Questions from “Farm Girl”

1. I think the reason Hemauer wrote this essay was to show the audience how farm work has paid off in her life, how it has made her different from her peers. Some people may take this essay as a girl just telling the story of her childhood and how it has shaped her into the person she is today or as a testament to the world today and how children are going up thinking everything will be handed down to them.
2. The audience could be anyone, her teacher, classmates even boss at work however, I think the audience is really her self. I think that she wrote this because she realized that all those mornings of waking up at 5 AM and coming straight home after school have really paid off. This comes across to be in the last two paragraphs.
3. Her credibility is exhibited because before she wrote down everything that she could remember when starting the writing process. This shows that she really thought about the story that she was about to write and didn’t just sit down and her computer and type. 
4. Her responsibility to her family is to just be there to lend a helping hand. She has to remain flexible in her daily routine to help on the farm often having to sacrifice her personal passions. Really when it comes down to it if she didn’t help out on the farm the farm could have failed, then there is no telling what would have happened to the lively hood of her family. The responsibility to her readers is to show that hard work and dedication starting at an early age is extremely beneficial in the long run.
5. At some point in everyone’s life they experience times when they have nothing in common with the people that are surrounding them-especially growing up. I think that this essay allows for everyone to recall a time in their past when they were the one sitting at the lunch table with no way to give input to the conversation or were picked last for the kick ball game.  
6. As I said in question five everyone is able to relate at one point or another. This essay reminds me of when I was in middle school and I wasn’t allowed to go to the school dances if a certain amount of my homework wasn’t complete. Often I would have to sit in silence at lunch on Mondays because I didn’t know about how wild Johnny was dancing or how many slices of pizza Molly ate. But it taught me to get my work done before going out and doing what I would rather be doing...and that has really come in hand since coming to college. Because people are able to relate like this is what helps to develop interest in her essay.
7. I think the significance is that when we are growing up little do we know but we are setting up the values that are going to more than likely carry us through life. 
8. There are more than a few times in this essay where I am able to perfectly imagine the scene that has been set up. In paragraph six she talks about each of the chores the siblings have to complete, I can see each of them completing each job with out speaking, half asleep but not complaining. In paragraph ten when she talks about sitting at the lunch table and not being able to talk about the previous nights basketball practice, I can perfectly imagine little elementary children chattering and smacking their food while one little girl is lost in her own thoughts and quietly eats her sandwich or what have you. 
9. She uses dialogue to show mainly what she is thinking but also to show what the people around her are saying that she doesn’t really know about.
10. This essay goes along in a different kind of way with Annie Dillards “An American Childhood” that essay talked about how being chased by the man in the black Buick and playing football taught her to go at life full force and to not let up no matter what. They go along together because both women take a part of their childhood with them for the rest of their life and really try to stay true to lessons learned in the past.

Hunting For Hope: Chapters 1 and 2

Chapter One:

The first thing that is important to know about this statement is what the words mean. You hear the world ecology and move on, but I realized that I don’t actually know what specifically ecology is. According to dictionary.com ecology is “the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms”. I’m not entirely sure what this quote is saying so I’m just going to take a stab at it. The definition talks about organisms interacting with their environment not only involving trees, rivers, buildings ect., but also other organisms; which is the direction I believe Sanders was leaning towards. Meaning that in our lives of learning and growing our one on one interactions with others begins to depreciate the more we are hurt and let down by people in society. Which is a shame because often people become so wrapped up in their own opinions that the often start to close off new ideas, allowing for their minds to close.

In my experience with getting let down by people I do find it hard to let new people in because I’m scared of being burned and sometimes I think that everyone is going to be like the one person that got to me. Often it is hard to let wounds made by people heal up fully. Knowing more can be a good and bad thing in my opinion; it is what one does with extra information that makes the break between good and bad. I think that eye opening experiences cover a vast range of material. They can be helpful and hurtful and even both sometimes.

