Esperenza A Tree

           “In Four Skinny Trees”, Esperanza compares herself to the trees as an extended metaphor to show that the appearance of an object doesn’t show their strengths and traits by using a symbol that represents her thoughts and actions.  Esperanza believes that the trees are a symbol of her own identity, unwanted and strong. She describes the trees by stating, “Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here. Four raggedy excuses planted by the city.” She believes that her family and her do not belong in this big city, they still belong in their apartment. They are both hungry and weak looking because of the lack of money the family has. They are out of place and Esperanza is not used to living in a house that is all theirs. To her it seems like they are not in their rightful places. Also, she talks about the trees being strong mentally. “They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger.” The trees show their strength by standing there by reaching up to the sky, and growing down beneath the roots. She believes that her strength is shown the same way, in her family and her holding on to what she has. She has so little, but stands with what she has and that way she shows her strength.

Story Time Ends in College

The central tension in Li-Young Lee's poem is that the father is trying to make his son happy with a story but can not come up with one and is afraid of disappointing his son. The father has told the same stories over and over and began to bore his kid which becomes a metaphor for his kid growing up and needing to move away. Eventually his son gets bored and leaves with keys showing that the poem is a metaphor for his son needing to move on and go to college/ leave the house. The father is having a hard time with this and does not want his son to leave. This is shown in the sentence "You laugh at the spider.Let me tell it! But the boy is packing his shirts, he is looking for his keys.". This shows that his son is grown up and moving away. That is why the conflict is about his son growing up and needs to move away and how it is a metaphor for the father running out of stories.

Resilient Trees

In "Four Skinny Trees", the extended metaphor used by the speaker describes a resilient theme, as she describes the trees as unwanted, but they still stand there, just as she thinks of herself. She says that the trees are "Four raggedy excuses planted by the city" but later goes on to say "Four who grew despite concrete. Four who reach and do not forget to reach. Four whose only reason is to be and be", this personifies the trees, and gives them purpose in life as just to stand there. She compares them to herself by saying "When I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at these trees." This tells the readers that she is resilient despite her opinion that she has no purpose in life, as are the four skinny trees.

A story, or not A story?

In Li-Young Li's "A Story", the author uses foreshadowing and irony to develop the tension of the story, that the father cannot think of a new story for his young son, and doen't want to dissapoint him. The use of Irony in the story begins in the second stanza, when the poem says "In a room full of books, in a world full of stories, he can recall not one...". The ironic fact that the father cannot think of a single story, and doesn't want to dissapoint the boy by not having a story, while in a rooms full of stories he could tell, supports the tension because the father would feel like dissapointing the boy if he were to look for a new story. Foreshadowing is used because of the father's dread of not being able to think of a story, imagining "the day this boy will go. Hear the alligator story! the angel story once more! You love the spider story. you laugh at the spider. let me tell it! But the boy is packing his shirts". The father dreads that his dissapointment will make the boy grow up faster and leave him. The father doesn't want in any way to dissapoint his young son with a repeated story, or to have to look for a story, and so he finishes at a stalemate, being unable to think of one.

Pushing the Duke Over the Edge

The Duke, being an arrogant and cold man, eliminated his last Duchess because of the way she treated him. Some of the small and ordinary events that led him to this are all events where she didn’t treat him quite like he envisioned. “She thanked men, - good! But thanked Somehow – I know not how – as if she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-year-old name With anybody’s gift” (Lines 31-34). Thanking other men and treating them with respect turned into the Duke claiming his wife treated other men much like she treated him and how she valued them the same amount that she valued her husband. “A heart – how shall I say? – too soon made glad, Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere” (Lines 20-24). The Duchess appears to be a happy woman but the Duke thinks that his wife is too easily impresses with other’s actions when she should be over impressed with his and that she was always too happy with other’s when she needs to be only happy with him. I can see how the Duke is building up to something at this point because he is extremely frustrated with his wife and how she never pays any attention to him. The last trivial incident that produced this response in the Duke is “Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, Whene’er I passed her; but who passed her without Much the same smile” (Lines 43-44). The Duke has had it with how she doesn’t treat him how he envisions even though the Duchess is just a friendly woman. These small incidents seem to produce this arrogant and cold Duke that we see in the story.

-Sydney B

The Duke and his Mistress

The Duke eliminated his last duchess because she undervalued him and treated him as if he were just any man because a lot of men liked her. She did not love him as much as he loved her. “She looked on, and her looks went everywhere”(line 24). The Duke is noticing her way more then she is even looking at him. He is day dreaming and considering everything. “My favour at her breast”(25). “I gave commands; then all the smiles stopped together”(45-46). The duke is feed up of man treating the duchess as if she were a toy. And he is also mad because she is a magnet to man who draws everyone in and gives hope them.

-Mark Gutierrez

The Trivial Incidents of the Duke

Some of the trivial incidents that have seemed to produce the response of eliminating the duke’s duchess are because of jealousy, love and hatred. Some examples of jealousy are so many men liked the duchess and the Duke loved the girl a lot more than all the other men did. This caused the Duke to get very jealous and want to kill somebody through hatred. Some evidence of this are in the poem, “The Last Duchess” the Duke explained, ”’Her mantle laps over my Lady’s wrist too much’ or ‘Paint must never hope to reproduce the faint”. This quote explains how the Duke is jealous because the other men are liking the duchess and he is saying pretty much if you touch her I will kill you.