The Duality Of Appearance- Paper 2

Very often the appearance of a person can tell a completely different story than that of the life they’re living or the personality the person may hold. The short stories “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “The Interpreter of Maladies”  by Jhumpa Lahiri both heavily involved this idea of appearance vs. reality. Both authors tell stories in which their character’s appearances give off a first impression. that is a complete misrepresentation of who they are and the situations they’re in. This theme of appearance vs reality is also heavily prominent in the film “Trash” directed by Stephen Daldry & Christian Duurvoort, in which three poor Brazilian boys find themselves in the position to out a politician's corruption to the whole country. The duality between the personal lives and the personas shown of the characters Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi in “The Interpreter of Maladies,” the couple in “Hills Like White Elephants,” and  Raphael, Gardo, and Rat in “Trash” all serve to show just how deep the complexity of human relationships and the interactions we have can be.

In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway the dialogue of the couple makes it seem as if the abortion is the only issue of their argument, but when reading more into their words you can find a one sided oppressive relationship. For example when the American, as Hemingway calls him, was insisting on the operation the girl asks him “And if i do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?” (117) This implies that something has been off in their relationship for awhile, because for her to believe he didn’t love her he had to have been showing signs of it.She also states not too after asking if he loved her that she’ll go through with the operation saying, “Then i’ll do it because I don't care about me.” Taking the quote for what is actually says the fact that the girl states she doesn't care about herself shows that her position in the relationship is one without power. She never truly outright states that she doesn’t wanna go through with the operation just constantly tries to get him to rethink his choice, because most decision in their relationship were most likely made by him. They are a product of their time period. The story was published in 1927 and relationships were still male dominated when it came to decision making. Certain things said by each person gives a little more insight on their current relationship but on the outside at the train station they just look like a young couple have a little argument traveling.

In the story “An interpreter of melodies” both the characters Mr. Kalafi and Mrs. Das believe that the other has exactly what they need at the moment. But their interest in each other is the result of false perceptions placed on the other due to their own broken dreams and unhappiness. Mrs. Das starts off in the story with an unpleasant personality. She complains before the ride even starts and is even rude to her daughter at one point who ask her to just simply paint her nails in which Mrs. Das replies, “Leave me alone...You're making me mess up”(338). Mr. Kapasi was not the least attracted to her until she expressed the fact that his interpreter job was “romantic” as she called it. At this point he became intoxicated with the idea of their love since in that quick moment of interest she offered him more than anything he received from his wife, who showed “little regard for his career as an interpreter” (Hemingway 342). This shows that Mrs. Das's whole unpleasant persona was pretty much wiped from Kapasi's mind and the only reason he was enthralled with her was because he finally received the acknowledgement he felt his wife had been neglecting him. In the case of Mrs.Das it’s stated in the story that she was actually “a women, not yet thirty, who loved neither her husband nor her children, who had already fallen out of love with life”( Lahiri 351). She was broken from the guilt she’s held for 8 years, it has turned her into the cynical rude person she was shown to be. She believed that Kapasi had all her answers and what she saw in him wasn’t who he actually was, but as the interpreter to her problems that she wished him to be. Without the knowledge of her affair and her secrets Kapasi would’ve kept seeing Mrs. Das as just another stuck up american tourist. The fact that both of them misinterpreted the actual situation they were in shows just  how our personal issues and traumas can affect our interpretations of interactions.

 In the film “Trash” three young boys live in the slums of brazil and in order to survive they have to scavenge trash and sell it. At the same time the ‘beloved’ Mayor Santo’s right hand man decides to go straight, so he steals all the record books of illegal payouts the mayor uses to ensure his election and the money for future payouts. He planned to release the information but is killed before he can.His wallet containing clues to the book and money's whereabouts is dropped in the trash heap where luckily the protagonist get the wallet. The theme of duality of appearance vs reality is displayed in this film through the achievements vs the assumed fate of the protagonist.The protagonist in this film are extremely poor and looked down upon by police, there’s a scene in which the police tie up Raphael who is  just 14 years old, and  take him on a rough ride in the police car trunk in which his head and face bounce around the trunk leaving him all bloody and beaten. No one had any expectations for Raphael and his friends besides continuing to live in the slums. The police in the favela saw these kid as nothing but poor dumb kids when in reality their resolve for their country was strong enough to literally risk death for justice. Throughout the movie the three boys had to solve a political puzzle left by a dead man and they manage to do it  all while running from police trying to kill them. It’s not hard to say the the boys far exceeded any expectations set for them. The mistreatment of those who lived in the favela by police lead to an underestimation of everyone from that area. Which lead to the downfall of the corrupt politician by three children.

