Dancer By Vickie Sears

The title of the story, "Dancer", had made me curious to see what it is about since I am a dancer all my life. In the beginning of the text seem to be a flashback of the woman made a point of how her child had change and join with the Eaglespirit. When I look at the word, Eaglespirit, I was trying to think what this could be. The only things think of is the word could be part of Native American because I am aware that Native American believe in the spirit from its' nature including the animals. Small things can make a big difference such as what had happen to Clarissa. Imagine she is five years old, foster kids with the only few things in a paper bag. To me that seem like she is less materialistic as she is not a spoiled child. I can understand how she feel when she had to move to different families in different places for the third times can be very frustrating. What is sociopathic? By using the context to figure out what sociopathic mean, I assume that it mean that Clarissa had trouble with her social skills or is apart from social for some of the reason. I look up at the dictionary it stated: of, relating to, or characterized by asocial or antisocial behavior or exhibiting antisocial personality disorder (http://www.meriam-webster.com/). I suppose I was close enough. As the mother of Clarissa describe her new adopted daughter seem like she does need help even though some may view that Clarissa seem like a rotten kid. In my reading seem like the mother of Clarissa is the narrator of the story. Ferocious is the new word for me as well, it does seem to mean like something terrible or like a nightmare associate with the dreams that Clarissa had in the past. Clarissa describing the nightmare she had was interesting especially when she said that from her dream her tribes was Assiniboin. Later on, I realized Assiniboin is one of the Native American tribes. I was told that I was from the tribe of Blackfeet and my other half sibling is from Cherokee. I am really curious of the different tribes of Native American. Back to the point, Clarissa seem to discover more about herself when she watch the Eaglespirit of the woman, Molly Graybull. I'm a little confused if Molly Graybull is an older woman or a young girl. Because, at the end of the story stated: "Then Molly Graybull come dancing alongside Clarissa, and they was both the same age" on page 25. I'm not sure if the actually mean their age is exactly the same or have other meaning for age. Although, I still think that Molly Graybull is an older woman, so at the end of the story I think it mean that both of them is on the same "beat" or level while Molly Graybull is dancing alongside Clarissa. She seem to feel connect with the dance as it seem to be familiar with her. As she watch the dance and she would practice and practice at home whenever she could. This seem like if she obtaining her goal without actually think about what her goal in life will be. This also seem to be the turning point of the story because in the past Clarissa tend to get in trouble but then later when she saw the Eaglespirit she become better around with her new family. For this, she was able to open her heart through dancing. Clarissa had been learning different part of dances in the Assiniboin tribe. She was able to become proficient with the dance by showing her passion. How she display her passion for dance is by doing anything she can do to keep dancing. Later in the passage, when Clarissa had said that she is an Assiniboin on one night during the supper on page 25, Clarissa seem to be aware of who she is. She said it loud with pride which seem she find her happiness to know where she come from. Finding who you are can be difficult and most teenager or when become an adulthood struggle to find who they really are. When the narrator gave Clarissa the costume, Clarissa was excited, "her eyes full up with glitter" on page 25. At the end of the story, Clarissa seem more determine that she will dance especially with Molly Graybull as if that had been her goal all along. When the narrator stated, "You just listen to your spirit. That's where your music is." to me is like someone saying listen to your soul and/or heart as ones will find their inner strength. I noticed in the story naming different part of the dance that Assiniboin tribes do like Owl dance, Friendship dance, and Circle dance. That grew my curiousity of what this dance looklike. Also, in the story tend to use the word, powwow, which can identify that the story is talking about Native American dance. This story had remind of when some people had suddenly find their interest, they became engage within their passion to reach their goals no matter how much they have struggled due to their outcome they will succeed.

"A House of My Own"/"Saturday at the Canal"

"A House of My Own" by Sandra Cisneros is a very interesting poem. When I read the poem associating with the title, it make sense that the author was saying from my understanding that she have nothing to be bother with. The author use the flower, petunias, which I have heard that this flower is the secret to happiness. Sandra must be satisfy with her life. She tend to use the repetition of "my" that can mean she probably selfish in one perspective or in other perspective she does not want anyone to bother her or share things with other people. When the author stated "Nobody to shake a stick at. Nobody's garbage to pick up after." (line 4-5) to me it mean that she had nothing to worry about. I said this because that remind of my past experience of always cleaning up after my family mess because they are lazy. I was tired of doing some errands for someone else before but now I am already used to it. I think the whole point of the poem was that Sandra felt she had the freedom of her own space as she is starting a new journey in her next phase of life.

“Saturday at the Canal” by Gary Soto seems related with “Carpe Diem”. Gary Soto was trying to grab all the fun as if tomorrow could be the last day. The tone of this poem seem like the author regret it because he attempt to have a happy year when he become seventeen but he ended up not getting what he actually want. On line 19-20, “We wanted to get out. The years froze [as] we sat on the bank.” show that Gary wants to get out and escape to get “new life” as they can not retrace their mistakes. The author stated “The years froze” as if he had lost motivation or the year went really slower than usual. Gary seem to go with the flow in whatever he had gone through as he does not have his own control in his direction of life by staying on top of things. The author seems to get lonely but he does have a friend that he trusts. Gary tends to alternate of what happen to his life right now and his goal of going out of town to San Francisco. He want to grab the moment of getting a chance to go to San Francisco before he decease.