You Don't Know What You Have Until it's Gone

Authors Note: This is a reaction/response to the poems Big Yellow Taxi and Field Below.

    

       In these two poems they repeat the same meaning of you don't know what you have until it's gone. Like in "Big Yellow Taxi" the person is said that they "paved over paradise and put in a parking lot."  They could not take that back and will never become that paradise ever again. In the "Field Below" the character wishes there was a field below but that has been taken away also and will never be replaced. Both poems want the reader to feel sympathy and sadness. The author feels angry and disappointment for what people have done to their paradise or field. The music of big yellow taxi is the totally opposite of what I thought it would be. I thought It would be a sorrow song but it was more upbeat and fun then sadness would have been. The song to Field below fit it's poem because it had sorrow and sadness in it. I don't think Big Yellow Taxi sang the song right there should have been more sadness and disappointment in that song.

Injury Guarantee

Author's Note: This is a prediction piece on the book fallen Angels.  

How would you feel if you got sent off to Vietnam to fight in the war? Well in the book Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers Richard Perry is seventeen In the middle of the Vietnam War with no friends. He soon finds his unit and is sent into his Vietnam camp where he has to make friends and survive with his unit. He gets out into Vietnam were he gets stuck in a ton of combat where he is scared out of his pants. He soon makes a friend with Pewee Gates and finds that the war is easier when he has a unit that feels like family to him. But when one of his own dies and he gets injured he falls back in his frighten body. I predict that Perry will find himself in the middle of the war and will get re-injured and will never be able to go back to war because of his injury.

First of all, back then in Nam there was a ton of fighting and a lot of people died.  Which makes it easy to imagine that Perry will get hurt and then have to travel back home. They are also in an unprotected place for the enemy to attack them. They are in a middle of a field with no surrounding landscape.  Perry already has got hurt so he is more prone to injury then the rest of his company. Perry has a huge chance of getting hurt in the harsh environment of Nam.

Even though Perry's mental state is a key reason why he might get injured, Vietnam's Environment has the same danger. Perry has to take a malaria pill everyday because of the disease that go around Nam. The mosquitoes are also a disease spreader if they get a bad bite they could get a rash or get a sickness that might kill them. Close to three men in Perry's unit have gotten sick, and two of those three died. As you can see Nam is not a good environment to live in because there are so many diseases.

Last of all Perry is totally freighted of the war which makes his instincts drop a lot. He is so weak with his fear of getting re-injured. Perry also has a lot of scared friends which makes his unit weaker and easier to spot in combat.  Perry also has bad feelings about places and sometimes freezes in battle due to these bad feelings. Perry is an easy target because of his quivering body and because of that his chance of injury is way up.

In conclusion, Perry is exposed from his recent injury, the environment, and his fear towards war. I think that my prediction is going to happen due to these examples he is an easy target with all these weaknesses. He will get re-injured and sent back to America where he can recover with his family. 

Mother to Son Parody

Authors Note: This is a poem parody on the poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes.

This parody relates to Mother to son because a solider is telling the main character that he has respect him and the situation just like mother to son.  The speaker is Johnson a solider in the Vietnam war and Perry's friend. He is telling him that he will be okay and that he needs to stop worrying. The audience is Perry because Johnson is telling him what he needs to do and that he will be okay. The Tone is that Johnson is trying to care for Perry so he doesn't get hurt. The mood is making the audience feel Perry's  Perseverance and drive for the war. 

Well Perry I'll tell you

War for me ain't been no paradise

It's had barbed wire's

And claymores

And mines

And places that are so hurt it leaves a scar

But in this war

I'se been fighting

And reaching new heights

And turning older each day

And sometimes wishing I could be home

Where there was life

So Perry don't turn your back on me

Don't you give up on the American cause

because you find it will get better

Don't you quit now

For the war stills going

I'se still fighting

And war for me ain't been no paradise.

Crystal Stair

Drew Barth

3/14/12

Crystal Stairs

Authors Note: I am doing a writing piece to show how this quote means so much to a poem and the other fugitive language. My life ain’t been no crystal stair. Poem is called Mother to son by Langston Hughes.

           
           This quote means that the boy’s mother is telling him that she hasn’t had a perfect life like other people and he has to deal with it. She has been working her but off and her boy doesn’t even see that but she wants him to know what he does for him. The grammar in this story makes the tone and the mode change throughout the book so you get a view of how the mother is talking to her son. The author makes it seem that the mother is exhausted from the kid and wants him to know what she does and he should care about it.

Pewee

Drew Barth

3/9/2012

Pewee

Author’s Note: This is a word choice and context piece about Pewee from the book Fallen Angels.

            He has dark black skin and is from the big city of Chicago. He is a skinny lad like a broken twig off a tree. His name is Pewee a soldier in the Vietnam War,Vietnam for Pewee is like the sierra dessert with all the humidity and warmth. In the book Fallen Angels Pewee has become friends with the main character Richard Perry. Perry sees Pewee as the hilarious clown of his unit always making jokes and trying to have the best time he can in the war. Pewee also knows how to pick a fight and how to push someone’s buttons just to have a good time. Although Pewee is immature he is truly brave and would do anything for his country. 

Pewee is as brave as Lion defending his pack. He is really tough in his unique and fragile body. I think of him as the unit leader that shows his people where to go and does everything positively. Like a bird defending his flock, Pewee is a great fighter and a great leader and no one can ever dispute that. Also Pewee is a great friend to Perry and I think they will be friends forever due to how they fight together and their same look on the war and the people around them.