Chapter Two: Fretag Diagram

1. Exposition: Summer time, Colorado, specifically in The Rocky Mountains
2. Inciting incident: The father vs. son fight over sleeping at a higher altitude with wet ground or on dry ground.
3. Rising Action: Going out on the river choosing to go with the more advanced and all around challenging trip.
4. Climax: Hitting the really rough patch on the river in Poudre Canyon and him looking at his son, seeing that Jesse was truly 100 percent happy and engaged in paddling down this river. 
5. Falling action: When he realizes that Jesse and himself are going through a stage in their relationship at him and his own father never went through.
6. Resolution: The narrator states that he is going to change and stop looking at all the bad in the world but rather start to look for hope. 
7. Denouement: There are parts to life that we don’t have any control over how they get played out, but we have to have hope that “every little thing is going to be alright”.

Essay’s Purpose:

I think the denouement of this essay really sums up the purpose that we as a society of human beings have to be open and ready for things to change. Then when those changes happen have hope that whatever that change it’s going to work out and be alright. We can’t always control whats going to happen...but that’s what makes life so much more enjoyable.

Free Write Number Two

Fifteen miles away from “the big apple” the green road sign says. You look out the windshield and see the most magnificent skyline. It disappears for a little while. You enter the Lincoln Tunnel. Everything is dimply lit and you don’t know what to expect next. The tunnel ends. Suddenly you can’t see the tops of buildings unless contorting your head and neck to look out he car window. Three nuns cross in front of you; a man pushing a hot dog cart hollers out prices of goodies he is selling; a battered woman sits propped up against the doorway of a church holding a styrofoam cup. Yellow cars dart each other and pedestrians, honking their horns in almost an angry manner. This place is totally different from your hometown where there are cows grazing in the fields and there is always a perfect blanket of fresh tobacco in the air.

You walk down a flight of concrete stairs, everything is quiet compared to the world going on up above. Over on the wall there is a map of colorful lines and seemingly random placed white dots. This is the key to getting from uptown to downtown...but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Luckily a handsome business man catches your confusion signals and explains what to do. The subway comes, blowing your hair straight back and causing you to lose your balance for a split second. Men with briefcases and women with fancy designer bags, all dressed in black with the exception of a few file off and you enter. Of course there isn’t a seat. Before you can grab the sliver pole or stabilization device the train is off pushing you into the group of people who were able to grab hold of the pole. You can’t help but to laugh at your self to your self. Four more stops, three more, two more, next stop. You exit through the open doors with several others. Now what do you do? This is the city that never sleeps and where anything can happen.    

"An American Childhood"

Scratch Outline:

1. Describes what purpose tackling has in football.

2. Tells what they did to stay active in winter months.

3. Begins a specific snowball throwing memory.

4. Introduces and depicts the Fahey Boys and Chickie.

5. Describes the passing traffic.

6. Describes a specific, perfectly made snowball.

7. Establishes the appearance of the black Buick.

8. Narrates the snowball hitting the windshield.

9. Narrates the driver pulling the car over.

10. Describes being chased by the driver of the Buick.

11. Explains the decision to split up the group in the chase.

12. Identifies the paths they took to run from the man.

13. Describes what she was thinking about while being chased.

14. Narrates more running and the feelings that the man wouldn't tire out, ever.

15. Reveals that they were caught.

16. Explains what happened immediately after being stopped.

17. Narrares all three people trying to catch their breaths.

18. Identifies the man's first words of the long rant.

19.  Narrates what she was really thinking about as he was letting them have it.

20. Describes how she didn't understand why he only chewed them out.

21. Explains that she has never been as profoundly emotionally effected since that day of being chased.

Summation:

Remembering stories from your childhood that are filled with laughter and excitement is important because I feel that we often forget what it means to live one hundred percent in the moment. In my experience the older I get the more focused I am on getting to the next level and not just being in the moment that I’m in right then. This is one of the points that Dillard was trying to get across to the readers. In the last paragraph she talks about if the man from the Buick would have killed the two of them right then she would have died totally content because never again did she have to use her entire self like she did that day running from the man in the Buick. I think that’s part of the living for the moment and living it fully. If we put everything that we had into every second of every day, imagine what could get accomplished and how much more self confident everyone would be.

