Author: Randon Billings Noble

Brief Overview: This piece come from Brevity, and is written as if it were describing the necessary information related to a health condition. The author uses this essay to address an age-old issue – the longing to be with someone that is not your current partner – and provides a fresh perspective on what is an otherwise serious topic.

Questions: Was the author writing from a place of current or past experience with this issue?

Notable Quotes: “Always use a protective layer – latex only as a very last resort, clothing is better, or, better still, several feet, a separate piece of furniture, a wall, or a building. Ideally: a state line, a continent.” “Is this choice supporting, adding to, enriching, complicating, marring, degrading, not even leaving a blip on the screen in the way in which you will see your life in the years to come? What will you be left with? Regret? Memory? Or absolutely nothing?” “The only muscle you can’t live without needs to stay whole.”

Initial Reaction: This essay is clever and witty, and describes a scenario that most people can relate to if they have ever been with someone romantically for a long period of time. I appreciate the extensive reading list, and hope to work through several of the novels that the author suggested. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece, and plan to share it with several friends.

Author: Matt Roberts

Important Vocabulary: Tanager. A small American songbird of the bunting family, the male of which typically has brightly colored plumage. Warbler. Any of a number of small insectivorous songbirds that typically have a warbling song. Glossy Ibis. Any of various chiefly tropical or subtropical wading birds (family Threskiornithidae) related to the herons but distinguished by a long slender downwardly curved bill. Barred Owls. Large gray-brown North American owl with brown eyes and a barred pattern across the chest.

Questions: What was the author’s inspiration to write this particular essay in this particular format? Answer: Hurricane Katrina.

Notable Quotes: “I am stealing from guilty pleasures to feed some dark hunger. The anti-depressants, if they worked at all, would likely become just another problem.” “Sometimes, I get up and go to the kitchen, open the refrigerator with my right hand, and stare into the clean, well-lit clutter of our dwindling groceries as if the answer to all our problems could be found there.”

Initial Reaction: The first thing that strikes me about this piece is the structure of it. Sectioned into four different and numbered paragraphs, the author seems to draw a connection to the structure of the recipe itself. Both are divided in a specific way for a specific purpose. I am also drawn to the author’s style of writing. A majority of the story he tells is detailed in a narrative, using careful descriptions of his reality and allowing the reader to give it meaning in its interpretation. I was specifically surprised by the second paragraph, as his description of attempting to feed some dark hunger is supported with examples that are meant to evoke strong emotions, and proves to be relatable and raw. The conclusion was equally as impactful, as the author himself alluded to a lack of answers and the simple fact that life often continues without a definitive ending to things.

Author: Sandra Cisseneros

“María bonita” Translation:

Remember Acapulco
those nights
lovely María, María of the soul,
remember that on the beach
with your hands
you would rinse the stars.

Notable Quotes: “We will always be little. For him we are just as we were then.” “Then everyone realizes the portrait is incomplete. It’s as if I didn’t exist.”

Initial Reactions: The contrast between the “María bonita” excerpt and Sandra Cisseneros’ memory of Acapulco is stark, and I wonder if this is the desired effect. The story begins sweet, as if the author is simply retelling a childhood memory that explains the photograph her father has above his bed. However, by the end the reader has begun to understand that the portrait doesn’t incorporate her at all, and that this memory truly is only documented in her own mind. The description of the character’s names, most notably the “Awful Grandmother” and “Aunty Light-Skin” serves as an indication of some contempt or dislike, as it is not often that people positively use descriptors in place of names. With the final line of the essay, she quotes the photographer that day at the beach, asking if the family wants a “Souvenir? A memory?” She compares herself to him, and specifically compares this essay it seems to his question. Do you want to remember this?

Author: Chen Li. He was raised in Taiwan and has published over ten books of poetry. He has received many awards for his work, and is an esteemed representative of contemporary Chinese poetry.

Important Vocabulary: Baudelaire. Charles Baudelaire was a French poet in the nineteenth century. His writing featured themes of sex, lesbianism, death, metamorphosis, depression, urban corruption, and lost innocence, which served to both gain loyal advocates and potential adversaries. Additionally, he produced memorable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. Pig’s blood cake. Pig’s blood cake is a street food delicacy served on a stick from market stalls in Taiwan

Notable Quotes: “I would ride swiftly past you. I would ride swiftly past my adulthood. And ride back to my childhood. Because I know life is worth less than a line of Baudelaire’s poetry.”

