Journal #7: Common Ground- Judith Ortiz Cofer
Marywilla
December 8, 2016
The poem Common Ground by Judith Ortiz Cofer revels how the author recognizes the common bonds that link humankind together as she sees traits she shares with her personal relatives. I found it interesting how Cofer compared humans physical components like blood, bones and heartbeats to the connection of aging and mortality. While doing this she alluded to the bigger idea of time progressing on the body connects us all through appearance and heritage.
Cofer is able to effectively demonstrate how biological againg can connect us as humans and also tell the story of our lives. She does this by using specific diction and personification- one example of this is as she describes her grandmother's lips "speaking in parentheses". The author personifies her lips to describe how she can see traits of her grandmother both physically and emotionally through their shared words. While she is doing this Cofer explains how her grandmother and many ancestors before her have endured discrimination so that future generations, the author included, will not have to experience the same hardships. With this being said Cofer is also aware she too will have to endure her own hardships that future generations will be unaware of. This continuous struggle relates back to how the body connects human kind physically and through culture.
Cofer also uses imagery as her character looks into the mirror and notices her physical similarities to those of her family who have come before her. The author does this to relate her future to the struggles she and her family have tolerated. This is also a way to show how Cofer's personality has changed to be like her older family members- demonstrating how their cultural views have been passes down through mannerisms seen through "My mother's nervous hands". Another way the common ground is demonstrated is through similes "Like arrows pointing downward to our common ground". This use of simile fortells how wrinkles passes down over time can physically show aging in the same way arrows and lines pointing down alludes to a cross in the ground. Cofer uses this simile to show how genetics and culture connect humanity through generations but so does aging and the inevitability of death.
December 8, 2016
The poem Common Ground by Judith Ortiz Cofer revels how the author recognizes the common bonds that link humankind together as she sees traits she shares with her personal relatives. I found it interesting how Cofer compared humans physical components like blood, bones and heartbeats to the connection of aging and mortality. While doing this she alluded to the bigger idea of time progressing on the body connects us all through appearance and heritage.
Cofer is able to effectively demonstrate how biological againg can connect us as humans and also tell the story of our lives. She does this by using specific diction and personification- one example of this is as she describes her grandmother's lips "speaking in parentheses". The author personifies her lips to describe how she can see traits of her grandmother both physically and emotionally through their shared words. While she is doing this Cofer explains how her grandmother and many ancestors before her have endured discrimination so that future generations, the author included, will not have to experience the same hardships. With this being said Cofer is also aware she too will have to endure her own hardships that future generations will be unaware of. This continuous struggle relates back to how the body connects human kind physically and through culture.
Cofer also uses imagery as her character looks into the mirror and notices her physical similarities to those of her family who have come before her. The author does this to relate her future to the struggles she and her family have tolerated. This is also a way to show how Cofer's personality has changed to be like her older family members- demonstrating how their cultural views have been passes down through mannerisms seen through "My mother's nervous hands". Another way the common ground is demonstrated is through similes "Like arrows pointing downward to our common ground". This use of simile fortells how wrinkles passes down over time can physically show aging in the same way arrows and lines pointing down alludes to a cross in the ground. Cofer uses this simile to show how genetics and culture connect humanity through generations but so does aging and the inevitability of death.
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