When completing open-ended responses, remember to use
RATE.
Prompt:
Read the following poem and make connections to Secret
Life of Bees.
Why some people be mad at me sometimes
Lucille Clifton
they ask me to remember
but they want me to remember
their memories
and i keep on remembering
mine.
Response Requirement:
• Explain the
conflict in the poem.
• How does
the poem relate to Lily’s life?
In the poem Why Some People Be Mad At Me Sometimes, the conflict is the reason that people are mad at the author. The meaning behind this poem is not that people get mad at the author because she cant remember what they want her to, but that she has her own choice to do what she wants. They feel that they have control over what she can do and what she can’t do. For example, in The Secret Life of Bees, page 15, T. Ray wants Lily to manage his peach farm, but it’s not what she wants to do. She prefers to read and write than work on his peach farm. The poem can be interpreted literally and metaphorically. People get upset with one another because they don’t have the power to control each other and it makes them feel lowly.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever tried to be there for someone, but you’re just hung up on your own problems? I think that this issue may be the main conflict in the poem. Whoever the poet is referring to, she just can’t focus on them. No matter how hard she tries, she just keeps running into the same wall, over and over. The problem this author has is that she cannot seem to move on from past memories.
ReplyDeleteShe daydreams of her. Lily often finds herself alone, thoughts of her mother and what it would be like if she was still alive dancing through her mind. Then she remembers why she’s dead in the first place. “That day my mother died. You said when I picked up the gun it went off… I need to know, did I do it?” Lily was desperate to find the truth, and when T-Ray showed up at her new home, it was her last chance to learn what really happened. “It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you.” Lily can’t move on from that day, that memory, just like the author of the poem. She just can’t get it out of her head. As a long-term affect from this, I think Lily will always have some sort of internal struggle related to being the cause of her mother’s death. Someone can’t really forgive themselves for something like that.
The conflict in the poem is that the author of this poem is trying to forget about their own bad memories and trying to have good memories that might be with other people. The author, however, can not get the bad memories out of her head. She tries to forget about these memories and move on from them. Since the author can not get the memories out of her head, her friends are trying to help her move on and make happy memories for her.
ReplyDeleteThe poem relates to Lily’s life because Lily, now working on the bee farm and living with the sisters, is trying to forget the past, and think about her future. She did not have the best childhood, and since she didn’t, she has all these bad memories. When Lily is working with the sisters or having a fun time, those are the memories that she wants to remember. However, she can’t just erase all these bad memories. She knows that T. Ray might come and find her, but she does not know what to do about it. An example of a memory that she is trying to get over is when she accidentally killed her Mother. She remembers, “The exploding sound had started to echo around in my head.” Lily wants to get the memory out of her head and make new happy memories.
Sometimes people listen to their hearts instead of their brains because they are too scared to face the cruel truths hidden in life. The conflict in this poem is easy to explain. The narrator of "Why some people be mad at me sometimes" believes people get angry with her because these people want her to remember something their way, but she remembers it her way. This creates tension in the author's relationship with people when she says "they want me to remember their memories and i keep remembering mine." The narrator wants to be independent and have her own beliefs.
ReplyDeleteThis is the same situation when Lily and T. Ray finally discuss the circumstances of Deborah's death. "My first and only memory of my mother was the day she died" (5). Lily recalls a suitcase on the floor because Deborah was packing to flee the farm. T. Ray, however, tells the memory differently. "'The day she died, she was cleaning out the closet'" (17). That's not how Lily remembers it. When she says she remembers T. Ray responds, "' Goddamn it, you were four years old!' he shouted. 'You don't know what you remember'" (18). T. Ray tries to make Lily believe that Deborah was just cleaning out the closet, and Lily picked up a gun and accidently shot her mother. "'But if anybody wants to know, that's what happened'" (19). T. Ray is determined to make Lily remember Deborah's death the way he tells it and not the way she remembers it.
