Special Entry

"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings:A Tale for Children" by Gabriel Garcia Marques, captivated my attention right from the title. I am an elementary education major so the 'children' part grabbed and pulled me in. This story seemed most applicable to me in a personal way. I read and reread this piece. Each time I reread it, I tried more and more to put myself in a child-like state of mind. I would ask myself, "If I was hearing this as a ten year old little girl, what would I think? What would I think this means? What is the moral of this story?" I also tried to put myself in the position of a future teacher reading this piece to her class. "What would I want my class to take away from this tale? What do I as an educator of young children think about this story?" There are various roads of interpretation that can be ventured on with this piece, so I chose one that I thought most appropriate for me and that I thoroughly enjoyed exploring.
One road on interpreting that I explored in "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings:A Tale for Children" is selfishness. This is a great lesson that elementary age kids should learn. This theme is really apparent in this story and is pretty easy to pick out.
The story starts off with describing how bleak and dismal life is for Pelayo, his wife Elisenda, and their very sick child. "The world has been sad since Tuesday." The continuing storm had been washing crabs into the family's courtyard. Poor Pelayo was constantly picking up the crabs and throwing them back into the ocean because of the awful stench of the rotting crabs. While doing this one day, he stumbled upon a very old man with enormous wings. The description of the sight of the poor old man is quite disturbing; pretty much a dirty, ragged old man with one hair on his head and parasite infested wings. Confused and not knowing what to do, Pelayo and Elisenda asked their neighbor what this sight could be. "He's and angel," she told them. Still not understanding what to do, they put him up in the wire chicken coop.
The next morning their child woke with no fever. They were so happy that they decided to just stick the angel out to fend for himself at sea. But, when they went out to get the poor soul, he was surrounded by the whole neighborhood. Everyone was curious about the angel, but no body treated him like a supernatural being, but treated him like a circus animal.
At one point, Father Gonzaga, the town priest, came to put his two cents in about the creature. He ruled out that he was an angel right away because he could not speak Latin, the language of God. He said that "He is much too human." Gonzaga wrote a letter conferring this matter with his Bishop. Gonzage simply viewed the angel as a pain of the town that should be eliminated.
This old angel did create quite a stir in the neighborhood. Everyone gathered to see what they might get from the angel. Pelayo and Elisenda then got the clever idea to start charging individuals to see the heavenly angel. They quickly made a large fortune. Everyone wanted to take a poke at the winged man and get a blessing in return.
Eventually a traveling carnival came through town and quickly tore the attention of the community off the angel and re focused it to a girl who was turned into a spider because she had disobeyed her parents. Unlike the angel, she was easily understood and had a clear moral. She could talk and would openly answer questions about her condition. People loved her and forgot all about the poor angel man. Besides some weird off beat miracles, he didn't really offer them anything.
Pelayo and his family had made enough money off of him that they could build a new house and purchase extravagant clothing for Elisenda. They made their house crab and angel proof in the process. But they did not bother to rebuild the old worn out chicken coop. They left it in shambles. Eventually, it collapsed and Pelayo offered him the shed. At this point the angel seemed to be in declining health. He would just hobble about from here to there and appear at places randomly.
All the while their child continued to grow and become curious of the old angel. He began to play with him and quickly built a lasting friendship. They even came down with the chicken pox at the same time.
Then the angel started to distance himself as he grew some new feathers and began to regain his strength. And then one day, he flew away. Elisenda watched as she cut onions, the sight of the very old man with enormous wings flying off. She of course breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The themes of selfishness is everywhere in this piece. The first big act of such was in sticking the old man in the chicken coop. Pelayo and Elisenda didn't even care for the old soul. He was considered a hassle, not a blessing.
The next morning after he was found, their child has been healed of whatever infirmity he had had. Instantly Pelyao and Elisenda were so happy that they were ready to send the angel to sea! It seemed to say that they got what they wanted, that is what the angel was probably here for anyway, so he doesn't need to be here anymore. "You gave us what we needed, now it is time for you to get out of our hair!" - is what I could see Elisenda saying. The text says "Then they felt so magnanimous and decided to put the angel on a raft out at sea with fresh water and provisions for three days and leave him to the fate on the high seas." Not very hospitable; kind of selfish. I could see a ten year old saying - "That's not very nice."
But by the time they decided to do that, he was enveloped in a sea of people staring at him. Everyone wanted something; wanted to see what the angel might give them or bless them with. The town had no idea who he was, they didn't understand him, but tey were willing to use him. They didn't even treat him with respect. "But when they went out into the courtyard with the first sight of down, they found the whole neighborhood in the front of the chicken coop having fun with the angel, without the slightest of reverence."
"The curious came from far way." It reminds me of when a car accident slows traffic down because peole are 'curious' and slow down to stare as they drive by the scene. They don't care about the people in the accident, they are just nosy (in most cases that is). Elisenda and Pelayo began charging people money to see the angel. His too was extremely selfish. They give him nothing, and he gives them so much! They put him in a chicken coop and show him off.
"Besides, the few miracles attributed to the angel showed a certain mental disorder, like the blind man who didn't recover his sight but grew three new teeth, or the paralytic who didn't get to walk but almost won the lottery, and the leper whose sores sprouted sunflowers." What the angel did give the community, they didn't appreciate. All the miracles seemed to give off an air of hope, but nobody thought anything of them. He wasn't up to par with angel standards.
Soon after, they lost interest anyway. They all gained interest in the girl turned spider. They could understand her far more than they could understand the angel.
And after all of the money Pelayo and Elisenda made they were able to rebuild their house, and buy Elisenda extravagant clothing. But, they did not bother to rebuild the chicken coop. Instead they made their house crab and angel proof. The angel, who earned them all of this, recieved nothing, not even the slightest gratitude.
I think the most beautiful thing about the story is the ending. After the first selfless act is portrayed, the angel flies. Only one character in the story, the child who had been healed, befriends him; they become close. Then he just flies away one day. The young child and his selfless, nongreedy friendship with the angel seems to corrolate to the angels getting better and growing new wings; it made him stronger. Selflessness is a powerful thing. All of the wrong done to him seems to be redeemed in one act of love.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story and would love to one day read it in my future classroom, and talk about not being selfish and how the most unseemly things in life can bless us if we let them.

