AAFTER US In this poem, the poet uses a surplus of imagery to allow the reader to fully see what she is trying to get us to picture. In the first line, she talks about how rain, which can be destructive or helpful, is seeping into a room where books and other material things reside. In the lines to follow, she writes about how everything that flourished under the sun, turned away to try and find the light that they so desperately need. This shows the destructive side to rain because it paints the picture of a dark day with rain falling and silencing all activities that happen during the day. In the second paragraph, the poet writes about a portrait, which has sketches of boats and barns and this creates the image of a perfect utopia where everything is peaceful and nothing has disturbed it. The paragraph that follows this peaceful picture, is where the foreboding and evil rain begins to make its appearance again. She writes about how everything that was ever thought of or invented or t...
RRAGTIME Ragtime follows the intertwining stories of three families around New York City at the turn of the 20th century. The novel is divided into four parts. Part One introduces an upper-class white family: Father, Mother, Grandfather, Mother's Younger Brother, and The Little Boy. The family lives in New Rochelle, a wealthy suburb outside of New York City, where they enjoy an easy, orderly life dictated by traditional gender roles and social expectations. Their quiet lives are shaken up when the famed magician Harry Houdini visits after his car breaks down outside the family home and Father leaves for an expedition to the North Pole. In his absence, Mother is left alone to run the house and business; in the process, she discovers she thrives in a leadership role, and she feels deflated upon Father's return. While Father is away, Mother discovers and rescues a newborn black baby who was buried in her garden. After finding out the baby's mother is Sarah, a neighborhood was...