The Elephant Man

After reading the play and watching it at the school I really understood it better. I realize that Treves was trying to help John Merrick but in ways I would say it benefitted him and in other ways things didn't change. Treves was mostly concerned about helping John by not advertising him as the "Freak Show". The first night John spent in the hospital and was in the bathtub Treves was talking to him asking John if he knew what home was. John said he's never had a home before. Treves told John that this is his home now and he can stay as long as he wants. The thing I don’t agree about Treves is that he still yet let’s all these people come in to see John and they pretend to be his friend. These entire guest you can call them just want to tell more people about John and then they act like they care and say they want to help but really all their doing is taking a look at him. For example during Christmas when they all came with lame gifts like the queen and her picture of herself, John probably doesn’t care about that. In the end it all boils down to people still thinking John is a “Freak show” and is using him as one. Another example is when those boys sneak in and snicker and make fun of him. That’s wrong and something should have been done with those two kids so that it never happened again.

                Treves finally realizes or thinks that in the end he wonders if what he had done was really helpful toward John. In my opinion it was good that John got to experience some love and care that Treves and the others gave him. Like Mrs. Kendell caring that John wanted to see a woman and her showing him. However, like I stated already John never really quit being the freak show and in my opinion that was the whole point of him going to a facility where he could seek help. So I think they should have just let John be in his room and only Treves should have been the one doing the visiting.  

The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop

In the poem "The Fish" the fisherman catches a big fish. The fisherman held it half out of the water by the boat and the fish wasn't fighting. The fish was brown and skin hung in stripes like ancient wallpaper as it stated in the poem. (Line 10) This fish they could tell was old and it was infested with white sea-lice. The fish was worn out breathing hard and was frightened. The fisherman in line 34 states how he looked in the fishes eyes and sees the fear, worn out look; saying I just want to give up. "I looked into his eyes/ which were far larger than mine/ but shallower, and yellowed, the irises backed and packed with tarnished tinfoil seen through the lenses/ of old scratched isinglass." The fisherman admired his sad face, felt sorry for him. Then noticed the lower lip of the fish and realized why he had given up and wanted to be caught. There the evidence has shown about five hooks hanging from his lip with old fishing line attached where he had broken loose many times. All five of these hooks embedded into his lip where it just healed with time. It's explained "as the five haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw" in the poem. The fisherman stared at the fish knowing what he was going to do but the noticed how the rust and oil from the old engine had made a rainbow around the fish. He then just says “until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go." So the fisherman seen how pretty, old and what the fish has been through so he wanted the fish to live life; for he earned it. I’m no fisherman because it bores me but after reading this poem I realized that there are fisherman who aren’t just out there for the sport and good taste of the fish, theirs some with good hearts. This fisherman felt sorry and realized that if he broke loose from five other fishermen then he deserves to be cut loose. Just because the fish has nothing else to fight for resulting in no more energy doesn’t mean that was a successful catch and something to brag about. The fun in fishing I think would have to fight for what you catch because then you can say you’re a good fisherman.

Snake, by D.H. Lawrance

My understanding after reading this poem is that this boy/young man was thirsty because it was hot. Stated in the book line 2, "on a hot, hot day, and I in pajamas for the heat". He grabs his pitcher and heads out to his water trough. I'm guessing he lives on a farm as well because cities have running water and it's probably back in the old days. As he arrives to his water trough he notices a snake at his water trough. He says it’s a yellow brown snake, so that means he’s poisonous. He noticed this snake came from a whole in the ground and just wanted a drink. He observes this snake and lets us know every move the snake makes. He refers the snake as a cow that grazes with their head up after drinking from the trough or as if the cow would take a bight to eat and lift his head up and stare. Then the boy hears voices in his head telling him he should kill the snake. As line 24 states, "For in, Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous." So he now realizes the snake is no fun and games because its poisonous as I said in the beginning. The voices went on in his head, "if you were a man/ you would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off." Then he confesses how he likes the snake. He doesn't want to harm the snake because he thought the snake was peaceful looking and he was amazed of his presence, but yet those voices kept picking at him telling him if he wasn't afraid he would kill the snake.

The snake has drank enough and slowly turns his head and slowly slithers off the trough and starts to go back down the dreadful hole. The boy then gains enough courage to attempt the kill. He puts down his pitcher and picks up this log and tosses it at the snake. The snake scares and like lighting disappears in the hole and never returned.

After he throws the log he then regrets his actions. He wants the snake to come back; he misses the snake’s presence and really feels guilty. He then says how he hates those stupid voices in his head that made him do such mean things. To me that is like us today, the devils voice that we hear in our head making us do bad things. You just have to ask yourself is this the right thing? What is the right thing to do in this situation? Well if it was I in his position the minute I saw the snake it would have been history. So consider the snake lucky.