
literature in general, Faulkners story contains elements of mystery and horror, and
the narrative is permeated with other Gothic elements, as wellruin, decay,
darkness, insanity, and hereditary curses. Gothic stock charactersthe tyrant, the

villain, and the madwomanare found among the people in Jefferson, the small
Mississippi town that serves as the setting. Faulkner weaves these Gothic elements
seamlessly into an examination of Southern society and the post-Civil War culture of
the South, the distinguishing characteristic of Southern Gothic fiction.
Through Faulkners narrator, who knows personally the history of Jefferson and the
events of Emily Griersons life and death, the town itself becomes a character in the
story, a collection of citizens imprisoned by Southern heritage, Southern social
dynamics, and a singular point of view. Through the towns obsession with Emily
Grierson and her behavior, the weight of the past is revealed. The citizens of
Jefferson live the shadow of the past, their attitudes and actions controlled by what
once was but is no more, except in memory. The nineteenth-century Grierson house,
once grand, now stands in stubborn and coquettish decay among cotton wagons,
garages, and gasoline pumps, an eyesore among eyesores; the names of
Jeffersons august families are found in the towns cemetery, among the ranked
and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of
Jefferson. The narrators description of Jefferson, its history, and its citizens
establishes the culture and the atmosphere that make the events in the story and
its macabre conclusion plausible.
The tyrant in Faulkners Southern Gothic is, of course, Emilys selfish, domineering
father, who destroys any possibility that she could marry and leave him. Homer
Baron seems to be the villain of the piece, an itinerant Yankee who publicly pursues
a romantic relationship with Miss Emily in a shocking disregard for her reputation
and who apparently has no intentions of marrying heror not. Homers intentions
are never clarified, but Emilys murdering him suggests that marriage was not a
part of Homer's plans for the future. In the shocking conclusion of the story, Miss
Emily is revealed as a woman driven mad, perhaps by the circumstances of her life
or perhaps by inheriting the insanity that curses the Griersons. In any event, Emily
Grierson is insane, the mystery of her behavior and the depth of her madness
evident in the horror that lies behind the locked bedroom door in her house.
As the story unfolds, the mystery unfolds slowly, as Faulkner moves the reader
backward and forward in time. In retrospect, clues throughout the story, when
pieced together in chronological order, suggest Homer Barons fate, but the
ultimate manifestation of Miss Emilys insanity, revealed in the storys final
sentence, is not anticipated. Throughout the narrative Faulkner sustains the
atmosphere of a Gothic mystery in scenes etched in darkness. Visitors to the
Grierson house are admitted to a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still
more shadow. One evening at dusk, Homer is observed entering Miss Emilys
house, never to be seen again. Men slink about in the shadows in Miss Emilys yard
late one night, spreading lime to eradicate a terrible smell, and a light suddenly
appears in a solitary darkened window, illuminating her silent, motionless form. The
mysterious room in the region above stairs that no one had seen in forty years is
permeated with dust, [a] thin acrid pall as of the tomb. The story is dark, both
literally and figuratively.

Beginning with Miss Emilys funeral and ending with Homer Barons decayed corpse
in her bed, A Rose for Emily develops the primary motif found in all good Gothic
tales: death. In Faulkners hands, the motif is inextricably related to the past that
continued to inform the culture of the South as he knew it. The past, he once
wrote, is never dead. Its not even past. The truth of his perception is evident
throughout the story, making A Rose for Emily a classic Southern Gothic tale.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

1.

