Annotation-Peace like a River (long blog)

Tara Wilson

Intro to Literature

November 12, 2011

Annotation-Peace like a River (long blog)

One of "Peace Like a River," by Lief Enger, main themes includes all the miracles that take place through out the book. Rueben, The narrator believes that miracles are only miracles if they are witnessed. Rueben talks about what he thinks of the word miracle, He says, “Let me say something about that word: miracle. For too long it's been used to characterize things or events that, though pleasant, are entirely normal. Peeping chicks at Easter time, spring generally, a clear sunrise after an overcast week--a miracle, people say, as if they've been educated from greeting cards.” He also says "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. Lazarus obeying orders and climbing up out of the grave - now there's a miracle, and you can bet it upset a lot of folks who were standing around at the time. When a person dies, the earth is generally unwilling to cough him back up. A miracle contradicts the will of the earth.”  

The word miracle, on merriam-webster.com is defined as an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment. Also according to merriam-webster.com, in a Christian science form, Miracle can be defined as a divinely natural phenomenon experienced humanly as the fulfillment of spiritual law.

There were many miracles that took place throughout “Peace Like a River.” Some miracles are very noticeable, making the reader think, “wow, God was with them” and others that you may have not even taken notice to. Many of the miracles were because of Jeremiah and his relationship with the Lord.

The first chapter consisted of one of the biggest miracles, Rueben’s life. Rueben was born with bad lungs; He stopped breathing for about twelve minutes after he was born.  Jeremiah Land, his father, said “Reuben Land, in the name of the living God I am telling you to breathe.” He was then able to breathe and live with no brain damage after twelve minutes without oxygen. How can you say God wasn’t with him in that terrifying moment?

Jeremiah was also a miracle when he saved Dolly’s life. Tommy Basca and Israel Finch, two evil boys, were beating up Dolly. Dolly was Davy’s, Jeremiah’s son, girlfriend. Jeremiah was the Janitor and walked in on the attack in the girls’ locker room. It was a miracle he was able to be there and get there in time to save her life.

 Davy being able to escape from jail was miracle. There was no proof exactly, but I believe Jeremiah aided Davy escape from prison. I believe Jeremiah prayed for Davy to have freedom and he did.

Another miracle occurred with Swede’s birthday present. Davy gave Swede a saddle. The saddle inspired her and her western novel of sunny sundown. When he first gave her the saddle, it had a tare in it. It was damaged.  Later Jeremiah stumbled over it and touched it. After his hands touched it, Swede, found it with no damage. His touch was a miracle.

Running into Roxanna in the Badlands was a miracle. Roxanna Crawely works Dale’s Oil Company. They came upon this place at the perfect time. They were running out of gas and oil and all the gas stations had investigators waiting for them to stop.  Roxanna is a blessing in their lives. She feeds them, gives them a place to stay, and takes care of them. Jeremiah falls in love with her. It was also a miracle that they stopped there and stayed for just enough time for the Davy stopping, otherwise they would have continued there traveling.

Rueben living through his Asthma attack was a miracle. Reuben wakes up to Roxanna pounding him on the back one morning. He had an asthma attack and I believe that Roxanna and Jeremiah helped him live through it. Rueben’s entire life was a miracle. The fact that Jeremiah ends up dying and he doesn’t is a shock to me. Defiantly unexpected, which explains the definition of a miracle, “extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment.”

I believe this quote is a great way to think of miracles, “love works in miracles every day: such as weakening the strong, and strengthening the weak: making fools of the wise, and wise men of fools, favoring the passions, destroying reason, and in a word, turning everything topsy-turvy.”  This quote was by Marguerite De Valois, Some people believe it’s unrealistic to hope for miracles, I believe God provides us with miracles everyday. He blesses us daily. From one heart beat to the next is a miracle. The

I have recently had hip surgery and lately I’ve been discouraged with the amount of progress I’ve been making. I had surgery over 5 months ago. I am still not aloud to run. As I read threw my journal I kept after surgery, I realize how much of a miracle it is that I am doing as well as I am. I look back on how much of a struggle it was to do everyday tasks and the fact that I am able to so much with no trouble is a blessing.  I do thank God everyday for my continuous improvements and I do trust that he will continue to guide and protect me. Another miracles is my younger brothers life. When he was five years old, He had a very serious form of cancer called Neuroblastoma. This cancer takes over the patient’s nerves all through out their bones. My brother was supposed to die, but thanks to all the prayers and wonderful doctors, his body fought the cancer off. I do believe it is a miracle he is alive. I am so thankful for him. He is truly the happiest kid I’ve ever met. I've experienced a lot more "extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishments" through out my life. I believe Jeremiah and his family experienced these miracles because they had the Lord on their side.

