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Out of all 3 readings I’d have to say that “The Mute Sense” definitely hit me the hardest. As I was reading, I could smell a majority of the things the essayist was describing and with some smells I could even begin to almost taste. Ackerman did an outstanding job at appealing to our five senses. Towards the end of the essay, Ackerman starts to talk about how we literally cannot live without our sense of smell because if we try, we stop breathing. Ackerman makes the other four senses we have sound almost unnecessary when she puts it in that perspective. Westbury court was also a really captivating essay. It seems like Danticat only remembers the tenants that had unfortunate experiences in the building, the Parent brothers being the most significant. Both of these essays seem to tie together by the common theme of memory. The mute sense talked about how smells are embedded in our minds and we associate smells with memories. The Westbury court is Danticat remembering the Parent brothers and all those neighbors who suffered misfortune. It surprises me as too how much I truly enjoyed these readings considering they are non-fiction. I never would have thought that non-fiction could have so much depth and emotion.
ReplyDeleteArianna Martinez
It was difficult for me to connect with the essay “The Mute Sense.” I perceived it as research essay just dictating facts or events but I was not able to connect emotionally to it, because either it was to ambiguous or I just did not understand it. On the contrary to “The Mute Sense” I truly connected to the other essays. I enjoyed “My Papas Waltz” and truly admire the way the writer describes his feeling towards his mother in a way that connects to another writer’s short story, In this case “My Papas Waltz” by Roethke. The writer connects his experience and that of Roethke’s and braids his feelings and experiences to give an insight as to why he was dancing with his father and not his mother. At the end it made me feel sad how he says that in reality the yearning for his mother would not be fulfilled because she would not get out of prison. Even after knowing this the writer rejoices in the moment with his father and likes to imagine soon he will see her. The “Westbury Court” was foreboding in a sense that it warns in the beginning what is to come. It was interesting how Danticat organizes the essay as a series of events and ultimately it comes back to that one event that change the writers’ perspective towards that majestic place (as the writer liked to believe). I liked how the end provokes the thought what if? As many of us like to wonder when a tragedy happens.
ReplyDelete-Maria Ramirez Montoya
There were two essays out of the three that were closely related with the one seemingly set out on it's own. The mute sense did not deal with every day problems or hardships, but rather explained that the sense of smell was paramount above all other senses for it was a more natural thing to do. Mute being that no action was needed to experience the multitude of smells and odors which conjured up moments of the past and present. The author however points out that someone who has not experienced a situation, place or time could not possibly know what a certain smell might be coming from. The author points out that Sherlock Holmes emphasizes the sense of smell to solve complex crimes, butting a great value to it. so important that to not smell is to die. The following two readings explained in a descriptive way serious life hardships. A child dealing with situations associated with his neighborhood on the poor side of San Jose while at the same time dealing with a loss of a mother who had been imprisoned long before having the ability to remember her. he is also dealing with a father who is drinking his memory of his wife away. He struggles with both issues while at the same time fantasizing about how his father and him could possibly break his mother out of jail. The Westbury Court is the most surreal. Feelings of ultimate hopelessness overcame me. A child content of coming home and watching a soap opera only to be overshadowed by a tragedy of a fire right next door that took the lives of two children. even after the fire was over memories were jolted back each time the room creaked or had another piece of lumber fell. you would think that was tragic enough, but events that followed were just a tragic. the only memory that was somewhat entertaining were those of the Haitian brothers and sister who were in a band, but even they had a tragic story of having to leave a ruthless dictator in Haiti. A murder of a Nigerian across the street, and the memory of a girl scalding her leg from getting in a tub a extremely hot water on a no heat day. the last passage in the story.
ReplyDeleteA quote says it all. "I shouldn't have." I assume she shouldn't have come home and been so interested in a soap opera where a Utopian idea of living is so made up while a real life tragedy was happening right next door.
Spiro Zagouris
After reading all three stories, I tried to find some type of connection between all of them. Of course, there isn’t always going to be a connection, but for these three I found that they were all connected to some type of memory.
ReplyDeleteMemories impact everyone’s life immensely, they are either good or bad. It forms your ethics and beliefs, and overall makes you the person you are today.
The story that I instantly connected with and found that I could relate to was “The Mute Sense.” It is also the most light hearted out of the three stories. Throughout my life I’ve found that I connect everything with smells, and sometimes I don’t exactly know how to describe it.