The poem by Lucille Clifton means that people have different views and perspectives on things. The poem starts out by her saying, “they ask me to remember.” Even though it says they ask it is more of a way to change the person thinking on the topic. This topic is basically Lily’s views on her mother’s death. When she says “but they want me to remember their memories” they are trying to change her memories to be their perspectives on the memories. Then at the end she states, “and I keep remembering mine”, to show that her memories are different from the person that it is trying to change them for her. Overall, the conflict is that the writer of the poem, Lucille Clifton, is having a hard time thinking of the memory she remembers because somebody is trying to change it so that she will remember it differently. Just like T.Ray is trying to make Lily remember her mother differently than she does herself.
ReplyDeleteThis poem can easily relate to Lily's life. She is not sure what is the truth and what are lies anymore. In the situation with her mother, all she remembers is picking up the gun and shooting her mother. Did she really kill her mother? She asks this question throughout the book. Finally in the end, it is answered by T. Ray. "I could tell you I did it. That's what you wanna hear. I could tell you she did it to herself, but both ways I'd be lying. It was you who did it, Lily. You didn't mean it, but it was you." The truth was finally released like air from a balloon. If I were Lily, I would just accept it. What is done is done.
Lucille Clifton was the author of “Why some people be mad at me sometimes” But the poem should’ve been named memories or remember, as these words are often used. Yet the title does make since when there is some thought put in to it. People would be mad at Lucille, because she chooses to live her memories rather than the memories of others. The entire short poem is this. “they ask me to remember but they want me to remember their memories and I keep on remembering mine.” They ask her to remember their memories, but she just remembers her instead. She resents their memories and remembers her past, instead of reliving the past of others.
ReplyDeleteIn our book The Secret Life of Bees, Lily a main character, often remembers the past. She has lived in fear because of her memories. With her father’s abuse, she lived in fear of him. Also when she tries to remember her mother, the only thing that can come to her mind is her death. T-Ray and Lily both had different stories of what happened. T-Ray had told a lie and expected Lily to believe it, because something so tragic is a breeze to forget (sarcasm). Lily however actually tells what happened and T-Ray immediately fills with anger, and some sort of sorrow.
Taylor Davis
ReplyDeleteMs. Drosdick
Period 4
4/10/14
Journal #8
The conflict in the poem, “Why some people are mad at me sometimes,” is between the author and other people. The mysterious “they” people must be close to her because if they weren’t, they could care less about her memories. The two themes in the poem are loneliness and sadness. In the poem, it says, “and I keep on remembering mine.” The reader can sense the conflict between the author and “them.” The author is clearly sad that her memories differ from “theirs’.” It’s almost as if she wishes to have the same memories as “them.” This is probably what makes her so lonely.
This poem relates to Lily’s life because it shows how her memories of her mother are different from August’s and T. Ray’s memories of her mother. This causes Lily great pain. In the poem, it says, “but they want me to remember their memories.” This is like how T. Ray told Lily another story of how her mother died. When T. Ray wants to talk about that day, Lily says, “I remember.” T. Ray immediately denies her memories. He says, “You what?” and shouts, “Goddamn it, you were four years old! ... You don’t know what you remember.” (On page 18). The same thing happens to Lily when she talks with August Boatwright about her mom. When August explains to Lily why Deborah left Lily and her Father, Lily says on page 251, “I do, I hate her. She wasn’t anything like I thought she was.” Lily goes on to say, “I’d spent my life imagining all the ways she’d love me, what a perfect specimen of a mother she was. And all of it was lies. I had completely made her up.” Clearly, this poem is a close match to Lily’s life. Her memories are always in conflict with those around her.
Journal entries: option E
ReplyDeleteThe conflict in the this poem by Lucille Clifton is that she is struggling with living her life when others want her to live the life they envisioned she'd have. She wants to just keep on remembering how she knows how to live, when society wants her to live the way they want. They want her to fall victim of their ways and dictate over her. By saying "But they want me to remember their memories..." In stanzas two and three, shows just how much society and the public want to rule her life. They come and take away freedom of thought. But, thankfully the author knows better and stays true to her path in life and doesn't fall victim to the rest of the world's mental tyranny.