Works Cited:

Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/>.

Enger, Leif. Peace like a River. New York: Atlantic Monthly, 2001. Print.

"Marguerite De Valois." Index of /. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/valois.html>.

"Marguerite De Valois Quotes - The Quotations Page." Quotes and Famous Sayings - The Quotations Page. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Marguerite_de_Valois/>.

Spring and Fall-Reflective

Tara Wilson

Intro to lit

October 26, 2011

 Spring and Fall-reflective

             The poem called Spring and Fall was written by Gerard Manely Hopens. He poem had sort of a lyrical rhythm. Each line has like four beats, which is neat.  This poem is about a young girl named Margaret and how she is grieving over a place she seems to be very attached to.  What I got from the lines is that, Margret is upset because the seasons are changing, making the place she loved so much look entirely different. She is thinking about the leavings calling as spring changes into fall. The leaves falling off, is just one of the noticeable changes when these seasons change.  Margret is grieving over Goldengrove unleaving. These thoughts are childish, but I can relate in two different ways. I live in Pennsylvania and I know what it’s like to experience real seasons. I love Spring and fall because of the leaves changing and falling off, and just the warm but chilly weather.  I love being able to wear boots or flip-flops, either or if I wanted to.  As Spring and fall pass into winter, I feel my mood changes. I don’t enjoy winter up north. I feel like it’s always gloomy out which makes me just want to stay in bed. I also think we can all relate to Margret in way. I feel we can relate the leaves falling to life. We all watch ourselves and others around us, grow up and then die. Each way we should live like we are dying. From the English Standard, Psalm 90:12 we are told to number our days because we never know when our Spring and Fall are over and we fall off our tree.

Creative post

Tara Wilson

Prof. Deborde

Intro to Lit

Oct. 19, 2011

Creative: "The Road" by Cormac Mccarthy

NO LAUGHING ALOUD :D!!!!

For my creative post, I thought I would dress up like the man. As you can see in these photos I am eating an apple and mushrooms. These are a few of the items they were able to find themselves along their travels. They came upon a bunker full of untouched food. They came across pears, peaches, and other very useful items.  Some of these useful items include: utensils, cloths, soap, tools, toothpaste, and so on.  They also came upon a apple orchard, where the father took as many apples as possible. These apples/bunker brought happiness and hope to their lives.

I could have easily made the photographs black and white, but I left them in color, showing the life that the findings of the apples/bunker brought the two men. The father being sick, the bunker, brought great hope. I take for granted all the food I am provided with. They saw every little bit as hope and life. We should do the same also.

hehehehehhe

Reflective: "The Road" by Cormac Mccarthy

Tara Wilson

Prof. Deborde

Intro to Lit

Sept. 29, 2011

Reflective: "The Road" by Cormac Mccarthy

 The 80 pages of “The Road,” by Cormac McCarthy that I read, was showing the love between a man and his son. They are both on a journey north; trying to stay alive with the many challenges that are put in front of them. There are many challenges the boy and his father are put through on a daily basis that we have never needed to deal with. Nothing is handed to them, making me realize how much we take for granted. For example, McCarthy talks about the piece of blue tarp that they use as blanket. This blanket was a shield of protection from the snow and to hide themselves from intruders.  Nowadays, We are blessed with such cozy beds and much more intact security. Another example of a struggle we don’t have to deal with, was the fact that the little boy was scared of the dark but never able to escape it. We are able to escape it by turning on a light. The little boy was unable to do that, making being scared of the dark quite miserable. The boy was also freezing, On page, he talks about how cold he is.  Have you ever been stuck somewhere uncomfortablely cold and not able to do anything about it?

There are many things in life that we take of granted. This summer I had myself a perspective changer. I had surgery and the ability to walk/run and or barely move was taken away from me for a good amount of time. This made me realize how much you may take for granted everyday of your life. Do you take the ability to walk? Do you appreciate chartwells food or do you complain about it constantly? There are many things we consider essentials to life that are not given to the Man and the boy.

Cormac McCarthy also has a very unique way of writing “The Road.” There was no use of apostrophes and or quotations. I believe the reason for this is because McCarthy wants to show as little emotion as possible. He wants to portray a dark/grey setting. When apostrophes and quotations are used, I feel there is more life to the story. I also feel McCarthy maybe didn’t feel the need to use quotes and apostrophes due to the fact that there’s only two characters present in the story.

Problemize- The value of “Ethics” these days.

