The “Devil’s Dulcimer” by Janice Harrington is about a girl named Nell who lived in a settlement area with mostly poor folks. The Master Fiddlers were known to entertain folks with music and they got paid just enough to get by and lived better than most of the other people in the settlement. Nell lived as poor as everyone else so she wanted to win as Master Fiddler because it meant she would no longer starve and be poor again. She receives advice from a wise old woman who tells her where to seek a man who could help give her a fine dulcimer. The road and cabin where she goes as well as the man she sees creeps her out, but yet she forces herself to keep going because of her eagerness to get that fine dulcimer. She makes a weird deal with the man who is actually the “devil” that she’d bring the head of the one she loved best in exchange for the dulcimer first. She does this knowing she wouldn’t keep her word having no idea there’d be any consequences that would follow. Although she enters and wins the contest, the devil’s voice haunts her asking of the head. In result to her not keeping her word to the devil, the next day she’s found dead, fingers worn off and headless.
The two values that I found to be important in this story is karma and greed. All Nell wanted was to become the Master Fiddle so that she could make enough money to make a living. She was desperate to do or say anything just to get her hands on the new dulcimer, so she deceits the man who is actually a devil that gives her the fine dulcimer. She makes a promise she knew from the start she wouldn’t keep. In result to her dishonesty to the devil, she is killed and is the one that suffers in the end. Greed is also a value that appeared in the story. By getting her dulcimer and lying to the devil, she thought she’d get away with it and live happily ever after with money. She thought that she was smarter than the devil to get away with what she wanted without giving anything in return and the outcome of that was her life.
The lesson I learned from this story is that when some of us go through a time in our life where we are desperate to get a certain thing, we become vulnerable to do or say almost anything. It may drive us to be greedy go great distances not realizing the consequences that can hurt us in the end
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
"Cindy Ellie, A Modern Fairy Tale" - By: Mary Carter Smith
The short story "Cindy Ellie, A modern Fairy Tale" by Mary Smith is a story very similar to famous Cinderella Story, but is instead based on the African culture. It's about a little girl named Ellie who loses her mother due to being sick, and when when her mother dies, many women go after Ellie's father because of his wealth. A lady with a pretty face, big legs, and big hips traps Ellie's father with her good cooking food and soon eventually got him him to marry her. This lady decides to bring her two ugly daughters into the house and kicks Ellie out of her own pretty room so her two stepsisters could sleep in their. Ellie was left to sleep on a pallet in the cellar. There was an inauguration ball held after the mayor was elected and everyone except Ellie was allowed to go. Her godma saw how sad she was because she knew Ellie really wanted to go so she uses some kind of magic to turn an onion into a Cadillac & Mercedes Benz, rats into chaufeurs, and Ellie's raggedy clothing into gown. One night, when she loses track of time, she leaves the ball in such a hurry remember that once it strikes twelve, the magic gets reversed to how it was. On her way out she accidently leaves her sandal. The mayor's son continuely searches for the owner and declares the person that fits the shoe is the one he'll marry. He eventually finds the owner, Ellie, who fits the shoe perfectly and they marry and live happily ever after.
I liked this short story because it reminded so much of the movie, "The Cinderella Story." The short story was almost exactly how the movie was played except the part that in the story, Cinderella wasn't white but African American.
New vocabulary words I found and needed to look up was...
taffeta found on pay 400 -On her head was a geelee of the rarest of taffeta standing tall and stiff and just gorgeous!"
Taffeta means a crisp smooth woven fabric made from silk or synthetic fibers especially used for women's garments.
primping found on page 397 -Oh, them stepsisters was primping and buying designer gowns to go to the ball."
Primping means to dress or groom oneself with elaborate care
Just like in the movie, I dislike the evil "stepsisters" who mistreat and disrespect Ellie in her own home. It's also upsetting and sad that Ellie's father sees the mistreatment that Ellie receives but yet does not stand up or speak up for his own daughter to his new wife. The moral of the Cindy Ellie story is that good things will always come to good people.
I liked this short story because it reminded so much of the movie, "The Cinderella Story." The short story was almost exactly how the movie was played except the part that in the story, Cinderella wasn't white but African American.
New vocabulary words I found and needed to look up was...
taffeta found on pay 400 -On her head was a geelee of the rarest of taffeta standing tall and stiff and just gorgeous!"
Taffeta means a crisp smooth woven fabric made from silk or synthetic fibers especially used for women's garments.
primping found on page 397 -Oh, them stepsisters was primping and buying designer gowns to go to the ball."