Through a simple argument like in “Hills Like White Elephants” there was a hidden message about a failing relationship. Behind a short lived misinterpretation of affection there were two severely broken people seeking someone to fix them or save them. Through the innocence of young age and tragedy of poverty there were three kids willing to risk their lives in order to bring justice to their country. Each one of these characters or situations gave off a false but true appearance. On the surface they show exactly what they want but below that you find a grandiose of complex emotions, broken dreams, and hidden traumas.

Semester Reflection

With this semester coming to an end along with my freshman year at this college I can reflect upon a lot of things that's happened during my English 102 class.My writing has definitely improved throughout the semester as well as my organization skills when dealing with essays or papers. I've also learned to think more critically while being exposed to really greats works of literature like “The Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri and “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, which are just two of the many stories and poems that we read in class. This class quickly became one of the classes that I got excited to go to on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The fishbowls we had in which we fleshed out ideas that were brought up in the works that we’ve read were always mind opening. I’m really interested in psychology and pretty much anything that involves how we as humans interact with one another or ourselves. That’s something that was actually discussed a lot in class to my surprise. I didn’t come into this English class thinking i’d be learning about the postmodern outlook on life, how broken dreams can change you, Human nature when experiencing oppression, the human search for perfection. The lectures and lessons learned were all surprising to me at the beginning of the semester That's the reason I chose  “The Interpreter of Maladies” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” because I believe that both stories together exemplify a vast amount of Human Condition.

This class has been nothing but beneficial for me. I feel that it was one of the most influential classes that I took this semester because i’m leaving the class a better writer and with a better understanding of human condition. Each of the assignments we were assigned was a chance for me to get to critically think about each characters and the motives for all their action. The final lecture on human condition and the farewell poem that you gave the class Professor Brady actually really touched me. When you were reciting the poem and I was reading along I felt emotion given off, somewhat reassuring and peaceful. I actually printed it out the full poem and keep it in my room now. I truly enjoyed this class and I want to thank you Prof.Brady for this wonderful semester.

P.S. If you can you should read “Kaleidoscope” By Ray Bradbury, my favorite short story.

Post Modern Look on Human Interactions- Pub 4

The short story “Interpreter of Maladies” By Jhumpa Lahiri exemplifies the idea of postmodernism brilliantly. A postmodern outlook on life hones in on human flaw and how it affects the reality a person may live in, and that’s exactly what Lahiri conveys through her story through the misinterpretation of affection between Mrs.Das and Mr.Kapasi. The root of both characters interest in one another came from a deep emotional trauma each faced in their past Kulapi with the death of his son and Mrs.Das with the guilt of infidelity. The author used the actions of these characters in the story to display postmodern idea that interpretation is everything, and reality only comes to being as product of one's interpretation of life as they see it.

In the case of Mr.Kapasi the reality of the situation with Mr.Das to him quickly became skewed once he wrongly interpreted her calling his job “romantic” as a sign of attraction. He quickly became intoxicated with the idea of a love that could form between them. This fake relationship he fantasies of is him seeking the feelings he felt he was being neglected at home. After the death of his son and his hiring as an interpreter his wife became distant and he knew she “had little regard for his career as an interpreter.”(Lahiri 342). The death of a child, the job he’s currently employed at being a sign of his failings, and the neglect and isolation he must feel at home are the cause of him taking that one comment and turning into a world in which he’s happy. In Mrs.Das’s case Lahiri states it herself that she’s “a women, not yet thirty, who loved neither her husband nor her children, who had already fallen out of love with life”(351). Mrs.Das is broken, she has no love for her children which is shown in the way she treats them like not wanting to paint her daughters nails or just simply ignoring them. She believes that Kapasi has the answers to clear her of her guilt and that was her only reason in interacting with him on a personal level.

“Interpreter of Maladies” is reminiscent of “True Detective” a tv show whose characters personalities are highly influenced by some emotional trauma or issue in their past. The main characters are Rust, a alcoholic narcissist, and Marty, a cheating married man with kids. They’re both detectives but the show centers on their interactions with each other. The show exemplifies postmodernism since its focus is on these flawed characters whose flaws lead them to being better detectives in a way. For example Rust is a highly narcissistic person but his high distrust of people and his keen observations lead to him being able to decipher evidence a regular detective couldn’t. His narcissism came from the death of his daughter and the loss of faith in his religion. Marty on the other hand wasn’t the best detective but his adulterous lifestyle led him to getting information that some detectives couldn't get. Both the show and the story display how human emotions and complexities are involved in the reality that we are presented.

