Tuesday, October 19, 2010

"Plum Plum Pickers" Essay


Michael Solimini
Mr. Gallagher
Senior Cp
Period 1
10.19.2010
Plum Plum Pickers
In “Plum Plum Pickers”, Raymond Barrio suggests that sometimes life may be difficult but humans can survive even if it means working in undesirable conditions. He reveals this by showing how brutal life can be. Barrio shows this through Manuel, the plantation worker. He has to fight to stay alive because if he doesn’t he will die.  Raymond Barrio establishes the setting on a plantation with intense heat and terrible conditions.
When Raymond Barrio compares the plantation to a jail he describes the trees as being “lonely isles …. Looking like bars, just like the blackest bars of hell” (91). Manuel has to deal with this every day, no matter how many times he picks it’s still all the same and faces the same feeling of loneliness. When Barrio makes an allusion about the blackest bars of hell he relates this to what Manuel has to go through because picking is just like being tortured in hell, this also goes even further and relates to how he lives on the plantation.
Also Raymond Barrio places individual words between the sentences such as “trapped”, “locked”, “brute” and “beast” (92). Barrio does this to symbolize the many emotions Manuel deals with everyday. Also it shows the reader that Manuel has to persevere or be held back by his emotions. Raymond Barrio uses Manuel to represent the Mexican pickers, how if they couldn’t work they would die because you have to work to stay alive it doesn’t come free.
“Air sucking every drop of living moisture from his brute body” (92), it shows that’s he is loosing what he needs to survive but even then he still preservers. Also when he says “sucking” he means that his life is being sucked away because all he can do is work. Then when the author says “living moisture” he is relating it to Manuel’s soul and body. Barrio describes Manuel as being “brute” which makes the reader believe that he plays a big role in the story.


















The author establishes the point of having to do whatever it takes to stay alive by giving us the courage to stand up and demand what they want. We see this when the Mexican admin wanted to take two cents from each pickers basket. But Manuel stood up to Morales and knocked over two baskets to prove he wasn’t going down without a fight. But after they were about to fight he let them keep there two cents. Like the author suggests do what it takes to stay alive, so he stood up and got the money that he worked hard for.

In conclusion Raymond Barrio’s importance fits perfectly with the text and what is going on within the story. Also you can take the situation they where in and relates it to what they had to go through. Also this makes you respect others because everyone is just trying to survive.

College Essay

Michael Solimini
Mr. Gallagher
Period 1 CP
19 October 2010
College Essay
There is one person in my life who has made a positive impact on me and that is my auto shop teacher Mr. Bazzinotti. Ever since the first day of class freshman year he has shown me the ways of how to use the many tools in class and also how to properly put them away.. But he has shown me …

Freshmen year we learned how to fix small engines such as lawn mowers. And we learned how to do simple things like how to change the oil and how to check and change the spark plugs. This came in handy that summer when my lawn mower broke. After I fixed it, job fixing other people’s lawn mowers. Also, we got a basic introduction to safety.

Sophomore year we left the small engines behind and started working on more real life tasks such as changing brakes and rotating tires to insure that the tires wear evenly. Changing breaks is a easy task but it’s a lot of responsibility because if perhaps it’s not right and something happens to the person driving the car it’s all your fault because you were the last one working on this. So this taught me how to be more responsible and pay attention to my surroundings in my work area.

Here we are now, starting my junior year in level 3 auto tech. This year is going to be a lot more interesting then the others because we are getting into cars and how the engines work and we also get to take a engine apart to see all the parts and how they all play a role with each other. The major responsibly I had to face was staying organized with all the parts and the screws that went with them. Towards the end of the year I decided to take on my own project with my fellow group member Nick. We decided we were going to try and make a go-kart and have it fully functional. But it didn’t work but the good thing we learned was don’t give up and try to preserve through the good and bad times. This was the year the most influenced my decision to become a auto technician when I graduate.

Friday, October 1, 2010

"Red Shift Essay"

In the poem Red Shift, the author Ted Berrigan Suggests that emotions often change like the title red shift. The title could mean love to anger or any kind of emotional change.



The narrator gives us a brief setting of the poem. He tells us its "8:08 pm" and he also tells us that its in the winter because of the biting air. He says this in a disappointing tone of voice, then starts to talk about " poison liquid air" and smoking to have some character. He is referring to Pepsi when he says "poison liquid air". This is where we see the first change of emotion.


