Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The Affects from Writing Down the Bones

     As we crawl closer to the semester, there are so many stories, poetry, and creative essays that we've gone through and dissected. There were also some great books that we sifted its depths to find the meaning of the story/stories. From all of what we read, the book, Writing Down the Bones, will always be my favorite. From the day we started reading it, I was hooked. Goldberg's words inspired me and opened the door wide open to write. I have never really wrote freely, so her advice really helped me with my work and the class. The author writes her quirky sentences that make you laugh while it hypnotizes you to read more pages. I devoured this book! Each chapter individually tells you a flowing story with a moral that can be used for writing, as well as other obstacles that are thrown into our lives.
     This book was a great pick me up and inspiration to read. It really helped me get relaxed and comfortable with writing. During high school, I never felt that I could freely write. The work always had to have a type of strict strict structure. This book opened my eyes that my writing can be structured and sound creative at the same time. I just have to let it flow into something great. I started to follow her advice and write everyday. This extremely helped me formed better sentences and become more creative with details and descriptions. At the end of the book, my desire of writing increased greatly. I feel more confident in my work, as well as enjoy writing more. 
     The Girl with the Blackened Eye is another writing piece that was interesting and somewhat inspired me. The raw details in the fiction blew my mind, especially how they were extremely attention grabbing. Although the story is very dark, it increased the drive in me to try showing more detail into my story. It was a goal of mine to create a story that was just as deep and suspenseful as this one. It's so cryptic, the fiction story makes you read it over again and closer to figure out the meanings that are hidden throughout it. If I was able to make a fiction as close as that one, I felt golden.
     With these two pieces that we read during this semester, I think it really opened my eyes on how to improve my own work in this class and in other classes. They also helped me create a better connection with my writing, to the point where I can actually be proud of what stories I made. I will continue throughout my schooling to look back on these pieces of work to make sure I strive to improve my writing. Goldberg's book will continue to be an inspiration in my life, as well as in my writing outside of this class. Taking this class has helped me in many ways and I truly enjoyed reading every piece of work, from the packets to other classmates' work. 

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Opinions on "Horseradish"

     While reading the book, "Maps to Anywhere," I've read a few essays that I truly enjoyed. One of them that stands out the most is the essay, "Horseradish." This essay calls to me more than the others because I can relate with it. The essay shows the satisfying, bittersweet moment of pleasure and pain. This dynamic duo is the sensations someone feels when they eat something super spicy. I am a big fan of this and so is the majority of my family. If I could replace the essay with my own words, the essays would be almost the same. The "moral" or main point of the story is relate-able as well as interesting.
      One of my favorite things about this creative essay is the details. The details of the steps that the father is going through as he took a tiny bite of horseradish was so realistic, I could taste the bittersweet satisfaction in my own mouth. Even at the part where he tries to suck on the ice cube was relate-able, and it is even more when he knows that the solution was futile. My mother and I are like that too. We absolutely love to eat spice things, even if it makes our heads go through the roof because of the heat. Tasting something that is super hot and good is almost like an addiction. Once you've tried it and had the big dopamine dump, your taste buds crave more. Then the part of your mind that is susceptible to addiction craves more and sends you on a search for more spicy foods and condiments. Once you're hooked, you don't care what the consequences are. The part where the father's doctor even tells him to avoid spicy foods, but he still occasionally breaks that rule with eating a dollop of horseradish. Then as a consequence, he is buckling over in pain and the son has to take him to the emergency room.
      The father realizes that he cannot live on the edge and bend his doctor's rules anymore, so he fulfills the rush with pranking others, such as the waitress. I think that's where the main point comes in. You can only bend the rules so much before it comes back to hurt you. So you have to settle with something that gives you the same satisfaction, but it has to be less harmful. The best pleasure can come back with worse pain. The combination can be bittersweet in different ways, and we must see that and be cautious of it. If there is continuation of the combo, there can be some consequences. So once that happens, a new combination must be found and to be used instead. In the end, it was bittersweet for the father to experience the sensations from the horseradish and it was bittersweet for him to stop eating it for his sake.
      Overall, I really enjoyed this creative essay and the message behind it. The author made the content very relate-able, as well as like-able. I think any reader who falls upon this story will enjoy it as much as I did. We all have something that is bittersweet to us. Whether it is a small amount of horseradish or something else. It is a great essay to share with others, as well as a good example for writers who are having trouble with composing their creative essay. The details is so descriptive that it makes the content very realistic. We all have some type of addiction, whether it is good or bad, and we must be able to know when it is unhealthy for us and need to let it go.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

"The Biggest, Most Beautiful Balcony in the World" Reflections

     The book we transitioned to this week was, "Maps to Anywhere." A variety of creative essays are combined into this book. Some are from the same author, while other essays are from different writers. Each individual essay has it's own unique message. Some of the messages are very easy to find and others need a little time for analyzing before seeing the message. The essay, "The Biggest, Most Beautiful Balcony in the World" is one of those stories you have to read over and over again to grasp the main point or message.
     The essay starts off by having the narrator share a memory with his niece when she was little. They would play a game where he would ask her a question like, "What's the funniest thing in the world?" Although the narrator never remembers what his niece's answers were, he specifically remembered her facial expressions as she searches for an answer in her mind. The little girl would take a minute or two and search through each horizon in her brain to formulate the perfect answer. The way how the narrator describes her ways of thinking was marvelous. Each sentence is attention grabbing. It scoops you up and takes you on a journey to see what it would be like to be inside a little girl's head. That's the thing with little kids, they can search big and wide for a simple answer, but yet they give you the most unique answer that no adult could never think of. Which does make me wonder why the narrator never remembered his niece's answers, because if I was him, I certainly would.
     The next part of the essay indicates that the narrator's niece has grown up. It is clear that she is not the same little girl anymore and that she is more conserved about her thoughts. She attains the "American Dream" idea of being married and having a big house. I think that the narrator is a little sad about this. He loved playing that silly game with her and seeing her explore her imagination. Now the imagination that she has is no longer big and wild. This is where I can see a possible message. When we are little, nothing stops our imagination. We used to think about so many things and when we are going into adolescence and then adulthood, we lose that sense of imagination. I think the narrator feels like he still has that part of his imagination and he wished others still had it too, like his niece. As he looks at the saddest balcony in the world, everything that was in the balcony made it feel sad. I think he is reflecting on people, instead of the balcony. We are taught in order to survive, we must get a job and follow these rules. When people do that, some aren't necessarily happy or do not have anything exciting in their life. The narrator doesn't want to be a part of that. He wants an exciting life that is full of fun and imagination, or in his words, "A more ornate balcony to gaze up at." We only have one life and it is a shame on how much we get rid of our imagination, or beauty, in order to conform into the ideas of someone else that thinks that way is survival.
      Although this may not be the exact message the author is trying to show, the message I saw made me really like this story. When I first read it, I was a little confused on what the key point was. Then, when I thought and read more, I came to the message that I felt from the story. This makes the essay truly inspiring. It puts a perspective that it's so easy to forget how much excitement and imagination we had as a child. Also its the fact that we are to give up so much of that, "In order to survive." There is so much good we can do with the same imagination as we had when we were little. Some of the youngest kids have the brightest ideas that can make the world a better place. This essay has a really unique message and I think it is one of my favorites so far into this book. I look forward into reading more essays that can give me a inspiring message, like this one.