This poem relates to Lily's life in the sense that Lily knows that their was always something missing to the story of her mom and how she left. Lily knew that T-Ray was always holding back and didn't tell her the truth, the full truth, of her mom. In the book Lily says, " A child doesn't have two parents that don't love them." This shows how in the poem when it states, "They want me to remember their memories." It relates to the missing information and link that was never provided to Lily.
#7eleven3
It's the little things that are always the hardest to remember. We all look back and try to remember specific details from when we were younger, but for some reason they always slip the mind. At times it gets frustrating when someone doesnt remember something important that happened to them yet you do. The struggle in this poem is that if you don't remember something there is no way to get someone to regain full memory of a specific time. No two people ever remember past events the same. There will always be slight details forgotten.In this poem it states "they want me to remember their memories" and the conflict here is that one person's memory isn't the same as another. We all have different minds that think in different ways, therefore not being able to recall past times the same exact way as someone else.
ReplyDeleteImagine only being able to remember two things about your mother... the sound of the gun shot that killed her and her funeral. Lily will never be able to recall full memory of the day her mother died. As hard as she may try she was too young. The poem relates to Lily's life because T-Ray in the novel The Secret Life of Bees tells Lily "You were standing there holding the gun. You'd picked it off the floor. Then it just went off... you didn't mean to do it." She was the one who killed her mother but she doesn't remember that. Yet, T-Ray tells Lily incessantly that is was her but she can't seem to remember the exact event occurring. Sometimes in life it seems that you don't remember certain things for a reason. Whether it be they can hurt you or help you. They just seem to slip your mind and never return.
#4musketeers24
The conflict of Why Some People Be Mad at Me Sometimes, by Lucille Clifton was everyone’s dependence on her to remember things. However, she remembers her own experiences, rather than theirs, which brings up problems. According to her, “they want me to remember their memories.” The word “they” can refer to anyone, due to this poem’s general and non-specific nature. One can infer that these people are her friends, who tell her their experiences and all the things that they must remember. Based on the title, her reluctance or inability to do so may be the reason she has issues with people. People with high amounts of stress can face memory loss, but this does not seem to be the case with the narrator. She seems to be more reluctant to remember, as she feels that her memories are more important.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is very similar to the Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd because it has the concept of memory conflict. T. Ray tells Lily that her mother left her. Lily, not believing this at first, later goes through a heavy internal conflict. This issue is elevated when August tells her that “she was depressed… [and] she left home [without Lily].” Lily had made the conclusion that her mother had truly left her. She did not understand the effects of depression on a being. She soon finds out that her mother did not truly leave her, eventually reverting back to her original opinion. This relates to the poem because both characters have people that want them to remember something their way. On the other hand, both characters continue to believe in what they think is correct. Lily is like an ant which is shown the wrong way to food, but suspects the location of the food is elsewhere.
People always ask others to remember what happened on a specific day or at a specific time and they might not be able to remember exactly what the other person was thinking. They can only think of what they remember and what happened to them, maybe not even all of it. This is what Lucille Clifton meant in her poem "Why Some People Be Mad at Me Sometimes". It tells that she can only remember her memories and not what the other person wants her to remember. This also means that when people ask you to remember something that you're not trying to think of what they want to think of, you're thinking of a memory that you can’t get out of your head.
ReplyDelete"Why Some People Be Mad at Me Sometimes" is a poem about how someone wants her to remember their memory but she is only thinking of hers. This poem relates to Lily's life because Lily is incessantly thinking about her Deborah or Zach and not thinking about anything else. Maybe sometimes May or T-Ray, but usually Zach or her mother.
