For you second informal assignment I'd like you to post your response to: A Vacation with my Mother (p.90-92)
Respond specifically to these questions:
What is the author's vantage point in this essay?
How does this perspective affect the narrative prose?
You can respond and comment on what another student has already posted, or you can post your initial thoughts.
Please ensure that you do this by the deadline date.
Thanks, Dylan
Respond specifically to these questions:
What is the author's vantage point in this essay?
How does this perspective affect the narrative prose?
You can respond and comment on what another student has already posted, or you can post your initial thoughts.
Please ensure that you do this by the deadline date.
Thanks, Dylan
Using the first-person perspective, the author suggests (as the guideline on page 89 so subtly informs her gender) her own childhood experience quite vividly. Her sentiment towards her mother's eccentricity is expressed frequently throughout the whole essay, which gives the readers the impression that she's fondly reminiscing her childhood (she DOES, in a way, criticize the 'zaniness' of her mother, but only in a playful manner). I think the said impression, actually, made it quite easier for me to drop the criticism and personally relate to her examples.
ReplyDeleteHer examples, as I mentioned above, are not very hard to empathize with, even though the readers don't have their particular share of flakiness in family. I believe it has to do with the fact that she actively includes herself in the story, which not only helps clarifying her attitude towards her special childhood, but also strengthens the connection between her examples; they all have one common 'thesis' flowing underneath - her mother's absent-mindedness was the very reason the narrator loved her.
+ it was fun to read, though I've always been the absent-minded one in my family. Self-identified one at that.
- Kim Yeonha(김연하), 2011-11214
The author uses the first-person perspective in this essay. In the first-person perspective, the author is the main character, so the author can write what she feel at the time more realistically. And through this, readers can easily understand the main character’s feeling. For example, through the part of this essay, ‘at home, we had the same situation of a loving but bemused husband trying to deal with the off-the-wall logic and enthusiasm of a frequently exasperating wife.’ (p90, paragraph 3), we can know the heroine’s feeling toward her parents directly. But as the author uses many dialogues like the happening that her mother forgot where she left her children, she gives objectivity to her essay. Also the author uses many dialogues, so we can imagine the trip of her family more vividly. Futhermore, as the author uses the first-person perspective, she concludes her essay with her attitude and thought toward her mother. Using the first-person perspective, readers feel the author’s enlightenment more sincerely.
ReplyDelete- Kang Minhee(강민희), 2011-12336
At first, she looks back on the past, from now. The viewpoint of looking back makes us think this must be a precious memory. She humorously depicts her childhood, which could have been bad enough, I mean; the eccentricity of one’s mother may be stressful. By this we can read the essay with fun. And she explains us her mother in close view, sometimes giving us some examples. Although this is a narrative essay, we can feel(?) her mother vividly and the examples let us know her a little more objectively than the author herself gave her thinking to us. Also, for she was in the trip, she is close to all of which happened. For sure, this informs how she felt through the trip so that we can empathize ourselves to her. Lastly, the chronological order used in this essay makes the essay easier to understand. If it weren’t for this order, it must be hard to be figured out.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I felt something lost in mind… I don’t have a deep humane relationship and sense of belonging nowadays. This essay, plentiful of human touch, let me “being human”.
- Ha SuBong(하수봉), 2011-12906
In the essay, author is describing her mother’s personality. In the first paragraph, she used many adjectives like gracious, charming to explain her mother. And then, she tells some episodes for further description. She tells mother’s personality quite straight forward using words like out of synchronization, flaky, eccentric. But the author’s loving tone toward mother makes me feel good about her too. In the family-trip episode, the author explains the things that happened vividly. the story of mom forgetting purse and sleeping bag , the author’s vision of getting abandoned, the mom’s idea of pitching tent in the someone’s back yard.. all shows mom’s personality. In the end, the author says gratefulness toward her mom and why she likes her mom. I could feel heart-warming affection of the author reading this essay. The whole family is embracing mom’s zaniness and adores her innocent, childlike, optimistic personality. After Reading this essay, I remembered some episodes about my mother too, and I felt good once again.
ReplyDelete-Kim JaeKyung
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ReplyDeleteThe essay is written in the first-person perspective. In the essay, the author is mainly talking about her mother’s zaniness and memories of interesting childhood with her. As a first-person narrator, the author could tell her story pretty freely and subjectively. And also, the author could describe her story and feelings quite in detail.
ReplyDeleteAs I read this essay, I could not avoid thinking of my own mother. Wise and organized, my mother never makes such foolish mistakes. For her, it can never happen to forget important things that she was supposed to take along. Rather, I am the one who is always absent-minded and flaky. Although my mother and I live apart since I started to live in dormitory, she is the one who still calls me frequently and check things that I must not forget.
Although my mother is not as lovely and cute as the author’s mother, I fully respect my mother. She always supports me with her wisdom. I wish I could be a mother who can be strong support to her own family, just like my mother.
- Jeong Mina(정민아), 2011-10603
This essay is written in the first person point of view. But the narrator is not the main character, she is just observer at the age of 11 and her mother is main character. Narrator shows anecdotes with her mother. For example, she uses dialogue with her brother to show that they are worried about their mother’s absent-mindedness. She often drop them off at a friend’s house to play and forget where she’d left them. These episodes made 11 years old girl to think that her mother is a flaky, absent-minded, genuine eccentric. The fact that narrator tells the story as if she were 11 years old girl makes narrative more credible to the readers. Young girls do not lie for their interest. They just say what they feel about the situation. So the readers get the message with no doubt and can empathize with the narrator and get immersed into the essay. The readers may remember similar stories or want to have the mother with not only absent-mindedness but also great amusement.
ReplyDelete- 2011-10630 Cho Youngtaek(조영택)