Using the past to teach in the present

We all know how difficult is to be a human being. Feelings, emotions and experiences are present in our daily life. However, our past is also important. Our past experiences and facts are crucial to understand the world we are leaving in now. I chose the poem “September 1, 1939” by W.H Auden, to make a connection between it and EFL. In order to accomplish this, I will explain the context in which the poem was written, I will give my own interpretation to some quotations of the poem and finally, I will explain how useful the poem can be in EFL.

“September 1, 1939” was written at the beginning of World War II. Auden’s idea was to describe the social and personal issues that were taking place during those times. To understand what was happening in 1939 I will name some facts that caused the outbreak of WW2.

- March 15th, Adolph Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia.
- March 18th, Stalin asked for a coalition against Germany.
- April 3rd, France and Great Britain signed an agreement of cooperation.
- July 4th, Germany: Neuengamme concentration camp was used to lock up Jewish people.
- September 1st, German troops invaded Polonia, beginning with WW2
- September 3rd, Great Britain and France declared war to Germany

This was the atmosphere in which the poem was written. Many people suffering political persecutions, countries invaded and people dying. According to my interpretation, Auden is trying to show what was happening during those days and how all those issue were affecting people’s life.

Now that we know the context in which the poem was written, we can talk about the poem itself. For that, I will choose some stanzas that called my attention and I will explain them following my own interpretation.
This is how Auden started the poem. This stanza really called my attention because when I read it I felt that the writer was trying to express his own feelings towards something.

“I sit in one of the dives

On Fifty-second Street

Uncertain and afraid”

The atmosphere during the year 1939 was surrounded by uncertainty and fear. People were aware that something was not good, and that something bad was coming.

Another stanza that appealed to me was when he wrote the following;

“A psychopathic god”

I need to admit that this line is controversial for everyone, no matter what religion you follow or if you believe in “a” God or not. I discussed this stanza with many people, most of them were Catholic. Obviously, they did not like this part of the poem. According to most of them, God is not crazy, on the contrary, he (or she) is the sanest of all. Everyone asked me why I was not in shocked because of that line, if supposedly I believe in a God. My answer was short and simple: God is personal. In my opinion, in who someone believes is not my problem. He or she will have an opinion about “it” regarding his or her own experiences in life. If Auden says that his God is psychopathic, who am I to say that he is wrong?

The last stanza that I will analyze is the following:

“The dense commuters come,Repeating their morning vow;'I will be true to the wife,I'll concentrate more on my work,'”

After reading it I had a feeling of discomfort. I felt that he was making fun of the people who say that everyday. My interpretation is that he is trying to say that people are hypocrites and that they say that they will do something, but they do not do it in the end. We are always complaining about everything, because we are always asking for more. If something is red, we want it to be blue. If we have a house, we want to have a department. If we go on vacations to Brazil, we would like to be in Canada, and so on. This is how people are always discomfort with everything, but do they do something to change what they do not like? Obviously, they do not.

“September 1, 1939” is a very interesting poem, and that is why I will use it in EFL. Regarding it historical background and references, there is something else that called my attention. Leaving a side the stanzas that I have already mentioned, there is one in particular that really appeal to me the most and that I would like to use it in my teaching practice.

“What all schoolchildren learn,Those to whom evil is doneDo evil in return”

I think that this stanza does not need an interpretation, because the meaning it has is very clear after you reading it.
My decision to use this stanza in EFL is because I thought that it could be useful to talk about certain topics more easily, for example, bullying. It came into my mind that when a child suffers at home, for example when he or she is abused, he will repeat this behavior with other people. In other words, if his or her parents hit him at home, he will hit his or her classmates at school too. My idea is to avoid this behavior in children; therefore I will use this poem to come up with the topic I want to discuss and then I will work on how to promote tolerance and respect among children. I thought about a specific activity that I would like to do with my students regarding this topic. My idea is that they will have short “meetings” with their classmates, where they will have to talk about their lives and experiences, so as they can know each other better.

I have given my opinion from the beginning of this paper up to the end of it. To conclude I would like to say that I really enjoyed this poem, in fact thanks to this poem I am starting to appreciate poetry. It is impossible to teach something that you do not like; therefore, the fact that this poem has appealed to me help me to include literature in my classes. Literature needs to be promoted in children’s life; hence it is my duty as a teacher to promote it and I need to say that I will be happy to do it.

References

1.- Auden, W. SEPTEMBER 1, 1939. 1939

2.- “History learning site”. World War II

Outline

A.- Introduction

B.- Context in which the poem was written

1. Some facts that inciated the outbreak of world war II
2. World War II

C.- Quotations and my interpretations

D.- Conecction between the poem and EFL

E.- Conclusion

September 1 1939

I have to admit that I don’t like poetry at all. Every time we read a poem I felt discourage because I knew I would like it. When I starting reading “September 1 1939” the feeling was the same, but while I was reading my feelings started to change. I actually understood the poem and I have an opinion about it. “A psychopathic god” is one of the stanzas that called my attention. We were discussing the poem in groups, and that sentence called the attention of the whole groups, but not mine. They told me that was because I did not believe in god, but they were wrong. I told them that for me religion was a personal issue. If god was psychopathic according to Auden, who am I to judge him? It was incredible the discussion we had. The poem made us talk about feelings in relation to a lot of things. I am kind of understanding poetry, finally.