3 Most Influential Lectures

My favorite lecture would be the discussion made in class about being broken and hot that affects a person's personality. The topic came up when talking about the if the characters in the short story “Hills like White Elephants,” By Ernest Hemingway would ever be able to be back to regular if they have the abortion. The lecture spoke and how they mad A reflection i got from this lecture is that being broken or having a traumatizing event in the past will shape who you become. When someone goes through a loss or faces a very traumatizing moment although they may become readjusted after some time they still will have to deal with this feeling. I believe it’s extremely difficult for someone to become whole again after they're broken, but everyone i believe is broken in some way or another and we try find something in life that helps us feel whole. Whatever that may be.


Another lecture that i will always try to keep with me is the lecture on silence and dehumanization which came up during the classes fishbowl on “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins GIlman . In this lecture Professor Brady talked about how silence is one of the worst forms of oppression along with isolation. I believe that when facing oppression for so long your body is conditioned to find the best way for you to cope with the situation, and that results in things like silence and self exclusion. Before starting school here at Farmingdale I wasn’t really allowed to go outside my home often and although i had family around that i was in constant isolation, and I didn’t try to socialize and ultimately became a very silent secluded person. So that lecture really related to me in that sense.

The third lecture that i truly enjoyed was the lecture on postmodernism and the postmodern outlook on life.I find the postmodern outlook on life interesting, how interpretation is everything and that reality is actually just the product of your own interpretations of events.When analyzing a post modern work like "Interpretor of Maladies" we saw Kapasi and Mrs. Das false affection for each other as a result of some trauma in their past. I took with me from this lecture that each person I see is the result of decisions and actions that i'll never know. I also took with me that in each person's experience in life is vastly different from the next, for two twins can be more different than two strangers.

The Inevitable Mental Breakdown of Blanche Dubois- Paper 1

In the play “A Streetcar named Desire” by Tennessee Williams the character Blanche Dubois lived a very tragic and taboo life before moving in with her sister Stella. Due to these experiences back home in Laurel, Mississippi she decided to put on a front to everyone once she’s moved in with her sister. It is very understandable why she chose to start off this way because in the time setting of this play to tell anyone of what she did would have made her a social pariah. The issue with Blanche is that her lies began as a way to save face, but soon transformed into a world of delusion and fantasy she puts herself into to escape from the reality she’s now living in. Both Stella (inadvertently) and Stanley play a tremendous part in the inevitable breakdown that Blanche goes through with Stella as an enabler of illusion, Stanley’s rape and his constant clashing with her illusions. Blanche’s psyche was destroyed with her husband's suicide and her downfall mentally was set in stone once she stepped foot in New Orleans due to her decision to try to keep up appearances once moving in with Stella.


Take a look at Blanche before the play even started. After her husband’s death and the loss of Belle Reve she’s said to have become a prostitute working out of a motel and is said to have had an affair with a teenage student. Stanley tells Stella this once he finds out from a coworker of his who used to travel to Laurel.

"She moved to the Flamingo! A second class hotel which has the advantage of not interfering in the private social life of the personalities there! The Flamingo is used to all kinds of goings-on. But even the management of the Flamingo was impressed by Dame Blanche!. . . She's not going back to teach school! . . . They locked her out of that high school before the spring term ended- -and I hate to tell you the reason that step was taken! A seventeen-year-old boy--she'd gotten mixed up with!" (Williams 107/108)

She was obviously broken emotionally after what had happened to her. Her husband being gay left her longing for the feeling of being wanted, so her many expenditures into the Flamingo filled that void. Though living in a harsh setting she was still living in reality she was not held by delusion at this point. To live that life she could not have deluded herself into believing she was still a rich southern belle, she may have deceived the men she got with  but never herself. Now comparing this Blanche to the person she tries to present herself as to her sister and Stanley.


