Literacy: A Lineage

Melanie Luken begins her story by talking about her father, and the bike rides she would take with him to a bell tower. At the bottom of the tower, a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had been etched, and her father would read it aloud to her, though they both knew it by heart.

Her whole life, her father had been quoting the greats and the classics, which in turn caused her to memorize bits and pieces of stories and poems because of the repetition. He influenced her love of writing and reading through his own passion.

He has always supported her and helped her develop as a writer. Melanie wrote that her father helped create a tradition and love of literature that will last her whole life.

“So, I kept the door open, just a crack, and felt comforted that the letter taped to my fridge might slam it shut at a moment’s notice.” Page 120, Paragraph 2

“rushing like the Colorado River” Page 129, Paragraph 3

“her tongue became dry and her lips were cracked” Page 130, Paragraph 2

“over vodka, cognac, homemade wines, homegrown vegetables, freshly cured cheeses and fish from the nearby lake” Page 120, Paragraph 4

fifth grade-poem memorization

senior year-book reports

kindergarten-started reading

favorite book discovery

Purpose: explore past and share a memory

Audience: share experience if they have a fav book; a bit of explanation about life

Stance: Affectionate; nostalgic; be seen as happy/glad that i did these things

Media/Design: In print/ on blog;

• Setting: white walls, staircase, pictures and art, a kitchen throught he doorway, a large round window high on the wall, a room full of toys for the baby, a dark dining room, closed curtains over the windows that keep the room dark
• quiet except for dogs whining, occasional car driving by
• foreign and familiar, sweet, syrup
• anxious and accomplished, ready to get out the door quickly
• waffle and butter and syrup from my breakfast, water

bf; brown hair, blue eyes, quiet around people he doesnt know. somewhat long face with a nose that fits his face. dresses comfortably in t-shirts and jeans. speaks quickly, but sometimes drops a word and has to repeat himself. he talks like his mom.

sister: long red hair, speaks quickly, is somewhat mean in manner and word

“why did you take so long” “i was reading” “wheres the book?” “it’s not mine, so i left it.” “well try to be faster next time, we have to get to school by 8” “sorry! it’s not my fault you’re always running late”

Summary: im dogsitting for my neighbor, who I usually babysit for. they left on a trip and i have to let the dogs in and out and feed them. im inside, waiting for my ride. the wals are white and there is art on them but i dont remember what. on a table next to the door leading into the kitchen is a book. Im bored so i pick it up and start reading, only because i have nothing else to do. the book cover is not particularly interesting, but the title is. “the book thief”. i thought it was funny to have a book about a person who steals them, in a kind of ironic way. theres a comfy chair next to the curved staircase so i sit, the high round window letting in just enough early morning light for me to read by. the orangy yellow cover has dominos on it, which i dont realize the significancde of and think is a bit odd. the dogs are finally outside after a lot of coaxing. their food bowls are full and so is the water. im waiting for my phone to buzz, signaling that my best friend is outiside in his sisters car, waiting for me to get in to leave. other than that, its silent. everything is off, no ac, no heat. The only think i hear is the whine of the dogs as they beg to be let in. its sunny out, like always. another hot day. it smells sweet and indescribable, the inside of someones house. To me, it smells comforting and nostaligic and also a bit like trespassing even tho im supposed to be there. familiar yet foreign. i feel a bit anxious but i forget about that once im reading. i fall into the story. it starts off in such a unique way that im immediatley smitten. ive never seen anything like it before. its a bit too hot in the house so i take off my hoodie and curl up into the chair and i take my phone out os i wont miss the text. i think i feel content, just happy to sit there andf read.i had waffles for breakfast, so i suppose i taste that, but i dont really taste anything i dont think.  

Significance: This book affected me by telling me a story and actually making the characters and setting come alive. i cried and i laughed and i smiled and i got angry and i felt emotional, and this was the first adult book i read that made me feel this way. Id read books before that id connected to emotionally but they were less complex. this book actually was something i had to read a couple times through to completely understand the significance of every little part of it. the way it was written, the dialogue and just every single detail, not too much or too little was just amazing. i made my best friend read it and I recommend it to everyone I know because it helped form me in some way. I just connected to it on some level and i dont know for sure why, but it definitely has helped me to try to see the other side, to see all possible angles and perspectives because thats the point of view it was written from. the people who we thought were the enemy who were actually victims as well, who tried to save people and were hurt and who lost their lives even though they were trying to do the right thing. who were on the wrong side because of where thy lived, not who they were. It just makes you think of them as people. instead of seeing a collective whole, you see them as individuals. as people who didn’t deserve what happened to them, even though they were on the wrong side, in the wrong country at the wrong time. Not everyone was evil. They were the people who were fighting from the inside when neither side knew. they were the innocent, the good people who were forgotten, who were never known. I definitely wouldnt have gone to see the movie with my best friend had i not read this book. i definitely wouldn’t care so much about how things are written, about how to make your words come alive and dance through your readers brain and make them visualize all the things they never saw before and the ways that words can affect not just your mind but your soul. This story matters to me because it was just a book that turned into a huge part of my life, something that I have read countless times i order to relive the same scenes because they are so good and in a way delicious. its just written so well.

