All my life has been spent on mud roads. By the time I was 8, I knew every kid I'd ever know in that town. I'd be in school with them forever.
At 10 years old, I met my soul mate. Sam was a knobby-kneed little thing with straw hair. She had teeth too big for her mouth, and a mouth too big for her own good.
By the time we were 12, you wouldn't catch one of us without the other. And if you did, you'd know there was something to worry about.
When we were 13, Sam and I'd spend our days swinging from ropes and fishing for nothing in the canal behind our land.
When we turned 16, we'd take dad's truck to the old steel bridge and dare each other to jump. That truck never did stay clean for more than a day.
We were sisters for the better part of our lives. We'd share stories of all the adventures we'd have together. Once we were grown, we were gonna leave this ruddy redneck town and do something worth doing. We were gonna move into the city together. Work at a desk all day and paint the town all night. We'd meet artists and celebrities and dance and reminisce.
Now we're 18. And I'm leaving town. And Sam isn't. And I'm scared.
The story I'm writing has a beginning setting of a small, backwoods country town. The photo that I posted is a picture I took in a small town of a humble house down a dirt road. It's is in the middle of nowhere and I think that's easy to see from all the empty land around it. The corresponding story highlights this idea. It is meant to help the reader visualize the flat empty landscape of the town. However, the narrator is presented as having a lifelong dream of moving away to the city where there is more hustle and bustle. This is why I chose the background image that I chose. It's a city skyline but it is also a photo that shows a romanticized view of the city. This gives an insight into how the narrator visualizes the city in her own mind.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post is interesting in a few different ways. The way that it is organized, as a series of short vignettes that are only a sentence long, is the focus of the text and is what the entire idea is based on from my understanding. Every paragraph except for the last is comprised of a story that is no longer than three short sentences. The test is quick and deep, carrying a large impact. The post opts for concise storytelling, rather than longer prose and this approach is an effective one, for each vignette has a large impact on the reader. By the time the reader reaches the end of the piece, it cashes in on the emotions that have been conveyed through each tale at every point in the author's life. The reader is left with a sense of sadness and unease at the prospect of the author and her “soul mate” going their separate ways, and these textual strategies help increase the payoff of the text.
ReplyDeleteAnother notable aspect of the blog post was the image that was chosen to accompany the test. The first question that immediately comes to mind when looking at this image is “is this sunrise or sunset?” Without knowing the context of the image, it's hard to say. This question is important to the text as well, as it provides a sense of uncertainty for the future of these two people. Is the image portraying a sunset, perhaps signifying the end of an era as the author leaves town, or is the image a sunrise, possibly representing a new beginning of the author and Sam overcoming the challenge of separation. It's difficult to know and leaves the reader with questions, keeping them interested in what is a continuing story. The textual strategies used by the author overall are effective at evoking the desired emotions from the reader.