Power of Human Feeling and Emotion

In the poems “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke and “Cincinnati” by Mitsuye Yamada and the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, the many types of human emotion and feeling can be observed. The feelings the speakers and characters in these literary works experience are hatred and the need for revenge, unconditional love, and rejection and the devastation that comes along with it. These literary works can be related to service at Soccer Without Boarders because the children will be dealing with an array of different emotions. Many of the children are refugees from other nations, so they are trying to assimilate into our country, which may be difficult for many. As a result, the children may be experiencing the same emotions as the characters in these literary works.

            My first day of service at Vanguard Middle School is tomorrow, Wednesday, October 11^th. The past few weeks I have been taking the necessary steps to become a certified volunteer. This week I had to go to the CCSJ common space in Humanities to get fingerprinted by Baltimore Public Schools. In addition to this, I had to complete the Soccer Without Border online training which helped prepare me for some situations I may encounter at service. It has been a long process to become a certified volunteer and I am very excited to start service.

            The first reading this week was the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe. It followed along the narrator, Montresor, as he seeks revenge on Fortunato for insulting him. How Fortunato insulted Montresor is not revealed but Montresor is very intense in his vengeance as he seeks to murder Montresor. To complete this, he lures a very drunken Fortunato to the catacombs to taste the pipe of Amontillado he has obtained. Eventually, he chains up Fortunato, builds up a wall hiding him, and throws a torch beyond the wall. The feeling Montresor experiences throughout the story is complete hatred of Fortunato. The hatred is so passionate he must enact revenge through murder. Although this is morally wrong, Montresor does not care because he is so blinded by hatred. In this work the power of hatred can be observed.

            The next reading was the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. The speaker is a boy who is dancing the waltz with his father, who has the smell of whiskey on his breath. The poem has an underlying violent tone to it, which may be an extended metaphor of the father and son’s relationship. This is seen thorough the lines “But I hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy” and “At every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle”. Although the father may not treat his son the best, his son does still love him as “Then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt”. This line is a metaphor showing how the son loves his father as he is “clinging” or holding onto a relationship with his father. Through clinging onto his father, it shows he loves and looks up to him, regardless of how his father treats him. This unrequited love creates a bond between them.

            The last reading was the poem “Cincinnati” by Mitsuye Yamada. The speaker of the poem, who is presumed to be Yamada, is looking forward to being free and having a fresh start in a new city where no one knows her. However, this hope is quickly destroyed as she is spat on and once again a victim of discrimination. This rejection from society leads to devastation for Yamada. Rather than having a new start, society has maintained the stereotypes of the past and rejected her. The last line “Everyone knew me”, is significant because it shows how these new people do not personally know her, but know her through the stereotypes of the past they will not move on from. This leaves Yamada devastated as she is once again the victim of rejection from society.

            Through the three literary works the power of human emotion and feeling can be observed. The children at Vanguard Middle School may be dealing with many of these same emotions as they are integrating into a new society. I hope to help them with this transition.