Miracles - LONG BLOG

    According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, “miracle” is defined as “a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.” Miracles are not something that just happen for no reason. They are something special and should be looked at as uncommon. Miracles are not every day occurrences for everyone. In Urban Dictionary one of the definitions is, “Something you will never, ever forget. Even if life tries to wipe off the memory, it will stay attached.” It is a special event in life that shall never be forgotten whether it may be big or small.   
    I have watched a lot of television over the years and I have seen many shows that involve miracles but two shows that center around them are “It’s a Miracle” and “Animal Miracles.” Things would happen that we did not think were possible, I would say to myself, “What? How did that happen, that is impossible!” It is hard to imagine how many miracles happen every day in this world. I think society uses the term “miracle” very loosely. We may say, “it’s a miracle” when it really is not. We say that a miracle is a work of God. God performed many miracles that are explained in the Bible. Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God through his miracles. The supernatural nature of Jesus is a central theme of all Gospels. In Matthew, chapters 8-10 demonstrates Jesus’ miraculous activity. Jesus heals leprosy, He heals from a distance, controls nature, casts out demons, raises the dead and heals the lame, blind and mute. These occurrences do not happen naturally, but are shown through the power of God. There was a reason those certain people were cured by Jesus himself.
    When Jesus heals the man with leprosy, “He reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, ‘See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them’” (New International Version). That act is extremely remarkable because the act of healing was not intended to bring attention to Jesus. He healed the man, but did not want attention to be directed to the healer, only to the healing. A lot of time, a person might believe a miracle occurred only because of them but it is also in God’s hands.
    There are many miracles demonstrated in Peace Like a River. Swede definitely has an opinion about miracles, “My sister, Swede, who often sees to the nub, offered this: People fear miracles because they fear being changed--though ignoring them will change you also. Swede said another thing, too, and it rang in me like a bell: No miracle happens without a witness” (3). I slightly disagree with that because I believe they can happen with only one person seeing what happened. If a miracle occurs, just because no one else sees it other than the person who it happens to, does not mean it did not happen. Other people may not believe it, but that is their decision. To call a miracle, a miracle, it evaporates the strength of the world. Another thing that Reuben said was, “Real miracles bother people, like strange sudden pains unknown in medical literature. It’s true: They rebut every rule all we good citizens take comfort in” (3). He says that a “real” miracle is Lazarus obeying orders and climbing up out of the grave. I do agree with that statement because that is something that was totally unexpected and unnatural.
    Another miracle that happens far into the book is meeting Roxanna Cawley. In their travels to find Davy, they meet Roxanna who takes care of the family, gives them a place to stay and feeds them great food. “But she went to a lot of trouble for us, who were after all just one small family paying a few dollars for a night’s room and board,” Roxanna really put effort into helping them even though their coming was completely unexpected (180). They do not have to worry about sleeping in the trailer and the family can actually have a nice place to stay. It was a miracle stumbling upon her house and business. They did not expect to get anything out of it but they fortunate enough to have the rest of their lives changed after meeting Roxanna. Reuben said, “At this dread realization occurred: Since arriving at this house, we’d had no miracles whatever” (257). They had continued through life without any for a while but that is fine because miracles are not supposed to just happen all the time.
    Reuben, one of the main characters in this book, is a miracle within himself. He stopped breathing at the beginning of his life. When his dad said the word, “breathe,” Reuben came back to life and began breathing even though the doctor said it was impossible. He is definitely a blessing to Jeremiah Land and his family, and Jeremiah is now his son’s hero. Reuben says that the word miracle is used to characterize events or things that are pleasant but entirely normal at the same time, “Such things are worth our notice every day of the week, but to call them miracles evaporates the strength of the word” (3). He should not have survived but he did for a reason. Reuben’s asthma attack shows another miracle. Reuben wakes up to Roxanna pounding on his back in the morning. His father, Jeremiah and Roxanna help him survive through it. Reuben has many breathing issues because of his asthma, so surviving through asthma attacks with no trouble is a miracle. “You don’t emerge from these episodes clearly. I managed to turn enough to glimpse Roxanna Cawley in a flannel nightgown hammering my corporeal self with the strictest resolve,” shows that Roxanna cares about each family member even though she barely knows them (184).
    Finding Davy was another miracle, he could have been anywhere and they eventually found him. His escape showed how we wants to be free and live life on his own. They continued to search for Davy and did not give up on searching for him. Reuben thought there had to be a miracle to find him, “And I thought, Without a miracle, exactly what chance do I have? I decided to then tell Swede about Davy. I opened my eyes and she was still there reading aloud, crouched forward into a verse,” and that is when Rueben told her that he knew where Davy is (258). Swede had absolutely no idea, she probably thought it was miraculous, but not to Reuben because he kind of just stumbled upon him and happened to be in the right place at the right time.
    Towards the end of Peace Like a River, Reuben says that the one thing he was not waiting for was a miracle, “Blanketed in my window seat I puzzled it through, concluding that God, feeling overworked on our behalf, had given us Roxanna as a parting gift---a wonderful one, you understand, just what we’d always wanted, but accompanied by the end of the miraculous” (292). They asked themselves if it was unjust because they were hoping for a miracle that demanded energy. One of my favorite quotes in the entire book is, “Shouldn’t that be the last thing you release: the hope that the Lord God, touched in His heart by your particular impasse among all others, will reach down and do that work none else can accomplish--straighten the twist, clear the oozing sore, open the lungs (292)? We can have hope because of God’s miraculous actions.
    A miracle is something that happens that is totally unexpected and that is against nature, something that is good. A miracle is amazing, surprising, shocking and unexpected. Sometimes we associate it with a physical healing such as disease or someone being cured, but it can also be in sports. If a losing team beats a good team, then people might say that is a miracle. Or if someone passes a test that they did not study for, they may call that a miracle too. There are many different types of miracles. Sometimes we are are in denial of a miracle happening, especially when it has to do with health, we want a cure to happen, but doctors may say it is impossible. Everyone hears of them happening and we say, “that is amazing and it is a miracle!” It is highly improbable and an accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences. Miracles should not be taken for granted. They do not just happen for no reason at all. The Land family experienced many miracles throughout this period of time. Miracles are a prominent theme in Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. Miracles occur throughout the entire book to show that there is a sense of hope and desire for something good.