I couldn’t really relate to the other stories besides the fire mentioned in Westbury Court. A few years back, one of my little cousins almost burned down my grandparent’s house with a match. He was not home alone, but he was left unsupervised in the guest bedroom. Nothing happened to anyone, but through this memory, I can imagine the emotions the African-American mother in Westbury Court must have felt when she found out that her two children were harmed or killed by the fire they accidently caused.
- Angela Milan
All the stories revolved around anecdotes. How memories don’t ever come back the same but the idea of them stays strong through deteriorating time. “My Papa’s Waltz” was something I’m sure everyone experienced as a child. Having a parent ask of them to dance, you not knowing what’s going on and them too inebriated to care. The snippets in life the writer gives are true until they aren’t. They add a lucid reminder or attribute that changes their memory, but we still feel like its theirs. I was taken by shock the way this story ended; “smile he says, your momma is coming home tomorrow. That’s fiction. But in fact, it doesn’t matter.” The writer see’s this memory that used to annoy him with care. It’s as if they dance to forget the woman of the household is not present but through that, enjoy each other’s company. Maybe it’s the age difference as he now does not express annoyance by his father’s smile, but understands that when the music plays, its time to swing away what’s worrisome. Listening to the song “Crazy” really helps paint the picture how this father might feel through his drunken dance.
ReplyDelete-Leonardo Torres
All three stories were very interesting. "The Mute Sense" by Ackerman made me imagine the smells that were described in the text, it was so descriptive that it wasn't that hard coming up with the smells. It was very interesting when it said " People if all cultures have always been obsessed with smell, sometimes applying perfumes in Niagaras of extravagance." I never saw smell as something that big and sophisticated but reading that sentence made me realize just how powerful smell can be.
ReplyDeleteIn "My Papa's Waltz" by Brown, the way the author portrays his writing of the book has something so humane to it. He explained how he started writing the book but later was unsatisfied which is something quite reassuring. While reading this selection, I remembered the previous reading we had and how it talked about writing the truth. The author was writing a book but wasn't being truthful which plays a big part so he decided to start again. I know that's not the main point, but that part really just stuck out to me.
The last story "Westbury Court" by Danticat was very heartbreaking to read. So much bad things happened inside or close to the building which just left it with a bad taste. It was sad reading how an innocent girl just wanted to watch her soap opera but later turned into her questioning if she could have saved her neighbors lives had she just been paying attention.
Rebecca Muniz
I found the story The Mute sense incredibly smart because what makes creative writing more interesting is using at least one of our five senses which in this story the sense of smell is emphasized to write about this kind of smells such as perfumes, notepaper, and a piece of clothing. I loved how the author uses this title because in a part of the story he mentions, “if you cover your nose you will die” he is practically saying we can’t live without breathing but in a more detail way of mentioning several things before so the reader can grasp the sense of writing a good story to make it more interesting for its readers. I enjoyed reading My Papa’s Waltz because the writer emphasis on writing his stories in the most truthful way he can to make it a great story about his life, like about his father. I remember clearly in the past reading the authors also mentioned on writing the truth and remembering the real events in their life to make a good story out of it. I like the last part when the father says that his mother is coming tomorrow, and the narrator says, “that’s fiction but in fact it doesn’t matter” so it makes sense that he is writing this story based on his real life. While reading Westbury Court I noticed how the author demonstrated descriptive images of the fire that happened with the narrators’ neighbors. It helped me visualize the event more, like when he said, “While we ran by, the door to apartment 6E had already been knocked over by the fire squad and inside was filled with bright flames and murky smoke. The narrator is being very descriptive on the setting, which is this building were they live in Westbury court. These short nonfiction stories entertain the reader by describing an event with detail that makes the story more interesting to read.