The conflict with this poem is that it sounds like someone is trying to make someone else remember their side of the story, but all the person could think of is their own remembering of it. They don’t want to or can’t see others remembering of a memory, even if one wants them to remember something a certain way, they can’t. “‘No,’ I breathed. The word took a long to work its way down to my throat. A scared whisper. No, I will not think about this. I will not feel this I will not let this ruin the way things are.” Lily was thinking about something she remembered and couldn't get it out of her head, and couldn't really think of it in a better positive way. Her memory was permanently stuck in her head, like freshly chewed gum stuck to the bottom of shoes. I could definitely relate to this poem, because once my friends had a good experience with something and looked at it positively, while I had a bad experience and thought of it as a negative involvement. For example, once I went to Dave and Busters with my friends and I was losing at all of the games while the machines sucked up my coins and barely spit out any tickets out. In the meantime my friends were winning a ton of tickets, their coin went in, and the tickets would spill out. When we were in the car on our way back home, my mom asked us about our experience, and they told my mom about all of the tickets they won. I just couldn't stop thinking about how badly I lost at the games, and the money I wasted for nothing.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel The Secret Life of Bees this poem could relate to the main character, Lily’s life. “All he could talk about was going to law school and busting ass. He didn't say white ass, and I was thankful for that, but I believe that’s what he meant.” She remembered Zack talking about going to law school and busting ass instead of busting white ass. But the memory of Zack saying it, he probably wants Lily to think that he had no intention of saying white ass. However her remembrance of this dialogue will remain in her head, what she thought he really meant. I think everyone has that moment in their life, where they can’t let go of a memory that you think of completely differently than what’s meant to be said. It’s not easy to get that memory out of your head; sometimes for me it’s impossible. But that’s natural, and it’s what humans don’t really mean to do, but do anyway.
The conflict of this poem is that Lucile is asked to remember other's memory, however she can only remember her own. This causes other people to become mad at her. This reminds me of The Giver, from last year because this girl was relied on to remember other people's memory. In The Giver, the protagonist had to remember the memories of the previous Giver, however he ends up taking most of the memories, then escaping the Utopian world. Lucile can also relate to Lily Owens from The Secret Life of Bees.
ReplyDeleteLily and Lucile are very alike. The poem relates the struggles of Lucile, being asked a favor for others, but failing to complete it. Lily on the other-hand tried to discover the mystery of her mother. Before her journey, she did her best to put up with her father, but failed to do so. The connection is that Lily & Lucile both had people angered at them. Lucile had many unnamed people mad at her, and Lily had T-Ray, June, and herself angered at her. T-Ray was just always upset, June hated her at first because "she's white" and she hated herself for having to carry the burden of the fact that she killed her mother.
The poem 'Why Some People are Mad at Me Sometimes' conflict is that she only remembers her memories and not anyone else's. Although she is being asked to remember, she can only remember her own. "They ask me to remember, but they want me to remember... I keep on remebering mine." People were asking her to remember their memories forthem but weren't excatly asking; more like demanding. Instead of remembering their memories it was her own memories she had remebered.
ReplyDeleteIn 'The Secret Life of Bees', Lily can only remember certain parts of the day her mother died but not who actually killed her. She thinks that she was the one that shot her mother but it's all a blur to her. T.Ray told her that Lily was the one that had pulled the trigger and Lily believed it. Although this may or may not be true, Lily believed T.Ray.
The conflict in the poem, Why Some People Be Mad At Me Sometimes, is that often people want someone to remember events from their perspective but that someone remembers it their own way instead. The author, Lucille Clifton, writes in the poem, “they want me to remember their memories and I keep remembering mine”. This is an issue because the narrator is not doing what is asked of him/her by not agreeing upon how exactly the events occurred. The other party also has a problem displayed by their favoring of the memory that conforms to their personal ideas and beliefs and disagreement with a separate interpretation of the past event. The two perceptions clash together when one group of people tries to make someone agree to their side of the story and make that the official recounting when they differ in their opinions. Thus, the conflict is that a particular person, the narrator in this case, mind is refusing to accept contrary information to that of their own.
ReplyDeleteThis poem relates to Lily’s life because she had a similar experience in which T. Ray wanted Lily to remember the event surrounding her mother’s death, his way. When T. Ray goes to Lily so he could talk to her about her mother’s death on page 19, Lily writes, “ ‘I remember,’ I said. ‘Goddamn it, you were four years old!’ he [T. Ray] shouted. ‘You don’t know what you remember.’ ” Afterwards he tells her that they were arguing and then Lily had accidently killed her mother, Deborah. The position that Lily is placed in is similar to that of the narrator in the poem since T. Ray is trying to get Lily to remember his memories instead of hers. Many people have experience the pressure from others to remember certain series of actions a certain way, especially in court cases where witnesses may be coaxed into remembering a different version of events.