Citations

Enger, Leif. Peace Like a River. New York: Grove Press, 2001. Print.

"Matthew 8 (New International Version)." Bible Gateway . New International Version. Biblica , 2011.  Print. <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew 8&version=NIV>.

Urban Dictionary . San Francisco: Urban Dictionary, LLC , 2011. Print.    <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=miracle>.

Goodbye - Annotation

     “Goodbye” is a word that we use often. We use it on the phone, when we go our separate ways with friends and family. At the end of “The Road,” the boy wants to say bye to his father, “What about my papa?/There’s nothing else to be done/I think I want to say goodbye to him/Will You be all right?/Yes” (285-286). For the little boy, this was the last time he would ever see him, it was not a kind of “goodbye” that we use in our everyday language. According to Oxford Dictionary, it is, “used to express good wishes when parting or at the end of a conversation.”   
In one of Carrie Underwood’s songs, “Starts With Goodbye,” she sings,

I guess it's gonna have to hurt,
I guess I'm gonna have to cry,
And let go of some things I've loved,
To get to the other side,
I guess it's gonna break me down,
Like falling when you try to fly,
It's sad, but sometimes moving on with the rest of your life,
Starts with goodbye.

     The boy is moving on with the rest of his life after his father dies. He is starting a whole new chapter in his life with this new family that he does not know very well. He has to end up trusting them and depending on them just like he did with his father for basically his whole life. He has to let go and it did break him down. This is significant because throughout the book, he is  with his father who keeps him alive and protects him to the best of his ability and now he finally has to say goodbye to him. Before reading this text, I had not really thought of this word like this. To me, goodbye meant not seeing the person for a while, but not forever. Thankfully, I have never had to say bye to someone who meant a lot to me, but at such a young age, I cannot imagine how it felt to him especially since he was the only other person in his life.