The Synopsis

The pursuit of happyness is a biography film which was made at 2006 in San
Francisco, California. This film tells about Chris Gardners life. He is a salesman who
becomes a rich stockbroker. It is directed by Gabriele Muccino. The scenario is
written by Steve Conrad.
The story of this film The pursuit of happyness began at 1981 in San Francisco,
California. Linda is Chris Gardners wife. They live in a small apartment with their
son, Christopher. He is five years old. Chris is a salesman who spends all family
savings to buy franchise to sell a portable Bone Density Scanner. This scanner is
able to produce a picture better than X-ray, but according to the doctors whom
Chris has met, the price is too expensive. Linda is a worker in a laundry. The Chris
family begins broken home when they cannot pay the house rental and the claims
that accumulate. The condition of Chris family becomes worse and worse moreover
when he often parks his car everywhere. Chris cannot pay the traffic ticket letter, so
his car is taken. Knowing about that problem, Linda leaves Chris and goes to New
York City. At first, she wants to bring Christopher but Chris doesnt permit her.
Chris lives with his son, Christopher. One day, Chris meets someone who drives a
red Ferrari. Chris asks him about his job so he can buy a luxurious car. That man
answers that he is a stockbroker. Since that time, Chris decides to work as a Stock
broker.
Chris receives the volunteer order without payment in a stock firm Dean Witter
Reynolds. He promises that there is a job for the best participant. From this event,

Chris begins decreasing his money. At last, he must go out from the house rental.
He becomes homeless. Chris and his son sleep in the public places. He decides to
stay in Glide Memorial Church. Because of the limited places, they must be queue to
get the room. They sometimes succeed and sometimes fail, so they sleep outside.
From his destitution and homeless, it encourages Chris to do his job harder and
harder and he gets a job in Dean Witter Reynolds.
In the last story, Chris succeeds to become the best participant, and he becomes an
employer there. Some years later, he makes a stock firm, its a Gardner Rich. In
2006, he sold a piece of his stock, and he is successful to get million dollars from
selling the stock.
2.

The Cast of the Pursuit of Happyness

Will Smith
Jaden Smith
Thandie Newton
Brian Howe
James Karen
Dan Catellaneta
Kurt Fuller
Takayo Fischer

: Chris Gardner
: Christopher
: Linda
: Jay Twistle
: Martin Frohm
: Alan Frakesh
: Walter Ribbon
: Mrs. Chu

3.

The Plot of the Pursuit of Happyness

a.

Exposition

The pursuit of happyness is a biography film which was made at 2006 in San
Francisco, California. This film tells about Chris Gardners life. He is a salesman. He
is homeless. He has a wife, her name is Linda. She is a worker in a laundry. They live
in a small apartment with their son, Christopher. He is five years old. Chris is a
salesman who spends all family savings to buy franchise to sell a portable Bone
Density Scanner. This scanner is able to produce a picture better than X-ray, but
according to the doctors whom Chris has met, the price is too expensive.
b.

Complication

The Chris family begins broken home when they cannot pay the house rental and
the claims that accumulate. The condition of Chris family becomes worse and worse
moreover when he often parks his car everywhere. Chris cannot pay the traffic
ticket letter, so his car is taken.
c.

Crisis

Linda leaves Chris and her son, Christopher and goes to New York City. Chris lives
with his son, Christopher. He becomes homeless. Chris and his son sleep in the
public places. He decides to stay in Glide Memorial Church. He decides to be a

salesman of Bone Density Scanner by investigating his family saving to buy this
machine for the stock to be resold again to the Medical Center in San Francisco. He
lives with his son. One day, Chris meets someone who drives a red Ferrari. He is a
stockbroker. Chris admires not for his luxurious car but he wants to know how that
man can get it. So Since that time, Chris decides to work as a Stock broker.

d.

Falling Action

Chris receives the volunteer order without payment in a stock firm Dean Witter
Reynolds. He promises that there is a job for the best participant. From his
destitution and homeless, it encourages Chris to do his job harder and harder and
he gets a job in Dean Witter Reynolds.
e.

Resolution

Chris succeeds to become the best participant, and he becomes an employer there.
Some years later, he makes a stock firm, its a Gardner Rich. In 2006, he sold a
piece of his stock, and he is successful to get million dollars from selling the stock.
4.