Symbolism

Chapter 13 in the text book was about symbolism. It was very interesting. The whole topic of symbols and symbolism is just interesting to me. The book defines a symbol as "something (an object, a word, an image) that is used to suggest a range of associations or feelings. Symbols prompt reflection and inquiry." It also states that symbols are highly personal. The first thing I thought about when reading about symbols was the Bible. Symbols/symbolism is coursing through the Bible. Its everywhere!
Just look at what a parable is! Jesus concealed the hidden message of the kingdom in parables! This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. - Matthew 13:13. The Bible has so much depth to it.
And other examples of symbols in the Bible besides parables are the number 7 symbolizing completion, and in Ephesians the man symbolizing the church and how God's love for the church is as a marriage. Look at the book of Hosea. The whole book symbolizes God's relationship with disobedient Israel.
One quote that I loved from the chapter was "symbols force us to grapple with meanings." How true is that! They are intriguing. Sometimes the not knowing, the curiosity, the wonder is what draws us in.
But we also can't get ourselves wrapped up in symbols too much. Sometimes we can dig too far into what things mean and miss the basic message of it all. And tying this into class, we can get so wrapped up in asking what does this mean, and this and this and this, that we can't see the whole picture. This can just make things too complicated. We should make connections without becoming disconnected from the piece.
Symbols really do help us to experience literature in different ways. :) We follow signs everyday of our lives, why not start paying more attention to the ones found in literature?

Pass

Sadness overwhelms me as I use my second pass for 11/19/09.

Godot

As I continue to read Beckett's Waiting For Godot, I continue to be confused and amazed. Some things that I have noticed occurring in this play often is repetition, forgetfulness, change, and uncertainty.
GoGo and Didi are constantly finishing each others sentences, or repeating what the other said before. Their conversations repeat themselves all the time. Like when GoGo hurts his foot. They go on and on about it. What is this repetition for? I think some of it has to do with showing how well they understand each other and how well they know each other. They have quite the dynamic relationship.
Both of them are forgetful. I would say Estragon moreso than Vladimir. Vladimir comes off stronger and more stoic to me. He states in the begininng that Estragon could not survive without him; he could become a pile of bones. They can't seem to even remember their surroundings. But as I am thinking more and more about it I don't know if it is neccessarily forgetfulness as much as it has to do with change and uncertianty.
Uncertianty comes with the territory of change. Time is the biggest element of change in Waiting for Godot. We aren't told explicitly what the passage of time is, but I think it is a substancial amount. They aren't even certian what they did the day before. It is like they are just being.
And Godot is the biggest element of uncertainty. Who is he? Is he a friend or foe? Has he already come? Will he come? Is he a person? We just do not know. We are completely uncertain. But it is interesting to think about what people are willing to wait for. Like God. We can't see God. We can't touch God. We can't sit down at starbucks and have a conversation with him. Well I guess you could pray at starbucks and techniqually have a conversation with him, but you get my point. Faith requires a certain level of uncertainty. Fiath wouldn't be faith without it. If everything was certian and concrete, we wouldnt need to muster up the faith to believe and jump out into God's arms. When I feel the spirit leading me in a direction, I adjust to that direction in faith, even though I know I could be off, because I am uncertain. God is absolute, but faith is still needed. I hope I am making sense.
So, I think it is interesting reading Waiting for Godot with life in mind. How much of our life is really spent living? How much mindless things occupy our time? What are we waiting on? What are we willing to wait for?