"Oxford Dictionaries ." Oxford University Press, 2011. Web. <http://english.oxforddictionaries.com /definition/goodbye?region=us>.

Fire - Annotation

    Fire is a huge part of The Road. “He’d come down with a fever and they lay in the woods like fugitives. Nowhere to build a fire. Nowhere safe. The boy sat in the leaves watching him. His eyes brimming. Are you going to die, Papa? he said. Are you going to die” (186)? The father and son have to make sure no one sees them because they do not want to take a chance in getting hurt. The definition of brim, figuratively, is, being possessed by or fill of feelings or thoughts. The father probably has a million of ideas going through his head about what is going to happen next. Meanwhile, they are cold and the father is sick and his son thinks he might die soon.
    According to the Oxford Dictionary, fire is, “combustion or burning, in which substances combine chemically with oxygen from the air and typically give out bright light, heat, and smoke.” Fire symbolizes many things; controlled force, food, creating civilization, light in darkness, security, defense and a difference between good and bad. Fire enables them to eat warm food and drink coffee. The effect of this language changes the reader’s thoughts. Most of us nowadays can go to a fire place, turn on the gas, put a match in it and get some fire wood and the fire will start right away. We do not have to do what the father and son are doing. We use it for warmth while they use it for security, food and so they will not freeze all the time. It represents the historical period because the time back then was very different, especially in their world since basically everything was destroyed. They do not have warm shelter that they can rely on to go home to every night with a thermostat.
    This device of fire brings security to the text. It makes them feel somewhat secure knowing that they will not freeze to death or go more hungry than they already are. Although when the fuel runs out, the little boy believes it to be all his fault and feels terrible even though his father does not blame him. This passage is essential because it really makes not only them worry about their own future, but it also makes us worry about them. A place to build a fire where no one can see is a reoccurring aspect in this novel.

"Oxford Dictionaries ." Oxford University Press, 2011. Web. <http://english.oxforddictionaries.com /definition/fire?region=us>.

The Road

    The Road by Cormac McCarthy is about a father and son who walk alone through burned  America in a post apocalyptic world. McCarthy’s writing style makes the readers feel as if they should be appreciative with the lives we have. As Americans, most of us take our life for granted. We come to home to a nice warm bed and a house with a stocked kitchen that could feed a ton of people. While people read this story, we should realize that everyone is not as fortunate as us, for example, the father and his son.
    Food and shelter is a big problem for these characters. The boy has to depend on his father to find food throughout their journey so they can survive. “In an old bat board smokehouse they found a ham gambreled up in a high corner. It looked like something fetched from a tomb, so dried and drawn,” but that was their only option (9). If any of us saw food like that, we would automatically throw it away without thinking. There is no shelter for them either, “He pulled the blue plastic tarp off of him and folded it and carried it out to the grocery cart and packed it and it came back with their plates and some cornmeal cakes in a plastic bag and a plastic bottle of syrup” (3). Nowadays whenever we see someone with a grocery cart and a tarp who’s not at a store, we classify them as homeless. Usually there is just one person with it, but in this case there are two. They are making their way down South, partly because it is warmer there, so then they will not have to be cold with their low supply of blankets.
    Right from the beginning of this story, I felt as if more people should do something to help the homeless population. In the story, the little boy wanted to help the burnt man and his father did not because they did not have anything to give him. It shows how unselfish and naive this little boy is even though he was barely surviving. It shows how many people today are selfish or scared to give homeless or injured people money or just simple help. This whole story allows us to reflect on our lives and realize how blessed we are with everything here for us. 
   

