Blog#3 Assignment-Option A

In the story "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien, the author describes Kiowa as a Baptist who carries distrust for white men. His personality is pretty unique and original. He's sympathetic, closely attached to his New Testament, likes "...[H]earing the sounds of night"(400), enjoys "...[N]ot being dead"(400), takes life for granted everyday he's alive, shows admiration for others and happy to be alive. Kiowa likes to say the phrase "boom down" repetitively throughout the story and thinks about death constantly. He also uses a lot of profanity in the story. For example when he describes the death of Ted Lavender he says "...[T]he poor bastard just flat-f*** fell"(394). When Kiowa interacts with the other men they smoke together, don't talk much, drink Kool-Aid, laugh together, make jokes, tell stories mostly about Ted Lavender, stand tough and learn morals together. Kiowa carried a lot of things such as his New Testament, "...[H]is grandfather's feather hatchet"(395), "...[A] steel centered nylon flak jacket"(393), a large bandage, "...[A] green plastic poncho"(393), many weapons, "...[A] pair of moccasins"(396), pens, pencils, razor blades, trip flares, candles, safety pins and even more stuff. The things Kiowa carries is mostly for safety and protection. He also carries things that belong to his family such as his hatchet. Throughout the story Kiowa remained a static character because he retained the same characteristics from the beginning to the end of the story without really changing. He used words repetitively and described the same things over and over again like the death of Ted Lavender. He also keeps proclaiming his love for the New Testament throughout the story. I choose to study the character of Kiowa because he grabbed my attention with his phrases and he seemed to be a pretty interesting person. Very different from the rest of the characters in the story. Besides Jimmy Cross, Kiowa's character stood out the most to me. He isn't afraid to speak his mind and seems to be a confident individual. He has a good sense of humor and made me laugh in the story which I found engaging to me. It's puzzling how Kiowa uses so much profanity when he talks with the other men. He sounds so disrespectful to them. Other than that, I found his sympathetic side relevant to me because I also have a soft side. I enjoyed analyzing Kiowa's character and learned a lot of new things about him.

Assignment #2--Symbolism in Steinbeck.

In the story "The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck, the author uses symbolism in a very visual way to connect readers to the characters in the story. The author describes Elisa wearing a man's black hat which is a symbol of the man like qualities in her. For example she is described as having a strong, lean and handsome face as well as strong fingers. Steinbeck uses dogs as symbols in describing Elisa, Henry, and the man with the wagon. The two ranch shepherds symbolize Elisa's and Henry's characters as ranchers. The rangy dog symbolize the man with the wagon's character as a big man since the author uses the word rangy which means tall and lean. The chrysanthemums are symbolized as Elisa's children because of the way she defends the smell of them. When the man with the wagon said the chrysanthemums smelled nasty, Elisa replied angrily that it's a good bitter smell and not nasty. This is an example of how a parent would respond to someone talking against their children. The way Steinbeck describes the good care and interest Elisa has and takes when giving a flower pot of chrysanthemums to the man with the wagon is definetly how a mother or father would take care of a new born baby. The red flower pot Elisa uses to put the chrysanthemums in is another symbol of Elisa's love for the chrysanthemums because she uses the color red. Elisa also describes picking the buds of the chrysanthemums in a sexual way in which her fingers and the plant interact. The chicken wire fence symbolizes Elisa as caged in and unable to be apart and connected to the outside world. The rabbits running into the bushes and the birds flying symbolize children, in which children multiple like the rabbits and birds do. The cranes dropping symbolize Elisa's sadness and pain at the moment she saw the dark speck ahead of the road where she realized the man with the wagon had thrown the chrysanthemums she gave him over there. You can sense her sadness and pain when she starts talking about drinking a lot of wine so she'll forget the whole thing and begins to cry in the ending.

About Me

Hi everyone my name is Chris Bhairo and I was born and raised in Queens, NY. I like playing basketball and listening to music. I like to hang out with friends and my favorite subject is Math. I'm currently a college student studying to become a computer engineer. I'm always doing something and I don't like to waste time doing nothing.