Prepare: Prior to beginning your initial post, read the poems “We Real Cool” and “My Papa’s Waltz” in your textbook. You are also required to listen to “ We Real Cool ” and “ My Papa’s Waltz ” before completing this discussion. These clips demonstrate the importance of performance, rhythm, and musicality in the poetic form. Reflect: Poetry is a literary form that can offer readers a different experience based on whether the poem is read silently, read aloud, or simply listened to when read by someone else. For example, you might hear a certain rhythm or change of pace that you might not catch when simply reading the poem silently to yourself. For this week’s discussion, you read and listened to poetry. If you didn’t the first time, read and listen with careful eyes and ears so you can respond thoughtfully to the two parts of the discussion this week. Write: Part One – Answer the following questions about one of the poems based on your reading of them: Identify the theme of the poem. How do you know this is the theme? Define the poetic devices (e.g., rhythm, figurative language, etc.) used in the poem. Offer at least two examples. Analyze how these poetic devices contribute to the development of the poem’s message. Support your ideas with textual details and analyses. Part Two – Describe your listening experience of the same poem you wrote about above. If you are unable to listen to these poems due to an auditory impairment, please reach out to your instructor for an alternative prompt for this discussion. Respond to at least two of the following questions: How did hearing the poem recited aloud compare to a silent reading of it? Did the performance highlight certain words or phrases that were not as apparent in a silent reading? Did the pace change and, if so, how did it change your understanding of the poem? Did words have different connotations when spoken aloud, and, if so, what kind(s) of connotation did you associate with the poem? Do you think reading poetry aloud is a worthwhile endeavor when analyzing it? Why, or why not? We Real Cool Gwendolyn Brooks , 1917 - 2000 THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon. About the Poem Forms Rhyming Quatrains Themes Drink Dance Fathers Sons About the poet Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) was an innovator, both in subject matter and form, writing in the... Visit poet page Links Faber and Faber Library of America My Papa's Waltz My Papa's Waltz The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself. The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle. You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, .

1. Prepare:
Prior to beginning your initial post, read the poems “We
Real Cool” and “My Papa’s Waltz” in your textbook. You are
also required to listen to “
We Real Cool
” and “
My Papa’s Waltz
” before completing this discussion. These clips demonstrate the
importance of performance, rhythm, and musicality in the poetic
form.
Reflect:
Poetry is a literary form that can offer readers a different
experience based on whether the poem is read silently, read
aloud, or simply listened to when read by someone else. For
example, you might hear a certain rhythm or change of pace that
you might not catch when simply reading the poem silently to
yourself. For this week’s discussion, you read and listened to
poetry. If you didn’t the first time, read and listen with careful
eyes and ears so you can respond thoughtfully to the two parts
of the discussion this week.
Write:
Part One –
Answer the following questions about one of the poems based
on your
reading
of them:
Identify the theme of the poem. How do you know this is the
theme?
Define the poetic devices (e.g., rhythm, figurative language,

2. etc.) used in the poem. Offer at least two examples.
Analyze how these poetic devices contribute to the development
of the poem’s message.
Support your ideas with textual details and analyses.
Part Two –
Describe your listening experience of the same poem you wrote
about above. If you are unable to listen to these poems due to an
auditory impairment, please reach out to your instructor for an
alternative prompt for this discussion. Respond to at least two
of the following questions:
How did hearing the poem recited aloud compare to a silent
reading of it?
Did the performance highlight certain words or phrases that
were not as apparent in a silent reading?
Did the pace change and, if so, how did it change your
understanding of the poem?
Did words have different connotations when spoken aloud, and,
if so, what kind(s) of connotation did you associate with the
poem?
Do you think reading poetry aloud is a worthwhile endeavor
when analyzing it? Why, or why not?
We Real Cool
Gwendolyn Brooks
, 1917
-
2000
THE POOL PLAYERS.

3. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
About the Poem
Forms
Rhyming
Quatrains
Themes
Drink
Dance
Fathers
Sons
About the poet
Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) was an innovator, both in
subject matter and form, writing in the...
Visit poet page

4. Links
Faber and Faber
Library of America
My Papa's Waltz
My Papa's Waltz
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
'My Papa's Waltz', copyright 1942 by Heast Magazines, Inc. by
Theodore Roethke from The Collected Poems of Theodore
Roethke (Doubleday, 1966/ Faber, 1968), used by permission of

5. the publisher, Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. The
recording was made in the 1950s at the YMHA Poetry Center,
New York, NY, and is used by permission of the Library of
Congress, Washington DC, and is used with permission of the
Library of Congress.
About the Poem
Forms
Rhyming
Quatrains
Themes
Drink
Dance
Fathers
Sons
Discussion 1 week 3 ENG 125 Introduction to Literature
Body Paragraph Workshop
Prepare:
First, read the information on the Ashford Writing Center’s web
page,
Thesis Statements