The Character of the Pursuit of Happyness

Chris Gardner
: He is a hard worker. He also has a self-concept which
develops when he was childhood. He has a dream. He has a good self-esteem so
there is a motivation from himself and from his son so he works hard. The last, he
has a high self-efficacy. He has a big future to do his jobs although it is too hard to
do it.
Linda
Christopher
5.

: She is stubborn. She also has a high emotion.

: He is smart. He always follows his fathers advices.

The Setting of the Pursuit of Happyness

The setting of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness is in San Francisco-California at

2006.
6.

The Point of View of the Pursuit of Happyness

The author describes the main character or a protagonist (hero) by Chris Gardner
7.
The Theme of the Pursuit of Happyness : the hardworking to pursuit the
happiness
8.

The Symbol and Allegory of the Pursuit of Happyness

Chris Gardner is a symbol of someone who works hard, good father to get his dream
9.

The Style and Tone of the Pursuit of Happyness: flat and heart warming

10. The moral value of the Pursuit of Happyness:

 How do we mean happiness? It is not a result of the achievement but from the
process how we get the happiness.
We must work hard and patiently.
We never know whatever someone has done when we make our expectation.

The Alamo

This is the story of a civil war. Not the one youre familiar with, but one that occurred a quarter
century earlier. In this civil war, the North seceded from the South, and since the secessionists won,
its not called a civil war but a revolution: the Texas Revolution.
The battle of the Alamo a San Antonio mission converted into a strategic fort is a key moment in
the Texas Revolution, not because the revolutionaries holed up there won, but because they lost.
Their sacrifice and defiance of the overwhelming forces surrounding them inspired revolutionaries
across Texas, and the cry "Remember the Alamo!" has been heard in battle (and on screen) ever
since.
In taking on such a lionized subject, the film is running a risk. Dramas about hallowed historical
events often come off stiff at best and campy at worst. This film manages to succeed in spite of these
dangers. It does romanticize the events associated with the Alamo, but it strives for historical
accuracy and manages to humanize the historical figures on which it focuses.
As depicted in the film, the man tasked with defending the Alamo Lt. Col. William Travis (Patrick
Wilson) of Alabama is a textbook commander. And thats the problem. Hes risen too rapidly in the
ranks and is in over his head. As a former school teacher, he has lots of book learning, but little
experience of combat and command, and the men of the Alamo know it. He doesnt have their
respect, and hes got to try to earn it if hes going to make good.
The man who does have the mens respect is Col. Jim Bowie (Jason Patric) of Louisiana, a legendary
knife fighter who is remembered even today for his popularization of the large and deadly "Bowie
knife." Hes a natural commander. The problem is, he isnt the man in charge of the Alamo regulars,
only the Texican volunteers there. Conflict between the two groups, as well as differences in command
ability, bring him into regular conflict with Travis.
The third member of the historical triumvirate leading the Alamo defenders is former congressman
Davy Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton) of Tennessee. One of the most famous men of his day, Crockett is
a man living in the shadow of his own legend. He knows that hes not the larger-than-life character
people think he is, and hes struggling to live up to what others suppose him to be. Crockett is
embarrassed by their adulation but willing to use the advantages it offers. A seasoned politician, he
may bring the elements idealism and pragmatism needed to help Travis and Bowie lead their men.
Thorntons Crockett is a particular delight. Apart from his characters serious side, Thornton ends up
stealing the show. He regularly cracks the audience up and gets the best lines of the movie, right up
to the end.
Arrayed against the men of the Alamo are the forces of Mexican general and dictator Antonio Lpez de
Santa Ana Prez de Lebrn (Emilio Echevarria). He comes off in the film as arrogant and brutal, but
then he was a dictator who referred to himself as "the Napoleon of the West" and who ordered the
wholesale massacre of his opponents.

