Blog 3

I was assigned George Saunders, "on the Importance of kindness." Throughout the video I watched, I acknowledged many aspects of writing voice. This allowed me to gather information and further understand the message of the video.




Narrative
The first writing voice technique that I acknowledged as the audience was Saunders use of imagery. I noticed this in the description of Ellen. George states, "Ellen was small, shy, and she wore these cats eye glasses that only old ladies wore at the time." This description gave me a glimpse of the appearance of this character. Another example of imagery is when he says, "When she was nervous, which was pretty much always, she had a habit of putting a strand of hair in her mouth and chewing on it." This example gave me an insight of what Ellen's personality may have been like, and led me to the conclusion that she may be semi antisocial and uncomfortable in certain situations.


Perceptivity
George Saunders does a great job of describing this character and helping us feel empathy for her. Mid way through the video we can see that the writer shows insight regarding Ellen. He no longer is describing Ellen in a surface level way but allows us to really dig deeper as he says, "I could see this hurt her. I still remember the way she looked after such an insult." This phrase not only allows us to understand what Ellen had to deal with but gave us further details on her reactions and responses.


Surprising information
As the video continues we learn not only about Ellen, but about George as well. As he transitions from his story about Ellen to his personal feelings he states, "What I regret most in my life are my failures of kindness." I consider this a quote that the audience was not expecting and we learn more about Saunders intentions and thoughts. I believe this allows a shift to a more serious tone.

Blog 2

There are many powerful moments throughout chapter 15 and 16 of The Catcher in the Rye. In class we reviewed the speech from Jeff Bezos, and saw that through his dialogue he produced a powerful speech that left a powerful message. I believe that in chapter 16 we get the same effect from Holden. During this chapter Holden is in the playground and uses vivid description allowing us to understand this setting.  On page 118 we see Holden describing his setting when he says, “It was lousy in the park. It wasn’t too cold, but the sun still wasn’t out, and there didn’t look like anything in the park except dog crap and globs of spit and cigar butts from old men, and the benches all looked like they’d be wet if you sat down on them.” Through this Vignette we are able to envision the setting that Holden is in. I believe the author used commas instead of periods in this section for a reason. I believe he wanted the description to flow and allow our imagination to start running. Directly after this quote the author starts using short sentences to pull the reader back and allow the shorter sentences to stand out when it says, “She likes to skate near the bandstand. It’s funny. That’s the same place I used to like to skate when I was a kid.” I believe this is a very powerful and important moment in the novel. This allows us to catch a glimpse of Holden’s softer side and understand him a little bit more.  Through the combination of longer and shorter more choppy sentences, we are able to get the full effect of this vignette.

Catcher in the Rye 9-10

Ashley Singleton

Blog option one:

The author of this article uses a simple discussion to trigger something within the reader. This author uses an everyday problem of the rattling noise in her car to express the “rattles” that we all face. The author compares her car rattle to “a thorn in your side that others can’t see or detect that you’re told to get over.” To me, a rattle is a self-battle, in which case, Holden has many rattles. “He’s dead now. He died of Leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946.” This is one of Holden’s rattles. The death of his brother Allie and the pain that comes along with it. Holden finds peace in the presence of Allies old baseball mitt and the positive memories that come along with it. We all have our own rattles, and some may be louder than others. We must learn to find our baseball mitt, for our rattles may never be silenced.