6. . Then, read the ENG125
Sample Literary Analysis
. Pay close attention to the body paragraphs and thesis
statements.
Reflect:
Compare your working thesis statement to the thesis statement
in the Sample Literary Analysis. Does your thesis address
relevant points like the example thesis? Then, look at a body
paragraph in the
Sample Literary Analysis
. Compare its construction to a body paragraph in your own
paper.
Write:
Post your working thesis and your strongest body paragraph into
the discussion by Thursday (Day 3) at midnight; do not attach it
as a separate document. For the purposes of this discussion
only, signify your working thesis by including it in bold type
and italicize the topic sentence of your body paragraph. Your
body paragraph should include at least
three
examples of paraphrases and/or quotations (there should be at
least one of each) with correct citations in APA format. After
the body paragraph, be sure to include reference page citations
for the paraphrased and cited sources. Then, in a separate
paragraph, answer the following three questions:
Explain the connection between the topic sentence and your
working thesis. Would this connection be clear to someone
without your explanation? If so, why? If not, how can you
modify your topic sentence and/or thesis statement to make this
connection more clear?
Explain the choice of reference material. How do the references
support the topic sentence? Would this connection be clear to
someone without your explanation? If so, why? If not, what
information should you add to the paragraph to make this

7. connection more clear?
Does the paragraph contain any unnecessary information? Does
everything in it work to support the topic sentence? What
information could be added or removed? In essence, you are
being asked to evaluate the cohesion of your paragraph.
Note any other specific challenges faced or successes
experienced when writing this paragraph or completing this
discussion post
Sample Literary Analysis
..
Running head: SAMSA’S ALIENATION 1
Samsa’s Alienation in Franz Kafka’s
The Metamorphosis
Sample Student
English 125: Introduction to Literature
Professor Smith
Month and date, year
SAMSA’S ALIENATION 2
Samsa’s Alienation in Franz Kafka’s
The Metamorphosis
One would normally think of the home and family as a
sanctuary; however, the opposite
is true for Gregor Samsa in Franz Kafka’s
The Metamorphosis

8. . Instead of receiving love from
his parents and sister, Gregor is outcast. His transformation into
a vermin is a physical
manifestation
of his already alienated state and demonstrates how the family
viewed him as a
commodity instead of a son or brother that they loved. By
analyzing Gregor’s room, his
relationships with others, and his own internal dialogue, one can
see that Gregor, in fact, did not
transform at all.
Various aspects of the room in which Gregor lives illustrate that
his life is not that of a
human engaging with the world. His room is described a
“proper human room” (Kafka 1915).
The addition of the qualifier “human” is an example of verbal
irony; Gregor has already
morphed into a creature at this point. The room is also “small”
and mention is made of the “four
walls” (Kafka, 1915). Though many rooms are small and have
four walls, the highlighted of this
fact by the narrator evokes a sense of enclosure or
imprisonment.
The furnishings of the room (or lack thereof) support Gregor’s

9. disengagement with
human connection. Nothing is related of photos of family or
friends, and the room seems empty,
save for his bed and a few other items. We read that “textile
samples lay spread out on the
table” (Kafka, 1915), thus informing us that Gregor, who works
as a salesman, takes his work
home with him. The only picture Gregor does have in his room
is one of a woman that he cut
out and framed (Kafka, 1915), thus suggesting he finds more
interest in the image of a stranger
than with that of any person in his life. Save for some furniture,
a table covered with work, and
an image of a stranger on the wall, Gregor’s room is empty and
resembles a prison cell more
than it does that of a human being connected with the world.
Author
Comment [1]:
Include a brief yet
meaningful one- to two-sentence lead-in.
Author
Comment [2]:
The thesis presents a claim

10. founded on analysis and directly responds
to the prompt.
Author
Comment [3]:
This “essay map” presents
the three supporting points in the order in
which they will be addressed.
Author
Comment [4]:
Body paragraphs should
begin with a topic sentence that also relates
to the thesis.
Author
Comment [5]:
The body paragraph
should contain specific textual evidence and
an explanation of how the evidence
illustrates the paragraph’s main point.
Author

11. Comment [6]:
This topic sentence
continues the discussion in the previous
paragraph yet still offers the focus of this
one.
Author
Comment [7]:
Note that quotations are
smoothly integrated into the discussion.
Author
Comment [8]:
Proper APA in-text
citations should be included whenever
referring to a text.
SAMSA’S ALIENATION 3
One more item in the room that supports Samsa’s involvement
in his work and alienation
from the world is that of the alarm clock which serves to
symbolize the control that his job has in
his life. Despite being transformed into a bug, Gregor is more
worried about missing work than

