The main focus of "Alive" by Drummond is pretty much summed up by the last sentence in the essay: "Alertness, tolerance, compassion, suspicion: none of it matters. I am vulnerable simple because I'm alive." Even though she was a police officer and had the experience and training to
not fear the bald-headed man, she was still afraid because she was not that same person she was two years before. The mear fact that she is a human made her vulnerable to any attack that might have happened.
The main focus of "Wesbury Court" by Danticat was the fire that occured in the apartment building where she lived in Brooklyn. From this, Danticat included other events that were related to the fire and how it changed her life completely. Though the neighborhood increasingly became dangerous and filled with much violence over the years, Westbury Court was still her home.
I believe that the main idea that connected these two essays together is the theme of "safety". Both wrote about tragic/scary moments in their lives that made them question if they were safe. If I were to look at the structure, Drummond decided to segment her essay using breaks in between the paragraphs in order to create tension in the reader's mind. Her essay was short and considered an easy read but had a powerful message that made a great impact on me (the reader).
With regards to Danticat's essay, she decided to write the essay without breaks in between the paragraphs. I believe she did this in order to make the story flow. Even though it seemed like her thoughts were constantly shifting from one point to something totally different, it was written in a "stream-of-conscious" (thanks Diana for coming up with this word - so perfect in how it describes the writing of this essay) type of way.
Though the essays were fairly short, the words they used throughout were powerful and made an impact in the reader. I was able to envision everything they were talking about which, in the end, allowed me to see the essays' deeper meaning and purpose as to why it was written in the first place.
Rehearsal + final questions about portfolios
13 years ago
1 comment:
That moment (or collection of them) where that mental skin of invincibility is broken is indeed a powerful one - I'd say universal.
It takes talent to be able to present the familiar in an arresting way like Drummond and Danticat did - you summed up their contrasting structures much more nearly than I did, and I liked how you pointed out the subtleties - like Danticat's "tangents that are not really tangents".
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