“Photography” by Nikki Giovanni shows readers the true beauty of a camera. The camera isn’t only a device that captures photographs and pictures or takes a video, it is built as if it were a human almost. In this extraordinary poem, there are various metaphors and symbols in this poem including specific, vivid descriptions (imagery). The author displays the beauty of the camera in numerous ways in her poem. A camera may hide it’s “talents” but that doesn’t mean its doesn’t have it. Its takes photos and videos but it has the physical characteristics of a human.

There are many metaphors in the poem, “Photography” by Nikki Giovanni. For example in lines one to three it says, “The film is the heart… the eye we are told is a camera.” These lines mean that the film is where all the memories are stored, just like the human body when comparing the film to the brain. The film is the brain because it stores all the pictures that were taken. I believe the quote,“ the eye we are told is like a camera” is saying that the lens is compared to the human eye. This is a sensory detail.

In the poem I discovered imagery, describing how the camera captures the beauty of all. In line 23 it says, “watching the red sun bleed” I choose this quote for describing the beauty for the beauty of a camera because the reader can imagine and picture this image in their mind. The camera captures scenic pictures, describing this quote. When reading this poem, you can picture what you are reading.

Symbols are very often seen in this poem. For example, “The film is the heart… the eye is the camera” these two lines describe the camera as if it were a human and it’s parts. It says that the film is the heart, basically where the memory is stored. The eye is the camera, the camera needs the lens because it captures the pictures. As so for us humans, we need our eyes to see.

In conclusion, this text makes me realize how much the camera acts as a human. It also made me realize the beauty of a camera more deeply and I have never used a camera or even learned about photography.

Poem

Expectations

she was stuck in a nightmare,

she was stuck in a horror,

she was stuck in a film,

that just repeated over

she was being played with in her mind,

like a puppet on strings,

her life was rewinding,

and being played over and over

there was no end,

repeating the mistakes,

she was like a pencil,

that wasn't allowed to a have an eraser

she was crowded by fear,

she couldn't stop,

she didn't know how,

she is now scarred

the memories scare her,

no one can bare her,

it wasn't her fault,

and the blame came endlessly 

she wasn't "enough"

she wasn't what was expected,

she wasn't perfect,

but in the end you aren't either

After reading, "Touching Snow" by M. Sindy Felin I began to look closely about others around me. i began to do this because of what the main character, Karina goes through. Karina lives in New York with her sisters and her whole family crammed into a small, poor apartment. Karina gets bullied at school and gets bad grades, but thats the least of her worries. Her stepfather abuses Karina and her sisters brutally, until one day he abuses the oldest sister so much she almost dies. The mother of Karina and her sisters, comes home to discover her childs body on the floor covered in blood and bruises and surrounded by all the other sisters including Karina. The only reason the mother was with that man was because he paid for the electricity, and food, yet she never cared about her childrens safety until one of them nearly dies. After then, the mother never lets the stepfather into the apartment again and he is taken away on child abuse charges, but he is not gone for good...

I began to notice others around me because of Karina and the influence this book left on me. Karina was bullied, abused and broken. She was tired of getting beaten by her stepfather, I learned that I shouldn't judge people if I don't know them or knoe what they have been through, like Karina. Karina killed her father. She didn't mean it, but it happened and this wouldn't have happened if she was raised with care and real parents. I noticed that the reason Karina was getting bullied was because the other children were judging her of how she looked. Karina wasn't perfect and she didn't live in a perfect house with perfect parents, but her classmates thought of her differently. They thought of her as a disgusting child, and ugly but she wasn't. She is caught in a nightmare.

"The best way to avoid being picked on by high school bullies is to kill some one", this quote frightened me at first. Karina kills her father to protect the ones she loves but also believes that by killing someone she won't be bullied, and sadly she was right but it wasn't the answer. When she killed her father, word got around and no one ever dared to go near her again. " I wanted to defend Ma." This quote may be short but holds lots of information because it explains why she killed her stepfather and all that anger was built up inside of her, she wanted to protect the one she loved, her mother.

In conclusion, I learned so much from this book and from Karina. Karina may not have been a "normal" child but she was treated like she was an animal. I learned that if you don't know a persons story and who they are, you shouldn't be so quick to judge. Karina did what she felt she had to do which was extremely unnecessary, I feel as if this could have been prevented and that she wouldn't have killed her father is she was treated like human and raised like one.