In Frost’s poem “Mending
Wall”, Frost portrays the negative side to creating barriers and walls that
inhibit people from branching out into the unknown. Jesuit education is based
on making an individual a well-rounded person and it is impossible to do it
with these fences. An “ignorance is bliss” mentality can keep a person out of
trouble yet at the same time it hinders the neighbor from developing a
relationship with those on the other side. The neighbor is afraid of change and
wants things to remain as they are because it has already been ingrained in his
mind by his father that this is how things should be. Conversely, the Jesuit mentality is to always
look at things in new lights and to not be afraid of branching out of what is
normal and comforting. The only time the neighbor would ever be able to build
relationships would be if he was willing to break down those fences. Frost
implies that, although it may be hard to change and diversify oneself and much
easier to just keep to oneself with privacy, there are so much better things in
the outside world to expand one’s sense of self.
Jill McDonough’s
poem “Accident, Mass. Ave” illustrates what happens when real and unadulterated
people first rely on instinct to settle a problem and then move into a more
rational mindset. The poem is very much an honest piece of literature, for
example, because of the fact that is does not fail to point out how the women
was clearly not from there. McDonough’s raw scene where they are both caught up
in all this drama implies that there is a kind of “universal” way of acting in
that situation although it may not be the right one. The Jesuit education
teaches the importance of reflecting through everything a person does and in
the beginning of the poem obviously they were not doing so. Both the poem and
Jesuit education stress the power of communication and that the way one acts in
a situation depends on how much he or she wants to get done. Even though at
first the two of them react angrily and shrill toward each other as a sort of defense
mechanism, they end up comforting each other. Both come to a peaceful mutual
understanding because they were willing to let go of their anger and automatic
reaction to the very minor car crash.
In Harper’s poem “Learning to Read”, Harper
suggests that the best way to overcome any form of oppression is by educating
oneself and in this poem’s case it is an enslaved women who is learning how to
read. The woman in the novel has the drive and will power to keep on educating
herself through the books of the bible. This poem is the piece out of all three
that most exemplifies what a Jesuit education tries to achieve. Jesuits believe
that education can change a life for the better and in Harper’s enslaved woman
there is a glimpse of just that. Just because the woman is enslaved physically does
not mean that her mind and her ability to learn is at all impaired. By learning
to read from the Bible, she has discovered her own way to be independent and
strong on her own. Education is not only the most important way a person can
free his or herself from a stagnant cycle of repression but also a way out.
When listening to
Stephen Graham Jones read passages from his book, I honestly found it hard to
come up with similarities between the poems we read and zombies, werewolves,
and all of his other readings. However I did pick up something he said in a
snippet of his passage about zombies where he stated that our pets have
conditioned us to feed them and take care of them. For some odd reason and even
though it is admittedly a total stretch, all he had to say in the following sentences
of his novel somehow reminded me of Harper’s “Learning to Read” poem. Jone’s
passage talked about how we have domesticated animals for our own leisure and
that animals themselves are somehow are fully aware of this fact. The enslaved
women in Harper’s poem is unfortunately fully aware of her surroundings and
what her job is to the people she works for. Obviously, unlike animals, humans
have the ability to grow and move past being bound to any person or persons. I
found an echo between the two pieces not so much as a similarity but as a
contrast between domesticated animals and humans who are fully capable of
prospering.
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