Quindelin uses her writing to discuss one person, Ann. Ann showed her a picture of a home and then told her a story about it. She did not give much information away, but was able to look at this woman in a new light. Quindelin was a writer doing a piece about homeless people and she met Ann in a bus terminal. Ann's story was unique because it was about her. It also allowed Quindelin to realize how important it is to appreciate everything a person has. She wrote about little things like a hot water heater or curtains on windows of her home. She mentioned how some people who are homeless dream about walls of their own to paint, but "homes have stopped being homes and are now real estate" (516). This is a harsh reality of the world today and some people dream of having a pillow to sleep on while millionaires live in their multi bedroom homes with hundreds of pillows.
de Vires uses her personal experiences to grip the readers emotions. Her story brought a serious problem to life for the reader. It was about her first time going into the shelter, seeing all the people and the experiences a person has when they first have to go. She wrote about how the men lived versus the women. How the women watched out for one another and they did crafts to pass the time. Her story brought the global issue of homelessness to life. It definitely made me realize how lucky I am and how blessed I am. Both these pieces help the reader see how serious this problem is. There is a particular stereotype with homeless people, drug addicts. But, the truth is they are not addicts. Some are old women who could not afford their mortgage, others are mothers with their children who need a bed to sleep in because their rent was too high. Who Am I? "Who Am I" is written by a Native American who wants to bring awareness to their people. The Native Americans are often discriminated against in Federal Policies. They are also set up today to fail, the author writes about the drop out rates and college attendance. This was definitely written to bring awareness to the major issues with these people. The government attacks them by taking their land or building on sacred territory. A current event that brings this piece to life is the Dakota Access Pipeline which is a threat to sacred land and their clean water. The government does not realize the land was occupied by people before us and it is completely disrespectful to attack their land. The author was able to get their point across through persuasion because they brought the issue to life with their writing.
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Hitchens uses his writing to show his emotions during a difficult time. He used his work as a distraction from a bigger problem which was cancer. He writes about his collapse in a hotel room in New York following a day of events for his book. He was taken to the hospital and meets with the doctors who discuss his case. A part of the writing I felt brought a lot of emotion to the piece is the aftermath of his diagnosis. He writes about his feelings and thoughts which are very real. The beginning of the piece he wrote about the events leading up to his collapse. The ending is about him dealing with the diagnosis and moving on with life. He wrote that he was in denial for some time which is understandable. Cancer is a big deal and his was in his lymph nodes. I think he knew how serious it was and his denial helped him cope with it. He also seemed very down because he wrote about all the bad things that happened after being diagnosed. It was almost like he was trying to be optimistic, but struggled because everything seemed to be going badly for him.
I liked how Hitchens chose to tell his story because it seemed very raw his feelings and emotions all seemed authentic. The piece used "I" which I think helped tell the story. It brought it to life, it did not seem like some random story a person chose to write about. This experience is important because people go through this everyday. The word cancer can be so scary, so having someone else's experience to relate to could help them get through it. Chapter six focused on Douglass moving to a new mistress. He described the woman as having "the kindest heart and finest feelings." He was the first slave she had owned and Douglas wrote very fondly of her. It was with her he learned how to read and write, but once her husband found out he put an end to it. Douglas was inspired after this encounter with her husband, which ultimately gave him the motivation to begin is work. He wrote, "the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn." This woman showed him that he was more than a slave and could become something more than someone's servant. The way her husband reacted to him learning to read only lighted the fire inside him to speak out against the mistreatment. He wanted to make a difference because he realized he was more than a servant, he was a human who deserved to be treated fairly. He also wrote about his time living in Baltimore and how slaves there were treated differently than on plantations. They were dressed decently, was fed better and allowed to do more things that those on plantations. They had a little more rights and were treated a little better, but not by much. He did write about a man, Mrs. Hamilton who severely beat her slaves and did not hide it. People in the cities wanted their slaves to look like they were treated fairly. It almost seemed like it was a direct representation of their wealth. Mrs. Hamilton beat both her slaves, which showed how much she cared about her status in Baltimore.
His autobiography allows the reader to fully learn all about him. It gives them a complete understanding on his upbringing and the challenges he faced in these phases of his life. It also allowed the reader to see how slaves were treated during this time. Growing up, we were mainly taught about slaves on plantations, but never really focused on slaves in the cities. This reading allowed me to see exactly how they were treated and how the two places differed. His writing seems real, not censored in anyway. Biographies today seem to have a lot of fluff in them. When someone reads a biography they want the facts, real stories and authenticity. These three things were present in the writing. Paragraph 14 discusses the moments after Salter crashing his plane. I would assume that these initial moments were moments of panic for him, but in his writing he seems calm. He checked his legs and could feel his teeth wiggling, but was calm. He knew he has some sort of injury he was just unsure at the time. This passage stood out to me because of how he seemed following the crash. When he got out of the plane and realized how bad the wreckage was he still had a sense of calmness over him.
Salter's piece was very well written and gave me an inside look of the plane he was flying in. His descriptive language of the cockpit and all the gauges and lights made them appear in my mind. I felt like I was there with him. I know it was supposed to be about him which he did very well, I think his use of descriptive language and the wording of certain things added to the piece. It kept my interest while telling the story. Chapter 6 focuses on description in writing and how it helps to make a picture. Writers want to create a picture in their reader's heads and they do this through writing. Descriptive essays have to be consistent so the writer is able to clearly show what they are writing about.
John McPhee writes about The World's Largest Pile of Scrape Tires. He uses description to bring his words to life. He writes about the walk to the pile and the view when you can actually see it. His choice of words brings this image into my head. He described the path walking to the tires, the green and brown grass and gravel path. He also writes, "From the high ground on the opposite side, the individual tires appear to be grains of black sand. They look like little eggstones oolites each a bright yolk ringed in black pearl" (85). The tires come from all over California, so the size of this pile must be like looking at mountains. McPhee said on a map it looked like a black mountain range. There are an estimated thirty four million tires in this pile. His choice of descriptive words brought this piece to life for me. Petrarch's "Ascent of Mt Ventoux" was based on his ascent of Mt Ventoux. He believed he was the first person to climb it in years and did it to see what elevation had to offer. The essay seemed very spiritual to me and he was beginning to think about people differently. On the trip up he discussed many things that happened in his life, including Laura. She was a woman he loved for ten years and on this journey he realized he may have wasted time on her. This journey seemed like a trip he took to find himself again. Sometimes taking a break from life and going on a hike can help clear a person's mind. When I need to take a break I like to go somewhere quiet and just clear my head.
One Writers Beginnings was written about a road trip Eudora Welty went on with her family in 1918. Reading it, I found a lot of similarities with my own family's road trips. Even though it is decades after this was based. The narrator's father is the driver on the trip, his main job was getting them from point A to point B. The way she described him he seemed like a typical man at that time.He had a pistol in the door to protect his family and was able to jack up the car and repair a flat tire.She also described him as an optimist which helps the reader understand why he carried that pistol. He was prepared for the worst, probably expected it. The mother is the navigator. She would tell him directions and keep track of all the major events on the trip. The parents seemed like they were making this trip memorable for their children. It talks about how the car did not have a trunk and all the suitcases were under the kid's feet. The mother also had the baby on her lap which today would get her arrested. Welty mentioned how they would drive through towns at 20 mph so she saw all parts of the town. Her road trips with her family allowed her and her brother to fully take in each town they were going through. Reading this and thinking about travel today, we are always in such a hurry to get places that we are not able to fully take in all the places we travel through. It seems like traveling in 1918 brought people more memories than today.
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