English class and swing dancing?

Embalming Passage

           My first thoughts in reaction to reading "Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain" by Jessica Mitford were ones of disgust and horror. Sure, the descriptions of the gruesome details were grim, but it was the routine matter of it all and the fact that this process is almost forced upon the grieving families of the deceased which is what really disgusted me. Because of the secretive nature of it and the high moral and financial costs, I am thoroughly against the practices of embalming and restoration. Some of the reasons for the establishment of this morbid practice are: ensuring that the friends and family of the deceased are allowed to move on as painlessly as possible, monetizing the industry of death and the associated niceties, and keeping morticians in business. Certainly, morticians believe in their role as "grief counselors" in that they assist in the process of accepting the loved ones passing, otherwise they would not be able to bring themselves to perform their tasks doubtless. But, becasue they are reluctant to share the details of the embalming process, and they hardly ask permission to start the costly steps, they are obviously in the business to make money on the ignorance and helplessness of their customers.
         Of chief importance in the argument against embalming comes the fact that the practice is downright unnatural. The deceased's body is subjected to all sorts of probes, blades, ointments, creams and tools, which all seem to take the dignity away from the dead. In the process they pump the body full of chemicals, and cover it with still more, which is bad for the earth in which the body will slowly decay in. The mortician uses all kinds of tricks which mutilate the corpse into a picture of peacful youth and health even in death, which deceptively alters the body in to something that it is not, and something that the loved ones will remember and take with them. It can change the memories of the deceased into something that isn't the true unaltered form they came into this life with. This may not and isn't always done by the customer's express request, and yet it is the loved one of the customer's that is getting tainted with unnatural chemicals, and it is the customer that gets stuck with the hefty bill. I would never want this done on myself let alone anyone else I know, and I know I would not be alone in this sentiment where there to be full disclosure on the part of the mortician.
        Society seems to cover up and propigate this by quantifying the love for the deceased by how expensive the funeral service is and how grand it is, which are both misguided sentiments.

Compare and Contrast: Men and Women as Consumers

Link to google Drive document

Writing topic essay->


                                               essay

            Jonathan Kozol's structure consists of an introduction to the topic, his body of information and examples, and a summation of what we should take from his essay. His plethora of very human stories is an effective way to drive home the point on the scope of the problem. Giving examples instead of solely spitting out countless statistics is a way to appeal to the reader's pathos, and it works well. His structure seems to be presenting facts about the daily living of an illiterate and then following it up with a quote or example from a real life story. He gives a variety of examples from both genders and different ages groups to show the pervasiveness of the problem, although some do not invoke pity as the person has obviously squandered their opportunities away, as in the example about the illiterate girl who had just finished her school career.
             His structure of balance of pathos with logos, or hard facts with emotional stories of real Americans interspersed, is very effective because your mind and heart are targeted, which is a good method. You see the numbers and then you can connect with the individual illiterate, and the message is compelling for you to sympathize with the non-privileged. We who are literate take this most basic skill for granted so often, and this essay tries to dispel the notion that everyone around us also shares this ability. It shows how crippling it is to not posses this essential ability, and how it destroys some of the values of our country by not having a fully educated voting base.
            Although the examples mostly follow after the hard facts about the existence of an illiterate are presented, there is a section of the paper that is essentially quotation after quotation, each outlining a different experience in which the illiterate person feels inadequate and incapable. It is a bit overwhelming, but at the same time it brings a shock and wow factor that really speaks to the reader in an intimate way. Kozor is successful in his structure as it allows his writing to be understood and remembered very effectively, and because he uses a balance of presentations to get his point across. He couldn't have picked a better structure or else the argument and point he was interested in relaying would be very one-sided and only reach a certain type of person, whereas this paper was more all-encompassing.     

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           "Think of a place that makes you feel happy and relaxed," they would say. And I would hardly have to think before it comes to mind: Baja. Just thinking of it makes me long for it to be time again to pack up everyone including the dog and get down there. This amazing family tradition started before I was born 25 years ago, when my dad and uncle drove haphazardly down Mexico with their spear guns catching fish and exploring the coast, looking for a good place to be. They found what they were looking for in a small fishing town on the tip of Baja, an unaltered and isolated town not yet widely known to tourists. They lived by catching their own food and living off of very little money for awhile, all while enjoying the beaches and waters by windsurfing, swimming, and spearfishing.
             They liked it so much that it has become a yearly tradition to make the 32 hour drive over 2-3 days down to the same spot, and enjoy the relaxed and chill lifestyle that it entails. What's made it even better is that we get to share the experience with our cousins, who come down with our uncle as we come down with our dad. We've also been around to witness the year-by-year transformation of the town from small, dusty and devoid of  technology to a busier and popular town geared for tourists and sports enthusiasts. Anyways, the town is small and fun, and a lot of people who we know come each year in the winter to have fun there from the bay area. We usually are able to stay there for two whole weeks each winter break, and it is simply rejuvenating. You wake up in the morning, hear the sounds of the surf on the beach 50 meters away, listen to the absence of industrial sounds, and have the freedom to decide: a walk on the cool beach with my dog, yoga in the sand with my dad, or should I have a nice fresh breakfast of papaya with fresh-squeezed lime juice? What's so relaxing about it all is the disregard of time and date, the freedom to choose whatever, the company of friends and family, and the proximity to the ocean and beach. It is more laid-back in terms of laws and rules as well, which adds to the feeling of the vacation. It's very freeing and refreshing.    

My cool narrative.

          In “Greasy Lake”, by T. C. Boyle, the main protagonists who are wannabe badasses are put in a situation that really tests if they are ‘hard’ and ‘bad’. They prove to be rather tough characters, but they do not have the stomach to be really “bad”. They are forced to be rather brutal in their reactive fight, as they had mistaken the identity of a scary man for their friend, and so their brutality can be understood. Everyone has a reactive and survival instinct in them if they are in danger, so the boys just did what they had to to save themselves, and they fact that they were shocked and scared about their actions goes to show that they weren’t bad in their nature. They had just been fighting to save themselves from being beaten up by the man. The rush of adrenaline and fear, however, does not serve as an excuse for what they tried to do after. Their “primal badness” is just an euphemism for attempting to rape the “fox”, and it is truly inexcusable and disgusting, no matter what experience they had just gone through.

Then, interrupting their attempted sexual crime, comes a car with two men in it that are sympathetic with the man they had just “murdered”. They scatter in all directions, scared of the jail time they face for committing two felonies, and horrified of what they had done and that it had been witnessed. The whole essay is interspersed with humorous lines such as he “streaked the side of my mother’s Bel Air with vomit”, I “chipped my favorite tooth”, and the humorously bad excuses he thinks of giving his parents for the state of himself and the car such as “a tree had fallen on the car, I was blindsided by a bread truck, [it was a] hit and run, [and] vandals had got to it”. These pockets of funny interjections help the story in the relief it gives to the other serious things that are going on at the same time.

Greasy Lake seems the perfect place for all this to happen, as it is described as a place of lawlessness and a place with a potential for exciting events. The presence of a dead biker floating in the lake conjures up images of a similar scene occurring earlier, but with a different ending. Alcohol and drugs are associated with everything, as the boys themselves have smoked pot earlier that night, the lake is host to many acts of drug usage, and the girls looking for Al are wasted or high. He also mentions the phrase, “This was nature.” in the exposition and ending of the descriptional essay, to tie the story together and call to attention that nature is chaotic and raw and rough, we as a society have just grown civilized and soft. All the acts committed that night really are caused by natural feelings and desires, let loose with no restraint and executed, as nature is.

Essay with description about topic and abstract idea.