Analysis Of Richard Blanco's City Of A Hundred Fires

had to wear some old shoes that he had at home. Gold did not like this

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire not only affected the city of New York, but also the rest of the country. It forever changed the way our country would look at safety regulations in factories and buildings. The fire proved to America what can and will happen if we over-look safety regulations and over-crowd buildings. Unfortunately, 146 lives are taken before we fully understand this concept.

On July 10, 2001 four U.S Forest Service Firefighters died while battling the thirty mile fire. Six others injured including two hikers. The thirty mile fire was the second deadliest fire in Washington state history.

Ilan Stavans says that Juan Rulfo’s book, The Plain in Flames, is best represented by the phrase realismo crudo. Stavans defines this phrase as “a type of realism interested in the rawness of life”, meaning that he characterizes Rulfo’s writing as an unfiltered view into the lives of the average Mexican (Stavans, xi). By writing in this style, Rulfo is able to provide “an image—instead of just a description—of our landscape” as stated by Octavio Paz (xv). To create this image, Rulfo broke his story writing the process down into three separate steps. As paraphrased by Ilan Stavans, the first step “is to create a character”, the second step “is to place him in an environment where he might move around” and the third step “is to discover how the character expresses himself” (xiii). Rulfo was able to repeatedly crafted stories that were filled with high levels of realismo crudo by using that special three-step process. By creating his protagonist, crafting an environment for said protagonist, and allowing the character to express themselves within this environment, Rulfo crafted a three-tier image of post-revolutionary life in Mexico that has never been seen before.

Julia Alvarez is an acclaimed American-Dominican poet and author. She has written many successful books and poems, many of which reflect directly on her life and personal experiences. Because of Alvarez’s American-Dominican background, her poems display diverse, cultural themes. These include what it is like to be American and Dominican and the struggles of moving from the Dominican Republic to the United States. Alvarez has received praise for her ability to write a wide variety of styles, including poems, children's books, young adult novels, and essays. Her success, however, has come from her poetry collections, like Homecoming. These collections show her life in the Dominican Republic and her transition to the United States.

In the short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, the protagonist foremost values his pride, which leads to his demise. The story starts off with the protagonist taking a detour in the Yukon so that he could survey the trees in the area (he was doing this so that he could send logs down the river to the gold prospecting camp, where he would sell the wood to the prospectors for money). But, the protagonist’s pride blinds him from what could have and should have done to ensure his survival in the Yukon. About halfway through his journey, he accidentally breaks through the ice on the spring and his foot falls into the water. At the temperatures mentioned in the story (seventy below zero), if he did not dry himself properly, it could lead to serious frostbite and/or death. So, he was forced to build a fire, and the “fire was a success. He was safe. He remembered the advice of the old timer on Sulphur Creek, and smiled. The old-timer had been very serious in laying down that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below. Well, here he was; he had had an accident: he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old-timers were rather womanish” (London 8). The man keeps feeding the fire and gets ready to take his (frozen and potentially dangerous) footwear off, and feels content and a sense of satisfaction of disproving the old-timers. But, just as it seemed to be that the fire was stable and strong, snow that was on the branches of the spruce tree he was under fell

The Great Chicago Fire was one of the significant devastation that happened in the eighteenth century. Through this tragic event, hundreds of people died and thousands of buildings were completely destroyed in the fire. Before, the city was flourishing as more people traveled and decided to call Chicago their home. After the fire destroyed most of the surrounding area, people began blaming one another for the deaths of all the people. As time passed, Chicago slowly began to rebuild like never before. Although the city of Chicago continued to grow before the fire, after, the city boomed with the abundance of money and people. Moreover, because there was destruction, the people of Chicago, Illinois did not allow a fire to stop them from creating more opportunities for the future. The city has changed from the fire, but because of the help that was received, it was able to get rebuilt, and invite new individuals to explore the wondrous city of Chicago.

Richard Blanco’s diverse background makes him relatable for people of multinational upbringings. His writing thoroughly appealed to me because he did such a good job capturing the emotions of a child coming into a new world. Having experienced that, I wanted to see if I could have that effect on people. I used some of the techniques that Blanco uses, in my poem “New Identity”, to familiarize the reader with what he has been through. Richard Blanco accustoms the reader to his experiences by using figurative language, diverse diction, and allusions.

The borough of Centralia was once a community that had enough coal to make it a lively, industrial area. It was a small community, but a prosperous town, operating its own school district. Centralia once had 5 hotels, 7 churches, 27 saloons, 2 theaters, a bank, a post office, and 14 stores. The town of Centralia, Pennsylvania had veins full of anthracite, the richest and purest coal of all. There is just one problem: It is difficult to ignite anthracite, but once it is lit, it is very hard to put out. No one really knows what happened but one theory suggests that in the spring of 1962, five volunteer firefighters were burning excess garbage in a landfill behind Odd Fellows Cemetery. They unknowingly picked a spot where anthracite was near the

the first few lines, there seems to be similar word patterns. Not every poem needs rhyme as

In the seventeenth century, London was one of the most important and rapidly expanding capitals in Europe. Transforming from a medieval town made of wooden buildings and limited to the Roman City walls to a modern metropolis of brick and stone expanding beyond the original wall; however, this century was also filled with disaster. The Great Fire of 1666, transformed the City from its medieval roots to the modern City present today; however, first it brutally destroyed the City in a blaze of fire over a course of three days. Taking a historical look at the progression of the Great Fire of London and how there were increased consequences faced by the City due to the decisions made by an inexperienced city official, the reasons the City officials declined the plan that Wren presented for the rebuild of the City, and how the rebuilding caused a social divide in the City that is still present in contemporary London.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was one of the largest disasters in American history. Practically overnight the great city of Chicago was destroyed. Before the fire there was a large drought causing everything to be dry and flammable, then a fire broke out in the O’Leary’s barn and spread throughout the city. Many attempts were made to put out the fire but there were too many errors and problems in the beginning. After the fire many people were left homeless and had to help build their city again (Murphy, 39)

The poem does not follow a rhyme scheme or meter, which means that there is rhythm in the poem and it makes the poem more like a song. The poem has four stanza’s and has five lines within each stanza.

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a short story about a man traveling through the Alaskan Yukon to meet up with his friends for lunch. The author keeps the character nameless and refers to him only as “The Man” which is used to show a connection between humanity and nature. The story shows the hardships the man goes through to get to his destination through the Alaskan Yukon, yet unfortunately doesn’t make it. The conflict is a man versus nature theme which contrasts strong and direct relations of the hardships in nature. Throughout this analysis, I am going to explore the conflict between the man and the merciless nature he has to go through before his death.

Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.