I checked Mª Antonieta's entry

Money' Importance
Acoording to the narrator, money is of the utmost importance because it keeps women from possessing a room of their own. Due to the fact that women do not have power, their creativity has been suppressed throughout the ages. In other words,as the narrator writes, “Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time . . .” In this case, Virginia is questioning the fact that only a few number of women have been successful in writing poetry. Indeed, the author believes that the writing of novels allows the writer to start and stop easily and frequently, therefore, women are more likely to write novels than poetry. For instance, women must frequently face several interruptions because they are usually deprived of a room of their own in which to write. In short, I believe that what the narrator wants to emphasize is that without money, women will stay in a second place in comparison with their creative male counterparts. She is criticizing the financial discrepancy between men and women present in those times and pointing out how it has perpetuated the myth that women are less successful in writing.


Mª Antonieta Rojas:

After reading your entry I can say that I have a doubt. What do YOU think about what the author says? You write about the author’s point of view, so I could see a little about your own thoughts. Regarding to the topic you choose to write about I can say that I totally disagree with the author’s point of view. I don’t think that woman need money in order to be considering a good writer. Money and creativity have nothing in common. According to your post, the author is trying to say that if you don’t have enough money, you are not capable or writing a good novel. I think that women and men are not different in this sense. Woman can write even better than men, and I think that trough out history they have proved that.
In relation to the other point of your post, when you talk about how women don’t have enough time to write because they have other things to do, I can say that I agree. We suffer from many interruptions, because we have a lot to do in our house and we also have a life. Housewives, sisters, girlfriends, friends, we have a lot of roles in one day, so we need to have time for everything. Being a woman is way harder than being a man.

You chose a good topic to write about, Congratulations.

The waste land

First of all, “the waste land” is a very difficult poem. It is very difficult to understand what Eliot wanted to say. I will try to explain what I understood from the poem.
This poem was written after World War I and during the “preparation” of World War II. I think that through the poem he was trying to say what he was feeling, but in the end he did not care if the reader will understand the poem or not, he just wrote. I think that war was confusing for the entire society, especially for Eliot. Therefore his poem is confusing too. The settings are changing all the time, and also the narrators. It is incredible to see how war can affect people’s life. I think that the poem is a mess because that time was a mess too.
I know that poetry is difficult to understand, and that you need to read a lot in order to get the main ideas of a poem. I haven’t got the time to express how I feel about poetry and I think that this was the time. It has been really difficult to read poetry for two reasons. First, because I don’t like poetry, and second because poetry is difficult to understand. “The waste land” made me reflects a lot about how I felt about poetry and I really appreciate that.

What a mess

I did not like the story “Odour of Chrysanthemums” at all. It was too dark and sad for me. However I did like the story “The rocking horse winner”, even though it was a bit sad too. Why did I like it? because I found a lot of interesting topic to discuss about. The most interesting topic for me is the relation between love and luck. Paul love his mother, so he wanted to make her happy. He realized that they were having money problems because they did not have any luck. He manages to win some money, but neither the house nor his mom was happy, they wanted more. Paul get sick, the gardener bet for him and he won again. He gave the money to his mother. At the end of the story, before he dies, Paul says "I never told you, mother, that if I can ride my horse, and get there, then I'm absolutely sure – oh absolutely! Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky!"
I think that Paul was trying to win his mother’s love. His mother was worried about materialistic things rather than her children. For Paul’s mother, luck meant money, and her husband was able to earn enough money for her. Paul feels that is his responsibility to help his mother to be happy, but all that pressure killed him at the end. I think it is not fair that children have those responsibilities. When they are young they are suppose to enjoy their childhood as much as they can. The main issue here was that Paul’s mother was absolutely out of focus. She loved money more than her own children.

It is difficult to be a woman

The most important topic in Virginia Woolf’s essay is the genre issue. During those times, woman did not have the same rights than man, but do they have them now? I don’t think so. We have the same problem 70 years later.
In terms of writing, women were not suppose write or read certain topics like philosophy, religion, science fiction, and so on. After a few years, women started writing and reading what they wanted, but they were always critized because of it. Virginia discusses if women are able to write or create pieces of work as good as men do. At that time, women were not allowed to enter to all of the university or even to walk on the grass. Women were left a side, but they started to win their territory step by step.
The most interesting part of this essay, for me, was the fact that the problems those women lived 70 years ago are still an issue. Women are still mistreated, earn less money and men tend to believe that women are less intelligent than men. We need to change that way of thinking. We need to realize that women can do thing sometimes better than men, and the other way around too. Women have their weaknesses, but we have our strengths too