First we must see how Blanche perceives herself. The famous sociologist Charles Horton Cooley came up with the theory of the Looking-Glass self on how people perceive themselves based on society, and psychologist Michael L. Schwalbe related Cooley’s theory to mental illness in his paper “Beyond the looking glass self.” Cooley’s theory states that our “self evaluations are affected by the evaluation which others have on us, and more importantly by how we perceive those evaluations” (Schwalbe 1). His theory has three parts 1) How you believe others see your appearance , 2) What you imagine their judgments are of your appearance, 3) The self we then develop based on these judgments. Taking this into account with Blanche. Once she enters Stella’s home she is dressed up to the nines because she believes that by presenting herself this way it will make them see her as if she is still rich and classy.Yet she still ask Stella to off the light because she is afraid of what she thinks Stella will see and the judgments she’ll make. Blanche still saw herself as the people who drove her out of town in Laurel saw her. Blanche says to Stella “ turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won't be looked at in this merciless glare! ”(Williams 8). Stella complies with this and other request of Blanches. This is where the breakdown of Blanche's mental begins and Stella’s faults are shown. Throughout the play Stella was constantly complying with Blanche’s wants and was always trying to flatter her or convincing Stanley to compliment her because “That's important to Blanche.Her little weakness” (Williams 24)

Due to the fact that Stella kept giving Blanche the idea that she’s desirable Blanche actually starts to believe it and falls into the delusion. Mitch also has a part in this because his interest in Blanche boosted her self-perception, Blanche is now looking in the “mirror” and seeing herself as she believes her sister and Mitch see her, the elegant southern bell that lived in Belle Reve. Stella was enabling her sister to continue living in this fantasy world, and keeping her from actually seeing reality for what it is. This is where her delusions start to get ahold of her. She begins to hears the polka music from her husband's death whenever the past is brought up or she’s feeling emotional. For example when speaking to Mitch she says, “. . . in the middle of the dance the boy I had married broke away from me and ran out of the casino. A few moments later--a shot! [The polka stops abruptly.] ” (Williams 103). To understand Stella's part in Blanche's mental breakdown we can look at the research paper “Normalizing Symptoms: Neither Labeling nor Enabling” by Thomas Scheff who speaks on the theory of Labeling/Normalization. The labeling part of his theory speaks on the idea that inherently judging someone will most likely produce a bad effect on the relationship between the two individuals and how it occurs. The normalization part of the theory speaks on how the act of ignoring something or pretending that nothing is wrong will only worsen whatever your issue is. Stella is the normalization of Blanche's downfall her reluctance to actually find out what’s going on in her sister's life leaving Blanche to a world of fantasy, and Stanley to be the person who challenges her illusions. Stanley is the worst person that should have interacted with Blanche at this point. Stanley’s brute personality makes it easier for Blanche brush off what he’s saying as just an offensive remark to get her angered. In Scheff’s paper he speaks on labeling which is the act of making “judgments of certain kinds of behavior that are virtually automatic”. Stanley accounts for the labeling in Blanche's breakdown, immediately once Blanche enters the house Stanley sees how she’s dressed and her demeanor he labeled her as stuck up and secretive so he makes it his goal to expose her truth to people. Once he has exposed her to Stella and then Mitch it breaks Blanche.

In the lead to the climax while Stanley and Stella were at the hospital giving birth Blanche had her last visit from Mitch. Her hope was that he would take her as his wife and she wouldn’t have to live with Stanley anymore, but Stanley already revealed her past to him. This was Blanche's last hope of escape and redefine herself. So when Mitch said the words, “You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother” (Williams 130) it destroys her. Her image of herself is broken, Mitch the last person who could have wanted her and he just called her dirty. The “mirror” she looking into shows Mitch's judgments, her own judgments of herself, and all the remarks Stanley has been making, She goes deep into delusion and starts to talk to herself “Blanche has been drinking fairly steadily since Mitch left. . .Now she is placing the rhinestone tiara on her head before the mirror of the dressing-table and murmuring excitedly as if to a group of spectral admirers.” (Williams 131). Then Stanley's rape while she’s in this fragile state sets the final nail in the coffin. Blanche has met no men who respected her or treated her well, that feeling of being wanted after her husband's outing of being gay came and then disappeared with Mitch. Being put in the mental hospital was the best thing for Blanche at that point. The last thing she says on her way out is “Whoever you are--I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” implying at this point she knows that her only hope of interaction. Strangers, because her reputation home and now in New Orleans is horribly tarnished.


Works cited

Gecas, Viktor, and Michael L. Schwalbe. “Beyond the Looking-glass Self: Social Structure and Efficacy-based Self-esteem”. Social Psychology Quarterly 46.2 (1983): 77–88. Web…

Scheff, Thomas. "Normalizing Symptoms: Neither Labeling Nor Enabling." Ethical Human Psychology & Psychiatry 12.3 (2010): 232-237. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Web. 5 Mar. 2016.

Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: Signet, 1974. Print. Signet classic; Signet classic.

