Maya Angelou’s “The Health-Food Diner” Explication

Maya Angelou’s “The Health-Food Diner” is a satirical poem poking fun at the avid healthy eaters of the world. She places her true opinions at the end of each stanza ad in parenthesis, undermining what she previously stated which, for the first four stanzas, is related to healthy foods. She ultimately contrasts healthy and unhealthy food, painting healthy food in a more negative light. A change occurs on line 1 where “to” is the only word and is placed at the end of the line. It creates a pause and signals a shift in view. It is after this line that she expresses the food she likes to eat, not the ones she should eat if she were to be a purely healthy eater. The rhythmic pattern of rhyme scheme adds to the satire tone, where it almost sounds like taunting. In a way, it could signify the plight of a healthy eater, where unhealthy foods can be taunting at times. The rhymes are seen not only at the ends of lines but with in lines too, such as “kelp” and “help” I find it interesting that the foods she chooses to call unhealthy are all meats. This goes along with her using the word “carnivore”. Even so, she makes being a carnivore sound better and more appetizing than eating healthy. For, those who watch what they eat “are thinned by anxious zeal”. So, Angelou ultimately arguing that is better to eat what you want and enjoy and be whatever weight you are than to be stick thin and not enjoy the food of the world. I found the poem to be very light hearted and even funny, quite a different tone and message than the majority of Angelou’s poems. It was easy to understand and a nice poem to read.

To A Daughter Leaving Home by Linda Pastan Explication

I chose To A Daughter Leaving Home by Linda Pastan because it is relatable to me in my move to college in the near future. It has a sing-songy flow which mirrors the child in the scene. The title is what clues the reader in to the true meaning. That this poem is not about a girl riding her bike, but it is about a daughter taking her first step towards independence and leaving the nest.  The narrator is presumably the parent or caretaker. He or she is the one who taught their daughter to first ride a bike. The bike symbolizes independence.  The parents are the ones who initially taught their children to do things for themselves. At first, the daughter “wobbled away” on her bike. The unsteadiness suggests that is was not an easy move to leave home. However, she quickly “pulled/ ahead down the curved path”. So, although rocky at the start, the daughter found her balance both physically riding a bike and in her new life away from home. The parent says: “I kept waiting for the thud of your crash” suggesting she was expecting her daughter to fail at some point. However, the daughter proved them wrong, for she kept pedaling on. Throughout the poem, the daughter edges further and further away from her parent who remains at the starting point, watching the whole time. The poem concludes with the last line being “goodbye”. The tone of this line sounds as if the parent is saying bye to their child however, in context, it is the child nonverbally and unconsciously saying goodbye to the parent. This makes me believe that the daughter naively never said goodbye because she was so caught up in what was in front of her, leaving her parents behind.

Nothing Gold Can Stay Explication

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost contains the simple message that everything good comes to an end. Gold is extremely valuable and “nature’s first green” is said to be gold in the metaphor on the first line.  Nature is personified using “her”, leading me to believe that people’s early childhood or children in general are “gold”. In other words, they are innocent at the start of life. However, they are easily contaminated by negative aspects of the world around them. This interpretation makes the poem seem somewhat bleak. For, the last line, “nothing gold can stay” suggests that childhood is only a period of time and one will grow out of it and become not-pure, losing the innocence and value they once had. Line two’s alliteration of the letter “h” emphasizes just how hard it is for nature to hold on to the golden hue.  The rhyme scheme is a simple aa bb cc dd. This simple and rhythmic rhyme pattern contrasts the sad tone.

            Frost alludes to the biblical reference of Eden, saying it “sank to grief”. The Eden is supposed to be a perfect paradise but Eve eats the forbidden fruit and it “sank to grief”.  This allusion in this poem could suggest what the powers of man and his innate greed create of the world. That as a result of our greed, good things don’t last. This isn’t surprising, for when we like something we end to exploit it until there is none left. Modern da examples extend to oil and natural resources. It can also be interpreted as currency and with inflation the value of money is ever changing. Therefor, “nothing gold can stay”.

            Though I interpreted this poem in a few ways, I think my first interpretation is the most accurate. The other two seem more creative approaches and may not necessarily be true.

