Blog # 7 O'Brien

We all know what a war is. It involves two sides fighting for a particular reason. Unfortunatley they do not always end peacefully. In this case the war did not end peacefully. Many lives were lost. Wars are not made up, however how do we know what is true versus untrue? The truth is we don't know. There are parts of a story that are completely unbearable and hard to take in because it just doesnt seem like it really did or could happen. It seems unbelievable yet possibly could be the truth. The parts of a story that come off as being normal are the parts we could believe. Death was mentioned, and often people have a hard time believing a loved one is no longer with them, even when it is true. If they refuse to believe that, how or why are they going to believe something that isn't as dramatic? Yes wars do happen, but what is actually true about them? Where is the source? This is something we simply can't answer. We were not there, we only have to go by what was told. Whose to say what was said isn't true?
Another point is this story is a recount of past events. It is been known that when we retell a story we possibly leave certain things out or change them because it is us telling the story. It is like the game telephone. I say something to you, you pass it on to someone else, and then that person tells another person, and so on. When the story reaches the last person it will come out differently. There are so many questions we can ask and never recieve an actual answer. All we can do is hope, guess, and wonder.

Blog # 6 Ranking the essays....

Didion " On Keeping a Notebook"
1.) overall the concept of this essay was for her to reflect back on the things she wrote on her notebook. based on that id give it a 4. 2.) 5 it is a segmented essay - journalism
3.) 2 it was only one point of view 4.) 1 there was only her perspective and view in her essay
5.) 4 there were many details in this story, which would give readers a clear view of the story.
6.) 5 story was very logical 7.) 5. sentences were free from error

2. The experience of this essay is the character is telling the stories of some notes she had written down in her notebook. she cant seem to figure out why she even wrote them down until after she tells them and realizes that these events happened for a reason but we wont know why until time goes on.

Alexie "Superman and Me"
1.) clear focus - 4 2.) segmented essay, yes so 5 3.) 2. only one view 4.) 1 only one perspective 5.) 3 use of superman and the idea of a paragraph as a fence 6.) 3 it was somewhat logical. 7.) 5 sentences were free from errors

2. The experience of this essay is this little boy learned to read with a Superman comic book. he loved reading and would read everywhere. This was a personal triumph for him because Indian children wre expected to fail in the non- Indian world and this boy refused to fail. he beat the odds and became a writer.

Beard "Out there"
1. ) 4. it was clear 2.) 1- it was a narrative 3.) 1 - was one point of view 4. ) 2 - only one perspective 5.) 3 - it was detailed 6.) 4 - story was logical i was able to follow along
7.) 5- sentences were free from errors

2. The experience of this essay is the author is explaining to the reader that it is important to be driven in life and stick to your own mindset. the idea that the lady was almost ran off the road goes along with the idea of someone was trying to block her thinking and throw her off.

Lott
1.) 5 it was clear as to what the purpose was. 2.) 5 - it was segmented. 3.) we saw Lotts point of view as well as some points of views from other writers 4.) 4- many perspectives5.) 2- wasnt as much vivid detail, i couldnt picture it. 6.) 4- it was logical 7.) 5 - sentences were free from error
2. the experience is to basically understand what creative nonfiction is. this essay by Lott would also recieve a high grade because it definitly was not a narrative and it followed the criteria.
Kincaid " Biography of a Dress"
1.) 1. 4- it was clear to the point i understood what Kincaid was telling readers 2.)
3.) 5 - it was segmented. 4.) 3 - we saw parts of the story through her perspective as well as her perspective.
5.) 4 - it was detailed from the dress and so on 6.) 4 put together well 7.) - 5 sentences free from error

2. The experience of this essay is the author is telling the stor of a pohotgraph taken in a yellow dress when she was two years old. this dress was important because her mother had made it for her. this relfection on the photograph made her realize how important her mother is to her.

Montaigne "That Men Should Not Judge"
1.) 2 2. 1 - it was narrative 3.) 2 4.) 1 5.) 2
6.) 2 7.) 5- sentences free from error
overall i dont feel montaigne would get a good grade based on the criteria for our personal essays. it was hard to truly rank because it really didnt fit the personal essay criteria.

2. The experience of this essay is simply the happiness of life. we have to learn how to act calm in chaos because if we dont the situation becomes worse.

Orwell Shooting an Elephant

1.) 4 - he didnt want to shoot the elephant but people in town did. 2. ) 1 - it was a narrative 3.) 1 - 4.) 3 - 5.) 4 it was detailed 6. 4- it was logical 7. 5- sentences were free from error
2. The experience of this essay is a police man has been called to kill an elephant who has gone out of control. the owner can't even control the elephant. the policeman is torn as to whether or not he should shoot this elephant. however the people in the town are cheering him, urging him to do so. disregarding his own feelings and emotions, the cop shoots and kills the elephant. he went along with everyone else when he really should have used his own judgement.

