Sunday, February 2, 2014

Shannon's Exploration Two

The person that I admire most so far is "Steam Train" Maury Grahm. I really enjoyed his story on his life as a hobo. I liked how he explained the difference between a hobo and a bum. Before reading the story I never thought that there was a difference but now I know that there is a big one. I think it's awesome that he was able to leave the hobo life and start a life of his own. Steam Train Maury expresses creativity simply by living his everyday life. Each day he comes up with an idea on how hes going to survive that day. He constantly  needs to find ways to get food and shelter for the day.  I also think that his story was creatively written because it explained a little bit of his life as a hobo, the difference between a hobo and bum, and even explained where the word hobo came from.


Throughout the whole story of Scott Russell Sanders he talks about how much his dads addiction had an impact on him and his family's life. I got the impression that the last thing he would want to do was carry on an addiction issue that would affect his wife and kids. Although Sanders did not turn out to be an alcoholic, I was surprised when he said that work was his addiction. His work addiction had an impact on his son the same way his fathers addiction had an impact on him. "I am moved to write these pages now because my own son, at the age of ten, is taking on himself the griefs of the world, and in particular the griefs of his father. He tells me that when I am gripped by sadness, he feels responsible; he feels there must be something he can do to spring me from depression, to fix my life and that crushing sense of responsibility is exactly what I felt at the age of ten in the face of my father's drinking." I learned that even though some people can learn from their parents substance abuse addictions, it may affect them in their later years causing them to have another addiction of some sort.

A question that I often times have when reading the Holding On passages is, "How did all these experiences affect these people and how did it allow them to grow as a person?"


8 comments:

  1. I had the same thoughts when read Sander's story. He had a different addiction, but it still had a similar outcome on his kids. I guess things besides diseases such as alcoholism can be inherited, too.

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  2. I loved the hobo story. I can understand why you chose that story because it talked about a different kind of lifestyle. We believe that life is just about getting a job, getting married, buying a house. But these hobo's do something they love no matter how bad society looks at it. They can roam the U.S. with no worries except food and shelter!

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  3. I am interested as well with Maury's story. I did not know there was a difference between hobo and bum until now as well. I find it interesting how his creativity can be the difference between life and death.

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  4. I thought how you identified creativity throughout the story by each day he was going to survive was pretty interesting.

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  5. I was also interested in Maury's story because he made a contrast between hobos and bums. It was very insightful and now I know that hobos are hard-working people, trying their best to survive.

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  6. Your quote from Sanders was the same that caught my attention. That quote was towards the end of the passage and I believe that really made the greatest of impact as the whole story he is building up about how against the lifestyle his dad created for him is so wrong and then he flipped and created it for his son. This for me as a reader was a slap in the face and a wake up call saying not everyone is perfect and in life it is very hard to change your past to create a different future for yourself and your loved ones around you.

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  7. I also liked how Maury explained the difference between the hobo, and the bum. As two words we think of as interchangeable, It's interesting to get more knowledge about the two and see the differences between them. It's then cool to think about the mindset and lifestyle of the hobo, how they were actually much different than we think of them, having honour and respect and trust and compassion and such.

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  8. I too was caught off guard by Sanders' son, but it also made me question whether Sanders' father was the same way as a child. If the feeling of guilt crossed a generation, could Sanders' father have been in a similar situation? Did he feel guilty like Sanders and his son did? Did he use alcohol as an escape like Sanders writes to escape?

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