Digging Intro and Outline

Outline:

I. In the beginning of "Digging," Heaney depicts the speaker as conflicted, and troubled by the fact he can only watch his father dig.
a. "Under my window, a clean rasping sound/When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:/My father, digging. I look down"
b. "Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds/Bends low, comes up twenty years away"
II. Heaney then uses this feeling of guilt to enhance feelings of admiration the speaker has towards his father and grandfather.
a."My grandfather cut more turf in a day/Than any other man on Toner's bog."
b. "By God, old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man."
III. Finally, Heaney uses the speaker's decision to write instead of carrying on the family tradition of digging to show that we sometimes cannot live up to the expectations set upon us.
a. "Through living roots awaken in my head./ But I've no spade to follow men like them."
b. "Between my finger and my thumb/The squat pen rests./I'll dig with it."

Intro Paragraph:

In "Digging" by Seamus Heaney, the author uses characterization to provide the reader with an example of how sometimes we cannot follow what others want us to do. Heaney introduces the speaker as conflicted as he watches, instead of helps, his father digging. However, by the end of the poem, the speaker puts aside the fact that he views himself as an outcast in his own family, and does his own "digging" by writing. Heaney develops the speaker throughout the poem to portray how to deal with expectations we cannot meet, and that there is always an alternative answer to a problem.

Digging for Words

In "Digging," Seamus Heaney depicts the speaker of the poem to be different from the other male members of his family to show the internal conflict he feels.
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker looks at his father digging through his window. Already, the speaker has a "squat pen rest[ing] between [his] finger and [his] thumb" while he watches his father do manual work outside. The speaker watches his father work rather then helping him.
Then towards the middle of the poem, the speaker mentions how "the old man could handle a spade./ Just like his old man." This shows that digging for potatoes is a family tradition that comes with respect.  So by not helping his father dig, the speaker is breaking a family tradition.
Finally, towards at the end of the poem, the speaker has "no spade to follow men like them" but "between [his] finger and [his] thumb/ The squat pen rests./ [He'll] dig with it." He is accepting he won't be able to carry on the tradition of digging because it is just not what he wants to do. Instead, the speaker will do his own digging by writing with his pen. This solves his internal conflict.

Stuck in the Past

We all have those days where we wish we could close our eyes and just disappear. However, Miniver Cheevy takes this to a whole new level. Usually our bad days pass, and we move on with our lives, but Cheevy "[weeps] that he was ever born"

Cheevy represents someone who is stuck not only in the past, but in his own allusions that the past is so much better than the present. He "sigh[s] for what is not" and "love[s] the days of old when swords were bright and steeds were prancing." Instead of enjoying the life he is currently living, Cheevy is confined to the idea that he doesn't belong in the century he was born in. He cures his misery by just ordering another drink.

Robinson is showing us that in order to be happy, you have to embrace the life you were given, and be grateful. No one wants to feel disenfranchised on a day to day basis. Robinson also wants us to enjoy life to the fullest, and not just waste away while life passes by. 

Fairytales Don't Always Have a Happy Ending

Nadine Gordimer uses situational irony in "Once Upon a Time"to show how people's paranoias cause them to consider the extreme, and how that sometimes backfires in unexpected ways.
The citizens in the town are so worried about the outsiders breaking in to their houses that they try and take huge safety measures to prevent this from happening. However, they are basing all their fears off rumors. This creates some very ironic moments. For example, all the houses put up alarms that are constantly set off by animals in the neighborhood. This happens so much that "that everyone soon became accustomed to" the "shrills and bleats and wails." The people in the town became accustomed to the thing they thought would keep them from harm.
Also, one of the safety measures ends up by killing a family's son. They were so worried about protecting themselves, the mother and father actually harmed the child they were trying to keep safe. And who tried to help the boy? The gardener who they were so afraid of who "tore his hands trying to get at the little boy."

Plastic

I am a high school student who currently enjoys horseback riding, the beach, and reading. Throughout my blog, I will be focusing on the connections I share with various characters in the assignments I read. My favorite text from the summer is "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy. I could really relate to the pressure the main character feels from society to be the "perfect" girl. It really shows how the comments people make really do affect someone, so I wasn't too surprised when the girl killed herself at the end. However, I was angered when at her funeral everyone said, "doesn't she look pretty?" The irony was quite upsetting. No one thought she was pretty while she was alive, or even valued her good qualities. All they saw was "a fat nose on thick legs." Lots of girls face the fear of being judged, and always find something wrong with their appearance instead of embracing all the wonderful qualities they possess. Like the girl in "Barbie Doll," all girls face the pressure to want to be considered beautiful, and be accepted by the people around them.