Bragg's Essay 'Pretty Girl'

Does the introduction provide relevant background information such as title, author, and essential mini-plot summary? Indicate any additional information the writer might add.

What would typically be considered the introduction spans the first ten paragraphs. She covers the background of her subjects and her opinion of different writing techniques in great detail, much like an author would plan out the background of a character. The introduction is also where she explains the broad theme of the essay, about how there are some things in the world that cannot be taught. The whole essay is summed up by the line “[i]n the absence of a story, they set out to find a theory, formula or a technique.”

The introduction is a frame for the rest of the writing to fill. Naylor discusses how language is the subject of her piece, and although the written word is what has kept her going throughout her life she still feels that the written word is inferior to the spoken. Her arguments in the introduction are clear and easily understood. She is portraying what how powerful she feels the spoken word to be. Naylor states, “Dialogue achieves its power in the dynamics of a fleeting moment of sight, sound, smell and touch.” (460) This helps the audience understand the power of a spoken word. Naylor takes the position that words either written or spoken don’t take on meaning until a consensus assigns one. Naylor states, “Words themselves are innocuous;

Figurative language also plays a big part in this story. It is a very important literary element. The author claims on page 61, “ ‘ You’re going to find liberty when you get to the United States. ’ ” In the story, Liberty was an example of actual liberty. The girl in the story said dog represented actual liberty. The story used the word as a metaphor. On page 57 it states, “ ‘ It was a special breed with papers, like a person with a birth certificate. ’ ” It is noticeable that the dog will become significant to the girl. It was a special dog, it was American. “ ‘We will call him Liberty. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ Papi quoted the U.S.A. Constitution.” This is also a metaphor. Once again they are calling the dog liberty. Liberty symbolizes the actual liberty they are trying to obtain in America. Figurative

The book is about a boy and his dog that might not sound bad, but it takes place in the Jim Crow south and it is a black family. The book has lots of racist things in it and it makes the book even sadder because the family is not respected and it is not treated equally. The quote that I chose was from the policeman when he came and arrested the father. The quote is “ Get the dog out of the way and hold him if you do not want him dead.” That quote came from page in the book Sounder. That quote was good because it showed how badly the blacks were treated back in the time that this book takes place. So both of the books have bad and sad things that happen, but they also have death that is the worst because, it is infinite you will never forget about it and it will haunt you for the rest of your life. In the two books the people cope after their lose by being sad and getting the thing that keep you busy. The mother gets a job so that she can earn money so that they can have a house and food which helps her cope because it helps her stay

To open up to her major points, the author starts with introducing the main topic in a dramatic way. She begins with not naming what exactly she is talking about as well as sizing it up to have a negative connotation such as

Lines two through five move past depicting her as the mother and express how she feels embarrassed that her works were published before she was ready to share them with the world and without her consent. She says that the "child" had been by her side until "snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true" (line 3). Basically she is saying a trusted person "snatched" her work from her without permission to take them to England to be printed. Had it not been for her brother-in-law taking her work back to England and getting them printed they may have never been known. The intimacy and feeling she shares with her work is like that of a mother and child and that bond was infringed upon when her work was "exposed to public view" (line 4). The intrusion of her brother-in-law getting her work printed is the cause of feeling that follow. Ironically the next thing she talks is the shame she has been thrust upon her by not being able to perfect the work before it was published. This is illustrated in line five where she writes, "Made thee in rags," as to say her work is like a child dressed in rags.

for instance, in the text, when he stated words like ``excruciating pain``, instead of saying, it hurt a lot. or ``March rain drilling his jacket and drilling his body and washing away the blood that poured from his open wound.`` instead of saying, it started to rain harder.Lastly,he hooked the reader in, by creating pictures using all of this. for example, the higher level words add feeling to the text. in the text, for instance, when the author says ``excruciating pain,`` I could almost feel the pain Andy was going through. the author adds picture to that by describing the knife, when it cut Andy.(The knife entered just below his rib cage and had been drawn across his body violently, tearing a wide gap in his flesh.) but then we also know, that none of this wouldn't have happened if Andy had been

This made it feel a little like watching a movie. For instance, I could picture Opal, the woman in the chocolate store and imagined her as being skinny with short brown hair. I could really get a sense of the characters. The books was written well in describing the scenery. I could picture the aunt driving up the coast after the funeral and her laying on the bed and eating chocolates and being grouchy. I also like that her pet was a chinchilla. It made her seem even more eccentric and odd.

With the structure of this essay, I opted to go with a shorter introduction to merely set a light groundwork on what the two additional frames would build upon. Dr. Moe suggested this type of intro and I found that anything much longer than this would almost seem like filler that would only take away from the true meaning of the essay. In addition, I expanded my argument of Muriel Rukeyser’s essay to build a complete frame rather than just a brief foundation before diving into Alexie. This was an effective move in my eyes because her essay allowed for this expansion and offered many good quotes and points to build another frame from. With this larger portion of the essay established, it made my following frame even stronger than previously.

The mother in the story also proves that people are judging. Through the use of characterization by Edward P Jones’ “The

Throughout the essay, the use of vernacular speech can be observed when looking at the dialogue between characters. For example, “Good day, Mrs. Henderson. Momma responded with “How you, Sister Flowers?”. In the dialogue between Mrs. Henderson and Mrs. Flowers, it can be seen that Flowers speaks respectively with sophistication while Mrs. Henderson speaks carelessly using an older southern tone. This results in a clear comparison between the characters in the essay which represent the importance of education and vocabulary. The constant use of the wrong verb by “Momma” bothers the author, giving us a better idea of language’s role in her life. In addition, the author foreshadows part of the lifeline, so we gain a better understanding of the story when the lifeline is presented later on.

Another useful tool in analyzing a poem is to identify poetic devices, meter, and a rhyme scheme. Through her deft use of extended metaphor, Bradstreet weaves an intricate web of parallels between parent and author and between child and book--both relationships of creator to creation. This use of metaphor allows the reader to relate emotionally to Bradstreet’s situation. In line seven, we see the uses of litotes, “At thy return my blushing was not small,” to express the depth of her embarrassment. She also uses metonymy in line eight to express her pain more clearly, “My rambling brat (in print) should mother call.” The simile used in line nine stresses her objection to the published work, “I cast thee by as one unfit for light.” Then in line 19, the poetic device of consonance is used which provides emphasis on her warning, “In this array ‘mongst vulgars may’st thou roam.” In this poem, through the use of personification and apostrophe Bradstreet conveys her feelings and emotions. Anne Bradstreet ensures her poem’s success by linking the triumph and tragedy of authorship with the pain and pleasure of creating and nurturing human life. The meter used is

Even though it was not stated in the introduction as a whole, the thesis is expressed throughout the selection

During the introduction she uses short direct sentences as to keep her audience engaged. Then she begins to tell us personal stories about the books she read as a child and how she started to write stories at a young age. She also makes some jokes in paragraph two such as, ‘All my characters were white and blue-eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out,’ she makes these jokes to keep the audience entertained throughout her speech. In paragraph three she is still introducing the speech but in paragraph four she