Poems are a good way for people to connect to their lives and to see what is truly happening in their life so that they can make the poem relate to them. The poem called “Why some people be mad at me sometimes” by Lucile Clifton is a piece of writing that has a well thought out conflict. The poem’s main conflict is that someone is forcing someone to do something, in this case remember, even though they were abruptly strict about it. When the poem says the line, “but they want me to remember,” this means that the author is being forced to remember something that maybe she doesn’t want to remember because the person or action was too harsh as well as her own memories of the event may be more cleaner and better to remember rather than a bad side to the event. This conflict can relate to Nicole Renard from the book Heroes because she was trying to get that harsh event that she went through out of her head while Larry wasn’t doing anything about it to clean this memory, it seemed that he just wanted to keep this devastating memory of Nicole and him in his head.
ReplyDeleteLily is a character from The Secret Life of Bees and she is very caring and kind hearted soul person. The poem called “Why some people be mad at me sometimes” by Lucile Clifton has a conflict that can relate in many ways to Lily’s life throughout the book of The Secret Life of Bees. The conflict could be explained as someone abruptly forcing another to do something for them. That relates to Lily because her relationship with T-Ray is exactly this way. T-Ray treats her like she is a servant while he is the king. One quote that describes how T-Ray forces her to do stuff would be on page 290 when T-Ray says, “I’m gonna take you out of here nice and quiet or kicking and screaming-don’t matter which to me.” When he says this, you know that he is forcing Lily back to their home which matches with the conflict of the poem because someone is telling the another that they want them to do that which is exactly what T-Ray is doing to Lily except with more force. When T-Ray forces her, or when the quote states the word “want”, they are applying guilt which makes the victim feel like they have to do it and that they have no other option. An example of something that can relate to this conflict would be participating in class because the teacher would like you to participate and because of that reason you feel like you just have to.
Memories. Sometimes no matter how much you want to forget them, you just can't. The conflict of this poem is that they can't forget their own memories. They can't forget them no matter how many times people tell them something else. Other people want them to know something else, but they can't stop thinking about their own memories. "But they want me to remember their memories and I keep on remembering mine." It's a conflict that happens in many peoples lives. You can't forget easily, which is a bad part about life. The more you want to forget it, the more you think about it.
ReplyDelete"Bang". This is the memory that Lily remembers. When she accidentally shot her mother. She can't remember her mother and how much her mother loved Lily. She has a constant guilt about what she did. "Mother forgive, please forgive". This is what she was going to say if she met her mother again one day. Lily couldn't forget that day. It's a memory that is always at the back of her mind. No matter how hard she tries to tell herself to just forget about it, since it's already done.
Conflicts can impact a single person, but they can also impact the entire world. In the poem “Why some people be mad at me sometimes”, the author has a conflict because he has trouble thinking in other peoples perspectives because he cares too much about himself. The poem states “I keep on remembering mine”. This shows that the other only seems to care about himself. In today’s world many people who are only children that eventually get brothers and sisters have trouble adjusting to their new lives. This is because they stop focusing on themselves and need to help out their siblings.
ReplyDeleteChildren all over the US run away from their homes every year. Most of these children go for only for a short while, but sometimes those children never come back. Lily relates to this poem because when she ran away from T.Ray she only thought about herself and never how he felt. This is shown in the text because on page 293 the text states “for the first time it hit me how much he loved her.” This shows that Lily was only thinking about herself never about T.Ray and what pain he had from losing Deborah and now Lily. When family members die it causes many people in that family to mourn and loose a piece of themselves. When Deborah died it was like a piece of T.Ray’s heart was gone. Many families in today’s world go to grief counselling to help limit these issues and try to return to their normal lives.
