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Creativity Expands Life Expectations

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Creativity Expands Life Expectations
CPT Essay
Creativity Expands Life Expectations
The phrase “thinking outside of the box” means to consider solutions creatively. “Poetry” by Pablo Neruda, “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, and “The Blues Merchant” by Jerome Washington, all share the common subject of “thinking outside of the box”. This phrase is the power to expand life possibilities. In the poem “Poetry”, Neruda expresses art to develop life potentials. The poem begins with a person who “did not know what to say, my mouth, had no way, with names, my eyes were blind, and something started in my soul, fever or forgotten wings, and made my own way.” (Neruda 14-20). This person in the poem is puzzled in life but when he discovers poetry, he “fell myself a pure part, of the abyss, I wheeled with the stars, my heart broke loose on the wind.” (Neruda 43-46). After discovering and writing lyrics, this individual expresses his happiness and freedom from his situation which was confusion in life. In other words the individual creatively found a solution, making his life better, from grief to glee. Similarly, the article “Mother Tongue”, also features the same focus. Amy Tan, the author and the narrator, is “nonfiction as a free lancer the week after I was told by my former boss that writing was my worst skill and I should have my talents towards account management.” (Tan 409). Tan is not good in English but “Fortunately, for reasons I wont get into today, I later decide I should envision a reader for the stories I would write. And the reader I decided upon was my mother, because these were stories about mothers. So this reader in mind, and in fact she did read my early drafts, I began to write using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a better term might be described as ‘simple’.” (Tan 409). In this case, Tan explains how English is complicated though she likes it. By improving her English skills, she “thinks outside the box” by appointing her



Cited: Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” Trans. Array Echoes: Fiction, Media and Non-Fiction Artichuk, Graham Foster, Janeen Werner-King, Diana Knight, Liz Orme, Kevin Reed and Peter Weeks. 1st ed.,. Don Mills: Oxford, 2001. Print. Nerudo, Pablo “Poetry.” Trans. Array Echoes: Fiction, Media and Non-Fiction Artichuk, Graham Foster, Janeen Werner-King, Diana Knight, Liz Orme, Kevin Reed and Peter Weeks. 1st ed.,. Don Mills: Oxford, 2001. Print. Washington, Jerome. “The Blues Merchant.” Trans. Array Echoes: Fiction, Media and Non-Fiction Artichuk, Graham Foster, Janeen Werner-King, Diana Knight, Liz Orme, Kevin Reed and Peter Weeks. 1st ed.,. Don Mills: Oxford, 2001. Print.

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