In the second stanza we start to see more emotions. We get another look at emotions here and now we can see him in love, sadness, and memory. "Twenty years almost ago" this is when he tells us the past. Also you get to know what Allen Ginsberg and Frank O'Hara were big role models for the speaker. Also we start to see some love when he starts talking about this women.



The third stanza you get to see all of his emotions come out. When he talks he sounds like hes dying. He makes a good point when he says that he isn't going to leave even for "stupid estrangment". This is more on the loving side then anger or his previous emotions. He also doesn't want to die he wants to be 110 years of age.

In the fourth and final stanza his emotions drastically change from love to sadness once again. He uses powerful language here like "im only pronouns" to show us he didn't want all this to happen. Also we start to see the speaker "leaving his body" when he says "furious song flows through my costume".


The idea of emotional change is important because everyone has to deal with these emotions. Its all just a way of life. So this story is something everyone will face.

In Class Esssay "Landscape with the fall of icarus"

In "landscape with the fall of Icarus", William Carlos Williams suggests that everythign has a reason and a deeper meaning behind it by showing us reasons and personifications.




In the the poem "landscape with the fall of Icarus" he symbolizes many things. One thing he says is " it was spring" and he uses the seaoson to symbolize life. Then as we read onto the second stanza you start to focus on the farmer and what the setting around him looks like. He also uses personification when he refferences the "sea being concerned with itself". Williams also leaves us with questions after you read "sweating in the sun" because its too vague for you to anwser.

In the book "the story of Daedalus and Icarus" by Ovid he writes that the men Daedalus and Icarus where exiled from there homeland and plan on escaping. Daedalus found the only way to escape and that was by flying because the "sea held him there". Little did they know they cant change the laws of nature and this led to the dead of Icarus.


In the painting by peter Bruegel the colors of the trees and the man plowing tells me that it must be spring. There is also this island in the middle that relates to the island in the myth of Daedalus and Icarus. Also is you look in the water you can see Icarus drowning. There are also many people on the hill that could of helped but they were concerned with themselves.

All three things tie into each other by portraying what is happening. In the myth of Daedalus and Icarus the men hard to fly with a set of wings made of wax which didn't work because you can see Icarus drowning. in the picture and you can read it in the last stanza of the poem. The second stanza in the poem talks about a farmer plowing which relates to the picture because you can see him working .

In concluding those where the ways that Ovid, Bruegel, and Williams all related to one another. The myth was written first, then the picture, then the poem. And this is all important because you get to see the bigger picture of everything instead of the basic meaning.

Bruegel's "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"

In the picture there are many shades of color in the sky. I see shades of yellow, blue, green and he also has some white mixed into there. I also can see this little city in the backround. There is a selective few tall buildings located in the city. In the harbor you can see a few boats. Some are sailing into port and some are sailing out. Most of the boats are fairly small. Also behind the boats in the background you can see that there is a galacier or some kind of mountians. There is also another mountain/galacier in the very back of this picture. This means that he is hinting that this picture is taking during the fall/winter time. But once you look into the middle of the picture you see some kind of a castle on a island. Once you look in the front of the picture you see a whole different landscape then you would if you were in the city. The atmosphere around her is a more darker. He blends more colors into the painting here then in the background. On the hill there are many dark tall weeds like she hasn’t plowed it in a while and there is some trees right in front of this landscape but there's not that many. It looks like this village is in trouble because there isn't that much detail in there land. Behind the trees and the bottom field you can see that there are some more mountains. These are not like the others. These ones are paleish white instead of straight white like the ones in front of the city. The lady plowing the hill must be from a little village located on the hill instead of living in the city like everyone else. If you look just below her you will see that there is a man climbing up the hill with a walking stick. He also has sheep behind him as if he was a sheep Herder. Hes a journey man because he doesn’t have the same clothes that the lady plowing the hill does. If you look really close to the water right behind all of this you can see that there is a man fishing. He is fishing with just a line because he doesn’t have a fishing pole. If you look right in front of him there is a man in the water upside down like he was drowning. But he could be swimming. Or been throwing off the boat that’s right next to him. There is a lot of detail in the water. He adds effects to make it look like the water was choppy so it would be hard to do things such as boat or fish. Just beside the little boat you see another little island. This makes you think if there is any life on that island. And if there is why wouldn’t the village lady go there to farm instead of on the hill with not as much brightness as over there.

Letter To Me

My name is mike. And i always lived in malden and i speak English.