Uniqueness and Connections

In Ezra Pound’s In a Station of the Metro, Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and in the Panel of Writers discussion the connection and uniqueness between people flourishes. Human beings are a small aspect of a gigantic universe and although they are all connected like the parts of a tree, they are also very unique. In Pound’s poem, Walker’s short story and the Panel of Writer’s discussion people are found taking advantage of being part of a society where we are all unique but connected.

In Ezra Pound’s In a Station of the Metro, the word apparition is a supernatural appearance that is remarkably startling. When she states in line one, “The apparition of these faces in the crowd,” she is recognizing the face in the crowd and it is supernatural because she doesn’t usually pay attention to her surroundings. This shows humans lack of appreciation for the world around them; they take advantage of the few activities, taking the metro, that connect them together. In the second line when Pound mentions, “Petals on a wet, black bough,” she is referring to the faces as petals and the setting as a bough. This line reinforces the idea that we are all unique individuals like a petal of a branch but we are all connected because we make up the tree (society).

In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” the narrator’s daughters have very different personalities and attitudes towards life. When Dee first arrives at the house she has a completely different personality than when she left. She has a different name, dress, hair style and claims that she is taking advantage of what life has offered her. However, Dee still loves to eat the same food and wants the same quilt as Maggie, her sister. These actions show that Dee is not as different from Maggie; that even though they are different they still part of family. When Dee eats the chitlins, corn bread and green beans it shows how much she enjoys them and has take them for granted when she went away.

Last week I attend the Panel of Writer including Gregory Kane, Elizabeth Evitts, Chez Thompson Cager, and Jane Connolly. Jane Connolly is an author of children’s books. She told the audience of an experience she had with Baltimore crime. Connolly spoke about how a young man broke into her house and stole her children’s bunnies. The police found the boy and the rabbit and when she asked the boy why he stole the rabbits he said that he always wanted a rabbit and couldn’t afford one. Connolly explained how she felt very connected to the boy because she knew the boy felt the same way her kids felt when the rabbits were taken from them. Although she and the young man live in two different environments they can connect on many levels.