PANK 6

In the story “Target Girl” the craft choice that stood out to me was the point of view that the story was written in.  I think by writing it from the daughters point of view that it works well because she has a bit of innocence in her character so there really isn’t any bias to other characters.  I think it will be interesting to see the story told from the mothers or dad’s point of view.  I feel like more would be uncovered with their side of the story.  But writing it from the daughters POV still works well.

In “Homosexuals..Threaten Norman’s Marriage” this biggest craft choice that I think the author used really well was dialogue.  Dialogue helped the author with characterization and also building the story.  In the first scene of the story we see the interaction between Norman and the ‘homosexuals’ and they bring up a problem that Norman will later have to deal with in his personal life.  There is a bit foreshadowing going on in the story and dialogue helps the foreshadowing also.  Another big part in the story is the interaction between Norman and Gina and once again this scene wouldn’t be so strong if the author didn’t use dialogue.

In “I talk to number 53” the craft choice that got my attention was the title itself.  As a reader thats usually the first thing you look at and then you read the story and try to tie both the story and title together.  With this particular title and story I had a very hard time doing that.  I have no idea why the title is what it is and I personally don’t think it works as much.  Maybe I over read the story and missed a valuable point but reading the story i felt like I was anxiously waiting for the two to tie in and when it didn’t the story left me confused.

French Cooking

Second person works perfectly with this story and form. When reading a recipe you are not really supposed to feel an emotional attachment but just follow the instructions. Though the author goes off on its on tangents at times by telling the reader what to consider while preparing the meal, it works because we also get a better sense of what the story is about and what is going on. Myself as a writer I may be interested to write in forms like the Nutrition Facts label on products and obituary.

1st 2nd 3rd Person Celebrity

50 Cent was shot multiple times and rushed to the hospital in critical condition. He was non responsive for thirty minutes. The doctors eventually revived him back to health.

I lied on the concrete my body was completely numb. My eyes wouldn’t open but I saw everything. I felt like I watched myself on the hospital bed while the doctors scrambled because they thought I was dead. Then I asked God for help and opened my eyes to see the worried doctors look down to me and take a sigh of relief.

You walked out of the store to an ambush. They shot you nine times and your pulse was gone. At the hospital the doctors didn’t think they were gonna save you after thirty minutes passed. Seconds later your eye twitched and the doctors smiled and announced to your family you were alive again.

Least resistance

I think the author very well wrote this story from Justin’s point of view purposely. And it works really well because if he just told the story we really wouldn’t feel as much of an emotional attachment to Justin as we do. From writing it from his view we see his side to the story and how he is feeling which makes us relate more with him more than Nick or Mary Ann. We as readers feel like he is being manipulated by and older woman and so we want him in the end to in some sort “win”. I think by Justin thinking so highly of Nick makes us question why he would make such a decision to go behind his back. But also it shows a innocence to Justin’s character which also makes the reader gravitate towards him.

ex.2 pg.338

A. It was a cold fall day and a guy lit a cigarette on a residential street.

B. Thomas Joyner lit a cigarette and threw the empty pack on the ground.

C. Tom lit his last cigarette. While it trembled on his lips from the cold he watched cars pass.

D. Tom sat on his porch looking out into street thinking where his life went.

F. He’s depressed that the only way to forget about all the things he didn’t accomplish is to smoke cigarettes by the pack.

ex.2 pg.338

A. It was a cold fall day and a guy lit a cigarette on a residential street.

B. Thomas Joyner lit a cigarette and threw the empty pack on the ground.

C. Tom lit his last cigarette. While it trembled on his lips from the cold he watched cars pass.

D. Tom sat on his porch looking out into street thinking where his life went.

F. He’s depressed that the only way to forget about all the things he didn’t accomplish is to smoke cigarettes by the pack.

reflection

I believe that Matt Bell’s story is a story. It contains characters (narrator, mother, father, brother and sister) and traditional elements of a story (conflict, crisis, and resolution). Im not completely sure what the arc is in this particular story but if I had to guess I would say the arc is 1. describing the family 2. figuring out how they died 3. finding the killer 4. then reflecting on life without them. Bell’s story evoke a dry sadness to the story. I say dry sadness because of the format Bell decided to write the story in. By writing short sentences and staying true to an alphabetical format, the writing seemed limited which in turn took away from some of the emotions along with the story. The story hit the main points of emotion to leave the reader a bit sad but format also took away from it. My intellectual reaction to the story is I think its a brilliant read. The format is extremely difficult to do and Matt Bell pulled it off. My emotional reaction to the story is I felt a bit saddened by the losses in the narrators family and I could feel how the narrator felt when describing all the deaths in detail and her reaction and how he/she is coping with them now.

annotations

The first story “donkey greedy”, Im going to talk about how the writer showed the readers what was going on instead on telling us. There are a couple passages Im going to show and explain how I think the writer accomplished that affectively. The first one is n the beginning of the story where Sharpe and Oss first meet. Instead of telling us Sharpe hated Oss he showed us with dialogue. “So how does this work? Do I hand you my checkbook now or wait till the end of the session?” This passage is showing us that Sharpe is very money conscious and also a sarcastic person in the story. This works better than creating a general sentence to tell the audience that. The story also worked well because the tables or roles reversed at the end of the story which heightened the excitement of the story.

The second story I read “Everyone a star”, also used this technique. I found that in this story the switching from her personal relationship back to her coaching career got a bit confusing to me. I was able to keep up but I didn’t enjoy the read so much. I felt like her and her husband went from being madly in love to divorcing in the matter of two sentences which was a bit fast transition for me. The sex scene in the story is a perfect example how the author showed the reader and didn’t just tell them that they had sex.

Reflection

To begin, I had a really hard time finding the two essays we needed to read in the book so I wasn’t really sure what to do. The best story that I have ever read in my life would have to be The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald. This is my favorite read because it taught me a lot of life lessons and I didn’t think a book was capable of doing so. It taught me the importance of friendship. Value your true friends even if you only have one that is better than having a bunch of fake friends or people you associate with. After reading this book I took a deep look at the people surrounding me and created a tighter circle for my friends and I. The book also taught me the importance of differentiating need and want. Through the entire book Gatsby (i want spoil the book for you if you haven’t read it) wanted something so bad that when he finally attained it, he knew he was better off just wanting it. So in my life I dissect things that I feel are important and I weigh my needs and wants and if my wants I can live without then most of the time I just don’t work hard to get or forget about it. These life lessons the book taught me is why it is my favorite read.

Touch

As I grap the cold door handle and push the fast twitch light switch, my feet stand on the warm rug. Rolling down the soft fluffy roll of paper with engraved flowers, I rip of four pieces. I raise the paper to my cold and runny nose and breathe out aggressively through my nose. After a few blows and wiping the paper along my cheeks, due to slimy substance that found its way to them, I crumble the soft paper into a ball and toss it into the wired trash can.

 

blowing nose