Blog Entry II Woolf

Virginia Woolf's essay, "The Death of the Moth" creatively portrays the inevitability of death through the use of narration and symbolism. The author describes her encounter with the moth and recalls the memory of it passing away on her window sill. Woolf paints a picture of the little creature and how, "the body relaxed, and instantly grew stiff. The struggle was over. The insignificant little creature now knew death." Through this mode of writing, the audience is more intrigued and more compelled to continue reading because the moth represents human beings. Woolf is able to capture the reader's attention and foreshadow death in their life through the symbolism of the moth.

Reading Journal II Harjo

Suzan Shown Harjo’s piece, Last Rites for Indian Dead presents a powerful argument in which she asserts that the remains America Indians should not have to be put on display at museums and deserve to be placed in sacred areas. She constructs her argument by including several sentences that include pathos. These sentences are meant to evoke pity and to help the reader realize the unjust treatment American Indians have faced throughout history and even today. The rhetorical questions she asks during the introduction of her essay are a prime example of her incorporating pathos to construct her argument. These questions resonate within the audience and they put the readers in the shoes of the American Indians. She also incorporates pathos in her descriptions by using adjectives that depict violent to reveal how horrible it must feel for America Indians to not be able to fulfill their rituals. 

Weekly Reflection 2

This week we had to write the compare and contrast essay and the topic was really hard for me because I don’t really know much about pop culture. I’m glad that we were provided sources because one of my weaknesses for writing is doing research. I talked about the similarities between college students and popular reality television characters. The group project is interesting; our topic is bullying which I’m happy about because I think it’s an important topic and I’ve always wanted to write about it. I’m also somewhat anxious because this is the first group project I’ve done in college, but at the same time I’m not too worried because my group gets along quite nicely. We were able to come up with a game plan for next week and I think we’re going to have a good time working on this project together. One thing that I learned this week was how easy it is to unintentionally plagiarize someone else’s work, and it makes me even more nervous now that I’m in college and the stakes are higher if I accidentally do it. 

Blog Entry II Didion

In Didion’s essay, she goes on and on describing nonsensical passages in her notebook as if they’re important, but then says that they aren’t. It feels as if Didion is wasting my time and for the entire beginning and middle, I was waiting for her to get to the point. The paragraph that begins with “how it felt to me” is an example. She includes so many memories that it’s hard to keep up with all of them, especially when she seems to be downplaying their significance. However, towards the end of piece I began to realize why I was so uninterested; Didion cleverly made her point: the journal entries have nothing to do with us.

The most impactful part of her essay to me would have to be the paragraph that includes the quote,  “Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss.” This quote relates to me because I actually keep a note book and she pretty much sums up the way I feel about life sometimes.

The rhetorical questions in Didion’s passage serve to underscore her thought process. It allows the experience to feel more realistic and relatable to the reader because it is very similar to how people actually think. It also relates to her statement about how her journal entries only pertain to her. The readers can guess a response to her questions, but only she can truly know the answer.

Blog Entry II Cisneros

            In the beginning of the story Cisneros describes her father as someone who had a traditional, Mexican mindset when it came to daughters. When she failed to adhere to the tradition he becomes disappointed in her. Cisneros regards her father as someone she wants approval from because she’s always felt he’s treated her as inferior compared to her brothers. Towards the end of the piece, Cisneros shifts to a more understanding tone when describing her father. In a way, he has become less of a person who she felt she needed to impress and simply her “papa”.  Cisneros’ own success changed the presentation of her father. Once she began to gain recognition, she grew more confident and this allowed her to figure out her own self-worth. Of course she still shows her father one of her stories, but the way she describes how he “read lines he liked out loud [and] pointed and asked questions” differs greatly from the man who was uninterested in her writing in the beginning of the story. Cisneros mirrors her father because they both have unrealistic expectations of each other. Her father wants her to marry someone even though she dreams of being a writer, much like how she expects her father to be proud of her work despite the fact that he does not even read English. The scene where her father constantly proclaimed he had seven sons also parallels Cisneros in small way. Her father is telling the general public about his sons, while she is trying to do the same with her stories. 

Weekly Reflection 1

The first day English class, I have to admit it seemed very overwhelming. I think the blog made me anxious, and I was surprised that I enjoyed the reading a lot more than I thought I did. Writing the blog response was more difficult than I thought it would be; not being in an English class for a whole school year definitely made a huge difference. It definitely does help to keep up with writing skills because now it’s tough trying to say exactly what I mean. The next thing that worried me deeply was only having two days to write a narrative essay, because the last time I wrote one was in eighth grade. Thankfully, I received a good grade on it and now that I think about it, I do enjoy writing narratives better than research papers (no question there). Going to class is pretty fun, it’s very straightforward and I can tell Professor Smith really tries to help explain questions we might have for him. I like going over the different modes of writing because it helps act as a refresher from what I learned in high school and I even learn some new things as well. 