12. he is about his physical state. Brooding about how he would
like to quit his job after paying
about
his parents’ debt while tossing and turning in bed, he says to
himself, “First of all though,
I’ve got to get up, my train leaves at five” (Kafka, 1915). Then,
an entire paragraph is devoted to
Gregor’s worrying about missing his train and wondering if he
had slept through the alarm.
Gregor then wonders how he will deal with the repercussions
with his boss who would certainly
be angry with him for missing work. Gregor’s worries are
supported when the chief clerk does
stop by the apartment wondering why he did not appear at work
(Kafka, 1915). Sokel (1983)
notes that Gregor is further alienated from the products
as
his labor, as he does not even enjoy
the money he earns but gives it to his family. He explains,
“Gregor’s sole reason for enduring
the hated position, the need to pay his parents’ ‘debt’ to his
boss, drastically highlights the
doubly extrinsic purpose of Gregor’s work. For not only is his
labor alien to his true desires, but
its…salary or commission that it affords him—does not even

13. belong to him” (p. 487). Gregor’s
room and everything in it
tell
the story of his life: he sleeps, he works, and he has no
connection
to other humans.
Gregor’s relationships with others also reveal his alienation and
role as a commodity, not
a person. The interaction with the chief clerk at the office
makes it clear the Gregor is valued
simply for his ability to make the company money. As already
mentioned, the clerk at Gregor’s
office soon came by the family apartment to check on Gregor’s
whereabouts. The description of
the visit makes it clear that the clerk was not
at the home
to inquire about Gregor’s welfare but to
reprimand him for not being at work. When Gregor did not
respond to the family’s questions
Author
Comment [9]:
The discussion
demonstrates an application of the literary
elements discussed in the textbook.

14. Author
Comment [10]:
Note that secondary
material is used sparingly. It is to support
your own original argument.
Author
Comment [11]:
Transitional language is
included in this topic sentence to signal the
move to the second point in the essay map.
SAMSA’S ALIENATION 4
(because he was physically unable to do so), “[t]he chief clerk
now raised his voice, ‘Mr.
Samsa,’…You barricade yourself in your room...you are causing
serious and unnecessary
concern to your parents and… you fail to carry out your
business duties in a way that is quite
unheard of” (Kafka, 1915). When Gregor does finally respond
(in a way incomprehensible to
all), they assume he is mocking them instead of trying to
explain his predicament (Kafka, 1915).

15. The clerk is quick to fire Gregor, thus suggesting that Gregor is
a commodity that can be easily
replaced.
The chief clerk is not the only person who views Gregor as a
commodity; Gregor’s own
family sees him as a means to their own end and as something
that is useless when it is no longer
able to make money. Early in the novella, Gregor thinks about
the fact that Gregor was working
to pay off his parents’ debt and would need to work “another
five or six years” to do so (Kafka,
1915). One would think that in such a situation that the rest of
the family was incapable of
working, but this is not true, as the family soon finds other
means of income upon Gregor’s
inability to work.
Perhaps the most telling scene of the family’s view of Gregor
occurs at the very end of
section I when Gregor rushes out of his room in an effort to
reach out to the clerk and save his
job. Though one might understand
confusion
on their part, Gregor’s family, in particular his
father, shun him and react violently. Upon seeing Gregor, his

16. father “seized the chief clerk's
stick in his right hand…, picked up a large newspaper from the
table with his left, and used them
to drive Gregor back into his room, stamping his foot at him as
he went” (Kafka, 1915). The
father then started “making hissing noises at [Gregor] like a
wild man” (Kafka, 1915). Clearly,
Gregor’s father sees Gregor not as a son but as an enemy. This
is ultimately illustrated when he
shoves Gregor into his room, injuring him. After the scene
calms, “For two whole days, all the
Author
Comment [12]:
Brackets may be used to
make small modifications in a quotation in
order to retain correct grammar.
Author
Comment [13]:
The discussion here and
throughout this paper does not simply retell
the story. Rather, the focus is on presenting
an argument. Specific details are included

17. to support claims.
Author
Comment [14]:
Note the pattern in this
and all body paragraphs: introduce
main
idea. Offer textual evidence and
commentary. Offer another point or two of
textual evidence, including commentary
after each.
SAMSA’S ALIENATION 5
talk at every mealtime was about what they should do now”
(Kafka, 1915), leading one to
believe such talk was about how the family would provide for
themselves, not how they would
care for Gregor. There is no care or concern demonstrated to
Gregor by his father or anyone, for
that matter; rather, his father exemplifies the fact that the
family only cared about Gregor when
he was useful to them. Now that he is not of use, he is simply a
burden. Ryan (2007) makes