ReplyDelete-Carina Pompa
The short story that really resonated with me and really made me feel something beyond sadness was Edwidge Danticat’s Westbury Court. In it he uses such descriptive language that you can really smell and hear all the things in the apartment complex. Not only that but his use of pathos was excellent, you could feel his remorse when he mentions General Hospital and how it still affected him in the present. The one that I also enjoyed was Diane Ackerman’s The Mute Sense, in it the author describes just how useful the sense of smell is. Using words, she takes us through the journeys she's taken, the descriptive language used almost wafts the aromas through your nose. The one that I could not really get into was James Brown’s My Papa’s Waltz. There was something about it that I did not really enjoy. The way it was written felt very disjointed to me, I could not get a very good grasp on what the author was trying to describe. The first paragraph was something that I really enjoyed but then after that, my grasp of the text turned into confusion. I’m not going to fault the author if I don’t understand his narrative, but I just couldn’t follow it very well. - Jesús Iván González
ReplyDeleteEver since I started reading the first essay, The Mute Sense, I was already hooked. The description of every little thing was so precise and I enjoyed imagining the setting. The sense of smell was a very important factor on this reading, as it quotes “memories explode at once”. Referring that a smell is an extraordinary sense that can take you back to some moments of your life, some memories that can be connected to a person such as the smell of their perfume, or maybe the smell of something their family cooks (I can relate to those examples). Ackerman talks a little bit about the other senses, but the focus for this essay is specifically the sense of smell. On the second essay, My Papa’s Waltz, Brown makes a connection to Theodore Roethke’s short poem, and it describes it as a dark poem. I can see this essay as a dark essay too, since it describes some problems that people deal with their family, and it is sad to analyze those problems. I believe every person has gone through something that has affected their person, and made an impact on their lives (such as the mother’s condition on the short essay). I think that the author was relieved when writing about this. The last essay (the longest) is Westbury Court, which even though it is a very tragic story, but I found it very intriguing. Out of the three essays, I liked the first one the most because I could connect so easily with the theme.
ReplyDeletePaulina Longoria
All three stories were interesting to read but “The Mute Sense” was my favorite to read. The way the story began was one way of catching my attention because the way it was describing smells was the way I as the reader could imagine it in my head. I feel that it was a creative way to write out a story especially because I felt like it was an expression and when describing a bad smell, you can tell that the emotion of the story isn’t a happy one, but in this case, it was a good one. In the story “My Papa Waltz” it was also satisfying to read because it was emotional how the author described his feelings in the experiences with his father and mother throughout the reading, I feel that readers can connect to its emotional feelings with the author because there are people that can relate to the story. In “Westbury Court” the story was very touching. It described an emotional fire where kids ended up getting harmed. I couldn’t relate to the story, but it was touching to read. All three stories were significant in a different way. They all shared an emotion that different readers can relate to and it was interesting to see how they shared different emotions I different ways.
ReplyDelete-Karla Romero
I found all 3 texts interesting. But one that stuck out to me was “My Papas Waltz”. It conveys this imagery and self-expression that contradicted itself slightly, yet made it’s point clear. I think the reason this poem was so beautiful to me is because I too have a father figure that I look up to immensely. When you look up to someone in your life so highly, and they’ve never let you down, it’s hard to not sing their praises. And to look back on those memories with them will always bring up emotion whether that be happiness, sorrow, or nostalgia. Yet, though this poem was written in light-heartedness, it was also written with a twist of violence. I can see how one could be confused on how to perceive the whole scenerio. I decided to look into the authors background, and it all made a bit more sense after doing so. The author, Roethke’s, father died when he was fifteen years of age. Apparently, the death took a toll on him and he was never the same. This information made me see the poem in a different way. Yes, the father was very drunk. Yes, it is possible that he was being a little too rough. But, the boy was small and short enough to only reach his buckle. A man’s strength is perceived differently as a child. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t a care taker and loving father. He ends the poem with him clinging to his shirt. I’m sure this poem meant a lot to him, and writing it was meant to pay respects to his father in his unique way. Either way, it had an impact on me and brought tears to my eyes. Now, every time I read this poem, I will have my own father figure in mind as well.
ReplyDelete-Cassandra Ramos
Despite the fact that these 3 pieces were so vastly different, I find it interesting that they all still have one element that is the same: an element discussing conveying messages or story-telling. For "A Mute Sense," this common theme is the idea that particular scents are things that cannot be articulated to another person through words. For "My Papa's Waltz," it is questioning the idea of: is my memory false, and how much does it matter? And "Westbury Court" recounts a similar theme of memory-- such as when he isn't even sure if the neighborhood children were actually boys like he had imagined. It really puts into perspective, how much has to be false memories or exaggeration before it is no longer fiction?
ReplyDelete- Hannah Daniel
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ReplyDeleteor
call/whatsapp:+2349057261346
i am ERIC BRUNT by name. Greetings to every one that is reading this testimony. I have been rejected by my wife after three(3) years of marriage just because another Man had a spell on her and she left me and the kid to suffer. one day when i was reading through the web, i saw a post on how this spell caster on this address AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com have help a woman to get back her husband and i gave him a reply to his address and he told me that a man had a spell on my wife and he told me that he will help me and after 3 days that i will have my wife back. i believed him and today i am glad to let you all know that this spell caster have the power to bring lovers back. because i am now happy with my wife. Thanks for helping me Dr Akhere contact him on email: AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com
or
call/whatsapp:+2349057261346