Garrison Keillor's How To Write A Letter Analysis

Garrison Keillor’s “How to Write a Letter” gives instructions on how and why a shy person should write a letter. Keillor believes that when someone is shy they don’t put a lot into the conversations they are in, leaving them unknown to people around them. His solution is to write a letter. Keillor explains that, “…a shy person writes a letter. To be known by another person…”(506). He continues on to add that treating writing a letter as an obligation only serves to be counterproductive to the task. A person who is guilt ridden over not writing will only make it that more difficult for them to write. To Keillor the task of writing a letter should flow smoothly and be a form of self discovery. So, when you have finished not only have you written a successful letter but have found out things about yourself you didn 't know before. …show more content…
At first you avoid anything to do with that fear but soon realise that it is interfering with your life in ways that you didn 't think possible. But, just as there are instructions on how to write a letter there are instructions on how to get over your fears. Fear is sometimes the one thing holding me back from making a decision or going for something that I 've wanted for a long time, but when I finally got over my fear life became easier.
When I was growing up I had a deathly fear of getting attached to things ranging from pets, people, and even silly things like name tags. I moved a lot and things didn 't always stay the same so every time I did get attached to something I would either have to leave it behind or it would get lost during the moving process. For a while it was okay I made sure I never got too attached to anything and kept a safe distance from people I thought I would lose. But, the only thing it did was make life harder for me because I was constantly aware of everyone I spoke to and every possession I