Service Analysis

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, “Liberty” by Thomas Lynch, and “Suburban” by John Ciardi all have a connection with the traits and lessons the program of Acts4Youth, is trying to teach to it’s students. Each reading relates back to a trait that the program is trying to teach to the young boys.

In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, the speaker takes revenge on Fortunato. The speaker lures Fortunato to his wine cellar by telling him that he has found what he believes to be a pipe. The speaker is offering Fortunato wine to get him drunk so he will not realize what is happening. The finally reach a niche in the wall and the Speaker chains Fortunato to the wall. The then builds a wall of bricks and throws a torch in through the remaining opening.

            This is a story of revenge. It involves one man who sees a threat or enemy in another and the only way he sees able to fix the problem is by committing murder. The kids in Acts4youth see a lot of violence in their everyday life. They see how other people in their community deal with anger, and a lot of the time it is in a negative way. The teachers try to implement on the students other ways to deal with anger or issues they may come into with other people. They want the students to be able to deal with anger and have good communication skills, so they will not make decisions that they will lead to bad circumstances.

            “Liberty “ by Thomas Lynch is in someway a portrayal of how the kids at Acts4Youth see themselves. The poem itself is about “Liberty.” The speaker does what he wants, where he wants, even though it bothers some people. This is how most of the students in Acts4youth act. They think they can do anything they want, whenever they want. They do not care so much about authority, and while some are better listeners than others, they still are working on being respectful towards others and realizing that they cannot always do what comes to mind.

“Suburban” by John Ciardi, the speaker acts in a completely different way than the reader would expect. The speaker has to go pick up “a large repulsive object” that his neighbor believes was left there by his dog.  Even though the reader does not believe it is his dog that left the “object”, he still goes over and picks it up without saying anything mean or nasty to his neighbor. The speaker in this poem does everything out of politeness. He has every right to say something mean to his neighbor, but instead he just goes over and picks it up without and problem. This is something else that is trying to be taught to the kids. They the want to kids to learn that even though some people may not deserve it, they should try and be polite as much as possible, just as common courtesy.

Even though I have only gone to the school once, I know what they are trying to teach to the students and each of the readings has some message that is being taught to the students. They want them to become good citizens, teammates, and good to each other and develop to have goals and become successful in reaching those goals.