His forces badly outnumber the men in the Alamo, and there is no way the latter can win without
reinforcements. They are hoping for reinforcements being brought by Texian Gen. Sam Houston
(Dennis Quaid), but they dont arrive, and the inevitable massacre comes.
How does the film fare as a historical recreation? Well. Most such films are populated with painfully
stiff actors struggling to portray the historical figures they have been assigned, but this one manages
to convey the humanity of its central figures.
One of the reasons for that may be the ambiguity surrounding what actually happened at the Alamo.
In Texas folklore, Travis, Bowie, and Crockett were sainted and depicted as struggling to their last
defiant breaths. More recently historians have begun to consider evidence that portrays the three in a
much more human light. According to the new portrait, one of them may have been too sick during
the battle to even rise from his bed and another far from going down swinging may have
survived the battle (however briefly).
Though these ideas are controversial, the film ends up ends up depicting them in a way that
humanizes the main characters without depriving them of their heroism.
The film portrays also the complexity of the historical situation by exploring the perspectives of
individuals and groups other than the main characters. Both Travis and Bowie were slaveholders, and
the film explores their slaves varied reactions to the situation into which they have been thrust.
It also depicts the division among the Latinos involved in the conflict. Though the Anglo characters in
the film are the most famous, many Tejanos were determined to secede from Mexico and participated
in the Texas Revolution. In fact, the first stirrings of rebellion in the area had been initiated a quarter
of a century earlier, before the influx of Anglos from the United States. Many Tejanos appear in the
film, and their viewpoint is depicted particularly through Capt. Juan Seguin (Jordi Moll ), who later
fought with Gen. Houston at the battle of San Jacinto, where Texas won its independence.
This effort to depict the complexity of the time largely succeeds and does not come off as the heavyhanded political correctness for which Disney is known. In fact, I was taken aback at one moment in
the film that was particularly politically incorrect.
Early on, one character is challenging Sam Houstons leadership, and the future president of Texas
shoots back by calling the man "a Scottish catamite." He then explains that he meant that the man
was one step below a pederast. I dont know how many in a contemporary audience would know what
a catamite or a pederast are, but it was a remarkably harsh insult to the characters manhood,
particularly for the 1830s, and it came as no surprise when the man lunged for Houston to do him
violence. Courtly vocabulary aside, thems fightin words!
Though the film strives admirably to represent the historical reality of the events it depicts, it does fail
in a few ways. The Texicans reasons for secession arent brought out clearly enough for a modern
audience. Neither is the fact that they werent fighting to join the United States but to create the
independent Republic of Texas, which existed for almost a decade before statehood.
On the Mexican side, Santa Anas conviction that the Texas Revolution was a plot engineered by the
United States is not brought out clearly enough, though the film does allude to it. In a moment that
will particularly resonate for many in the audience, Santa Ana declares that if the Texicans arent
stopped then "our children and our grandchildren will be begging for crumbs from the United States."
How does the film stand up as a film? Though it is a better as a work of cinema than many similar
films, its effort to be historically accurate does take a toll on its pacing. In real life, Santa Ana
"prepared the field" by having his men blockade the Alamo and conduct psychological warfare on its
defenders for almost two weeks before the major assault came. The film depicts this by an extended
sequence that may leave the audience wondering when the battle will finally come. That was the effect
that the blockade was meant to have on the men inside the Alamo, but it would have been shrewder
filmmaking to shorten this sequence.

It also would have been better for the filmmakers to lengthen the battle that finally takes place and to
make it not appear quite so one-sided. Since we dont know the precise dynamics of the real-world
battle, the filmmakers could have showed the Texicans having a last-minute rally before their
inevitable defeat.
Despite these flaws, the film works far better than most period pieces, particularly in the way it
humanizes the historical figures at the center of the story. You feel for Travis struggling to fill boots
that are too big for him. You sympathize with Bowie, who knows hes a better leader but has struggles
of his own and cant risk fracturing the forces defending the mission. And you empathize with
Crockett, trying to guide the two young commanders while he would like nothing more than to walk off
into the sunset and let his legend live on without him.
There is also ambiguity about the character of Sam Houston. Late in the film we are left wondering
why the general keeps retreating in the face of Santa Ana. Is he simply a coward or is there a method
to his madness?
There is, and Texas wins its independence.