As I began to read Silent Dancing, I remember previous "essays" I had read in High School. These essays shared a similar component with this one, that of personal story/recollection of the past. In Silent Dancing the author recalls the experiences in tenement housing after relocating from Puerto Rico. The essay is full of descriptive language, which helps form a visual image of the very room the author lived in with words like "upholestered in bright colors (blue and yellow in this instance, and covered in the transparent plastic)....dime sized indentation...". She also incorporates other sensory words to paint an entire image for the reader including smells and the feel of objects.
In the essay, The Stunt Pilot, we see again that an essay is a personal recollection. This essay again utilizes visual imagery to convey a scene and a mood to the reader. I really enjoyed the imagery in this poem as the author used several metaphors, such as comparing the biplane to a "Steiberg fantasy" or a "klee line". The author instilled a sense of awe in the reader, which is a tribute to his skills as a writer and it points to what an effective essay should look like. This essay captured me somehow, I managed to connect with it in a way that very few other pieces of literature can do for me. Is this how English majors feel about all writing? Wow, because it is really awesome!
In the final essay, Ali in Havana, the words are dripping with description. It seems as if each and every word portrays a new and different facet of the story or setting, it is almost hard to take in because it paints such a descriptive story. The imagery she uses shows us how an essay ought to look like, a descriptive conveying of a scene, putting an image into words.
No comments:
Post a Comment