Kerry Xu
2/7/2018 06:58:35 pm
"Each body is a strange beach" (73). For a person's body to be compared to a beach, it shows how much it is capable of holding--both the known and the unknown. In this context, Rankine is describing the body in terms of capability of holding emotions. Although the ocean waves can sometimes be intense, it is tame compared to the tsunamis it can generate. Similarly, the human body contains just enough emotion to be at equilibrium. However, too much can not only overwhelm you, but drown you and take you down with it.
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Erica Clay
2/7/2018 10:32:02 pm
"The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow." (72). Past experiences, especially in the case of this speaker, define who you become and where you end up. Often, people end up bitter or unhappy because of experiences that steer them in a direction for the rest of their lives. In this way, the past is a life sentence. The speaker's experiences of racism, personally and as racism is presented in society around them, shaped who they became. Not only does your past affect your present in this way, but it steers you in the direction of your future. Who you are as a result of the sum of your past experiences affects the choices you make, the events that happen to you, and the things you experience in your future. While many of the things outlined in this book may seem like small anecdotes of the speaker's past, the microaggressions add up over a lifetime.
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Yvie Lock
2/8/2018 12:24:08 pm
"The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow." (72) . For the past to be a life sentence suggests that history has set a precedent for the foreseeable future. A “sentence” has a clear connection to imprisonment. This portrays hatred from the outside community and discrimination from society. The reference to the “blunt instrument” heightens the indication that the future will be bleak and the violent for the black community. This theme has persisted from the very opening passage of the book. For example the Rankin writes on page 24, “anger is really a type of knowledge”. This demonstrates how animosity and the history of race has been ingrained into people mind and culture. She goes onto say, “no amount of visibility will alter the way in which one is perceived”, signifying the common theme that black people are sentenced to a life of judgement and racial division.
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Cameron Wright
2/8/2018 05:53:38 pm
It is significant that Rankine chose to use a verb with ambiguous meaning. A moan could be one of anguish, implying that the speaker is struggling and experiencing pain. However, a moan could also be an exclamation of pleasure. Rankine may start this chapter with an instance of ambiguity to signal that the following passages will not be as straight forward and clear as those of the previous chapters. However, it can be reasonably deduced that the moan comes from a place of pain because of the comparison to deer. Deer hold an allegorical role as victims after the famous, grief inspiring death of Bambi's mother. The speaker has assumed the role of a victim through the comparison to deer.
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Cameron Wright
2/8/2018 05:56:29 pm
Forgot to lead with the simile: "To live through the days sometimes you moan like deer" (59).
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Andrea Hernandez
2/8/2018 08:56:49 pm
"Each body is a strange beach." (73). The speaker makes a comparison of a body to a beach in the context of emotion and the impacts on a person. Everyone is different in their own way making their body equally unique. We each have different reactions to different situations, we all hold in emotions in various ways, and those emotions have the power to affect us differently as well, as seen throughout the context of the book. Therefore, like the human body, beaches also possess different qualities in that some have calmer waves while others have more notorious waves, the sand and water may also vary. These waves have the power of drawing us into the water or crashing onto us with full force. Emotions therefore exhibit this same characteristic as waves, in that they can calmly soothe and lure us or crash and drown us completely.
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2/8/2018 10:15:52 pm
“You say, bridge that she is, that she is beautiful. She is, he says, beautiful and black, like you” (78). The narrator in this poem refers to the wife of the man as a “bridge,” suggesting that the man had no other reason to speak to the black woman at the bar, other than bringing up the fact that his wife is black, like her. A bridge symbolizes a connection of one thing to another, and by saying this, the man assumes that he can relate and speak to the black woman because of the race of his wife. This book explores many unwanted experiences of black people and the reactions/feelings that are raised because of them. Through many of the short stories, we see accounts of these uncomfortable experiences questioning the words that have been said, and the reactions that often go unheard to the people making the comments. The “bridge” created a pathway for the comment to be made by the man, but it ends with him saying “beautiful and black, like you.” Like many of the other poems, we don’t get to hear the response of the black woman leaving the reader to infer that she did not react, once again.
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Hallie McManus
2/9/2018 03:24:42 am
"The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow" (72). Describing the past as a "life sentence", suggests that it is not only unavoidable, but persistent. It encompasses the idea of being unable to escape the past--in this case, representing the past of oppression black people have experience throughout history that still follows them around every day. This same idea is brought up in the beginning of the book on page 14, "A friend argues that Americans battle between the 'historical self' and the 'sefl self'". Here, the narrator's friend is persisting on resurfacing history, leaving the narrator unable to escape their past. Why would the narrator describe the past as a "blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow"? Pairing "blunt instrument" and "aimed at tomorrow" creates a juxaposition. On one hand, the past is "blunt", making it seem less dangerous; however, by describing the past as "aimed at tomorrow", makes it seems more pressing and threatening.
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Fatema Yasini
2/9/2018 08:54:20 am
“Someone claimed we should use our skin as wallpaper knowing we couldn’t win” (71). The “wallpaper” serves as a metaphor for being invisible. The skin is invisible, but will be able to draw attention in times of loss. This relates to the idea of skin defining a person’s personality and qualities. A similar idea was brought up in the previous section when the narrator says, “Though no one was saying anything explicitly about Serena’s black body, you are not the only viewer who thought it was getting in the way of Alves’s sight line” (27). Just like wallpaper, the colored skin acts as a distractor. The color of one’s skin is the first thing that people see, as it is physically visible, thus putting aside all other factors that could play into the judgment of people. This also leads to generalizations. Being associated to a group of people, based on similar looks, leads to assumptions that all act and perform in the same way.
