A Whirlwind of an Eclipse...

Have you ever been in the middle of a story when an even greater thought jumps into your head? I feel like this is how Annie Dillard told her story in the article Total Eclipse. She jumped from her personal experiences on her vacation at the inland of Washington to a deep, detailed image of a clown painting she once saw in her hotel room. Annie never stuck to one point, and if she did, she rambled on and on. Besides her gaudy, vivid sentences, she created magical pictures while writing her article. Even if the readers had no idea of what the definition of an eclipse was, it was made clear by the end of her descriptions. She amplified one moment-one memory-and carried it on...for what seemed a century.

It really caught me by surprise when such beautiful words and descriptions were turned into the comparison of corpses covering the grassy hill. The story's mood changed from unique and exciting to a dusky, depressing feeling. What I thought to be a cute love story between the author and her lover, Gary, slowly shifted into the "world's dead people rotating and orbiting around and around, embedded in the planet's crust...". At times I was confused during her story only because I couldn't really grasp the point she was trying to make.

Clearly, she used a wide variety of comparisons  to make clear the difference of a partial eclipse to a total eclipse. Anybody could gain the understanding of how different they were due to her eccentric collations between a kissing man to a married man, all the way to the temperature you feel while the eclipse is occurring above.

Even with great comparisons, minute detail, lively word choice, and a strong emotional sensation, Annie proceeded with her story eventually to make the point of waking up. She states: "We teach our children one thing only, as we were taught: to wake up." I agree completely with this utterance. She clarifies very well that the ones who do not wake up are living a "valueless" life. There is no doubt in my mind that Annie Dillard is a very intelligent author, and it is immensely portrayed in this article. I have never read such a mind twisting, beautiful article. She incorporated every memory/idea that came to her mind, but did it in a smart, formal way. Her story captures the audience in a storm of her thoughts vs. their thoughts; it is a competition to see which ones make the most sense...like Annie said, "The mind wants to live forever", so might as well try to make everything make sense while it is still working correctly.

Updike & Sontag

After reading John Updike's essay, I was left in a heartbroken mood. I had already lived through this awful tragedy, heard the horrific stories, and saw the unbearable photos, when I was just in second grade, but I had never heard someone describe it with such incredible word choice and vivid details like Updike did. He made me see war in a different way because he focused on this issue with a personal view-his family's story. Not only were the people in the towers and their family members hurt, but even the bystanders were scarred for life because of what they had to watch right above them. I never realized how affected people still are because of the events that occurred on September 9th, 2011. The connection between American Freedom and the nightmare America faced really opened my eyes. The sentence that really got my attention and ended the essay beautifully was, "The fresh sun shone on the eastward facades, a few boats tentatively moved in the river, the ruins were still sending out smoke, but New York look glorious." He describes the aftermath of a terrible, life changing event with a impeccable, beautiful picture. He was able to look over the faults New York now had and still see the pride in all the freedom we still have.

Then, I read Susan Sontag's essay, and I gained a more angry mood rather than a gloomy one. I wasn't too thrilled with her pessimistic attitude, which I felt she provided while reading her essay. She clarified in her essay that our leaders, our citizens, and our country is not perfect, but I didn't feel like she had much hope for us either. Another aspect of her essay that made me feel uncomfortable was the fact that she said the perpetrators of 9/11 were not cowards. I believe that whenever you cannot sit down and calmly talk out a conflict you are as cowardly as you can be. Bombing a country you do not get along with, only shows that you have no courage to face them as humane human beings. Kind, brave heroes fight as civil people, and they complete their actions to better their country; they don't act as uncontrollable animals and act solely to harm others. I think Sontag gave up on our country after this event, when really I believe that it only made us stronger. Clearly, any country, even the United States, has room for improvement, but one downfall doesn't mean that our country is no longer the confident, strong country it was before this terrible event happened...it shows America is strong, and we can get through any grief or hardship that passes by along the way.