Primping means to dress or groom oneself with elaborate care
Just like in the movie, I dislike the evil "stepsisters" who mistreat and disrespect Ellie in her own home. It's also upsetting and sad that Ellie's father sees the mistreatment that Ellie receives but yet does not stand up or speak up for his own daughter to his new wife. The moral of the Cindy Ellie story is that good things will always come to good people.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Flying West By:Pearl Cleage-Separatism & Invisibility
Hazel Agpaoa
Andrea Flint
Within the playwright, Flyin West by Pearl Cleage, several motifs in relation to black literature are introduced. One of the recurring motifs is separatism which is defined as people of a different group living apart from the dominant or larger group in society. In result to that, the inferior group may often seek for a separate homeland. Just like in Flyin’ West, the characters Sophie, Miss Leah, Minnie, and Will are all associated with racial/black separatism because when times got tough in the South due to racial issues, it left them and other African American woman a chance to settle in an untested region in the West, Nicodemus, in hopes for a better life and an opportunity for freedom. In act 1, scene 1, Miss Leah says, “Don’t nobody but colored folks know they been gone that long no way. Them white folks never come out here to even check and see if we’re dead or alive. You know that as the next person.” This passage shows that although both African Americans and Whites lived in the same state of Kansas, they lived in separate regions and did not really interact much with each other. In act 1, scene 5, Sophie says to Minnie, “When we got ready to leave Memphis, I knew it was the right thing to do. Memphis was full of crazy white men acting like when it came to colored people, they didn’t have to be bound by the law or common decency. Dragging people off in the middle of the night. Doing whatever they felt like doing. Colored women not safe in their own houses. Then I heard there were Negroes going West.” This excerpt clarifies the exact reasons why African Americans had traveled from the South to the West, which was just simply getting away from the racism and violence that were happening to the blacks. They were mistreated, abused, killed, and raped in the South, and when the West was opened up to them and mentioned to be a place full of only colored people in colored towns, it sounded like a better place to settle in, anywhere but Memphis.Another motif in relation to black literature is invisibility; to not be seen or recognized as a human being. The main character that relates to the motif is Miss Leah, a former slave and a settler of Nicodemus, Kansas. Miss Leah’s earlier life as a slave gives way to the motif invisibility. Being that she was a slave shows how she was once not recognized as a human being. Instead she was treated like property or an animal by her slave owner. Like any other slave, her only purpose in life was to follow the orders of her owner and tend to her task. Thus, she was invisible to the human race. Throughout the play, Miss Leah illustrates her life as a slave, in which some relate to the idea of invisibility. In Act1, Scene 4, Miss Leah tells the story of when she lost her virginity. She states,” Soon as my womanhood came on me, they took me out in the barn and put James on me….I screamin’ and carryin on somethin’ awful, and that overseer just watchin’ and laughin’ to make sure James really doin’ it.”(page 47). What was to be an intimate moment turned into a calamity of rape and entertainment. The motif invisibility sets around the idea of an individual not being recognized as a human being. Miss Leah’s character and the background of her life ideally relates to the motif invisibility
Andrea Flint
Within the playwright, Flyin West by Pearl Cleage, several motifs in relation to black literature are introduced. One of the recurring motifs is separatism which is defined as people of a different group living apart from the dominant or larger group in society. In result to that, the inferior group may often seek for a separate homeland. Just like in Flyin’ West, the characters Sophie, Miss Leah, Minnie, and Will are all associated with racial/black separatism because when times got tough in the South due to racial issues, it left them and other African American woman a chance to settle in an untested region in the West, Nicodemus, in hopes for a better life and an opportunity for freedom. In act 1, scene 1, Miss Leah says, “Don’t nobody but colored folks know they been gone that long no way. Them white folks never come out here to even check and see if we’re dead or alive. You know that as the next person.” This passage shows that although both African Americans and Whites lived in the same state of Kansas, they lived in separate regions and did not really interact much with each other. In act 1, scene 5, Sophie says to Minnie, “When we got ready to leave Memphis, I knew it was the right thing to do. Memphis was full of crazy white men acting like when it came to colored people, they didn’t have to be bound by the law or common decency. Dragging people off in the middle of the night. Doing whatever they felt like doing. Colored women not safe in their own houses. Then I heard there were Negroes going West.” This excerpt clarifies the exact reasons why African Americans had traveled from the South to the West, which was just simply getting away from the racism and violence that were happening to the blacks. They were mistreated, abused, killed, and raped in the South, and when the West was opened up to them and mentioned to be a place full of only colored people in colored towns, it sounded like a better place to settle in, anywhere but Memphis.Another motif in relation to black literature is invisibility; to not be seen or recognized as a human being. The main character that relates to the motif is Miss Leah, a former slave and a settler of Nicodemus, Kansas. Miss Leah’s earlier life as a slave gives way to the motif invisibility. Being that she was a slave shows how she was once not recognized as a human being. Instead she was treated like property or an animal by her slave owner. Like any other slave, her only purpose in life was to follow the orders of her owner and tend to her task. Thus, she was invisible to the human race. Throughout the play, Miss Leah illustrates her life as a slave, in which some relate to the idea of invisibility. In Act1, Scene 4, Miss Leah tells the story of when she lost her virginity. She states,” Soon as my womanhood came on me, they took me out in the barn and put James on me….I screamin’ and carryin on somethin’ awful, and that overseer just watchin’ and laughin’ to make sure James really doin’ it.”(page 47). What was to be an intimate moment turned into a calamity of rape and entertainment. The motif invisibility sets around the idea of an individual not being recognized as a human being. Miss Leah’s character and the background of her life ideally relates to the motif invisibility
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