Journal 4: Food

Last night, my mom made me a large, colorful salad for dinner.  It included lots of lettuce, sliced tomatoes, crotons, shredded cheese, ham, and hard boiled eggs. This salad was topped with a creamy Caesar dressing, my favorite. The crotons were garlic flavored and crunched loudly. The shredded cheese, ham, and hard boiled eggs were the perfect addition to make this salad filling. Even the tomatoes, which I usually put aside, were good mixed in with the salad. And the Caesar dressing, it made the salad absolutely delightful.

This was a salad you’d order at a restaurant, or at least that’s what it tasted like. The taste was wonderful; I can’t even put it in words. This salad really hit the spot after my long practice. It was large, and filling, but felt healthy and left me with no regrets when I finished. I ate the whole entire thing in one sitting. I wish I could have a salad like that every night. 

Journal 3: No Wonder They Call Me A Bitch

No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch” – Ann Hodgman

(The Norton Sampler p.77)

Read the selection and write a one paragraph response to the following questions.

1.  Cite three specific examples of Hodgman’s descriptive imagery that you find to be particularly effective. 

1. “Up close my Gaines-burger didn’t much resemble chopped beef. Rather, it looked and felt like a single long, extruded piece of redness that had been chopped into segments and formed into a patty. You could make one at home if you had a Play-Doh Fun Factory” (78).
2. “In the world of canned dog food, a smooth consistency is a sign of low quality_lots of cereal. A lumpy, frightening, bloody, stringy horror is a sign of high quality_lots of meat” (79).
3. “One Purina spokesman told me that poultry by-prodcuts consist of necks, intestines, undeveloped eggs and other “carcass remnants,” but not feathers, heads, of feet. When I told him I’d been eating dog food, he said, “Oh, you’re kidding! Oh, no!” (78.)

2.  What do you think Hodgman’s purpose was in writing this essay?  What overall message/meaning do you take from the essay?  

-       I think that Hodgman’s purpose in writing this essay was to compare her better taste testing with a rather grosser food types. She is a former food critic, which means she has tasted some of the best foods. She is taking a different route to taste testing through this essay. I think she is challenging herself through test testing dog food. I think that the overall message of the essay is that we should try something different, just to know how lucky we are. Don’t take what you have for granted, because there is always worse. Example: dog food compared to human food. 

Journal 2: Death Of A Moth

1. How are the moths in the essay’s opening different from the moth at the campsite?  What do the different moths represent? 

At the opening of the essay, the moth bodies are described as wingless and huge and empty. They are reduced to a nub in the spider’s web. The moths at the campsite are singed and melted. The moth in the beginning of the essay is different from the moth at the campsite because it changes. The other moth stays the same, even while being burned for two hours. The differences represent what will remain of you after your death. Will you be the moth that died in the fire and will be remembered or will you be the other moth who faded away.

2. What lesson does the moth provide that Dillard takes back to her students? 

The lesson is whether you are willing to give your whole life to something, or will you go at your life with a “broadax.”

3.  How many references are there to fire in the essay?  What’s the larger significance of fire in the essay? 

There are references to the fire in the essay in almost every paragraph. I think the larger significance of fire in the essay is life. What you’re life will or will not turn out to be.

4. Address how each of the following quotes connect to Dillard’s overall point.  

a.      “I would rather be ashes than dust!
          I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
          I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in        magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
          The function of man is to live, not to exist.
          I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
          I shall use my time.”

                    -Jack London

In this quote, it is connected to Dillard’s overall point by saying that instead of wasting time not doing anything important, you should use your time wisely so you will do something great.

b. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

          -William Butler Yeats

Education is not the only thing you need to do something great in your life.

c. “A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.”  

          -Franz Kafka

Books are helpful to us because they provide information and imagination. 

Journal 1: Photo Narrative

Mackenzie was 17, oldest of seven other siblings. Her family was very poor and had to provide for all their children, so she decided to get a job at the local diner to pay for her college tuition. She worked Saturdays through Tuesdays 7 AM to 7 PM. Her official job was to take orders and clean tables. She despised her job, but she only had one year to save enough money to go to college. She sacrificed her social life, her school work, and family time. Three months after taking the job, Mackenzie saved $100. Three weeks after that, her mother fell sick. The only way to save her mother’s life was to have an emergency operation that totaled $75 in doctor fines. Mackenzie, feeling guilty for the large amount of time she spent at work rather than with her family, she knew what she had to do.

She had seven months left to save for college, she was determined. She picked up more days at the diner, Saturdays through Saturdays. She worked hard and saved her money in a piggy bank in her house. Eventually the day came when she had enough money to afford tuition and the fee for books. She decided when she finished up work she would enroll in classes and buy her books. She was ecstatic and couldn’t wait for her shift to end. When 7 PM came around, Mackenzie walked home only to find that her house was burned down. She discovered her mother and father were stuck inside during the fire. Mackenzie was left to take care of her siblings. She was forced to work at the diner the rest of her life and spend all the money she owned on her siblings.