Questions: How have other authors affected the way Li views his routine and surroundings as well?

Initial Reactions: I can appreciate a beautifully and interestingly written work of literature without a full understanding of the entirety of the topic within. I have never been to Taiwan, I do not understand the impact Baudelaire has had there and in Chen Li’s life specifically. However, it was an impactful read in ways I do not entirely comprehend yet.

I had been sitting with a close friend of mine on our university campus in an outside patio, feeling confident and indignant despite being unprovoked. In a few short minutes, it would be the first time that Madeline (my soon-to-be roommate) and I could spend time together discussing our expectations for the year ahead. I had been carefully preparing, debating how I might best present myself with an aura that could effectively intimidate Madeline. I had just spent a year living with women who seemed to have a knack for preying on the weaknesses of others, and used them to manipulate and bully. Righteously angry and unwilling to compromise, I hoped to show Madeline that intimidating me was impossible, and I was uninterested in the façade of pleasantries.

When Madeline arrived at our table, she was exactly the girl I expected, and the complete opposite of me: bubbly, exuberant, and sweet. We walked together to a popular coffee shop just outside the borders of campus, and her demeanor quickly changed in response to my deliberately hostile tone. As we chatted over coffee and tea about our past and how we hoped to see our future, it became increasingly clear that the year ahead might prove difficult. She was relaxed about her expectations for a roommate, while I had clear and distinct boundaries I demanded her to follow. The contrast between our styles, beliefs, and attitude was stark: we were polar opposites. She left our conversation apprehensive of a friendship with me, and I left knowing that I had accomplished my goal.

However, as time wore on, our relationship began to shift. It was about a month into living together, and Madeline was the last one home. The anniversary of my mother’s passing, September 27, was nearly over. I was sprawled on the couch, tissues crumpled on the floor and my laptop open to a photo album entitled “Mom and I.” All day had been a transition from the bed to the couch and back again. My face was tear-soaked and swollen, and I was having difficulty focusing on anything in front of me. Outside our apartment I could hear Madeline struggling to fit her keys into the lock, and the crash of heavy bags falling to the floor as she worked to open the door. Swinging our front door open, she shouted “Fall Haul!” and bounced over to me on the couch. She embodied everything I wasn’t in that moment, and perfectly provided the light to my darkness, the energy to my lethargy. Out of her bags, she began to describe each item one by one, all pumpkin-flavored, and all for me. First the pumpkin eggnog, then the pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin pop-tarts, pumpkin yogurt…a seemingly endless array of treats that reminded me both of the things I love, and how loved I am.

Madeline’s gesture softened me, and I sobbed violently into her arms. She allowed me the space to cry when I needed to cry, and she brought me joy on a day that might otherwise prove to be the worst of my year. Although uncomfortably new at first, it was our differences that allowed her to see past my walls and care for me in ways that others hadn’t. It is our differences that have allowed us to engage in debates and share our viewpoints with one another in the hopes of learning something new. And it is our differences that create a constant and beautiful tension between the known and the unknown, the familiar and the unfamiliar. Our friendship is dynamic, continuously shifting into territories I haven’t explored in other relationships, and I’m both excited and honored to walk through life with someone like Madeline.

Resume-3

Above I have attached the final draft of my resume, complete with the necessary additions previously discussed in the classroom this past week.

As the resume is a living document, there are always improvements to be made. For instance, under education, I will add my current cumulative GPA outside of a blog post setting. Additionally, I plan to add any more relevant classes from this semester depending on my research project outcomes, and their overall applicability to the job I would apply for. Finally, I plan to add references to my resume outside of a blog post setting as well, as I do not necessarily wish to widely share my employer’s phone number or email address.

Author: Andrew H. Malcolm

When: 1984

Brief Overview: Within only four pages or so, Andrew H. Malcolm describes his relationship with his father at various points in his life, allowing the reader to gather details about how he viewed his father in each stage from the perspectives the author adopts.

Important Vocabulary: Yawning, meaning wide open. Heady, meaning to possess a strong or exhilarating effect. Incumbent, meaning the holder of an office or post. Ostentatious, meaning to be characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress or attract notice.

Questions: In order to create an effective and cohesive narrative, how did the author choose what details were necessary to include and which were unnecessary?