Dr. Horrible

Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog was hilarious! Dr. Horrible is a cast aside villain with a heart and Captain Hammer is a loved super hero with a huge ego. AKA he is a massive jerk. There are two big conflicts throughout the blog. The first being Dr. Horrible's quest to get into the Evil League of Evil, and also his fight against Captain Hammer for the girl of his dreams, Penny.
It seemed to be a good versus evil plot. But in my eyes, the line between good and evil was blurred. It was designed for us to love the villain. I loved Dr. Horrible and felt like punching Captain Hammer.
This tragicomedy was definitely more on the comedy side. The comedy enhanced the tragedy. And for me, without the comedy, the plot/story would have been completely stupid and pointless. The humor made the tragedy.
The way that Dr. Horrible was different from what I have read in Waiting For Godot, was that Waiting for Godot was heavier of the tragedy side in my mind. It has more of a sober comedy to it. For example, the part about them hanging themselves, but the weight difference makes it improbable. Vladamir is heavier and would supposedly break the branch and therefore would be alone because he can't hang himself without the branch. "Didi heavy-bough break- Didi alone."
So the humor isn't as in your face as Dr. Horrible.
The ending for Dr. Horrible was also very abrupt; kind of sad. Penny gets killed and Dr. Horrible is blamed. As a result of him being blamed he makes it into the Evil League of Evil. Your not really a villain without killing someone, which Dr. Horrible wouldn't do, so he got credit for a murder he didn't commit, and got into the League.
So in the end did Dr. Horrible get what he wanted? To get into the Evil League of Evil and becoming a true villain. Or is all of that void because the women he loves is dead?

Forgot!

I forgot to include in my last blog entry that I went to Lake Bonny Park for this assignment, and stayed at least 50 minutes. And also that I was reading "The Messenger" by Mary Oliver. :) Sorry !

Lake Bonny

I had quite the experience at Lake Bonny. I went around 10 in the morning when it was cloudy and windy. :) I love that kind of weather and it reminded me of home so it seemed to fit perfectly. I went alone and walked around for quite awhile thinking about where I wanted to sit and quieting my mind. Then I found the dock looking area and went out there.
The whole time I was trying to be really aware of the small beauties of nature without making myself search for them. I let them find me. And that they did. The wind was really starting to pick up, making it hard to read my Mary Oliver poems. In frustration I looked to my right and saw a whole bunch of water plants. They resembled giant grass, I have no clue what the technical term is, but the wind was so strong that it was shaking them violently. This captured my attention for a few minutes. They looked as if they were dancing.
We have been talking in class about taking care of nature and playing our part, but I felt like I was observing the rough side of nature. The water was really choppy, the sky was dark and harsh, the trees and plants were going crazy; it was not a calm morning.
Then oddly I saw a bird eating some type of bug. Doesn't sound all that captivating, but considering my thoughts, it was. But then, the worst part happens.
I am sitting there quietly just observing, and I hear this bird making a weird sound. It was flying right above me. Then :) it pooped all over me. Yes, it pooped on me.
I simply sat there and laughed at myself. What luck. I was the only one in the park that morning, and there was plenty of pooping space all around, but it happened to land on me.
Instead of letting it ruin my time, I collected myself and continued reading and looking around. I love nature and it is still captivating when its blowing your hair all over the place, ripping at your papers, and even when it poops on you. It was still peaceful to me, even amongst the chaos.
Nature does what it needs too. Its beauty never ceases.

"Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is standing still and learning to be astonished."