Comparing Mary Bebane's Ashen Guy And The Back Of The Bus

Improved Essays
Anyone can have an outstanding story to tell, but in writing it can only be manipulated into a work of art with the use of narration. Narrating a story from first person has created the most enjoyable stories. “The Norton Sampler had a wonderful selection of narratives that fell under this category. I enjoyed the structure and layout of Thomas Beller’s “Ashen Guy” and most of Mary Bebane’s “The Back of the Bus.” The two essays gave a decent depiction of the event(s) that occurred.
I particularly enjoyed reading Beller’s “Ashen Guy.” It was easy to follow his story throughout the text. I never was unsure what was happening in the essay. This was due to the excellent framework and organization the author used. It assisted in creating an excellent

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Overall the essays that we have read this semester have been good. There are a few essays in particular that I think benefited me the most was “The Time to Act I Now” written by Al Gore, “Just Walk on By” written by Brent Staples, and the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” written by Martin Luther King. These essays have benefited me in a numerous amount of ways in which I am going to explain how their writing styles helped me become a better writer. Staples helped me a lot in which he taught me to explain my reasoning fully so that the audience know exactly what I am talking about. Another thing that Staples taught me was to explain the setting of the story in full detail so the readers can visualize what’s actually happening in the story this…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Patricia Hampl’s “Memory and Imagination” provides a coherent insight about what a memoir consist of. Hampl begins to explain that a memoir is “a matter of transcription,” meaning that one has the power to present what details they choose to share. As a memoirist, you soon begin to question whether your memory is a reliable source or if your mind filled those empty gaps with desirous details. However, those memories that we simply remember must have been part of a life-changing moment that was not apparent to us at that moment. Although one intended goal could be accuracy, writing a memoir could help one discover what they know compare to the assumption of what happened.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Gatsby Admirable

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It is human nature to warp reality in stories and myths to gain popularity and appeal. Although Nick Caraway insists at the beginning of The Great Gatsby that both he and Gatsby are trustworthy and admirable men, his implications later in the book indicate that he may have left out Gatsby’s negative traits to boost his own popularity. Through portraying himself as the extraordinary Gatsby’s lone companion and leaving out anything that removed Gatsby’s prestige, Nick attempted to convince readers that Nick was admirable. Autobiographers have the tendency to attempt to gain the support of readers before beginning the actual story. The narrator is immediately identified as “the good guy” in what should be a simple recollection of their life.…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The storyteller” is an article by Sandra Cisneros about her life journey beginning from post graduate school to a school teacher. In between she writes about her life in the point of views of a dependent, a growing writer, and a teacher, with short descriptions that gives the reader a glimpse of her mentality on each stage. All that is mixed up into the life of an average Hispanic woman from Chicago. Halfway through her article, during her “growing writer” stage, Cisneros writes a paragraph about what her and her friends do together.…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Linda Chen Mr. Felder AP Language & Composition 25 August 2016 Comparison of On Writing: A Memoir and On Writing Well Stephen King’s memoir, On Writing, is a novel about King’s experiences as a writer and was effective in teaching amateur writers what it is truly like to be an author. Although his teachings are not as direct in his book as Zinsser’s, most of his rare advice are just as useful. Overall, Stephen King applied many of the concepts suggested by William Zinsser into his memoir, however there are parts in King’s book where Zinsser’s teachings are not applied.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The air sirens wail like spoiled children as the snowfall beats down from English skies. In the States, Oppenheimer and his constituents are drafting the first of many blueprints of a bomb that will eventually force the Japanese out of World War II. Several thousand miles away, church bells ring for my great-grandfather and his new wife in Italy. Just like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, he is wearing his military uniform. I pass by their wedding pictures whenever I visit him, lining the cracked wallpaper of his room in a local nursing home.…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Narrator’s point of view is a very important factor in a story. How a story is perceived is highly influenced by the perspective from which the story is being told. While comparing two stories, the point of view of the narrator is an important point to consider. After analyzing “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin it’s clear that: the narrator’s point of view is vital to “The Yellow Wallpaper”, but nowhere near as important to “The Story of an Hour”. Because the “The Yellow Wallpaper” uses first person to narrate the story it helps the reader to understand the reasoning behind the actions and feelings of the protagonist.…

    • 1526 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    I surprisingly found this week’s assignments fairly interesting and easy for me to understand if I took my time to read and analyze what the writer was saying. I really liked that "Sandman" used letters throughout the story instead of just a normal writing style. It added interest because it was not just a normal story to me. Both Hoffman and Gogol used the double perspective in their writing, which is still used today. "…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Memories are what builds a person’s personality and outlook. Collected as a human’s life runs its track, decisions are made based on what knowledge their senses gather and processed through a window of perspective. However, this window itself was formed by memories, its foundation and framework constructed by the experiences of childhood. Impressionable and void of history, what happens in the youthhood may drastically affect all future choices, goals, and relationships to be made. Ralph Ellison narrates the portions of his earliest days in the semi-autobiography “On Being the Target of Discrimination”, where he recalls the effects of racism had on his life.…

    • 1395 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    English 101 Portfolio

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The essays contained in my portfolio are part of the assignments written for the course English 101, which I took the first session of Summer 2016 at Joliet Junior College. This compilation of papers shows my progress and the effort I put to complete some of the basic core requirements to achieve an associate degree. The portfolio consists of: a literacy narrative essay, a synthesis with two sources and two argumentative essays. The essays represent my personal opinion about diverse topics assigned by the instructor. In the paragraphs below, a review of each paper will be given, complemented with a reflection about my writing performance and progress in the course.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    James Alex Plunk February 23, 2017 FWS Literary Journalism Kindley Utilizing Narration Narration is the way in which writers communicate with the audience. Authors have multiple options when deciding how to narrate their stories. The way that they employ narration can affect how the writing comes across and can result in different responses from readers. An author’s choice in how he or she narrates their writing is directly correlated with their objective for the piece.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Two of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado, are told through first-person perspective. Some critics dislike first person point-of-view because it only shows the story through one perspective. The reader is confined in the narrator’s mind, unclear if what other characters think about. Also the story can change depending on what the narrator shows. If the narrator’s mind is altered, then the story is too.…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My History As A Writer Throughout my lifetime I have come to love and absolutely hate writing. The reasoning of the assignment or topic has a lot to do with my affinity and disgust. Although learning new things, like writing, was something that I loved doing in elementary school, that all changed when it was daily implemented. As an art form I recently come to love writing down my thoughts, ideas, opinions and stories.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Reflection Of My Writing

    • 1448 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Like I previously stated I learned how to do many things with my writing this semester. The first essay we wrote, a narrative, was probably my favorite essay to write. Although it was my favorite, it was definitely not my best. I wrote my essay and felt like it was complete and worthy to turn in. Little did I know that was not the case.…

    • 1448 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Annotated Bibliography Alexie, Sherman. “A Good Story.” The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing. Eds. Rise B. Alexrod, Charles R. Cooper.…

    • 1869 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Decent Essays