Blanche Dubious Living In Illusion- Pub 2

Just how long can someone go on living in or enabling a friends delusions before they’re forced to face reality? In the play A Streetcar named Desire by Tennessee Williams the character Stella for most part of the play enables her sister to keep living in delusion, never really questioning her actions forcing her husband to be the one to take action. In Scene 11 Stella says the quote “I couldn’t go on believing her story and live with Stanley.” When she said this she was referring to finally coming to the conclusion that Blanche living with her and Stanley was not good for Blanches or anyone in the houses well being. As the play progressed Blanche's lies went from just lies to save face in her current situation to lies that became hard to differentiate whether she actually believed what she was saying. Stanley and Stella(inadvertently) were the defining factor in Blanche's breakdown her presence in their home led to her and Stanley constantly clashing. Blanche wasn’t prepared to have her fantasy world constantly demolished by Stanley's harsh reality.She made herself live in a world so far out of society her sister, Stella, was forced to come to the ultimatum of continuing to promote her fantasy world and pamper her or send her away to the institution and continue living in reality with Stanley.

In the research paper “Normalizing Symptoms: Neither Labeling nor Enabling” by Thomas Scheff he speaks on the theory of Labeling/Normalization. This theory speaks on the idea that inherently judging someone will most likely produce a bad effect on the relationship between the two individuals and how it occurs. Scheff states, “We often make judgments of certain kinds of behavior that are virtually automatic: delusions show that one is crazy, wrong answers show that one is ignorant, and so on”(Scheff 1). This is seen in the play automatically as soon as Blanche walks into Stanley’s home both him and Balance start off this way judging and labeling one another. In his theory there are two parts to social dissociation, Labeling and Enabling. Scheff refers to enabling as normalization, which is to act as if something is fine and ignore it. For example in Scheffs paper he brings up a psychiatrist he observed talk to a delusional patient who believed that they were their daughter, when the patient asked “What have you done to your hair?” the Doctor knowing that she’s mistaking her for her daughter just replies “I haven’t been able to do a thing with it.” she lets the patient live in their delusion since she’s already in a ward and she has nowhere to go. This is what Stella is guilty of, her reluctance to tell Blanche to man up and face reality can be heavily contributed to Blanches breakdown. For example her constantly telling Stanley things like “... admire her dress and tell her she's looking wonderful. That's important with Blanche”(217) to just make Blanche feel accustomed to the way she used to live, and also waiting on Blanche hand and foot having her take long extravagant showers. This leave’s Stanley, the polar opposite of Blanche the task of making her face reality. This issue that Stanley could find with Blanche is just how far gone she actually is, does she truly believe she’s still this rich fancy women living in his low class rough apartment. In Scheffs paper he brings up an experiment on depression and it’s effects on delusion.

In his experiment Scheff was observing brief recoveries from depression. He observed the interviews of 83 patients who were severely depressed. Their interviews they all barely spoke and if they did it was one word answers. All of these patients fought in WWII also, oddly enough though when asked about their part in the war twenty became extremely alive talking with clarity and keeping eye contact. The psychiatrist who Scheff observed told him that he observe this phenomenon in many of his patients. Scheff states his conclusion on what he observed as “depression involves the complete repression of painful emotions (such as shame, grief, fear, and anger) and lack of a single secure bond. The memory of the patients’ earlier acceptance as valued members of a nation at war relived the feeling of acceptance. This feeling generated pride that counteracted the shame part of their depression. Telling the psychiatrist about belonging to a community during World War II had been enough to remove the shame of being outcasts.” (Schaff 5). This is how Blanche lives. Her depression in her life led to a repression of the prostitution and her husband's suicide. Instead of just being depressed and maybe overcoming it she chose to live in the delusion because like the WWII vets her memory of being accepted as a valued person removed the shame that she was holding. She believed if she could be get others to perceive her as she once was then she would be be just that again.

Blanche was broken in the beginning of the play. She was an outcast in her old town and she definitely could not go back after the things she’s done. Her choice to live with Stanley and Stella was the mistake. No one in this play actually ever tries to help Blanche, Stella's enabling of her delusion pushed her deeper and deeper into it, and Stanley's constant antagonizing and eventually the rape broke her even more. From Scheff’s research he derived that labeling and normalization would only worsen someone's mental standing if they actually need help. Blanche became too far gone and Stella is forced to have her removed from the house to the institution. Stella may have accepted her into her home in her time of need but she knew by the end that Blanche would never fit and that things would only get worse in the house.