Schwartz " My Father Always Said"
1.) 5 - i was easily able to find the main idea 2.) 5 - it was definitly a segmented essay 3.) 2 4.) 3 - there was the perspective from her father and mimi as well 5.) 4- there were alot of details 6.) 5- the story was very well put together 7.) 5- sentences were free from error this essay would recieve the highest grade in my opinion

2. The experience of this essay is when Mimi Schwartz learns about her jewidsh heritage and the life her father lived. Based on their trip to the places in Germany, Schwartz realized she has a better life in America and would not change it for the world.

Drummond " Alive"
1.) 5. i was able to tell the main idea of the story right away 2.) 2- this story was more of a narrative 3.) 2 4.) - we only see her perspective 5.) 4 there were plenty of vivid details
6.) 4- story itself was in order 7.) 5- sentences were free from error

2. The experience of this essay is the concept of feeling paranoid thinking you are being followed. the author felt this man she kept running into was a serial killer since recently she learned one had escaped and killed a few women. this triggered the anixiety and paranoia in the author as she tried to escape. since paranoia is all in the mind it is very hard to escape. at the end the author realizes she is vulnerable because she is alive. We constantly think and act according to the feelings and thought we have.

Danticat " Westbury Place"
1.) 5. readers were able to figure out the story right away 2.) 5- yes it was a segmented essay 3.) 3 4.) 3. we see perspectives from the writer as well as her mother's perspective 5.) 5 it was very well described with plenty of detail 6. )4 story was logical 7.) 5- sentences were free from error

2. The experience of this essay is the author is telling the story of the day she was eevacuated from her aprtment because of a fire across the hall. In the apartment room that held the fire, two boys were dead because their mother left them along while she was grocery shopping. as the author tells this story she reflects and realizes that we get so caught up in the fantasy world, such as the soap opera General Hospital, and see how the characters' lives are perfect. their lives are perfect because they are scripted, however our lives arent. all we can do is sit back and say i shouldnt have, but even those three words cant change the past.

Oliver "Decent"

1.) 4- able to find clear focus 2.) 2- more narrative but with some reflection and thoughts 3.) 2 4.) 4- we see views from the woman, old man, and how boys felt 5.) 4- subway ride/scene was described well 6. )4 logical 7.) 5 sentences free from error

2. The experience of this essay is a young woman is riding on the subway train in New Yoprk City. she explains that often on these subways are weird and unique people, however on the subway on this particular day is a white man and three black boys. the white man is starting an argument with these three boys because they are blocking the subway doors and always seem to do so. the man was sick and tired of it and wanted the nonsense to end. the young woman among others kept watching to see what would happen as the argument was continuing. Having enough of it, the young woman gets up and approaches the older man. she tells him to back off because they are respectful boys. respectful wasnt the right word the author realizes as she walks away. instead she calls the boys decent as for they are really decent boys.

Thiel "Crossing the Border"
1.) 3. concept wasnt easy to get at first, had to read it a couple of times 2.) 1 it is a narrative
3. 2. 4.) we see the writers side as well as the spanish guy's view. 5.) 2. there werent as many vivid details 6.) 2. it was logical 7.) 5- sentences were free from errors

2. The experience of this essay is the girl " crossed the border" in terms of the language barriers. she kept saying yes not realizing what the man was saying.

Blog # 5 Danticat and Drummond

Westbury Place by Edwidge Danticat is a story about a young girl who is telling the story of the time she left her apartment in Westbury Court. The girl tells this story for a few reasons. The reason why she left was not the typical reason people move. It all started one day while she was watching the soap opera General Hospital. The World of General Hospital is made- up therefore it seems perfect. However, the character's lives on the show are scripted, and we simply cannot script our own lives. During an episode of the soap opera, a fire had started in an apartment across the hall. In that apartment lived a mother and her two boys. Unfortunately that day the two boys were left alone and the one boy got a hold of matches and decided to fool around with them. He had no idea what he was doing and as a result, he accidentally started a fire in his apartment. Other people in apartments nearby were forced to evacuate.

One reason why this girl told her story is because her mother told her "This is what happens to children who play with matches. Sometimes it is to late to say, "I shouldnt have". Two points from this story are not to play with matches, and the bigger point is that things happen that sometimes we wish they didn't. It is hard because we can't go back in time and change it, but the only thing we can do about it is to sit back, and say "I shouldn't have" like the mother told her daughter. Having some bad happen and not being able to fix it, and saying "I shouldnt have" really bites because saying "I shouldnt have" wont change anything. I shouldnt have said this, I shouldnt have done this, I shouldnt have went this way, I shouldnt have ate this are things we can say as a result of what occured, but we can't change what happened.

