Journal Five- Pietro

 Pietro Pozzi

English at 1:30-3:30 on M-W

10/07/2020

Journal Five 

In pre-school, with the help of my teacher, I made a keychain with my moms' name on it for Mother’s Day.  It was a blue piece of plastic with the letters in paper in different colors of my mom's name, they were glued on it. When I gave it to her, she was full of joy and she loved it. Couple years ago, it broke, I remember my mom cared so much about it and tried to fix it but she couldn’t.  When I read “The Lanyard” by Billy Collins it reminded me of this gift I gave my mom. This poem presents itself with a dry and innocent humor, but at the same time it carries an essential message, the love of a mother to her son. Lanyard is my favorite word of this poem, in this poem lanyard symbolize how a simple gift or action that we give our mothers is enough to repay them for all the sacrifices and effort they put into raising us. Collins use of sarcasm is what attracts my attention the most in this poem. Sarcasm is usually used to make fun or joke about other people, but Collins uses it in an ironic way to describe the beautiful love between a mother and her son. I think the following sentence is the crux of the poem: “she gave me life and milk from her breasts, and I gave her a lanyard” he compares something so substantial and priceless like life; to something so basic and simple like a lanyard he made at camp with the help of his counselor.  

The chapter that struck me the most in the house on mango street is “Linoleum Roses”. It is about Esmeralda's friend Sally, which she got married to a salesman in eighth grade to escape from mango street and her violent dad. She thought marring the salesman was an easy way out, but she will realize it is not true. He abuses her, he tells her what she is allow to do and what she is not, she gets depended from him, as stated: “She sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission” she is basically his prisoner in her own house. This chapter shows how difficult a way out from those situations like mango streets is. Sometimes people end up making wrong choices trying to get out of it, ending up in a worse place surrounded by worse people than before. 

I couldn’t find a picture of the keychain I gave my mom; this is the closest picture of it that I could find on internet. The letters colors are really similar to the one I made, the only difference is that the bottom of it was not in the shape of a foot, but it was simply a rectangular blue piece of plastic.