Pub 5- What Will Be Your Verse?? Option 1

Poetry is a powerful display of human emotion and it speaks volumes when you read into the poet's words. Music is just another form of poetry that follows the same format but adds a musical beat to help with the tone of the poem. The song that I chose to compare is Gill Scott-Heron's "Hatred is Where The Heart Is" with the poems "What I Mean When I Say Truck Driver" by Geffery Davis and "Theories of Space and Time" by Natasha Trethewey. The theme of grief over a decision to do drugs in their lives is present in both the song by Gill Scott-Heron and the poem by Geffery Davis. But it can also be related to regretting any decision you've made in your life and going back to it.

In the song "Home is where is the Hate is" Heron speaks on his fear of going back to addictions in which he found his 'home'. In lines 24-25 Heron says, "Home is where the needle marks Try to heal my broken heart" this is the point he explicitly states that he used Heroin as a way to move past his problems and forget them. Home is supposed to be a place in which you can always return and enjoy and once Heron made drugs his home going back would only destroy him even further. He speaks on how strong addiction is, even when those who love you are supporting you it's still extremely hard."You keep saying, kick it, quit it.... God, but did you ever try To turn your sick soul inside out so that the world, so that the world can watch you die."( Heron 13-18). Heron is saying that he's being told to quit be they don't understand how hard it is to give it up and speak openly about your addicting especially when opening up just tarnishes your image in worlds view. The tone of this song sounds like he's pleading with someone to me, as if he's trying to make someone understand his addiction with a slight hint of embarrassment. I believe this song can work as a representation of the father's feelings in "What I Mean When I Say Truck Driver."

The poem "What I Mean When I Say Truck Driver" is from the point of view of a 15 year old boy who has father with an addiction. The tone of this story is overall different from that of "Home Is Where The Hate Is" in this poem the tone seems understanding and forgiving, for the way he describes his fathers trip shows just how he feels for his father. The poem starts off with him stating his dad is getting him a toy teddy bear from the salvation army, showing that his dad hasn't seen him for a long time. "I can almost see him approach the decision: cold, a little hungry, not enough money in his pocket for coffee. He worries he might fall asleep behind the wheel as his giant, clumsy love for the small word-son-guides his gaze..."(Davis 3-6) These lines show that the son has an understanding of his father if he can picture just how his dad approached the decision. His father doesn't want to continue being an addict, but a life on the road constantly moving with little family time can push someone there. That's why i think Heron's song can actually represent his father's emotions. In lines 11-13 the Davis says about his father's job "Little change in his fear of stopping for too long in any city, Where he knows the addict in him waits,patient as a deserts bloom...For years my father's had trouble saying no to crack-cocaine." Both Heron and Davis' father want to leave their addictions behind but both are struggling to actually quit. Davis also talks about the effect of loved ones on someone with an addiction. At the end of the poem when he father reaches home "The word son suddenly became heavy in my father's mouth,..he's never looked so small. We could crush him- we hug him instead." Davis is saying that him and his mom had all the power when his father came back they could have scolded him and crushed him for his decision to leave them for drugs, but they didn't they accepted the fact that he's back home now.

In the poem "Theories of Space and Time" it's theme isn't like the other two poems in which they deal about the problems caused by drug abuse. It's more about moving on and how the decisions you make will shape who you are. I believe it relates to both the other poem and the song because Tretheway is speaking on not being able to go back to who you once were because life decisions are final, Heron and Davis' father were both trying quit their addictions but still couldn't become who they once were before. She starts off the poem with the lines "You can get there from here, Though there's no going home" meaning that from this point there's no turning back 'home' is gone. She structures the poem as a journey that the reader must take, telling them to continue to try new things and to leave there troubles when they go through. "Cross over the man-made beach, 26 miles of sand dumped on a Mangrove Swamp-buried terrain of the past. Bring only what you must carry-Tome of memory its random blank pages."(Tretheway 11-14) This is her saying to leave your heavy memories behind which would be the sand, sand that has been left there by other people on this journey hence the man made beach and the terrain on the past. Then she goes on to say bring the Tome of memory and its random blank pages.  A tome is usually a very large book so the Tome of memory would be all the memories one has gathered in their lives and the random blank pages are those memories that you leave behind. Then she ends the poem with this "On The dock where you board the boat for Ship Island someone will take your picture: the photograph-who you were- will be waiting when you return." Ending it with a confirmation that the person photographed will change by the time that they view the photo. Tone of this poem is calming when reciting the poem I feel as if i'm giving instruction on how to better oneself.