Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Blog #5

Patrick Kelly
EN 101
10/30/13



                                                       Overcoming New Experiences


          The short story by Langston Hughes, "Thank You, Ma'am", the poem "Directions for Resisting the SAT" and the poem "First Practice" by Gary Gildner all demonstrate new experiences and how they were overcame. Each poem or short story shows how someone was put in a scenario where they felt uncomfortable and experienced something they have never experienced before and then expressed what they were able to take from this experience.
          In "Thank You, Ma'am" a boy tries to steal a woman's purse but i unsuccessful in doing so. The women catches the boy and instead of taking him to the cops decides to teach him a lesson. She brings him to her house and is surprisingly nice to the boy by feeding and washing him. The boy is put in this uncomfortable situation where he is being treated kindly by someone he just tried to rob and learned that people can be nice and sometimes a complete stranger can be your friend in a time of need.
        In "First Practice" a boy is again put into an uncomfortable situation where what seems to be his coach is teaching him along with other boys how to win. In the poem it the writer says, "he was a man who believed that dogs ate dogs" meaning that you in life your going to have to competitive sometimes and fight against people just like you. This was an uncomfortable situation for the boy but I believe he learned that things aren't just going to be given to but instead your going to have to fight for them.
          In "Directions for Resisting the SAT" the writer describes a different type of new experience, which is taking the dreaded SAT's for the first time. The writer mainly focus on how to avoid the SAT but in doing so he demonstrates the importance of the SAT and how even though there are experiences in our life that we don't believe in or don't want to be part of, we still have to own up to them and take them head on because its the only way we'll ever get past them.
          

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