Rules of Engagement: 1 - You must ADD ON to discussion. Do not repeat either what was said in class OR what someone else already posted about the poem you are discussing. 2 - Please indicate WHICH QUESTION you are answering in your response. 3 - Answer only ONE question. 4 - Make sure you answer ALL parts of that question--i.e. If it asks you to identify a poetic device like alliteration and connect to meaning, make sure you connect to meaning. :)
"A Supermarket in California" (p.10)
1. What is the speaker's attitude toward America, and how do you know?
2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect it to meaning: apostrophe, imagery, rhetorical questions, metaphor, alliteration, allusion.
A Supermarket in California 1. At first when going through the poem I had thought the speaker attitude towards America was angry because in the first stanza the speaker started yelling about "Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes..." as if they were doing something completely wrong. The speaker isn't angry towards america, the speaker is lonely in America "Walt Whitman" she mentions many times throughout sounds just like her walking the "Solitary streets" the speaker has never actually talked to him but feels and sees what he has gone through furthermore the speaker says "will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?" Thus showing her loneliness in America just like Walt Whitman.
#1 In "A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsburg, the speaker's attitude towards America is that it is a bright and extraordinary land, but that they are lost within it. Ginsburg speaks as if he were a foreigner, and views everyday things we'd see in the supermarket with an awestruck tone. When the author says "I walked through sidestreets" he is saying that he is walking in between aisles in the grocery store, but the word sidestreets gives the reader the feelings that America is a vast country to be within. The author has a very excitable and amazed tone because of how bright, colorful and diverse he describes the supermarket as when he says "I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!" Ginsburg uses exclaimation points a few times in this stanza which leads us to believe that he is gawking at the normalities of a grocery store because of how different it is from what he is used to. Ginsburg goes on to say "What peaches and penumbras!" The author's diction with this is to relate back to when he said "self-conscious looking at the full moon." A penumbra is the shadow cast by the earth or moon over an area experiencing a partial eclipse. What I think Ginsburg's imagery may be interpreted to is that he perceives himself to be unhappy and lost in a land that should make one happy and find themselves. He feels that he is living in a darkened perspective of America, while everything surrounding him contrasts him and is bright and colorful Ginsburg speaks directly to Walt Whitman, referencing his poem "A Noiseless Patient Spider" because he can relate to how Whitman feels lost in that poem.
I know this isn't mandatory but I really enjoy your response! I love your vivid adjectives to describe how he sees America. Also I like your choice of words like awestruck really gives me a visual sense on how he perceives America. Also love all the test evidence with a great follow through explanation, really allows me to understand the poem and where the author is coming from.
#2 apostrophe In the poem “A Supermarket in California” the author talks about his experience through a certain supermarket in California. During his experience he imagines bumping into Walt Whitman whom is someone he looks up to as a poet. In the poem, the author begins to have a conversation with Walt by asking him, “where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour.” With no response which shows Apostrophe. The Author uses apostrophe to show that the persona looks up to Walt because he is following him around even though the doors close soon. The persona is just following Walt with no hesitation just curiosity on where they are going.
A Supermarket in California
ReplyDelete1. At first when going through the poem I had thought the speaker attitude towards America was angry because in the first stanza the speaker started yelling about "Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes..." as if they were doing something completely wrong. The speaker isn't angry towards america, the speaker is lonely in America "Walt Whitman" she mentions many times throughout sounds just like her walking the "Solitary streets" the speaker has never actually talked to him but feels and sees what he has gone through furthermore the speaker says "will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?" Thus showing her loneliness in America just like Walt Whitman.
- Christina Wade
#1 In "A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsburg, the speaker's attitude towards America is that it is a bright and extraordinary land, but that they are lost within it. Ginsburg speaks as if he were a foreigner, and views everyday things we'd see in the supermarket with an awestruck tone. When the author says "I walked through sidestreets" he is saying that he is walking in between aisles in the grocery store, but the word sidestreets gives the reader the feelings that America is a vast country to be within. The author has a very excitable and amazed tone because of how bright, colorful and diverse he describes the supermarket as when he says "I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!" Ginsburg uses exclaimation points a few times in this stanza which leads us to believe that he is gawking at the normalities of a grocery store because of how different it is from what he is used to. Ginsburg goes on to say "What peaches and penumbras!" The author's diction with this is to relate back to when he said "self-conscious looking at the full moon." A penumbra is the shadow cast by the earth or moon over an area experiencing a partial eclipse. What I think Ginsburg's imagery may be interpreted to is that he perceives himself to be unhappy and lost in a land that should make one happy and find themselves. He feels that he is living in a darkened perspective of America, while everything surrounding him contrasts him and is bright and colorful Ginsburg speaks directly to Walt Whitman, referencing his poem "A Noiseless Patient Spider" because he can relate to how Whitman feels lost in that poem.
ReplyDelete-John-Erik Bruchman
I know this isn't mandatory but I really enjoy your response! I love your vivid adjectives to describe how he sees America. Also I like your choice of words like awestruck really gives me a visual sense on how he perceives America. Also love all the test evidence with a great follow through explanation, really allows me to understand the poem and where the author is coming from.
Delete#2 apostrophe
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “A Supermarket in California” the author talks about his experience through a certain supermarket in California. During his experience he imagines bumping into Walt Whitman whom is someone he looks up to as a poet. In the poem, the author begins to have a conversation with Walt by asking him, “where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour.” With no response which shows Apostrophe. The Author uses apostrophe to show that the persona looks up to Walt because he is following him around even though the doors close soon. The persona is just following Walt with no hesitation just curiosity on where they are going.