A Life of Scrabbled Poems and a Puzzling Songs:

An Essay Connecting My Life, a Poem, and a Song

Jordan Crawford

Pine Point School

September 13, 2011

What do a poem a song and a life have in common? Well you are about to find out in this essay. The first step in identifying this relationship is to be able to notice the little connections. The poem will be by Langston Hughes, the song will be For a Dancer by Jackson Brown and the life will be my life. When we get started you may find that your life also relates to one of the three topics.
               My life as a shriveled raisin; now before you say think that this statement sounds weird think of the possibilities, because raisins ,in some ways, have links to my life. Sometimes, I’m sure; we have all felt like we are dehydrated grapes walking up an elevator that is meant for descending. For me this backwards elevator in life would be getting pets to keep, such as an adopted cat or a hedgehog. The main reason that I’m not allowed one of these two companions is that my room is referred to as a zoo, a term that was once true, but with three pets it is hardly what I would call a zoo, and this causes my dream to shrivel up like a raisin in the unforgiving sun and slide back down the elevator and start all over again. On a different note, during the summer it gets very hot and you start to feel clammy and raisin-like, as many of you know, and it can get uncomfortable to do much outside unless you have the luxury of a pool. The summers at my house are hot and make outside work or fun explosive like what a raisin in the sun might do. When I go outside I usually last thirty minutes before shrinking to a raisin and running rapidly back inside with flames licking my back; and this often deters me from outside when it is hot(alli.). Of course, as many of you know grapes are sweet, but also when a grape becomes a raisin it doesn’t lose that much of it’s sweetness. With that said my 8th grade class was one of those massive grapes with the seeds that are extremely sweet, but at the end of 8th grade it had ended up like a shrunken head other school dried up my friends. I learned over the past three weeks that even though we are a raisin we are still just as sweet. So in those simple ways my seldom mundane life and a raisin are actually alike in many ways, and possibly like yours too.
               When I first saw the lyrics of Jackson Brown’s song I first thought of it as a song of losses. This thought made it somewhat easier to write about since I knew of many sad things in my short life such as my guinea pigs death. My guinea pig was eight and a half years old and I was expecting him to live to a record age, in other words, I expected him to be around for things like high school, but when he died I was so bewildered that he was really gone that every day I would do routine things such as put fresh food in and change his bottle of water. In some cases I think I took him for granted, as I didn’t spend all the time I could with him, just as Jackson Brown had taken his wife being around for granted. On the other hand when the Twin Towers were hit America was startled as well as sad. For me it was strange for I was too little to understand what had happened until I was older and wiser. This is kind of like Jackson Brown, who couldn’t understand what had happened to his wife during his hectic life.(alli.)  Though this was bad no matter what happens in your life, good or bad, it happens for a reason. In the song “For a Dancer” Jackson Brown is trying to find out why his wife committed suicide but he can’t do anything to change it. Almost like a raisin in the sun, no matter what happens the raisin will soon dry up. Unlike a song life cannot be repeated the same way like a raisin is going to be eaten.
               After reading this you probably think this song and poem are all about sadness and losses. You can take it that way, but also remember that these to writers found a way of putting their sorrow and confusion in writing and songs for everyone to see. Jackson Brown did both as he put his questions and sorrows into his song. Sometime when you are feeling sad try putting your sadness into something that will relieve the stress.     

Simple Simplicity:

An Essay about a “Simple man”

Jordan Crawford

September 27, 2011

I think that simplicity can be very nice for a life especially a busy one. I think that friends should be simple, so you do not have to unearth their past to figure out what they are like. I think that in characters in books or movies should have simple but strong goals like in The Cosby Show. That was a lot of thinking but simplicity is really a thing to be treasured.

               Simplicity in a friend is great to have because it is easier to relate to what they are like personality wise because their feelings are not masked. In my life there are not many simple people as the song describes simplicity, but there are a few, for example Emmanuel Perry is, in some ways, a simple man. First of all, Emmanuel has a relatively long name, but he prefers the shorter version of just the uppercase letter E. When we are running the mile double in P.E. then in Cross Country he always says things like “well we are going to run it sometimes anyway”. When E and I are talking we usually don’t go to into detail about things. For a reference, when we are talking about games or animals we usually don’t go that into deep detail, we only use unique but simple facts. On the other hand, our ideas of simplicity are different than the normal standard so we usually say things unknown to others. E may be simple but there are also some rather complicated things about him. His real name is John but he prefers his middle name Emmanuel. He also enjoys the study of Biology which is a far from simple subject. To wrap this up E is a fun loving companion, who, in some ways, is a simple man.
               Some of the simplest people are in books or on TV like the Cosby Show. In the Cosby Show Bill Cosby’s character is simple but not flat. Whenever one of his daughters or his son is having trouble in school he would tell them to sit next to him and listen, just like in “A Simple Man”. The most problematic child is Theo, a young man who wants to skip college when, or if, he gets there. Whenever he says this to his parents, Mr. Cosby always tells him to wait to see how the rest of the week will go, so in other words, he is saying don’t live to fast so you still have time to change your mind. No matter how hard the kids try to persuade him he always tells them the same thing, not to live to fast. In the TV show Bill Cosby was a doctor and he took pride in that. When a kid received a bad grade and they say they are just going for a simple job unlike he did. He often responds to try hard because it will help them another day.  On the whole, Bill Cosby is not a very simple character in the means of flatness but he fits the basic description of a simple man, with his everlasting confidence, as  the song describes is needed.       
          Being simple can be very nice in times of stress. When you are rushing to finish something really fast like an exam or race try to think simply of simple thoughts rather than thinking of what class you will have next and what might happen in it. Bill Cosby said to just slow down and take everything one step at a time. My friend E likes to live at that nice pace, just like how I plan to do. 