The structure of this essay is the character gives us a background with a hint of what happened, and then goes back in time to explain the story. Then the story goes back to the present and readers are told what the character is up to now.

The other reading assignment was Alive by Laurie Lynn Drummond. This story is different from Westbury Place in a few ways. For starters the plot is different as well as the style. In Alive, we meet a female character who is telling the story of a serial killer on the lose. She goes on to finish some errands and notices a creepy man who happens to be everywhere she goes. She thinks maybe its a coincidence, but when she takes a slightly different route from the man, she notices that back on a different road, the driver in the vehicle behind her is the same man. At this point the driver feels very nervous and uncomfortable and just wants to get away.

The points of this story are to always be alert and to not dismiss the "buddy system". It is very important to be aware of your surrounding wherever you are. Also it is better to be with someone that alone in certain situations. For instance when someone is leaving their night class and is parked far away, they should find someone they know to walk with. Two people are better than one.

The structure of this story is not in the way it is structured but it is in the use of the realistic and vivid descriptions and story line. This story creeped me out because it felt so real. The writer of Alive wrote this story in a way that the reader can picture it and feel the same way as the character did in the story.

Blog # 4: Schwartz

Often we hear the infamous lines " I told you so" "Mom is always right" and more, but what about our fathers? Don't they have a say too? Well they do now and according to Schwartz, her "Father always said...."

"My Father Always Said" by Mimi Schwartzis an essay about Schwartz when she was a little girl and what it is like to come from a Jewish family. This essay begins with Schwartz, as a young girl, talking about her father. Readers learn they are a Jewish family who live in Queens, New York. Her father had fled Germany to get away from everyone becuase he could not take it anymore. Her father always had two favorite lines, " In Rindhiem, you didnt do such things, and I dont care about everybody".

The second paragraph talks about Schwartz and the trip back to her father's village to visit the graves. The forest remoinded Schwartz of Hansel and Gretel country, filled with foreboding evergreens that leaned over the narrow winding roads of the Schwarzwald. However the name Schwarzwald meant Black Forest. Her father takes her and her mother to his old house. Together they walked around the town and her father would point out certain places such as the gray building with stone columns in the doorway, the typical friday night hangout. As Schwartz was walking around observing the place she would also learn about her Jewish backfround.

In the third paragraph, Schwartz's father is loosening his tie and wiping the sweat off his forehead. He begins by talking about going to the synagogue by sundown on a Friday, and all day Saturday, and couldn't go home until three stars shone in the evening sky before the Sabbath was over. Schwartz compares this to wanting to go bowling on a Saturday at Foxy's alley. Schwartz questions the synogogue and begins to learn more about them. It looks like she is finally understanding her family history,her father, and why he says the things he says.

As readers begin the fourth paragraph, they come across Schwartz and her family wandering about some other places. This time they stopped at her father's old school. Again readers see Schwartz comparing her school experiences to her fathers.

The fiften paragraph the family is going to the Jewish cemetery. Here Schwartz was able to see the tombstones of some of her relatives. Her father was able to show Schwartz how terrible living in Germany was, hence all the stones. Among those people were some of her relatives. She was unable to picture these people, and the only people she knew were her grandparents especially Omi and Opa. Schwartz left tribute to these stones.

The last paragraph of this essay is the most meaningful to Schwartz. This is where she realizes what her father meant by " In Rindheim, we didnt do such things!" Schwartz realized that she is lucky to be in America.

Throughout the essay Schwartz's father would talk about his life and Schwartz would relate the same experience to her life such as attending the synagogue versus bowling and school.

Also found in this essay throughout is gaps between the sections. The reason for these gaps to to seperate the thoughts and views. Schwartz saw each place, explored them,took them into her mind, relfected on them, and then moved on. She needed time for each place to sink in. As she went on the trip she learned about the life her father had and was lucky to get away from. It wasn't easy for Schwartz because she didnt experience it herself but she was able to compare some instances to her own life. Through her father's eyes she was able to see why he was so happy to get away and be in America. The most important idea Schwartz took from this experience was that she is a lucky girl to be here.

