Save them J's

Jake Parsons

Mrs. Parkinson

English III

20 November 2015

Aspects of Writing Voice in Mark Bezos’ Speech

MarkBezos’ TED Talk about being a volunteer fire fighter employs techniques of narrative by showing a great deal of movement throughout the speech. He begins with discussing with the audience what being a volunteer fire fighter entails and what this particular fire was like. He provides imagery of this lady’s house smoldering in the rain, and how she is standing out in the street barefoot.  The topic begins to drift from the fire to small acts of kindness and how they can make a large difference in someone’s life, even if you don’t realize it. This shift from a memory to a greater, overarching idea that you shouldn’t wait to be a hero shows Bezos’ narrative techniques in his speech.

            His TED Talk also exhibits a great deal of perception. We see this in Mark’s observations of the lady in the rain. Instead of just seeing some person in the rain he notices that she is shivering in the cold and that she is barefoot. Unlike most other volunteer fire fighters, he realizes the importance of fetching the fire victim a pair of shoes. While most see it as a relatively trivial task, Mark Bezos understands how much a pair of shoes means to someone in that sort of situation. In the speech we see proof of this as he quotes a letter the lady in the rain had written to the fire department, “someone had even got her a pair of shoes.” Mark including this in his speech reinforces the perception he has as he found a life lesson in getting a stranger shoes.

            Finally, Mark Bezos likes to employ humor to keep the audience intrigued. For example, he talks about the fire fighter that got to the captain a couple of seconds before him and how he got assigned to go save the dog. He then says “The doooggggggg!” to show how jealous he is that that man can say he carried a living creature out of a burning building. This quick little laugh allows the audience to get an insight to how Mark perceives saving the dog as infinitely more important as saving something like shoes. However this emphasizes that he did a small favor for the lady that made a big difference to her. It focuses in on the small acts of kindness that go unnoticed instead of the big flashy favors.

Catcher in the Rye Bread: Another Loaf

Jake Parsons

Mrs. Parkinson

English III

13 November 2015

Vignettes for Days

            J.D. Salinger makes use of vignettes throughout his novel, Catcher in the Rye by having Holden tell short stories about moments of his life as he remembers past events. These often provide snippets of characterization for Holden and show what kind of person he actually is. For example, in chapter 15 Holden tells us about his feelings on cheap suitcases and of his roommate at Elkton Hills. His roommate, Dick Slagle, has cheap suitcases that he would always keep under his bed so that others wouldn’t look at his next to Holden’s leather suitcases. Holden feels pity for him so he decides to ease his struggle. “What I did, I finally put my suitcases under my bed, instead of the rack, so that old Slagle wouldn’t get a ----- inferiority complex about it.” (Salinger 141).

            This short vignette reveals to us that Holden actually cares about other people and he is willing to make sacrifices in order to accommodate their needs. You might be thinking, “Sacrifice? He put his suitcases under his bed it’s not like he donated a kidney or anything.” And you’d be right. It is a small gesture to move one’s suitcases but at fancy prep schools like Elkton, it’s a big deal. Holden gives up a symbol of his social standing to the other students in order to make Dick Slagle feel more comfortable around others. This shows he does not care how others view him but he is willing to give up his standings so that people who do care how others view them can advance their own standing.

Catcher in the Rye Bread

Jake Parsons

Mrs. Parkinson

English III

10 November 2015

Blog Post Option #1

The article uses the car’s rattle as a symbol to represent the issues someone is going through in their life just as Allie’s baseball mitt represents what haunts Holden. The Daryn Kagan, the author of this article, uses the rattle as a comparison to problems that can make it difficult for a person to function through everyday life. This comparison allows the reader to understand what these problems are like. Only the person suffering through a problem like this will actually know what it is. Others may try to help them, but there is nothing they can do since they don’t understand.

The Second half of this article fits Holden perfectly as he has his own “rattle”.  The problem that plagues him could be one of many things. However, it can easily be narrowed down to, as Kagan phrased it, “The heartbreak you should be passed already.” This in particular applies to Holden as he is still trying to cope with the death of his brother, Allie, years later. He carries Allie’s old baseball mitt around with him as a sort of reminder. The mitt is like the sound the care makes. The actual rattle would be Allie’s death as it is what is preventing Holden from functioning, but the baseball glove is the sound as it constantly reminds him.

            Holden’s rattle is best portrayed in chapter 5 when he is reliving his reaction to the news that Allie had died from Leukemia. On page 50 (well at least for me because all of the books are different and the pages are funky) Holden says, “I broke all of the windows in the garage” and he later goes on to state, “I even tried to break the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time and I couldn’t do it.” This shows us the severity of rattle and what a drastic impact it has had on Holden’s ability to live a normal life. If this where something small like he poured cereal and then found out there was no milk and had to pour the cereal back into the bag he wouldn’t have this psycho breakdown. Or maybe he would I don’t know how passionate he is about cereal. A freak-out like this can only be tied to a devastating event such as the death of a loved one.