Where I'm From

I am from the Big House,

the heavy traffic on Saturday mornings,

and the football fanatics screaming of the sidelines,

I am from the orchards,

going apple picking on warm summer evenings,

and baking apple pies to share with the neighborhood,

I am from those days,

where snow endlessly falls,

and shoveling the driveway is a great upper body workout,

I am from the turning of "heat" and "a/c" at the same same,

and experiencing frostbite and sunburn in the same week,

I am from the tall tales,

Paul Bunyan and Baby the Blue Ox,

with flapjacks smothered with sweet syrup,

I am from the forests of trees,

from the large lakes that surround us,

the petoskey stones and apple blossoms,

I am from those memories,

that will never fade away,

for they are my past,

and will always be my present.

Waterfall

The waves crash upon the rocks,

With deep rage one cannot stop,

It then subsides into a drift of water,

A never ending motion that continues to fall

Theme Connection

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/swimming/8361665.stm

This article is about Michael Phelps and how he is struggling with swimming these days. The title of this article is, "Records tumble all around hapless Phelps." To some extent, I think this relates to the theme of the Pearl. Of course, I believe that Phelps was never greedy, but he probably had high expectations and great anticipation for his upcoming matches. However, lack of proper practice explains his losses at these matches.

Pearl Reflection

I interpreted the moral of this story as being related to greed and how it can lead to undesirable actions. You can observe Kino’s steadily character changes once he discovers the pearl. He shows off qualities of greed. Furthermore, Kino’s greed leads him to hit his own wife and even cause his son’s death. Also, another theme related to this story is that fate can shape our lives. It was fate that Kino found the pearl, which drastically changed the outcome of his life. He lost his son and lost respect for who he was. Lastly, a very obvious, but very true and critical fact is that wealth does not bring happiness, as demonstrated in this story.

We can naturally relate Kino with every human being on this earth. It’s only natural for greed and ambition to build up once we discover something valuable. However, if we let our greed reach levels that may be dangerous, we will end up with the same fate as Kino. I think everyone has been through a situation/conflict similar to Kino’s. Although the consequences may not have been to the extent of the death of one, I’m sure that because of this “thing” or “someone,” our minds have turned greedy and self-indulgent. On the positive side, because of this, our minds can mature and realize the importance of generosity and the insignificance of wealth. One major idea that I believe Steinbeck wants to really emphasize is that wealth does not equal happiness. Kino has claimed that he has found the “pearl of the world,” but did that yield happiness to him or his family? In fact, what awaited him and his family was the exact opposite of happiness. Why? It was because of the false conception that the pearl would bring his family riches and joys of bliss and eternal happiness. Frankly speaking, Kino and his family had a reason to be content with their life initially. They did not lack anything except for money. They had food, water, and most importantly, each other. However, it was the two occurrences—Coyotito’s scorpion sting, and the finding of the pearl—that changed the course of their life.