Sorting Laundry

"Folding clothes, I think of folding you into my life."

This is a metaphor representing how when the speaker folds clothes, the different clothes remind her of the person she is talking to in different ways.  For example, the patterned towels reminded her of them buying the towels on sale and saving them for the beach.  Another example is the bed sheets and pillowcases holding all of their dreams.  I think that while the poem is taking place, the girl is folding laundry and her husband is at work.  In line 43, the poem brings up the idea of someone leaving her when it says "if you were to leave me."  It also continues by saying "a mountain of unsorted wash could not fill the empty side of the bed."  She expresses how important he is in her life, and how she does not know what she would do if she lost him.  Overall, I liked this poem because I could follow most of it.

Batter my heart, three-personed God

This poem was very religious, I thought, as it talked about the Trinity.  In the poem, the author used different words as metaphors to stand for each part of the Trinity.  "Knock" and "break" refer to the Son, or Jesus, because those are two physical actions that humans do and Jesus was human.  "Breathe" and "blow" refer to God the Father because he breathed life into each human and makes the wind blow.  "Shine" and "burn" definitely refer to the Holy Spirit because it burns in our hearts and shines through us to other people.  I also thought that the speaker was asking God to guide him or her through life.  In the second quatrain, the speaker compares himself or herself to a soldier as he or she talks about defending and someone being captivated.  I thought the use of first person in this poem was interesting too because the reader can relate to the speaker.

Dream Deferred

This poem was my favorite of this unit because it was short, simple, and to the point.  Hughes demonstrates the use of five similes and one metaphor in "Dream Deferred."  The first simile is "dry up like a raisin in the sun."  I personally liked this image because I know what a raisin looks like and can imagine it being dried up.  The poem also mentions that the dream could "fester like a sore," "stink like rotten meat," be like a "syrupy sweet," or "sag like a heavy load."  These images are all easy to comprehend, and he uses examples that almost everyone could relate to.  The diction exerted also makes the images more realistic.  Fester and sag are two words that stuck out in my mind when I read the poem.  I believe the main purpose of the poem was to make the reader think about what really happens to those dreams that are not achieved and tell the reader some possibilities.

Chapter 18 - Life As a Carer

"I thought about Hailsham closing, and how it was like someone coming along with a pair of shears and snipping the balloon strings just where they entwined above the man's fist.  Once that happened, there'd be no real sense in which those balloons belonged with each other any more."  (pg. 213)

The technique used in this quote is a metaphor.  The author relates the closing of the school to cutting the strings of a fist full of balloons and having them fly away.  After they leave the hand, it doesn't matter who they belonged to because now they are free.  This is exactly how Kathy feels right now.  When they close Hailsham, she will have no place to call home or a place to go back and visit.  Closing the school makes her upset, but she can't do anything about it.  Also in this chapter, Kathy runs into Laura, and Laura talks her into becoming Ruth's carer.  Kathy decides to be Ruth's carer, and Ruth wants Kathy to take her and Tommy to the boat.  Kathy agrees to take them.  I don't know if this is a good idea or not.  Hopefully, the three of them can catch up and not have any problems, but something could go bad.

Chapter 10 - Disbelief

"Buzz, buzz! the hive was humming, busily, joyfully."  (pg. 147)

I think this quote can be interpreted two different ways.  First, the hive can be a metaphor for the scientific labs.  Everyone in the labs is hard at work and doing their tasks happily.  Using the hive as a metaphor, the author allows the reader to see how these labs work by suggesting the everyday example of a bee hive.  Second, the hive can be an extended metaphor for their whole society.  Their society seems to have everything figured out, and every person has their own task, just like bees.  Many people know that bees have very organized hives, and they seem to be at work constantly.  Every person and bee has a duty to contribute to the society or hive and make their world a better place.