Who are the main characters? Esther, Mrs. Dickson, Mrs. Van Buren, Mr. Marks, Mayme, George.

What do you know about the topic/story you are reading? I understand the societal pressures and influences that are placed upon certain sexes, classes, nationalities, etc. that are at work under the surface in this play.

What can you imagine that is not specifically outlined? I can imagine the romantic pressure felt by Esther to find a man and the stigma associated with a woman her age during this time period and being alone. People would start to see her as something is wrong with her or damaged as the reason why she is not married yet.

What do you think about what you read? I thought about how Esther who normally was so cautious, conservative, and careful with her choices rushed to marry George. Again, I think the pressure of her age, the desire for something different beside the boarding room life she was living, and the time period really made her feel pressure to jump into this marriage.

 How do you feel about what you read? What is your emotional response? I felt sorry for Esther. She seems like such a nice, good human being. She was someone who really was headed in the right direction and had a lot to offer until she got side tracked with this idea of love and marriage. I think she wanted the idea of love and being married so bad that she let her emotions take over for her mind and she made a rash decision. I wish she would have stayed focused on her long term goal of owning the beauty parlor business, and work on the relationship with George (or other men) on the side. I have always felt like when a person is following their own passion and is busy taking care of their own business that the personal life will come, because the act of being driven and passionate about something attracts others to your positive energy. There is a say “that when you are looking for love you never find it, but when you least expect to find love that is when it finds you.” This phrase is what I mean and wish Esther would have done, instead of making an irrational decision, which was so out of character for her.

What do you want to learn more about? I would like to know more about all the characters. Is Esther pregnant, will she be able to overcome this and still find her dream? What happens to George, does he end up gambling and drinking his life away? What happens to Mrs. Van Buren, does she find the courage to break out on her own and find herself? What happens to Mr. Marks and his relationship with Esther, will they ever get together? How does Mayme move on from here, does she mend her friendship with Esther?

Think about the experiences you have just read about. How would you react if these events happened to you? I would be devastated if I was Esther and I worked so hard on my own all my life and in one night George “some stranger” throws away my entire life’s work and dream. It would be hard to pick up the pieces and start all over, when you know how long it took the first time.

How does this reading relate to your own life? It reminds me to separate the dream from reality. We all romanticize about certain things and that is fine as long as we understand that these fantasies are different from the reality. I am sure we have all heard the phrase “nothing is what it seems.” Well there are truths to this statement. To make things worse the human mind is bombarded with so much information that it is hard to sift through and pull out the facts from the fables. We see images on the idea relationship and a kind of “perfect love” being displayed in movies, in books we read, or even on television, but we all know there is no such thing as “perfect,” everything has its limits and flaws. So this story reminds us not to get carried away with the image of perfection and to instead believe in what you know is real.

Who are the main characters? Blackbird, a man, a woman.

What do you know about the topic/story you are reading? I am not familiar with much of Wallace Stevens poetry.

What can you imagine that is not specifically outlined? I can imagine a poet trapped inside of his mind with his thoughts and confusion about his thoughts.

What do you think about what you read? I think the over arching theme is, “why do people seek out that which they cannot have, versus what is right in front of them?”

 How do you feel about what you read? What is your emotional response? I feel like in the winter the blackbird is all that you can see, because other birds have migrated out of sight. So the author is asking why do people want what they cannot see or have? For example in the poem it states “O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you?” To me this points out how there are blackbirds all around but in the minds of men they are dreaming of the golden birds (women) which are not there. The author is asking why dream of something that does not exist when you have perfectly good birds (women) right in front of you. Also because people are dreaming of or wanting what they cannot have, this creates a cage for their thoughts and traps them inside of their mind. For instance, “Icicles filled the long window with barbaric glass. The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause.” So because people desire what they cannot have they create this prison for themselves, like in the scene stated above where the icicles are to me symbolizing bars on a jail cell and the shadow of the bird is flashed back and forth to remind us that the prisoner is stuck in here with the reality of the blackbird and will cannot be free to chase the fantasy of the golden bird. This cage or prison theme is carried over to stanza 11, where it says “He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For Blackbirds.” To me the glass coach symbolizes the cage or prison that people’s minds are trapped in while they try to escape to another mindset. People are using the coach to flee from the reality of the blackbird and to chase after their fantasy, but while on their way to escape reality they are frightened by what they thought were blackbirds. They got scared because their luggage resembled the blackbird shadow and they were afraid that they would never be able to escape reality and to find their dream, they feared the blackbird (who is reality) was going to follow them no matter where they tried to escape to.  

What do you want to learn more about? I wonder why artist people like “blackbirds?” For instance, The Beatles had a song called “blackbird,” Poe had the Raven, and other works focus on the blackbird or Crows, Ravens, etc. Why has this bird become so synonymous with darkness in art forms?

Think about the experiences you have just read about. How would you react if these events happened to you? I would react by looking back at the title “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” The title even states there are more than one way to look at something and see a different answer, so why limit yourself to just one image. I like to look at all angles of viewing something and try to see all sides of the situation, and I think this title supports my reaction.

How does this reading relate to your own life? Well as stated above I try to look at all possible angels, answers, outcomes, etc. I do not like to make rash, rushed decisions. I prefer to analyze things from different points of view to try and see what the best outcome is for me. I never like to just make a closed minded view or opinion of something because I am leaving myself open to missing the point, embarrassing myself with ignorance, or some other negative outcome. It is sad for people to be stuck in a “one way of doing things mentality” because they are missing the opportunity to discover other possibilities to life. I just want to keep myself open to life’s experiences.