Robert Frost

     Mending Wall is a wonderful look at how most people deal with other people (neighbors).  I believe the central idea of this poem is the phrase, "Good fences make good neighbors."  I love how the 'pine tree neighbor' is completely indifferent to the fact that he has a neighbor.  He just wants to fix that darn wall so he doesn't have to see his fellow man.  Why let others in when you already have so many problems of your own?  The 'apple orchard neighbor' is 'on the fence' about letting his neighbor in.  He seems to want to strike up a relationship with the other fellow but the wall needs mending.  The wall could also symbolize racism/bigotry now that I think about it..........
     Home Burial reads like a short story instead of a poem.  I felt the sorrow, anger, and pain of the husband and wife.  The loss of a child is an experience that I NEVER want to have.  This poem reminded me of a movie I recently saw entitled Rabbit Hole.  It is a look into the lives of a husband and wife who have lost a child.  The poem and the movie show the decay of a relationship with the hope that the relationship is strong enough to work itself out.  It always seems someone needs to be the stronger of the two in any relationship and in the poem (as well as the movie) the husband is the strongest.  "Can't a man speak of his own child he's lost?"  This is a man who is willing to talk through the tragedy and his wife is still grieving in her own way.  The relationship is strained and we can only hope he WILL follow her and bring her back by force.
     Design is a beautiful little poem about life and death.  It's about the strong overpowering the weak.  It asks the question if design actually fits into the whole scheme of life.  Maybe it is Frost's questioning of God as designer/creator.  "What but design of darkness to appall?----If design govern in a thing so small."  Maybe Frost just saw a spider on a white heal-all and wrote about it.  Who knows?  I usually have a hard time getting to the 'meat' of poetry, but this Frost fellow seems rather wonderful.

Zitkala Sa / Impressions of an Indian Childhood

     "I hate the paleface that makes my mother cry!"  I think that about sums up Sa's feelings about the white men who ultimately grind her heritage into dust.  The recollection of Sa's childhood is a powerful one and it gave me a little more insight into the role the "paleface" played in the conformity of the Native Americans.
     I love how Sa and her mother were so peaceful and content living in the wigwam and inviting fellow tribesmen to come and eat and tell stories.  I also enjoyed "The Coffee-Making" snippet. This short recollection tells of an "old grandfather" that stops by Sa's wigwam for a brief respite.  Sa knows that she should welcome him and make him coffee.  She does just that (but she uses old coffee grounds and creates a "muddy warm water").  The old grandfather accepts her hospitality.  When mother returns, the elders sort of laugh together (not in a condescending way).  "But neither she nor the warrior, whom the law of our custom had compelled to partake of my insipid hospitality, said anything to embarrass me."  I believe the previous quote speaks volumes on the Native American culture.  Native Americans are truly a 'family' with customs, traditions, and laws that strengthen their heritage.
     Enter whitey!!!!!  Sa's older brother had gone East and was educated by the white man.  When Dawee returned, "his coming back influenced my mother to take a farther step from her native way of living."  Mother is still continuously cursing the "paleface" and yet, she starts to slowly conform.  (I don't think she sees this in herself - she is very emotional and blames the "paleface" for the death of her other daughter and her brother).  Sa wants to attend the school in the East and her mother is reluctant to let her go.  Sa ends up going East and thriving as a student.  She realizes her heritage and customs are being systematically deleted from her and her fellow Indians.  Through the cutting of their hair and the suppression of their native language, these young Indians are being molded into what the white man sees as the 'perfect American citizen' (ironic, right?).  It all boils down to control and conformity on the part of the white man.  White-boy egos always get in the way of growth and acceptance.  Sa realizes all of this later in life.  I believe she is grateful for her Education, but she had to sacrifice so much of herself to attain it.  Education vs. heritage/culture???  It shouldn't have been a choice.  It should have been a partnership. 

Edith Wharton / Roman Fever

     Can anyone say "CAT FIGHT"???????????  This story was great.  At first, I thought it was going to be some story about how Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley were going to weep into their tea about getting older.  I also thought there would be some remarks about how they want to live vicariously through their daughters.  I was pleasantly surprised when they began chatting about their past, and a letter, and what could only be described as a love triangle.
     The letter that promised a tryst with Mr. Slade (Delphin) was written and sent to Mrs. Ansley by her "friend", Mrs. Slade.  I can only imagine that it was done to test the strength of the two women's friendship, as well as the fidelity of her then boyfriend, Delphin.  One of the highlights of the story was when Mrs. Ansley informed Mrs. Slade that she actually did meet Delphin that night despite the fact the letter was falsified.  Mrs. Slade had not anticipated that Mrs. Ansley would ANSWER the letter.  So, over tea in Rome, Mrs. Slade finds out her husband and Mrs. Ansley actually "hooked - up".  She kind of shrugs it off and says, "Yes; I was beaten there.  But I oughtn't to begrudge it to you, I suppose.  At the end of all these years.  After all, I had everything; I had him for twenty-five years.  And you had nothing but that one letter that he didn't write." (pg.852)  This is actually somewhat of a forgiving remark (with a side of 'slap in the face') but the real shocker is Mrs. Ansley's remark.  (Just a quick note here: the two women were always comparing their daughters.  Mrs. Slade's daughter, Jenny, was just not up to her standards (being high-class and all).  Mrs. Ansley's daughter, Barbara, is brilliant and more to the liking of Mrs. Slade. "I appreciate her. And perhaps envy you.  Oh, my girl's perfect; if I were a chronic invalid I'd - well, I think I'd rather be in Jenny's hands...... I always wanted a brilliant daughter...and never quite understood why I got an angel instead." (Mrs. Slade speaking on Barbara pg.848))
     The story ends on the best (and quite shocking) remark made by Mrs. Ansley in response to Mrs. Slade's remark about having everything "and you had nothing but that letter".   Mrs. Ansley says, " I had Barbara."
Take that Mrs. Slade. 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman / The Yellow Wall-paper

     How cool was this story????  I found Gilman's descriptions of the narrator's "temporary nervous depression" to be quite enlightening.  The following are just a few sentences from the story:
    "so I take pains to control myself - before him, at least, and that makes me very tired." (pg. 809)
    "But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing." (pg. 810)
    "I don't feel as if it was worth while to turn my hand over for anything, and I'm getting dreadfully fretful and    querulous." (pg. 812)
    "I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time." (pg.812)
     I fully believe her "temporary nervous depression" has a name, and that name is John (her husband).  John appears to be a professional at squashing her hopes, dreams, and desires.  She desperately wants to write, but feels compelled to do it in secret for fear that her husband will find out.  She also wants to have some company and entertain some friends, but her husband believes that would "exhaust" her.  She feels trapped in a lifeless marriage.  The wallpaper (yellow, dingy, and faded) symbolizes her marriage and the "woman" that is trapped inside is her. 
    Gilman makes the yellow wallpaper come alive: 
"The color is repellent almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight." (pg.810) 
"It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper!  It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw - not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things." (pg.816)
     Gilman uses depression and wallpaper to convey her thoughts on the plight of the everyday woman.  I agree with Gilman...........rip the wallpaper down.