Week 5: Option E
ReplyDeleteThe poem written by Lucille Clifton, “Why people be mad at me sometimes” stresses a conflict throughout the poem. One of the conflicts displayed throughout the poem is how people remember something like a memory, while they have two different perspectives of it. The poem says, “but they want me to remember their memories and I keep on remembering mine.” This shows how two different people have a different perspective or different thoughts about memories. Someone might remember how something happened one way and the other person might have a different thought on what happened. The person who this poem is relating too might think about how something happened in their own thoughts, but someone else might be having a different way of thinking about their memory. Many characters in The Secret Life of Bees can relate to this about their memories and how it differs from other peoples perspectives on it as well.
This poem can relate to Lily because she thinks she knows that her mother was going to come back for her clothes and was packing in order to go somewhere. Lily wasn’t sure at the young age exactly about what was going on so she got a different perspective of the situation and that’s how she remembered the memory. Once August had a talk with Lily about the arrival of Deborah to the sister’s home, Lily was shocked to hear the news that Deborah was going back to Sylvan to retrieve her clothing and Lily so she could leave T-Ray. Page 254 August says, “….Finally she went back to Sylvan to get you.” Lily was shocked to hear this news because she always had a different perspective on the situation. The next sentence says, “I sat up and looked at August, hearing the quick suck of air through my lips. She came back to get me?” Lily seemed astonished because she never had that thought of it and always kept remembering her thoughts on the memories and not others. Maybe this will show Lily to consider others thoughts so she can think about believing them and still remember hers as well.
#4musketeers13
The conflict in this poem is that they wanted people to remember their memories but the people keep remembering their own memories. For example that’s like me asking you to remember all of my memories but you only remember yours. The person doesn’t want to have to remember every ones memories so they just remember theirs.
ReplyDeleteThis relates to Lily’s life because T.Ray expects Lily to remember all them memories that T.Ray and Deborah had, but she doesn’t because they aren’t her memories. He would ask her about her mother and she wouldn’t know the answer or she wouldn’t remember what happened. T.Ray asks her to remember his memories of Deborah but lily only remembers her.
4muskteers15
ReplyDeleteIn the poem Why Some People be Mad at me Sometimes there is a conflict. That conflict is that they ask the writer to do one thing, the writer does something else. One quote that supports me is found in the poem, it states, “They ask me to remember but they want me to remember their memories and i keep on remembering mine.” This shows that they ask her to remember their own memories, but she remembers hers. Also, where is says “I keep on remembering mine”, this shows that they are trying to brainwash her, making her remember what they said happen, but she is remembering what she really remembers, not their brainwashing. This reminds me of World War II because in World War II, they brain washed soldiers to fight for the Germans, similar to in the poem where they are brainwashing the writer.
This poem relates to Lily’s life a lot. In the poem, it says how they tell her that one thing happened, but she still remembers what really happened, much like how Lily is told by T.Ray what happened the day her mom died. One quote that supports me is found on page 17, “It’s time you knew what happened to her, and I want you to hear it from me.” This shows that T.Ray was trying to tell her the memories, make her remember his. Another quote that supports me is found on page 17, “The memory of that day would come back to me at odd moments.” This shows that she is still trying to remember her memories, much like in the poem. This reminds me of when people try to twist the truth, making people think that’s what actually happened in movies because it is the same this that T.Ray was doing.
Option E
ReplyDeleteMemories are like a jigsaw puzzle, some pieces don’t fit with others and sometimes you just want to toss them out the window and forget about them. Some pieces are aggravating to figure out while others fit together so nicely. The conflict in this poem is the author is trying to remember others memories, because they want her too, but she can only remember hers. Most likely, “their” memories are the good ones that are supposed to make her happy, but she can only remember her own memories, most likely bad ones that people want her to forget. As read in the poem, it states, “they want me to remember their memories, and I keep on remembering mine.” This shows us how the author is being asked to remember “their” memories, but all she can do is remember hers and all the things she went through.
Lily’s life is one big jigsaw puzzle – full of plenty of pieces. This poem relates to her life because August is trying to make Lily remember Deborah’s life before she married T.Ray and had Lily, and how sweet of person she was. August also tries to make Lily remember how Debora came back for her – and all of these are August’s memories. However, Lily can only remember her memories, the ones where Deborah left her and when she accidentally killed her. As it states on page 252, “it was easy for her to leave me, because she never wanted me in the first place,” I said.” This quote shows how Lily is only remembering the bad memories of her mother, rather than trying to remember everyone else’s good memories of her mother. But who could blame her, because who could remember other’s memories when she is having trouble coping with her own?