Reading Journal II Baker and Liu

 In his essay “The Art of Eating Spaghetti,” Russel Baker illustrates the events that led him to pursue a career in writing.  Based on his description of his junior year English class experience, Baker is targeting other high schoolers who are also trying to figure out what they want to be.  Baker describes Mr. Fleagle to be have a “primly pointed jaw, a primly straight nose, and a prim manner of speaking that was so correct, so gentlemanly, that he seemed a comic antique,” basically creating a caricature out of him. His repetition of the word “prim” when describing his teacher, Mr. Fleagle, creates a mocking tone that a student could easily relate to. Baker also describes reading to be as “deadening as chloroform” most likely to establish a sense of understanding with the reader. Baker’s overall purpose with this essay is to convey that the point that he, like many others out there, didn’t have much hope with his career choice but was able to find the courage in an unexpected situation. In order to connect better with his audience Baker utilizes a more informal tone, which allows the reader to remain interested throughout his recollection. He switches from a somewhat derisive tone to describe his initial experience in his English class to a more shocked, and eventually an appreciative one towards the end of the piece. Baker describes how his class “bursts into gasps of irrepressible snickering” as a reaction to Mr. Fleagle’s reenactment of one Macbeth’s more “indecent” scenes. The class’ response enhances the informal tone of the essay.

Liu’s most successful strategy was the way he described his experience with details that made it clear that it was rather uncomfortable for him to be in Chinatown. He describes himself “[keeping] an eye on the side walk…so that [he] wouldn’t soil [his] shoes in the streams of putrid water.” The word “putrid” is just one of many that illustrate how Liu sees Chinatown as a place that is somewhat dirty. Creating a foreign environment is Liu’s personal strategy for his detailed descriptions. His word choices include “incongruous”, “emporium”, and “fortified” and they help create this sort of environment. They evoke a sense of feeling like an outcast in a large place which is most likely what Liu felt as he walked through Chinatown that night. Liu also mentions that he takes a shower at the end of his essay as if he is trying to wash away his culture to show that how he feels grimy after being engrossed in it after going to Chinatown for the night. 

Narrative Freewrite: Assignment 1

Alright, a celebration that turned out to be a disaster? Hmm… I guess that one time we went on the Disney Cruise and our parents yelled at us in front of all the passengers…but the only thing I really learned from that was to not go on vacation with them anymore. Or maybe…I guess homecoming during senior year was kinda a wreck but the drama didn’t really have anything to do it. Maybe when my friend fell into the lake during a spring break bbq? But it was more funny than catastrophic… and now my mind is blank… Think. THINK. It’s 7:46pm and this essay is due in 2 days you gotta write something. My hand feels so sweaty ummmmmmmmm maybe I can write about the time I ruined Jeck’s birthday party? Yeah it could work… but it was so embarrassing I wish I could forget it all together. Describe what happened and how all your hard work was ruined in a matter of seconds??? Yeah, the cake getting ruined to surprising the wrong person ughh noooo thinking about makes me cringe, and now I’m gonna have to relive that moment over and over and over again? That’s probably what makes the story interesting… can’t wait.

Once More to the Lake II E.B White

E.B White's Once More to the Lake proves to be a strong narrative because of his attention to detail. Not only do the sensory images assist the reader in traveling back in time with White, they also enhance the story’s overall ability to retain interest. When White describes the bedroom, he says it “smelled of the lumber it was made of and of the wet woods whose scent entered through the screen.” The use of olfactory images allows the reader to know what the room smells like. The specific details make the story more personal and also confirm how important the memories of the lake are to White.

The organization of the essay is one of the most effective in White’s piece. He organizes it in a descriptive pattern so the audience can follow and picture exactly what he wants them to. His most significant description includes the way he illustrates the appearance of his son just before he goes swimming in the lake. White describes himself watching his son put on swim trunks before he goes swimming, and White paints the picture of “his hard little body, skinny and bare” and how the boy “[winces] slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy garment.” His description of his son is important especially because it relates to the epiphany White has in the next sentence. White’s attention to detail makes Once More to the Lake an impressive narration because it enhances the story by allowing the reader to become engrossed in the memory.