Blog # 3 Montaigne and Orwell

The stories and essays we have read in class are the same but also different. one noticable similarity is that they are all somehow creative nonfiction. The two essays/stories that we had to read was Montaigne's, That Men Should Not Judge of Our Happiness Till After Our Death and Orwell's Shooting an Elephant. These two stories have similarities as well as differences in relation to themselves and to other stories we have read so far. Let's begin with the similarities. All these stories are creative nonfiction one way or another. Shooting an elephant is about a police officer who was called out to go shoot an elephant because the elephant became out of control and the owner could not control it. This story was from the police officer's point of view. he explains the situation and also tells readers how he feels. This story is similar with Kincaid's Biography of a Dress. In Kincaid's story, she is telling the story of a particular photograph taken when she was two years old. Even though there was no photograph in Orwell's story, Orwell was still telling a story of something that happened. Let's talk about differences among these stories. Orwell's was more a story, story where as Kincaids was more of a reflection. Between the two, Kincaid's seems realistic while Orwell's story sounded like a fiction story. I understand that these things happen where animals become out of control and have to be shot to control them, but this story in particular just left me with that feeling. It felt more fiction that nonfiction. There are elements that mark the voice in the more recent works as contemporary. Going back to my notes I looked over the list of the observations on the readings. Alot of these works have the more common elements such as character, plot, setting, and theme and symbols. Another popular element with these works is the concept of what really happened. The authors are writing about events that occured in their life, in a creative way. Some essays feature more elements than others. Overall majority of these works contain the same elements just presented in various ways.

Blog # 2 Kincaid and Lott

Once again we are here thinking about the definition of creative nonfiction. Creative nonfiction is is thinking about events that occured in the past and reflecting on them.

Jamaica Kincaid wrote the story Biography of a Dress. In a nutshell Kincaid is telling readers the story of the particular photograph shown above her story. If you look at the picture you see a very upset little girl. I wanted to know why this little girl looks upset in this picture. There must be a reason. The way Kincaid wrote this is she would explain what happened in the past and then add her views on the event now. For example, on page 209, she begins to explain that the picture was taken when she was two years old and was wearing a yellow dress made of cotton poplin. However back then she didn't know what cotton poplin was until she became older as stated in the line "a fabric with a slightly unsmooth texture first manufactured in the French town of Avignon and brought to England by the Huguenots, but I could not have known that at the time" Kincaid is saying how on earth would a two year old girl know that information? Now that Kincaid is a grown up, forty-three years old, she knows a lot more. Another example that illustrates reflection is on page 209 when Kincaid is explaining the boiled cornmeal. The reason why she ate it so much was because it was cheap and easily available. Then Kincaid adds "but i did not know that at the time." Kincaid is basically explaining the story and then adds little thoughts to explain to the reader that this is what she knows now about the particular event. She is looking back on the story of this yellow dress and reflecting on it. Because we are older and more mature we can look back on our lives, and see why things happened the way they did. We have not seen much reflection of a past event (in this case a photograph) in the other stories we have read.

We come across Bret Lott. He wrote Toward Definition of Creative Nonfiction. Lott begins to explain that creative nonfiction is taking an old piece of literature and illuminating it, bringing it back to life. Kincaid did this with her story. She took the memory of the photograph and brought it back to life by adding in her thoughts about it now. Kincaid took what she already knew, put it together, and thats what makes the difference. Lott also goes on to explain that creative nonfiction is indeed self, which is the creative element of creative nonfiction. Without you, it is simply nonfiction. If the photograph was not Kincaid when she was a child, it wouldn't have been creative nonfiction. It would have just been a story of any two year old girl and her yellow dress. As Lott reaches the end of his essay, he comes down to the last element which is truth. How true are these essays? Reflections? Are they only perceptions? If they are who is to say the writer is telling the truth? The only one who can really know is the writer themself. I is the only one who will know if the story is true. Quotation marks are a way of telling the truth. What we say goes in quotation marks. It is our own.

Lott left me with a lot of elements that lead me towards the definition. I feel the best one is creative writing is our responsbility as human beings to answer for and to our lives. (Lott 276)

What is creative nonfiction?

As i sit in class and think about this question, a few ideas come to mind. For starters creative nonfiction is a piece of a writing that is interesting. It's exciting. When i think of nonfiction i think of an essay. However the word creatives makes it different from a regular essay. By using the word creative it makes the piece of writing more appealing to the reader. Creativity is using your imagination.

I just finished reading the stories "Keeping a Journal" "Superman and Me" "Keeping a Notebook" and "Out There". Overall these stories were very interesting. My favorite one was "Superman and Me" this one in particular really helped me understand what creative nonfiction is. the whole idea of a paragraph was transformed into real life. The narrator used the word paragraph as a fence that held words. Families are paragraphs too. For example a family of four is four paragraphs; mother, father, brother, and sister. I found that cool. Creative nonfiction is like taking a simple thing or concept and putting a spin on it making it interesting and allowing the reader to see it a different yet exciting way. We know what paragraphs are and we see them all the time, but to think of other things outside papers and books as paragraphs is interesting.

English 3017