In “why some people be mad at me sometimes” by Lucille Clifton, the conflict is that someone wants her to remember their memories but she stays attached to her own. In the poem, Lucille says, “they want me to remember but they want me to remember their memories”. The conflict is that people perceive things differently. Asking someone to disregard their memories of a situation is asking them to admit their memories are false. As an effect of this she does not commit to their memories but keeps on remembering her own.
ReplyDeleteThis poem relates to Lily’s life in “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd because T-Ray wants Lily to remember his memories. On page 173, of “The Secret Life of Bees”, T-Ray comes up to Lily in the peach stand and tells her that her mother ran away. Recalling her own memories to him, she doesn’t believe what he is telling her. T-Ray is trying to make her remember it the way he does. This is like the poem by Lucille Clifton because someone is trying to put their memories into her head and, like Lily, she keeps on remembering her own.
4Musketeers4
Have you ever felt strongly about something you remembered but others tried to convince you that you wrong and their memories of an event were right? In the poem Why some people be mad at me sometimes, the author has a conflict. The author feels that others are asking her to remember things their way. She says,
ReplyDelete“they ask me to remember
but they want me to remember
their memories”
She, however, wants to remember her memories, her own way. She says, “and i keep on remembering mine.” The author feels strongly that her memories are vivid and are the truth. She also feels that she shouldn’t be forced to accept the memories of others.
Just like in Why some people be mad at me sometimes, Lily wants to remember the memories of her mother that she has in her mind. These include her scent, her looks, her belongings, and her action but is forced to come to the realization that her mother did leave her when she went to live August. She must come to terms that her mother did her love her but was very depressed and couldn’t cope with a husband and child. August says, “Every person on the face of this earth makes mistakes. Your mother made a terrible mistake but she tried to fix it.” Lily must take into account what August tells her about her mother and understand that her mother did love her and that her memories were correct.
The Conflict being shown in this poem is how the poet, Lucille Clifton, tells us why people sometimes get mad at her. She tells us that people ask her to remember something. Lucille knows and shares with us that they want her to remember THEIR memories, and not her own. She keeps on remembering hers, so when people don’t get what they want, they evidently get angry. I know I’ve been in many situations where people are mad at me because of something I have done but I can’t help it for whatever reason. For example, If you’ve ever been in a situation where an accident happened, but it looked like it was 100% your fault, you know the kind of situation the poem talks about.
ReplyDeleteThe poem says how people want the poet to remember their memories. However, when she tries, she can only remember the ones she has. This poem relates back to The Secret Life of Bees, more specifically, Lily. We have learned that August already knew who Lily was when she first showed up at the pink house. Perhaps August was trying to send a message, a memory of Deborah, straight into Lily’s brain. All she could remember of her mother was only what she already knew. Nothing. After a while, around page 235, and really just chapter 12 in general, August tells Lily about what the deal was with her mother. Lily decided that she wanted to know the whole story, which means August’s “telepathic messages” weren’t getting across.
Hello Ms.Drosdick, I understand that on the portal it said that I am missing the blogs. Here is the first of two. - Matt
ReplyDeleteMatthew Baker
4/10/14
Language Arts / Period 4
Ms.Drosdick
Option E
The conflict depicted in this poem is by a person who is debating remembering memories. These memories obviously have some sort of emotional value if the author is telling us how “they ask me to remember…but they want me to remember.” But these memories could obviously be hurtful in some way because she is holding these precious memories away from those she cares about. This poem reminds me of how Lily is holding back her memories from her loved ones. She is trying to remember, even when everyone is asking her to. Just like in the poem these memories could have a bad impact if she were to tell those she loved. For example, August asked Lily where she came from and what the real reason for her leaving was. She held back those memories and lied because she did not want to face T.Ray and the troubles that would follow.