Notable Quotes: “The first memory I have of him – of anything, really – is his strength.” “Then, a school fact contradicted something he said. Impossible that he could be wrong, but there it was in the book.” “He had a bedside oxygen tank, and he would ostentatiously retire there during my visits, asking my help in easing his body onto the mattress. ‘You have very strong arms,’ he once noted.”

Initial Reactions: Malcolm so effectively draws his audience into what emotions he was experiencing that it becomes easy to see yourself in his shoes, as a toddler, then a child, a teenager, and an adult. The most relatable experience to the general audience was arguably his recognition of his father as human. Regardless of the age that this occurs, children will eventually come to see their parents as they are: flawed beings.

 

Author: Sandra Cisseneros

Brief Overview: Within “Only Daughter,” Sandra Cisseneros details her family dynamic, and specifically the relationship she shares with her father, by outlining the juxtaposition between his attitude toward her writing and her career-centered desires.

Important Vocabulary: Anthology, meaning a published collection of poems or other pieces of writing. Fellini, otherwise known as Federico Fellini, was an Italian film director who was one of the most celebrated and distinctive filmmakers of the period after World War II. Galavisión, a US-based, Spanish-language cable network owned by Univision Communications, Inc.

Notable Quotes: “In retrospect, I’m lucky my father believed daughters were meant for husbands. It meant it didn’t matter if I majored in something silly like English.” “When my oldest brother graduated from medical school, he fulfilled
my father’s dream that we study hard and use this—our heads, instead of this—our hands.” “He kept reading. When he was finally finished, after what seemed like hours, my father looked up and asked: ‘Where can we get more copies of this for the relatives?’ Of all the wonderful things that happened to me last year, that was the most wonderful.”

Initial Reactions: The final page of this personal essay was raw and relatable, and illustrated well the anticipation Cisseneros felt before allowing her father to read her work. Although this scenario is personal to the author and largely dissimilar than anything I have experienced, it was not difficult to find familiarity with and pieces of myself in the scene.

Author: Verlyn Klinkenborg

When: June 22, 2013

Brief Overview: Klinkenborg describes his personal experiences while teaching nonfiction writing at multiple esteemed colleges throughout the United States, and recounts a noticeable pattern of decline of interest in the humanities.

Important Vocabulary: Jargon, meaning special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand. Syntax, meaning the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. Metastasize, meaning (of malignant cells or disease-producing organisms) to spread to other parts of the body by way of the blood or lymphatic vessels or membranous surfaces; to spread injuriously. Merit, meaning the quality of being particularly good or worthy, especially so as to deserve praise or reward.

Noteworthy Quotes: “In other words, there is a new and narrowing vocational emphasis in the way students and their parents think about what to study in college.” “A technical narrowness, the kind of specialization and theoretical emphasis you might find in a graduate course, has crept into the undergraduate curriculum.” “What many undergraduates do not know — and what so many of their professors have been unable to tell them — is how valuable the most fundamental gift of the humanities will turn out to be. That gift is clear thinking, clear writing, and a lifelong engagement with literature.”

Questions: How can professionals teaching the humanities do a better job at engaging their students and helping them to realize the importance of such skills?

Initial Reactions: Through this personal essay, Klinkenborg makes it clear that he has a passion for the humanities, and seeks to help his students understand the values and skills that the humanities has to offer as a whole.

 

Author: Sherman Alexie

Brief Overview: Within “Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie uses his experience learning how to read to draw attention to the more difficult realities he faced while growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington state.

Important Vocabulary: Powwow, meaning the Native American people’s way of meeting together, to join in dancing, singing, visiting, renewing old friendships, and making new ones.

Questions: What was the reaction of Sherman Alexie’s family, and his parents in particular, to his unwillingness to act submissively and defy the unspoken cultural norms? Were they proud, or disappointed?

Noteworthy Quotes: “We were poor by most standards, but one of my parents usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or another, which made us middle-class by reservation standards.” “If he’d been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity.” “A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike.” “I read with equal parts joy and desperation.” “‘Books,’ I say to them. ‘Books,’ I say.”

Initial Reactions: Sherman Alexie uses an extraordinary aspect of his early life to highlight the differences between his actions and the expectations that were placed on the young men and women in his community. Alexie describes himself as smart, arrogant, and lucky, thereby emphasizing characteristics that directly oppose the unfortunate stereotype and expected personality traits of Native American youth.