https://youtu.be/5_nfCTlNSB8
Our video cut off halfway through our performance. My (Beowulf’s) slaying of Grendel’s mother and the beginning of my confrontation with the dragon have been omitted.
https://youtu.be/u9ba_ICNFIU
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5) A Home in the Heart
I choose this photo because it reflects the thematic motif of finding one’s home. Though only applicable to the character Esperanza as it is a house within the heart. The character Esperanza, throughout the entirety of the book, is searching for her home. A home, she believes, that is to be up on a hill and away from Mango Street. However, her home turns out to be found in quite the opposite place. When she sees the local witch, she is told that her home, rather than a literal house, will be found the heart. A home in the heart she calls it. Though at first confused, It is later seen that this she home will be found by helping those who are in the same predicament that she used to be in on Mango Street. When she meets three sisters later in the book she is told that when she leaves Mango Street, she must come back, “a circle” they called it. She would never forget what she had done or what she was on Mango Street, and that is why she had to come back. Her home, though not the house on the hill that she wished for as a young girl, is found in her emotional satisfaction of helping those around her. The picture, a depiction of a home within a heart represents what the witch explains. Thus, the picture is a literal representation of Esperanza’s home. Furthermore, though inaccurate in actuality, because this picture is literal and Esperanza’s home is not, the photo represents Esperanza’s “home.”
Source: http://mychinaconnection.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/home-is-where-the-heart-is.gif
6) Royals
The character Esperanza in “The House on Mango Street” fits quite well within the song “Royals” by Lorde. In verse one, Lorde sings, “I’m not proud of my address, In a torn-up town.” One of the biggest struggles that the character Esperanza faces in the story is that she associates her privilege with the house she lives in, and, quite frankly, she doesn’t like her house. Proof of this is provided when she insists that she “had to have a house. A real house. One [she] could point to.” Thus, as in the words provided by Lorde, Esperanza is not proud of her “address” (aka home) “in the torn-up town” (aka Mango Street). In fact, much of the book is devoted to following Esperanza’s quest for her “home”. Likewise the song goes on to say “And we’ll never be royals (royals). It don’t run in our blood.” This can be compared to Esperanza as she is almost certainly doomed to a life of poverty and misfortune. A life like the ones her parents, neighbors and friends have all been subject too. Even the young girls in her neighborhood are seen growing up, trying to escape the confines of the street only to suffer in a marriage, in the case of Sally. This royal blood Lorde mentions can represent success and good fortune in the case of Esperanza, something that doesn’t run in her blood. However, by the end of the story, Esperanza overcomes her environment and achieves her dream of leaving her broken little house.
3) A House on a Hill
In her quest for her “home” Esperanza believes she wants a house on a hill. This is because “People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars they forget those of us who live too much on earth.” Only Esperanza promises to be different. Esperanza most likely believes the statement about these people being too close to the sky to be true because she associates a house on a hill with luxury, though that is not empirically true. Taking from an earlier vignette, Darius & the Clouds, it is plausible to assume that Mango Street is low in the ground. Throughout that vignette, Esperanza tells the reader that “you can never have too much sky,” and “sky can keep you safe when you are sad.” She even goes so far as to call it wise to say that one cloud is God, conveying her almost idolization of the sky and the lack thereof on Mango Street. In her mind, Mango Street is associated with poverty and dissatisfaction. Thus, though the house on a hill is not always a great house, somewhere she could see open sky all around, somewhere she could get “drunk on sky” would be a luxurious house to her. The meaning of the quote itself suggests that the rich are not to apt to help out the poor, something Esperanza intends to do if she becomes more fortunate, a foreshadowing of her future. The statement is universal and is indicative of Esperanza’s train of thought.
2) Love, Mother
Esperanza,
I am so grateful for what for us, you family and you contribution in the upbringing of your sister. Your strength to leave is an inspiration to her, as well as me and your father. Not to mention the entire neighborhood. You have escaped the wretched confines of our poverty and done well out in the world. For that I am proud. Though I was sad to see you go, I am extremely happy you are living a life you love. We think of you every night before bed. You did what I could not and finished your schooling and become the model that I could not be for the rest of your siblings. What you have done has left so deep an impact on our family you will never even begin to fathom the positive consequences of your actions. I did not always think you could do it though. For a moment in time, I believed you to be doomed as was your friend Sally. You were so obsessed with escaping the neighborhood that I feared you would marry into an unhappy relationship. I was glad to see that you learned from her mistakes, and also from mine. Your father and I are so very proud of you and what you have done. We wish you the best of luck and while I miss you, for now I can only say to continue to do what you love. But don’t forget your roots. Don’t forget the poverty from which you came. Do this and you will fare well. Come visit us sometime, maybe by then we will finally have our dream house.
