JGB's ENG 104

 In the confessional the priest asked me if I practiced self-pollution. The words were formal, unfamiliar, but I knew what he meant. So, I thought, kneeling there in the dark, crushed with shame, there’s a name for it. I looked at the shadowy grill, looked toward the source of the soothing voice of absolution, the […]

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In an otherwise unremarkable September morning, long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother, she takes my hand and we set off down New Jersey Avenue to begin my very first day of school. In “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones, what stood out to me most was the first sentence – […]

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My mother is now diseased, according to the girl’s eyes, and until the moment her mother takes her and the form to the front of the auditorium, the girl never stops looking at my mother. (351) In this passage, the mother of the narrator is forced to admit her illiteracy to the mother of a […]

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The speaker and the crowd first react to the bird in amazement; it draws a crowd of all ages and genders and, for a brief moment, there is no commotion from everyday life. The bird, described as being from a time before human industrialization, relates to the desire of the boy to visit the abandoned house. The house breathed […]

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Throughout the story, I can sense the mother’s hope that her daughter will have the life she hasn’t had. At first, it’s not clear why she wants her daughter to have a better life other than the fact that the girl is her daughter and mothers always want what’s best for their children. The story takes place during […]

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All throughout the text, we can see examples of the mother’s pride — her pride in her dreams of getting her daughter into this school, her pride in her daughter’s appearance. Even more, we see hints that she is proud of herself. As the story progresses, we can see how her pride starts to break. We can pinpoint […]

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So, I thought, kneeling there in the dark, crushed with shame, there’s a name for it. I looked at the shadowy grill, looked toward the source of soothing absolution, the voice of forgiveness and hope, and I lied. “No,” I whispered… I threw the first stone. I found “Rara Avis” to be surprisingly powerful for its […]

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In an otherwise unremarkable September morning, long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother, she takes my hand and we set off down New Jersey Avenue to begin my very first day of school. I am wearing a checkeredlike blue-and-green cotton dress, scattered about these colors are bits of yellow and white and […]

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Perched there at the lip of the roof, its feet clutching the drainpipe as if welded to it, the bird was a coil of possibility, a muscle relaxed against the moment of tension. (109) When I read this sentence of the story, I immediately see the bird as a metaphor for the child.  The phrase […]

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In an otherwise unremarkable September morning, long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother, she takes my hand and we set off down New Jersey Avenue to begin my first day of school. (349) The first line of Jones’ “The First Day” informs the reader that the narrator is telling a story about […]

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I lied. “No,” I whispered. And then there was the bird. The narrator’s decision to lie turns him away from the things the priest offers him: absolution, forgiveness, and hope. Then the bird appears, the embodiment of strength and vulnerability. The bird appears, quite literally, when the boy needs him most. Without a male figure […]

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“Rara Avis” by T Coraghessan Boyle uses a lot of symbolism. It is through this symbolism the reader gets a greater understanding of what “Rara Avis” is about. However out of all the lines in the text I find the last line the most powerful sentence. It truly captures  the narrator’s thoughts and  feelings, bring the […]

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” Her loud shoes in the hall. She passes through the doors and i can still hear the loud  sounds of her shoes .And even when the teachers turn med toward the classrooms and I hear what must be the  singing and talking of all the children in the world, i can still hear my […]

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