Everyday Use - Problematize

    Everyday Use by Alice Walker is about a family. Mama is a strong, loving mother. She is sometimes threatened and burdened by her daughters, but she is brutally honest. Mama sometimes does not understand Dee’s life, which explains Dee’s actions about the fire.
    Dee is someone who gets jealous easily and gets upset among family members. Helping someone out of a fire seems like an action that no one should have to think about. They should just notice and realize that the person is in need of help but Dee is not like that. “And Dee. I see her standing off under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum out of; a look of concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red-hot brick chimney,” shows how Dee did not care about her family burning (146-147). She should have helped Mama when she was rescuing Maggie from the fire.
    They do not treat each other very well. If that was my sister, or any family member, I definitely would have helped the person who was in the fire. I find that unusual. As a family, everyone is supposed to care about each other. As Christians, we are supposed to treat everyone equally and help when someone is in need. In the Bible, it says “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (New International Version). God will be pleased no matter how small or big the action is. More people should pay attention to others and realize that there are more important things than standing around and watching and doing nothing. Dee was insensitive to others, unlike Mama. Maggie was severely burned in the fire and is now scarred for life. Dee could have prevented that a little bit. Maggie’s relationship with Dee is rife with envy and respect. They do not have a great relationship. Family should love one another equally and not favor certain people. Sometimes people believe an action will not impact the person in need, but in this circumstance it would have helped a lot.

The Yellow Wallpaper

    The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a “powerful indictment of the ways in which women can be smothered by relationships” (288). The yellow wallpaper in the nursery is a huge symbol in the story. At first, they believe it to be unpleasant, soiled, gross and an unclean yellow. The wallpaper has a formless pattern. The woman says, “there are things in the wallpaper that nobody knows but me, or ever will” (295). The woman is not a normal everyday woman, she is someone who interests people because of her thoughts. She also has strange feelings, “And it is like a woman is stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t feel like it a bit. I wonder - I begin to think - I wish John would take me away from here” (295). The yellow wallpaper that bothers the woman is a symbol of the domestic life that traps so many women in the world.
    A woman behind the wallpaper shows how woman back then were not able to do whatever they wanted. The standard job for a woman back then would have been a mother, a housewife or a maid. Nowadays women can basically do whatever job they want. There are many jobs out there now that women and men can do. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator sees this cage as changed up with the heads of many women. They all tried to escape but they could not. As they look at the pattern, they realize that they are trying to get away from all of the normal things in life.
    There are always moments in life when we think something is there when it really is not. It may be when we are at home alone and we hear one little sound and think that someone is there. The woman thought someone was hiding behind the wallpaper, she may have psychological issues that make her think this way. She was so caught up in this feeling, that she did not have much else to concentrate on. Something that scares people can make them think about nothing else and it may distract them from everything else they are doing at that very moment. We need to forget about these things and move on just like the woman should have done.

A Raisin in the Sun - Reflective

     A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, shows how a family struggled with money while living in Chicago. For most people, there are always going to be financial struggles at least once in life. For the Younger family, Walter wants to open up a liquor store with the check that Mama is going to get in the mail. The whole family is impatient and can't wait for the check to arrive. "That money belongs to Mama, Walter, and it's for her to decide how she wants to use it. I don't care if she wants to buy a house or a rocket ship or just nail it up somewhere and look at it. It's hers. Not ours - hers," shows how the family wants it to belong to them (1628). Beneatha believes that Walter wants the money more than Mama does.
     A lot of the time in life, people want what is not there's. For example, a car, a house, a job, a relationship, material items or just money like in this case. We get jealous easily and it makes us think that we deserve what someone else has. Beneatha says, "Walter, give up; leave me alone - it's Mama's money" (1629). As a society, we should earn what we get and not just have it given to us. A lot of the time, people waste money on items, but Mama says she wants to put some of it away for Beneatha and her schooling. Walter and Ruth had plans to live in the house they are in for a short while, but they did not have enough funds to move and refurnish a house in Morgan Park, Illinois.
     Ruth says that they need the money and Mama adds, "Somebody would of thought my children done all but starved to death the way they talk about money here late. Child, we got a great big old check coming tomorrow" (1631). The rest of the family knows that they have nothing to do with it and Ruth thinks Mama should go on a trip and use some of the money she is getting. Many college students have financial struggles, we should all learn to spend our money wisely and to save it for the future.