Author: Diana Galvez

Disdain: (noun) a feeling of contempt for someone or something regarded as unworthy or inferior, scorn.

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary (online)

I encountered this word in the reading The Ride by JL Williams on page 408 paragraph 2. “On every train car, every day, there is at least one person who irritates the rest of us, who makes us feel like we are visitors in their living room, irritants that they feel the need to convey their disdain for while we share a confined space for a limited time.” Here Williams is trying to say how there will be people on public transportations who seem to want to show the rest are inferior. As if everyone else is a guest in this “irritants” house. For example, it is rare to see someone with power dressed in a stained T-shirt and wasted shoes. They will also have the most comfortable seat and personal space. That’s why later in paragraph 4 the passenger takes up two seats on a busy and full train car. I now understand fully how the word disdain contributes to the context of this sentence.

Diana Galvez

Sieve: (noun, informal) unable to remember things well or can be used figuratively with reference to the fact that a sieve does not hold all its contents.

Source: Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionary

In the excerpt Brave We Are, the word sieve is mentioned. “His vagueness passes through the sieve in my head and comes out as clarity.” says Tahira on page 363. I had to find two definition to fully understand what she meant in this context. The first definition helps to show how she has sort of a bad memory and the second expands on that by allowing me to see how her son’s comment/question is vague but later realizes what he is talking about when he talks about Mary.

Diana Galvez

Incendiary (adjective): tending to stir up conflict.

Source: Oxford Dictionaries (online)

During our class discussion last Thursday, August 30, Professor Garcia commented, ” He was talking about some pretty incendiary stuff…” She was referring to when Malcolm X was writing letters to others and they wouldn’t reply to something “saying something as wild as “the white man is the devil””. In this case, what he wrote in his letters imply how it was a bit outrageous to be receiving something that contains this information, let alone writing these things to people with a lot of power. Overall, this word can be understood as a cause of or causing trouble.

 

Diana Galvez