The Satisfaction of What is Given, and the Anger of What is Not:

An Essay about Satisfaction in Life

Pine Point School

9th grade English

Jordan Crawford

October 11, 2011

           In life you should always be thankful for what life gives you even when you may not be fully content. In the song ,“Desperado”, the character held an unsatisfied attitude towards what life gave him. Also in Avatar the humans aren’t satisfied with what they are given by the Earth. This essay revolves like a planet around ,“Desperado”, and his search for more than his share of “fine things” in the dinner plate of life.    

If you ask an adult for something when you have just got something else, they will say “be satisfied with what you were given”. In the song,“Desperado”,however, the song’s character doesn’t listen to this advice. The song describes ,“Desperado”, as a man who has “fine things” on his table but they aren’t enough to quench his thirst for the ungraspable.“ Desperado”, searched up and down the fence for what he was looking for every day.Sometimes I think metaphorically he was looking for a pear but he got a plum, which he was unsatisfied with, even though it is still sweet and fine.Sometimes I think ,“Desperado”, might have been a gambler and may have had a loved one waiting for him to change his gambling ways(anaphora). “Desperado”, possibly had a girlfriend or wife that he doesn’t spend time with because he gambles and the song tells him that the queen of diamonds, or gambling, may hurt him but the queen of hearts, his wife or girlfriend, still loves him. “Desperado”, may be gambling while his loved one is trying to make him realize he has “fine things”.On a completely different note, you never should ride into the sunset(poly.). In a comic a cowboy tries to ride into the sunset to get into it rather than just watch it. In the song and the comic both of the men where cowboys that wanted to receive “fine things” that they couldn’t get.As the last cord is played in the song ,“Desperado”, it leaves the listener wondering if ,“Desperado”, “came to [his] senses”.

A good movie usually has a message, no matter how deep it is embedded in the core of the DVD, and Avatar is no exception. The movie Avatar takes place when the human race has taken all the resources from Earth that the planet didn’t have to offer in the first place.(anaphora). Also humans were given resources from Earth, but like ,“Desperado”, ignored their senses and they take more than is necessary.When all Earths “fine things” are used up they head to Pandora in search of other resources. In many ways the people of 2154 had a lot of resources but they only wanted resources that were for other species. On first arriving on Pandora the humans took what they wanted without asking the natives before they plowed and blew up trees where the Na’vi lived(poly.).This horrified the Na’vi because they used only what the forest had to offer them.Many times in stories protagonist don't always start out as the “good guys”. In Avatar the protagonist is Jake Sully and he was a “shoot first then ask questions” kind of guy. By the time the movie ended, Jake had “come to [his] senses” and was helping the natives save their planet from his volitile former race. In many ways the song ,“Desperado”, is very much like Avatar, with ever roaming, never satisfied characters.

In my life being satisfied has a large importance for my friends and I. Though in some ways a person is never truly satisfied with what they have since everyone switches side like a flipped coin(anaphora). But there is also a sliver of a fine line between being unsatisfied and greedy. Let’s just hope we figure it out before we start blowing up trees and “hop[ing] fences”.

Self Assessment

1. I think that I could have used more instances of fast words.
2. I  also need to use better anaphora in my writing.
3. I think that I did a good job with comas.
4. I would give myself a B.

         The summary for the Raisin in the Sun talks about the characters and how they are well preformed and the honesty in the play itself. The actor the article commends is Walter’s actor and his performance. It is said that even while he is not engaged in dialogue that his presence is still felt and when he does make a statement he uses his body a lot while he acts. The honesty of the play is mentioned a lot in the Review and it is said even if there is a out of place comment the honesty makes up for it. the "New York Times" describes the play as being hilarious or "painful in the extreme." I really enjoyed the review of the play and the play itself.

Quotes

"All the mother wants is that her children adhere to the code of honor and self-respect that she inherited from her parents."  I like this sentence because it is like what I got from the play.
  
"For A Raisin in the Sun is a play about human beings who want, on the one hand, to preserve their family pride and, on the other hand, to break out of the poverty that seems to be their fate." This is a great sentence because it is like a sentence that summaries the theme.
 

 Jordan Crawford

Graphic organizer

Essay #1

September 12, 2011 

Graphic organizer

Connections

Connecting a Raisin in the Sun, For a Dancer, and my life

(TS)What do a book a song and a life have in common? Well you are about to find out.

                                (CM) Seeing the benefit of connections

                                (CM) “For a Dancer”

                (CM)Relations in your life that can be compared

(TS)My life as a raisin

                (SD) Walking up an elevator that goes down

                                (CM)My  goal to get a hedgehog or cat

                                (CM) People say I already have a “zoo”

                (SD) Beating the heat during summertime

                                (CM) Wanting to go outside

                                (CM) The heat stops me and metaphorically shrivels me

                (SD) Raisin are small grapes but are still sweet

                                (CM) Our class got smaller and closer to becoming nothing

                                (CM) The class is still great or sweet even though the loss

(TS) The song of losses

                (SD) My guinea pig’s death

                                (CM) Expect him to always be there with me

                                (CM) In some cases I took him for granted just as Jackson Browne did for his wife

                (SD)The tragedy of nine eleven

                                (CM) Jackson Browne didn’t now why at the time his wife did what she did

                                (CM) Like how I didn’t know what happened to the towers.

                (SD) A strong belief or point

(CM) No matter what fate chooses to play

(CM) No matter what you are going to do it

(CS) A song can be repeated kind of like a life

  (TS) The poem and the song where not just about sadness

                        (CM) It was more about putting tough things in life in a way people can shown

            (CM) Jackson Browne put his sadness in a song

(CS) Try writing down your sadness or putting it into a song.