How a Story is Told

    How a story is told is important because nobody makes the same interpretations. Although the plot remains the same, everyone has different feelings toward it. Looking at the story from different perspectives results into various conclusions being drawn by each person. If “Three Little Pigs”, one of the most famous tales around the world, is told by different people, our impressions for the pigs might change. While we translate the tale in our own way, we create a personal style that is unique. Also, if story teller’s tone changes during the story, even boring parts might seem interesting. However, if the tone is flat all the way through the book, climaxes not only become dull, but also are ruined.

   A summary of a story is insufficient in conveying the emotional weight of the tale because summary is too broad. Summary only collects brief parts from each chapter. Specific details from every chapter wouldn’t be included, thus changes the way how audience understands the story. While leaving out details, we might miss parts of why certain actions are done, why the characters’ emotions changed. With these questions in mind, and not fully understanding what’s going on, it is hard for the audience to enjoy the reading completely.

Think as a Reader/Writer

The writer, Alice Walker, is surprised at the modesty of her mother’s desires. Her mother has moved from the dream house to a small, tight apartment. Her mother has hardly any thirst for a cold or a hunger for a piece of fried chicken or fish. Moreover, the mother’s possessions seem to become less every time the author visits her.

Whenever I see ketchup, I would remember my friend who is crazy for it. This friend who I met in the basketball team once told everyone that she really loves ketchup. She could even eat merely ketchup without having any French fries. That was the first time I’ve ever seen the situation. Since then, I always relate ketchup with this cool friend who is fervor for ketchup.

This author’s way of expressing herself is in an expressive style, which conveys a writer’s thoughts and feelings in her own unique voice. The voice of her writing is informal because she use colloquial or daily conversation words. In addition, her way of writing is emotional because she said that the big blue bowl that she got from her mother’s place full of whatever was the most tasty thing on earth. The author learned from her mother of letting go of possessions easily, without emphasis or regret. And, her mother gave Alice a symbol of what she self represented in the writer’s life.

Writing as self-discovery

  Writing and life are alike because while we are coming up with ideas for what to write about, we refresh our memories of events that happened in our lives. Before developing an essay, we always make an outline listing some general ideas. At the same time as this process proceeds, we are going through a voyage of discovery. We not only find good stories in our lives that we can write about, but also discover more things out of ourselves. I remembered when I wrote about the “significance essay” for college application, I didn’t come up with any ideas at first. I decided to sit in front of my desk and rethink carefully for every event that happened before. After the journey of discovering, I found good stories that were touching. At last, I used one of these stories and wrote an essay. To me, writing definitely serves as a vehicle of self-discovery.

Considering Reflections

   As we grow up, we are constantly influenced by other people or things. Sometimes, others influence on us can be so small that it’s hard to notice we’ve changed. People often talk or think about the effects that they have on others or affected by others because these effects shape what we’ve become. Every aspect in our lives is influenced by these effects.
   I remembered the year when I went to Canada to visit my mom’s friend. An event happened which affected me deeply since then. My mom’s friend had a small dog, and she never went to school because she was too old. I think the dog was cute, so I touched her softly. While I stretched out my hand, she suddenly bit my thumb. I was shocked for few seconds, then I cried out loudly because it hurt badly. I could clearly see the bitten trace and blood flooding out on my thumb. Although my thumb had recovered, but the painful wound stays in my memory forever. Now, whenever I see dogs would recall my miserable memory of bitten by the dog which looked adorable.