18. note of additional significance of Gregor’s role that is lost in
translation. He explains that a term
used to refer to Gregor in the story’s original German was
“Ungeziefer,” a word that has a
history of connotations varying from “unclean animal,” to
“louse,” to “cockroach” and other
such undesirable creatures (p. 11). Regardless of the translation,
it is clear that Gregor is simply
not wanted.
Sadly, Gregor’s own internal dialogue parallels how his family
talks to and about him. In
fact, one might say that he has internalized the voices of his
family and the clerk. One example
of this includes his reaction upon realizing he was an insect. As
mentioned earlier, Gregor was
not concerned about finding a way to get his human body back;
rather, he was concerned about
whether or not he was late to work. Even after the clerk’s visit,
Gregor is keen on finding a way
to get to work: “If, however, they took everything calmly he
would still have no reason to be
upset, and if he hurried he really could be at the station for
eight o’clock” (Kafka, 1915). Gregor
plans for the family’s future even though they do not; in fact,

19. they take for granted that they will
be provided for and “had so much to worry about at present that
they had lost sight of any
thought for the future. Gregor, though, did think about the
future” (Kafka 1915). Though one
might first think it is good of Gregor to work so hard for his
family, Gregor has completely lost
his own identity in doing so. He simply sees himself as a means
to their welfare, just as they do.
Author
Comment [15]:
This topic sentence
introduces the third and final point
mentioned in the essay map.
SAMSA’S ALIENATION 6
Ironically, it is after Gregor morphs into an insect (or “un-
thing,” as would be a closer
translation of the novella’s German title), that Gregor begins to
demonstrate more human
qualities. One early example of this occurs near the end of the
first section as the chief clerk is
about to leave. After rushing out of his room in an effort to
appease the clerk, Gregor sees his

20. mother look at him and briefly forgets about the one thing that
had previously consumed his
entire life: “’Mother, Mother,’ said Gregor gently, looking up at
her. He had completely
forgotten the chief clerk for the moment…” (Kafka, 1915). As
the story progresses, we read less
and less of Gregor worrying about his job and more about him
thinking of his own emotions.
Reflecting upon his sister’s efforts to leave him food, Gregor
wishes he were able to share his
gratitude with her. The narrator laments, “If Gregor had only
been able to speak to his sister and
thank
her for all that she had to do for him it would have been easier
for him to bear it; but as it
was it caused him pain” (Kafka, 1915). This Gregor is quite
different from the work-obsessed
Gregor at the beginning of the story. Gregor shows
thoughtfulness for his parents even though
they do not demonstrate care for him as his sister does: “Out of
consideration for his parents,
Gregor wanted to avoid being seen at the window during the
day” (Kafka, 1915). These are not
the thoughts of an unfeeling, monstrous vermin but those of a

21. caring, considerate brother and
son.
Gregor’s change from a travelling salesman to an insect in
Kafka’s
The Metamorphosis
was not truly a transformation; in fact, by studying his room,
his relationships and this thinking,
it becomes clear that Gregor did not change at all. The true
metamorphosis happens after
Gregor’s physical transformation. Turning into a bug made
Gregor realize what was most
important in his life: not his job, but his human relationships.
Sadly, his family is not able to
reciprocate his feelings of love and concern. At the close of
The Metamorphosis,
it is not
Author
Comment [16]:
Here and throughout the
essay you’ll notice that a variety of sentence
structures are used. This helps to retain
reader interest and more effectively
communicate ideas.

22. Author
Comment [17]:
This is another way to
include quotations: add an introductory
phrase. A quotation should never stand on
its own as a sentence. Using a variety of
methods to integrate quotations will
demonstrate your own control of the
material.
Author
Comment [18]:
Conclusion restates the
thesis. It also reminds us of a significant and
ironic quality of Gregor’s transformation.
SAMSA’S ALIENATION 7
Gregor, but his family who have morphed into unfeeling
creatures, while Gregor is the most
human of them all.
SAMSA’S ALIENATION 8

23. References
Kafka, F. (1915).
The Metamorphosis
(D. Wyllie, Trans.). Retrieved from Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm
Ryan, S. (2007) Franz Kafka’s Die Verwandlung:
Transformation, Metaphor, and the Perils of
Assimilation.
Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, 43
(1), 1-18.
Sokel, W.H. (1983). From Marx to Myth: The Structure and
Function of Self-Alienation in
Kafka’s Metamorphosis.
Literary Review, 26
(4), 485-496.
Week 3 Discussion 2 ENG 125 Introduction to literature