Gist of what was discussed: In class writing 02/26

              The section my partner and I were given from the poem "Bicentennial" was section 3. In this section we noticed that the poet had very optimistic views of the bicentennial, yet there was a hypocrisy of what he described about the day. When first reading the section we can see that there is a lot of positive vibes and happiness in the air, but after re-reading it we noticed something else. What we noticed was it was as if the poet was saying that it seemed that no one was truly happy they just pretended to be happy because they felt as if they should be. It was stated in lines 12-13 that, "Everyone acting as though it made them happy To be apart of this country...". I personally viewed this as the people were using this national holiday to create some type of happiness for their mundane lives. As if this was a day to step away from all of their stresses and just the little things in life. The poet being a child at the time of the bicentennial, makes it understandable that he viewed this moment in his life as positively as he did. Also this was the first time that the poet had truly experienced nationalism. Though he was a child he was aware that the bicentennial was a very important or rather he was aware of how impactful the bicentennial is for the country.