Homework for Tuesday, 3/25/08

How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie

This short story is easy to read and understand. This is a boy, mostlikely a teenager, who is having a girl come over while his family is gone. He got out of going to visit someone with his mother so he is sneaking around and having a girl over. He cleans up his apartment and hides certain things, such as embarassing pictures and food issued by the government. It is clear that his family does not have much money since they have government food and the fact that the boy says that his neighborhood is prone to violence. The way that the story is written almost seems like instructions that he was given or maybe instructions that he is giving someone else. He gives tips on what certain girls will do or where to take them to dinner, depending on where they are from. I think that the speaker of the story is Latino according to clues that he gave, but he never comes out and says it. This story is overall interesting and fun to read.

America

I think that this poem is a testimony to the way the writer feels about America and it's future. She uses negative words to describe it, but says that she "loves this cultured hell that tests [her] youth." I think that this means that there may be many things wrong with America, but she loves it all the same and that the bad things may even make it better. The last 4 lines discuss the future of America, and as we all know, there are definitely huge problems ahead with energy, pollution, etc. The writer says that she gazes darkly into the days ahead and sees "priceless treasures sinking in the sand." I think this is a type of warning to Americans to treat our country better and realize that we have to fix the problems at hand.

If We Must Die

This poem is by the same author as "America" and it discuess dying. McKay wishes for death to be noble, blooodless, and unlike the death of hogs, which is probably referring to being slaughtered. Later in the poem, it discusses a battle with some other group of people. She wants her and her "kinsmen" to face the other group and fight back, even if they die. This poem is somewhat weird in my opinion and it is hard to decide what she is talking about and why they would die.