Love,
Mother.
1) Repetition in “Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water”
In the vignette, “Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water” Sandra Cisneros utilizes repetition to build upon the thematic motif of finding one’s home. In the piece, Esperanza goes to Elenita, a witch woman, to see her future. As she walks in, the house is nice (in terms of Mango Street) with a big color T.V. and furniture “made out of red fur like the teddy bears they give away in carnivals” (Cisneros 62). This fortune telling, however, is not the glamorous gazing into a crystal ball that is portrayed in movies. No, a beer mug and hot tap water are used. Cards are used to see that Esperanza, among other things, will attend a wedding soon. But what she is really interested in, and the reason for her even being there, is to ask about a house. Esperanza of course hopes that she will say she will acquire a beautiful home where she will live out her days in luxury, but the response is much different. Elenita remarks that Esperanza will have “a home in the heart. I see a home in the heart” (64). Esperanza’s confusion is evident as she asks her to look again, only to be faced with the same answer. “A house in the heart, I was right” (64), and to repeat it once again, “A new house, a house mad of heart” (64). Repeating the phrase 4 times, Cisneros makes it clear that Esperanza will find her home in her heart, or through charitable actions. This leads us to believe that Esperanza’s home will not be a physical house, but something she does for those around her. Thus, this repetition foreshadows the conclusion of the book while also reinforcing the thematic motif of finding one’s home, only not in the literal way that Esperanza had hoped.
Money Man
My job was easy. All I had to do was stand on the sideline. No one asked me for anything and there was no pressure on me to do anything. Least of all in this make or break Bi-District playoff football game.
When people asked if I played football I told them I was quarterback and I was, mostly. I really didn’t play quarterback in games, I was just kind of thrown in the position because I was too slow to do any other skill position and measly compared to the 200 plus pound linemen. So they a made me back up quarterback hoping they would never have to put me in. Like the future of my fellow teammates, I virtually did not exist. Not that I really minded though. I had never really wanted to play football anyway. I was more interested in an academic future rather than that of a prospective Division III scholarship for a sport that got me nowhere in life. The only reason I even signed up for football was because no guy in my family had ever not played and my entire family made sure I would not be the one to break that streak. So here I was on the sidelines having the time of my life.
It was the fourth quarter. I wasn’t really paying attention. Win or lose there was no difference. Though the rainy conditions had made for some exciting football and an unpleasant sideline experience. The sticky mud clung onto my shoes like the world’s largest piece of gum. The ball would slip out someone’s hands every few plays and dance around diving players. Our team lost the ball and our players came back looking like mountains of mud. Still it wasn’t my problem. I was on the sideline.
A few minutes later, the crowd had become particularly loud. I wouldn’t have noticed except my friend and fellow benchwarmer, nicknamed blindy because he was nearly blind (football players are so creative), asked me the score. Being that I hadn’t looked at the scoreboard for nearly half an hour I was a tad surprised when I saw the time below 2 minutes and our team down. We’re down 35-31 with two minutes left I told him. He said thanks and continued squinting at the field as if he could actually see anything going on under the bright lights of the field. I decided I might watch as well considering the gravity of the situation. As the clock ticked down, I was infinitely glad I would not touch the field. God probably was feeling particularly humorous because the next play, our starting quarterback’s ankle decided to break.
It was over. Everybody but the other team knew it. My coach, not at all hiding that he knew we could not win screamed at me get in and I did. With time for only one play coach decided we’d go out on a prayer. Everybody lined up. We had two receivers wide on each side. Despite how much I didn’t care about the game of football, I was with a few hundred who did. I took a deep breath, and then another, and then another. There wasn’t any more time I could wait so finally I screamed hut and received the rocket of a snap. Even though it had already been dried, the ball was slick in my hands and I caught it against my chest. I took two steps back, planted in the mud and threw the ball as far as I could to my outside receiver on my right. Then I prayed. Everybody’s eyes followed the wobbling ball light magnets drawn to each other. They couldn’t look away even if the tried. It was in that moment I realized, yeah, football was only a game. But also, if one allowed themselves to, they created bonds with their teammates that would never be destroyed.
I experienced all this in a matter of seconds as my eyes, like those of our fans, followed the wobbly ball right into the hands of our star receiver. In the final seconds, he elevated himself above the cornerback to snatch the ball from behind his head and land in the end zone. We had won the game.
