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.

Willy's Affair - Reflective

     In Death of a Salesman, Willy is caught cheating on Linda by his son, Biff. Willy and "the woman" are in a hotel room together. Willy says, "All right, stay in the bathroom here, and don't come out. I think there's a law in Massachusetts about it, so don't come out. It may be that new room clerk. He looked very mean. So don't come out. It's a mistake, there's no fire" (1160). Willy gets really scared because he obviously does not want anyone knowing about his affair. The woman was expecting stockings from Willy that he promised to give her. While Willy tries to make Biff not believe the affair, Willy tries to defend himself, "She's nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terribly lonely" (1162). Biff knows that he is lying and calls him a fake.
     Affairs can affect many people, not only the people involved in it. They can mess up a family and the way everyone feels about each other. As time goes on, it seems as if more affairs are happening. Being lonely should not be an excuse. When you marry someone, you commit to be with them for the rest of your life. Affairs especially effect the children in the family. A lot of the time, children do not find out about it, but if they do find out, they find out the hard way. It can either be by seeing your parent and another man or woman together, like Biff did. Or it can result in a divorce, but in this case with Willy and Linda, it did not matter because no one else ever found out. No child wants to see their mom or dad with someone else. It can result in not doing well in school or being antisocial because they do not want to talk to anyone. It can make them not concentrate on what is important at the moment.
     It can bear meaning on our lives because many people know someone or of someone who this has happened to. It can effect many people and the future. Giving another woman something that belongs to your wife is terrible, especially when someone in the family finds out.