“My Pal With the Long Hair” by Heinrich Boll

The name itself is an understatement. “My Pal With the Long Hair” is not about just a pal, but presumably the narrator’s wife. A common theme between the two short stories is the use of trains and allusion to Germany’s poor living conditions. The girl is described as having grey eyes and is dark, mysterious almost, and mirrors one in mourning with her dark black hair and pale face. It can be inferred that she is a Jew. Both she and the narrator are homeless and seem to be on the run. They go to a town where neither of them has ever been. The narrator gives away tons of money and cigarettes, which can mean that he is generous or knows he is about to lose everything.  The fact that he “instinctively [makes] a rough calculation as to the cash that must be lying around” (24) could uphold the image of the stereotypical Jew for the narrator, for moments before police were ransacking the surrounding block. The narrator is very calm, but he still removes himself from the situation making me believe that he is either Jewish or in opposition to the Nazis. A line that stuck out to me was “nowhere, nowhere could a fellow feel safe” (26), which leads me further to believe in my presumption.

            It can be assumed that Boll’s short stories are about the war given, his opposition to it. He alludes to the Rhine River in both of the ones I have read and the train is a common place of mystery and discovery. In both stories the women are depicted in a grey manner and he notices the legs of them. The fct that he points out the legs could have something to do with escaping and fleeing versus standing their ground, for the women in the two stories differ in that in “My Pal with the Long Hair” the lady runs away with the narrator where as in “After the Bridge” the women remain in the same place with time being the only thing changing around them.

“Across the Bridge” by Heinrich Bol

“Across the Bridge” by Heinrich Boll is about a man named Grabowski who works as a messenger for Gun Dog and Retriever Association, taking the train into the headquarters three days a week. On this train ride he notices and almost becomes obsessed with a house that he passes where a woman is cleaning day after day, seemingly unchanging her pattern of chores.  The allusion to Gun Dog and Retriever Association is to the Third Reich. Grabowski speaks in hindsight about working there and says he’d pass by the house on his way to work “before the war”, suggesting that it was before World War two. By speaking ten years later, after the war, it can be assumed that he no longer works for the company, suggesting that with the failure of the war, the company failed and ultimately, so did Hitler’s Third Reich. Boll was in opposition to the war so it would make sense that he paints the company in a somewhat negative light. However, this is not entirely true for he portrays the manager as first menacing but then quite compassionate, suggesting how Hitler appeared to his followers.

            The rigid schedule of the woman, presumably the mother, could symbolize the orderly ways of the Nazi Party. Grabowski is perplexed as to why this woman cleans as she does, for it is seemingly pointless. The trains also run on a strict schedule, everyone seems very punctual. This punctual-ness could mimic the Nazi  Party’s sense of order and formation.

            Grabowski returns ten years later to see that nothing’s changed except that the woman cleaning is not the presumable mother, but the daughter  all grown up. She still seems miserable, suggesting life has not much improved since before the war.

            However, discrediting any interpretation, Boll begins  his short story with: “the story I want to tell you has no particular point to it, and maybe it isn’t really a story at all” (15).

Explication of "The Oxen"

             “The Oxen” begins at Christmas Eve. The singsong rhyme scheme portrays the child-like excitement of the holiday. The author’s tone is of nostalgia, for it is as if he is looking back and remembering what Christmas Eve was like when he was a child. The “flock” I’m assuming, refers to himself and his siblings/ family who gather around the fireplace. This warmth comes not only from the “hearthside” but from the family as well.

            The author alludes to the belief that at “twelve of the clock” on Christmas Eve, the cattle would “kneel” and pay respects to baby Jesus’ birth. The kneeling of the cattle is somewhat like the flock of children sitting around the fire place. This similarity suggests that, like the cattle, the children were following in the foot steps of a belief. Since  “an elder” told them stories, they are ultimately expected to do the same when they are old, passing on the tradition from generation to generation.

            Yet at the end of the poem in the last stanza, there is a shift. The tone seems more skeptical of this belief and tradition of kneeling cattle but in the eyes f a child, the author predicts that at that age, he “should go with him in the gloom/ hoping it might be so”. So despite resignations and doubts he may have had, he would have still checked it out, exposing the curiosity children embody. However, this curiosity may not lead one to what they expect. The use of the word “gloom” suggests that what the author would find would disprove the family’s tradition and that is a damper on any holiday. This mirrors the tradition of Santa Clause by today’s standards. When children find out he is a made up character, they too are often found to be in a “gloom”, as with anyone who’s strong beliefs are disproven.