Service Blog Post 3

Jonathan Ocampo

Service Blog Post 3

10/10/17

Waking up Tuesday morning, I told myself instead of taking an Uber to service I would walk to Tunbridge Charter School and back. Although this walk was along York road, Ms. Manal Arma assured every student that they would be safe. I did not know what to expect on my walk, but I got a glimpse of what the York Road community brought to the city of Baltimore. Although York Road has its dangerous past, the people I ran into on my walk greeted me with kindness, and did nothing but present themselves in the politest manner.

            In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, Poe uses Montresor as a symbol of terror, violence, and torture. In his little game, Montresor drags Fortunato into the catacombs to eventually trap him there forever. The most interesting thing I took out of the poem was how Poe used the catacombs as a metaphor for hell. I think that this metaphor shows off how versatile of an artist Poe is, and how he can connect different aspects of the story. This story by the Baltimore native relates to my recent service experience of walking to Tunbridge. This story connects because as I walked on York Road I thought about how taking a stroll on York Road is completely different than West Cold Spring Lane. This similar conflict is shown in the story as Poe uses Montresor as a two-face character. The conflict is similar because they both show how two polar opposites could maybe create an ending you would be content with.

            In “My Papa’s Waltz”, Theodore Roethke describes his drunk dad beating him, but using a waltz as a metaphor. I think Roethke uses this to describe how he views his father, and the love he still holds for him despite his violent actions. The respect the speaker shows towards his father is the type of respect I see the students projecting onto Mrs. Tate. While at service, the students are very respectful of their teacher, and listen to her every word. As soon as I entered the classroom I saw how attentive they were whenever Mrs. Tate was talking. Growing up going to catholic school, those values of respecting your elders was one of the most stressed. This poem was at first very hard to understand, but as I noticed how the speaker’s tone changed I clearly saw the emotions Roethke was attempting to convey.

            As I read Mitsuye Yamada’s “Cincinnati”, all I could wonder was why would someone ever be treated so badly just because of their race. The speaker states at the beginning of the poem that no one knew who he was, he was alone “walking against the rush hour traffic”. I think the disrespect shown in this poem is similar to how some of the homeless on York Road are treated. As I exited the school yesterday, I saw a homeless man ask another man for some money to pay for gas, and the man shunned him away as if he were a piece of filth. This disrespect that is evident in the poem, and on York Road, shows that when you outcast someone publicly it can have a harmful effect on the persons feelings and emotions.