On Dumpster Diving Sketchbook

Tyler Clevenger

Mrs. Parkinson

English III

04 April 2016

How does the author infuse pathos into the reading?

       In Lars Eighner's On Dumpster Diving he describes his experiences and observations while he was homeless. Eighner infuses his story with pathos to add color and emotion to his story while also allowing the reader to become more invested in his story. One example of the pathos in Eighner's story is when he is describing the process of learning to dumpster dive, in his description he says,"At first the new scavenger is filled with disgust and self-loathing. He is ashamed of being seen and may lurk around, trying to duck around things, or he may try to dive at night." (718). We've all felt the self pity and shame that Eignher describes in this excerpt, so when he talks about how a new scavenger feels we can understand more thoroughly how they feel by relating their feelings to our own. Another example of pathos in Eighner's writing is when he talks about the pizza shop that threw out pizzas that he then scavenged. In this portion of the text he says,"But the people in the shop became suspicious and began to retain their garbage in the shop overnight. While it lasted I had a steady supply of fresh sometimes warm pizza."(715). In this piece Eignher preys on our sympathy. When he says that the pizza was even sometimes warm we further understand his living condition because we realize or remember that the food he's eating is never warm and often not very fresh. When Eignher infuses his story with pathos he allows us to become further invested in his story through our emotions and he helps us to realize that just by having a roof over our heads no matter how big or small and kind of fresh, kind of warm food, we are lucky.

Catcher Vignette

 Vignettes are a form of storytelling that Holden often uses in his narrative, and they usually reveal something about his personality. For example in Chapter 15, Holden tells a story about a conversation he had with a kid waiting outside of an infirmary, after his  encounter with the nuns.

 Throughout the story, Holden words things to avoid seeming caring or emotional. The way that Holden describes the religion in his conversation ," The thing was, you could tell by the way he asked me that he was trying to find out if I was Catholic ... That kind of stuff drives me crazy," shows us that while he understates his opinion, the fact that religion was a factor in how that conversation played out deeply bothered him. This makes this vignette powerful because of the unusual way that Holden reacts to it.  

 Salinger's use of italics on certain words help to add emphasis to those words by making them more noticeable to reader.

George Saunders Voice Analysis

George Saunders

In this portion of Saunders’ speech he gave at Syracuse University he talks about kindness. In this meaningful speech he employs multiple techniques in order to show his voice as a writer and speaker. Some of these techniques are narrative techniques, exhibition of perceptivity, and offering of surprising information and observations.

                In his speech and in the video that goes along with the kindness portion, Saunders uses narrative techniques to help deliver his message and voice. He does this in three ways, movement from beginning to end, dialogue, and imagery. The movement in the speech is a little abstract because the same supporting idea travels with the speech however he moves his focus from “Ellen” to how people should treat others in general. He uses dialogue such as,” Your hair taste good?” to help emphasize the bullying and rejection that Ellen had to face in his school and neighborhood. Finally he uses Imagery do describe how he saw Ellen, with her old lady glasses or her facial expression when she was bullied. His descriptions help us see in our mind what he saw when he was in school and therefore help us connect.

                The next technique Saunders uses is his exhibition of perceptivity. He uses this when he talks about how people should treat others. He explains that simply being nice to someone is not enough but you should make sure others are kind to that person as well and if that person feels alone or rejected you should attempt to change that and make them feel like they belong. This is an example of his perceptivity because the average person would probably not think about being king in the way that Saunders does. This perceptivity adds to his voice by shoeing that he is a deep thinker with string opinions that he is not afraid to argue for.

                The final technique that Saunders employs in order to create his voice is his offering of surprising information and observations. Throughout his speech Saunders shows us many things he notices and remembers about Ellen. Some of his observations include seeing her standing alone in her yard afraid to leave or his feeling of regret even 40 years later, he also includes a twist when Ellen simply moves away instead of perhaps finding friends or acceptance of some sort. This helps us see an observant side of Saunders as well as showing us a compassionate and sympathetic side from his regret all of which add a sense of wisdom to his overall voice as a writer.

Catcher in the Rye 9-10

Blog Option One:  Considering a writing technique/ studying symbolism in the text.

http://darynkagan.wordpress.com/2014/11/09/your-rattle-no-one-else-can-hear/

Please create a connection between the article above and our discussion of the baseball mitt.  In this article above, how does the writer use a simple discussion (the complaint about the rattle in the car) to push forward a greater idea?  What is this article really about? Also, could this second-half of this article apply to Holden in some way?  How so? Please quote from the article and the novel within your response. 

In both the blog above about the car and Holden’s essay we see a simple object such as a baseball glove or a rattle in a car being a symbol of a deeper and more sensitive and emotional problem within people. Just like in Catcher, no one else can understand your symbol, whether it’s a mechanic who can’t hear your rattle or a teacher who doesn’t understand your brother’s glove. This idea shows that while in the blog post the author talks about the car she is really talking about the deep rooted problems we all have in our lives. These problems can be as simple as a stressful life or trip, however, in Holden’s case he has the stress and weight and sadness of his younger brother’s death which we can see in his narration of the baseball glove that keeps him moving and now we can see that Holden has created a shell that he refuses to shed for anyone except, occasionally, the reader. Because of this shell Holden has created no one else can validate his struggle and he appears to become a troubled child who refuses to apply himself and is repeatedly thrown out of schools, but when he opens his shell for the reader we see a much more sensitive and caring Holden than the other characters see and because of this we see a diverse and complex character instead of a failure.

Summer Reading Entry Four

I chose this book because my brother and mom have both read the book and said it was a great book so I decided to read because it was familiar and because I was recommended it. While reading this book I noticed that it seemed somewhat similar to the book Outsiders because it seemed like the same kind of environment and also the characters seem similar. If I were to recomend this book to someone it would be my grandmother because she likes to read mystery books and she was alive near the time period of the book so I think she could relate to it more than I could.

Summer Reading Entry Three

An interesting part in the book Monster is occasions that the author gives possible explanations of the crime. I find these parts interesting because they firstly give me ideas on what might have happened and also allow me to compare my ideas to the authors writings. Others might like these parts as well due to the fact that it kind of gives a break from the court setting and helps to create an image and understanding of the crime. Finally I think someone who enjoys books about mysterys as I believe that this book seems to have a little bit of mystery to it in the fact that it is following a court case.

Summer Reading Entry Two

One thing about Monster that really sets it apart from other books is the way it is written. The book seems as if its a screenplay with Steve's journal or thoughts between the different scenes this I think makes this book unique which I like. As I read this book i do think it is a lot like other books and movies that have a court theme like Monster. In the book obviously all the criminals main intentions are to try to lower their sentences and if at all possible stay out of prison but what I think is more interesting is the intentions of the other major characters like Steve's attorney who in my opinion genuinely wants to help Steve get out of the mess he's in by showing how different his character traits are as compared to the other three criminals but then it would appear that the assistant district attorney wants to see the lot of them rot in prison seeing as how she calls them monsters.