Tara Wilson

Prof. Deborde

Intro to Lit

Sept. 29, 2011

Reflective- “Ethics” by Linda Pastan

In the Poem “Ethics,” by Linda Pastan, Pastan first takes the reader back to a memory that took place in her ethics class while she was still in school.  Her teacher asked her every fall: “If there were a fire in the museum which would you save, a Rembrandt painting or an old women who hadn’t many years left anyhow?” This question made me think. It was questioning how I value life and art.  Deciding weather to save and old lady or to save an old famous painting that is probably worth a lot of money. If you were in this situation, what would be your first instantiate? Hopefully, it would be to save the old lady no mater how old she is. I believe that whatever your instinct would be in this situation, tells a lot about yourself and your ethics. What would be the ethical thing to do in this situation? Everyone, including myself, enjoys having money and valuable things but is someone’s death worth it? Even though the old lady was probably going to pass on very soon, would you consider their family, maybe her grandchildren? Would you think about the fact that maybe she wasn’t a believer yet and you could save her life?

The poem centers on the idea of ethics ,and moves the reader to examine their own concept of ethics. What I realized is, nobody can actually force somebody else to practice somebody else 's code of ethics. Everyone has a different view on whats ethical. Being ethical is also not the same as following the law. You may feel something is ethical and it may break the law.  People also view being ethical as  doing “whatever society accepts” which is also wrong.  I have been put in situations where I had to make an ethical decision weather it was looked upon on or not.  I have been put in many tough decisions were I had to make a morally ethical decision as a Christian. It was difficult, but you must be ethical.  

The Road Not Taken-Creative-photo

Tara Wilson

Deborde

Intro to Lit

Sept. 21, 2011

As I look at this photograph, I think of the many times I've been forced to make decisions in life. Each decision made in your journey of life affects your life in the long run. On an everyday basis us humans, have learned how to decide which choices are better, and what are the consequences of these choices. As the man stood in the woods, deciding, he decided to take the less traveled on path. The man in "The Road Not Taken" took a risk, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”  By the man in this poem taking the one less traveled by, he was making a decision to not follow the crowd. Sometimes being a leader and being the first to do the right thing is difficult.s A lot of times God puts a fork in your path, and he wants to see you obey him and lean on him when held up with decisions. As we all should know, God will never give you anything he doesn’t know you can’t handle, so trust in him and take the path less traveled. When decisions are throw our way, us being humans, stress out, we must always remember to have faith that there is a higher meaning to life and a spiritual destination worth working toward.

I’ve learned that life is never a straight path and that decisions are always having to be made between what path to take.  I’ve made many of good decisions and of course plenty of bad decisions. It’s always helpful to have friends that keep you accountable to your decisions in life. It is also awesome that we have a forgiving God that forgives us when we take the wrong path.  

Reflective

This week we read from A Raisin in the sun, by Lorraine Hanberry. In the reading, The Younger family continue to really struggle finically. Mama was to receive a Check in the mail any day now. With this check, Walter, the oldest male, had his own idea on where the money should be used. Walter believed all he needed was this cash from Mama’s check and he would be all set to follow through with his dream. Walter’s dream was to start and known his own Liquor store. Ruth and the rest of the family, understood what his desires were but didn’t think it was the best way to spend the big check coming in. The family felt there was a better way to benefit from the check. Just like anyone else would, Walter became quite frustrated that no one was supporting him. Although, I agree their most likely is a more realistic target to go after during this finical struggle, Walter seems very determined. I feel starting a business with this money would either teach him a lesson or it may be successful and they may benefit. If I was placed in the Younger family at that point in time, I would most likely not support his unrealistic goal.

       Chasing after unrealistic goals can be positive but also very negative. Even though, when you chase after unrealistic goals you teach yourself to never give up and work hard, but chasing can get tiring. Chasing after unrealistic goals can be quite a downfall. Sometimes you need to re-gather your thoughts and think things through. You may need to look at the big picture and realize if you set the bar to high, you may tire out because it was way to unreachable. A way I’ve avoided having unrealistic goals was to narrow down the dream. You should take baby steps towards the dream, while setting smaller realistic goals.

       I can personally relate to how Walter feels with no support system. Thankfully, I was blessed with an awesome family who supports anything I want to do, but can’t say the same about my friends from high school. I grew up in a public high school, being the only Christian out of all my friends. As many of you have already experienced, its difficult to stand alone in my faith.  I’ve been put through some of the hardest, most embarrassing, situations because I needed to be the light in the room.  I do believe having dreams and no support system may have been tough for Walter; hopefully he learns and realizes what is best for the family and not just for himself.