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Isaac Merritt
2/9/2018 10:00:12 am
"The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow" (72). This statement indicates an inherent truth tied in with a saddening subtext. Of course the past is fleeting, leaving its mark and leaving it forever, but the claim that it is a life sentence gives it a fairly negative connotation. Most do not gravitate to or desire a life sentence of any kind, and the reinforcement of stating that it is also an instrument to be aimed gives more evidence of bad experience. For someone whose past is constantly used against them, it can feel rather weaponized. Nobody can escape their past, so for many it can be a source of unhappiness; a life sentence to be carried around until death.
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Sai Kapuluru
2/9/2018 10:42:22 am
"...to live through the days sometimes you moan like deer" (59). When comparing the sounds that are made by a person to the ones of probably a struggling deer, the author is able to exaggerate the horrid context of this statement. This statement even though simple and easy to comprehend adds to the theme of the many tasks and rules that black people have to follow without asking any questions. They are forced to moan instead of sighing so that they can be chastised in their times of distress, and is like beating an already poor man. The use of a deer in the comparison also seems to contribute to a factor of innocence that is existent within the black race that the author is describing. Deer are seen as scared animals that are meant to do no harm what so ever, but they are also prey. Others will feast on them even though they have no intention to do the same. The comparison for me not only relates the sounds of distress that are made by both parties, but also ends up comparing their characteristics as well.
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Andre Gutierrez
2/9/2018 11:03:16 am
"Appetite won't attach you to anything no matter how depleted you feel" (79) The appetite represents the feeling of acceptance someone wants to feel amongst others. However, it will not attach you to anything because it will not true acceptance if you are simply doing what others want you to do, never filling the void in your soul, not giving it substance.
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Daniel Frise
2/9/2018 11:20:45 am
"The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow." (72) I realize now as I write this that several others chose it as well; however, it stuck out to me more than anything else in this reading set from "Citizen". This metaphor is one of deep meaning.
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Frank Ye
2/9/2018 11:50:23 am
"The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow" (72). Just by analyzing the metaphor itself, it establishes sad tone with its use of life sentence as a way to describe one's past, which it is something that sticks with you and impinges upon you, influences your actions and decisions throughout your whole life. The blunt instrument, building upon the life sentence, makes one become less keen and motivated as a blunt instrument is not a sign of pursuing for a better tomorrow. In context with the book, it seems to be aiming at the theme of how one's racial history plays a big part in one's life, and often times that history puts us on a path that we ourselves did not want to take, and how rough this path will be is up to the roles your race played throughout history.
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Raya Mahony
2/9/2018 03:48:39 pm
"Words work as release--well oiled doors opening and closing between intention, gesture." I think this metaphor is incredibly powerful because she spends most of the first poem describing how "you" never do anything to respond to the comments made about "you." If words are our release, she must know that pent up exhaustion isn't being released. This feeds into the poems about wishing to be alone or wishing "you" could just burst. It's also interesting that the narrator goes on to liken words as a cover for our true feelings and thoughts. Is she indicating that words are a social lubricant or that they are a cloak that we wear to hide our frustration, judgement, and anger? Potentially both--the words that we use only serve to release the tension that the truth creates.
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Kamryn
2/11/2018 10:23:01 pm
The quote I chose was “each body is a strange beach” page 73. To compare someone's human body to something not human lessens the respect that is given to it. Similar to how at one point black bodies were compared to animals, as in less than human. Also the beach receives torment from the ocean. As the next line explains in the book allowing the emotions that may arrive from all these angry experiences to felt is like waves crashing against your head. At the end of the day the sandy beach is no match for the strong, tormenting, powerful and physical water. Also beaches get walked on top of by other humans. The word strange means that ig is never understood, it is weird. Strange implies it is unknown and we don’t know how to figure it out. Also the word each means that these our individuals versus an ocean which is one. Everyone individual feels this tough feeling of being a strange beach. The lines around this quote do a nice job of providing context though.
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Evan Lane
2/12/2018 10:28:57 am
"The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow" (pg. 72). This metaphor establishes how we get stuck in the past, as if in a prison. This historical prison influences our whole lives, whether we know it or not, and whether we use it with intent or are just dragged along with it. The idea of the blunt instrument means that the past is making its presence known in our every day lives, rather than being a precise tool that one can wield, it is a blunt object, like a club, that is difficult to control, and in the end often ends up controlling us.
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Luca
2/12/2018 12:51:34 pm
"The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow." Often times history can be something painful and hard to let go. In this quote when it talks about the past being a "life sentence" it means that it is something miserable. By stating that the past is a life sentence It signifies the fact that one must try not to be stuck in the past or it will slowly break somebody apart. What follows "the past is a life sentence" comes a very interesting line. By stating that the past is a "blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow" it can signify the fact that by using the past one is just trying to use a tool to try and shape the views of people by tomorrow. This quote is very important to the overall theme of the book due to the fact it shows how the past is painful and when it comes changing people's views it can be painful and tedious.
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