My Most Prized Possession
My most prized procession never leaves my person. When I don’t carry it in my pocket, I feel like a part of me is missing. Though its official measurements are 5.41 x 2.69 x 0.37 inches, in my pocket it feels as if it were made solely for me. The slick, curved black design rests in the palm of my hand like another part of my body. More than it’s appearance, my phone is my life. It is a tool for education, while also being a distraction from that very same thing. It keeps me connected to the world and sometimes too connected.
I received my phone on December 8, 2013. A very weird date for a strange reason. Only Black Friday, my parents decided to go out and capitalize on the electronic deals. Being quite stingy with money and seeing all the wonderful deals, they simply could not pass up the low price for the newest phone, the HTC one. Long story short, they waiting in line a long time and bought the item. Only, at the cash register they found out they would have to disable my current phone in order to buy this new one at the reduced price. This, they decided, was no problem and disabled my phone. However, being the sticklers for tradition that they were, they refused to give me my phone before Christmas as they insisted it was a Christmas present and my holiday would be ruined if I opened it early. Thus I was forced to go without a means of communication for over a week until I finally convinced my parents that if I was to drive to my college class in Kilgore, down a very dangerous road, I would need a way to communicate my departure and arrival. They finally relented and much to my pleasure I received my phone early. However, it would seem I did my job too well because it was not long before my parents decided that the road into Kilgore was much too dangerous for me to drive. Thus I became the only kid in my college class to have his parents drop him off and pick him up.
Ping Ponged
I was down by 7 and had nearly lost the game. Turning the game room of our house into a full out war zone, my brother and I got into one of our over competitive rounds of ping pong. We played our normal house rules, which basically meant that the first one to 21 won, but you had to win by two. Stone was up 19 to 12 and only two points from winning, something that would be utterly embarrassing considering I was two years older. I was serving and luckily for me that was my strongest point. Only I hadn’t been getting my serve in all game. However, with the pressure on me, I slanted my paddle slightly and sent the tiny plastic ball spinning towards the back, opposite corner of the table. Stone, unaware of the ball’s topspin, tried to simply tap the ball over the net. Catching the paddle in its center, the plastic ping pong ball sailed over my end of the table awarding me the point. He was playing not to lose, rather than to win, the mindset that leads to comebacks. I prepared for my next serve. Knowing he would seek to compensate for my topspin, I made a serve identical to my last one only with no spin at all. Paddle slanted down so that a spun ball would land on my side of the net, Stone sent the ball directly into the net. His face drew with concern as he began to feel his lead slip away. It was over now, Stone had already lost the game in his mind. Soon the lead dwindled to two, then one, then we were tied. One more point and I was up by one. The serve was his, and to keep from losing the match on a fault, he sent a weak serve over the net. Game already in the bag I slammed the plastic sphere off the table and into the wall several feet behind him. The match was mine, and so still was my superiority.
My Best Friend(s)
The title of my best friend cannot belong to a single person. For good friends are all different, in personality, character, likes, dislikes, similarities and affiliations. All are unique and their differences is what makes them my friends. Being asked to choose the best of those good friends is like trying to choose your favorite parent. It simply cannot be done. Though they may be opposites, it is those differences that make it hard to choose. Even if one were to choose a best friend, it would be based upon the whims and impressions of that time period. In a few weeks, or after a fight, the best friend would become someone else. So, no, I do not have a best friend, simply a great number of good friends.
One of my friends is short than I, with curlier and lighter hair as well. Though we only share one sport, we find ourselves playing tennis more than nearly everything else. For us, the tennis court is a place of relaxation and privacy, despite the constant mechanical stare of the camera peeking around the school building. It is somewhere where we can do and say whatever without a listening ear or stray eye. Countless summer nights we have found ourselves at the tennis courts sometimes playing a match, other times just hitting around. Most nights, other join us for a round of doubles. The courts have become our home by default. We’ve even decided to camp out there at some point. It was soccer, however that originally brought us together and through sports, tennis or soccer, we have remained close. His dad brought together a group of young kids from the local area. Together we played soccer for 8 years and lost only 6 games. Unsurprisingly, my core group of friends represents those on the team. Him and I also share many classes, though mostly electives and through these electives we find new similarities in our personalities and experiences that make us closer as individuals. In short, each one of my good friends and I share a history together and, because of that, many character similarities. Never in my wildest dreams, could I chose just one to be my “best friend.”