At the Beginning of Dillard’s story she talks about football and the things that it taught her. One line that hit me was when she talks about tackling and how sometimes you get the opposing player and sometimes you land flat on your face    not taking anyone but yourself down; but if you are going to go for the tackle you have to go at it full on not letting up at all. Yes, this is talking about football but I think Dillard is really getting at life in general. The purpose of football showing that we have to go full force into life, expecting there to be some times when we reach our goals, but sometimes we just miss the mark completely. The important thing is that everyone SIEZE THE DAY, carpe diem!

Free Write: What is Hope

    Hope for me means that one is excited for something to happen/strongly wish for something to occur. There are two sides to hope... one being that you desire something to present it's self and to have belief/trust that a something will happen.  

When I think about a time in my life when I had hope there are several times that come to mind; sending off my application to ASU, auditioning for chairs in high school band, asking for certain christmas presents and so on and so forth. However, there was one Halloween when I was about six years old and I went to a carnival. I was not only thrilled to be dressed as a "fancy" black cat, but I also could not wait to play games and win prizes. When we got there my eyes went right to a long table completely filled with different kinds of cakes. I love cake. I walked over and looked at each cake and thought about how they would taste. About half way through I saw a perfectly iced carrot cake. I wanted to have that cake more than winning any bean bag toss or apple bobbing contest. The whole night I participated in no other event than the cake walk, hoping and wishing with all my might that the perfect carrot cake would be mine by the end of the night. Finally about fifteen rounds of walking around in a circle trying not to push people out of the way the announcer held up the flawless carrot cake. My eyes were on the prize and I was going to stop at nothing until I had what I thought was the grand prize carrot cake. The music started up and all I could think about was getting on that piece of paper when the music stopped. I made it to only me and another girl left. I took one last look at the carrot cake and knew that I wanted it. The music started up and stopped and I looked down at my feet and I was the one standing on the piece of paper...the carrot cake was MINE! For the rest of the evening I carried around my grand prize and when I got home ate a little slice. Of course there have been times when I have had hope that has meant more, but I love that story because I shows that no matter how silly or ridiculous your hopes are they can become a reality. 

"Sight"

   There are three topics in this short story by Rebekah Beall that I found to be really interesting. The use of noises, the appearance of the heron and the on going watching of more nature based television programs.
    The heron in the story is shown going out on to the water and picking up a little fish and taking it back to the shore and eating it. The narrator then talks about watching the fish go down the throat of the heron and the slight changes the heron's body had to make to accommodate the food. Herons typically symbolize strength and wisdom, but it also going with the flow of mother natures trials and tribulations. This is literally shown not only in the scene of the heron eating the fish, but also when the narrator mentions the mother giving birth. A baby being born being the human body going through natural stages.
   She also talks about only liking to watch Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. I'm not exactly sure what this represents but maybe it is because these television channels are completely factual but still unpredictable. The animals that are on these shows live in certain habits, are accustomed to certain weather and eat certain types of food. However, even though their lives are pretty predictable there are times when something unexpected happens-a predator attack, sudden extreme weather change ect. This goes back to the use of light and darkness. Every time she enters a new room she turns the lights on and is ready for anything to happen. The dark is a part of our everyday lives but we are never sure what is hiding in the dark. Darkness is like the animals on the television shows, it is a park of life and we know that there will always be darkness in life but it can also be surprising.
  Noises are also sporadically placed through out the story. There is a microwave ding, the sound of buzzing lights and the dangle of mace on a key chain. I felt like these noises helped the narrator to separate reality from daydream. Several times when she begins to become paranoid or start to daydream a real life noise comes in snaps her back from the dream. Possibly what helps to keep her from really loosing her mind. I think that we all have these times!