Thinking and Acting Rhetorically

I think rhetoric is when you use your language to try to inform or persuade an audience to conform to your way of thinking. Like if you want to explain your stance on LGBT+ rights, you would come up with a list of reasons to explain yourself and try to order everything in a way that makes sense and helps to push the reader in a certain direction of thinking. You take your topics and your audience into consideration and try to form cohesive thoughts to convey your meaning in a concise and clear manner in order to change their mind and channel the audience into your way of thinking. If I wanted to convince someone that same-sex marriage was a inherent right, I would come up with a list of reasons why, such as they are people, it wont affect you personally, it's really not your business unless you want to marry someone of the same sex, what is wrong with you that you would hate a group of people so much that you don't want them so have the same rights as every other person. And then you would expand on those topics, making sure to thoroughly explain each point you have, in order to convince your audience of homophobes that gay people actually are people who have rights! Omg who knew!

Rhetorical Situations-Narratives

2.

•   For the first question, we all said that the main point was the essence of hope and determination, and that it was stated in the last paragraph.
•   For the second question it was primarily Lydia’s point of view. It made us feel scared for her life.
•   Third. terrified,destroyed: used to put the reader into a state of fear. Could feel the hope in how she kept fighting to survive. “cramped on the shelf of the linen closet” “had an abscessed tooth”
• Anyone who’s interested in health affairs/life changing stories. sophisticated people who know about disasters. the tone helps cause a movement for help through sympathizing.

3. Jan Brideau used the rhetoric that we learned about in chapter two to write Lydia’s Story. She kept her audience in mind, that they’re going to be people who are more sympathetic to victims of natural disasters like hurricanes. Her primary goal was to affect the emotions of the readers and to give people courage and motivation. Jan uses descriptive words to affect her tone. It made me think about how I can use descriptive words to affect my audience. Charlotte said that you have to portray your attitude towards the topic for your audience using rhetoric and the guidelines from the book.

7. Stories about car crashes, friends, co-workers, crazy cats/dogs

10. Think about friends who are part LGBT community and how hard it is for them to just be themselves.

You don’t have to be afraid to be yourself-message to everyone

the different emotions and aspects of the people

12. Video-see the raw emotion

Text-have to use words to portray emotion/more time to think over what you want to say

Video to text- lose some affect bc you don’t know the words to explain the emotion

Text to video-like a play; have to determine the emotions

The tone would change: how you were affected would change

Think About; pg 104/107

104
Stories

• What happened at work or school
• different events you attended
• funny things you saw
• stuff that made you happy or mad
• thoughts you have
•  movies/books that you saw/read
• videos that you watched

Subjects

• coworkers
• friends
• drivers on the road
• people you see in stores or on the street
• pets
• different media

107

The videos were really powerful because you see the people's emotions and their lives and they are very raw and unedited. Personally, as someone who can't come out to my parents, it makes me feel hopeful about the future.

Q 1-4 pg 131: Lydia's Story

1. Brideau's main point is that Lydia's story "represents the essence of hope and determination in the face of terrible adversary." It's found in the very last paragraph.
2. The primary point of view is Lydia's. The impact that it has is to distance yourself from the subject.
3. Brideau makes her story come alive by including words like hope, determination, rocking, and telling us about Lydia's desire to go back to her house and find the photo album. These are things that really show the emotions that she was feeling when this happened.
4. The audience for this piece would be medical health professionals and students, and the tone suits it because it is very narrative and helps make patients seem more like people with lives and emotions.

Response to pg 23 prompt

The writing I've done in the past week has been texting, notes, homework, signing my name (if that counts), and writing down dates for work.

   For texting, my 'genre' was a casual conversation with my friends as the audience. The purpose was just to talk about our lives, the topics ranging from work to when I might go back to California. The stance I had varied from topic to topic. The rest of the guidelines from this chapter had no affect on what I was writing. They aren't relevant to any part of what I was doing

   For homework, my genre was a series of interesting facts from the chapter, my audience being both my teacher and my classmates. My purpose was to write down the things that I had found to be intriguing and then discuss them with classmates in the next class as a way to relay information.My attitude toward my topic was motivated; i needed to find things to discuss next class to get a good grade so that i can graduate college and a get a job that will actually have a living wage because I was born into this world and we have a capitalist economy. It's a very independent, free activity. My medium was writing by hand on an index card. No visuals 'cause those are in the book.

  Finally, my last writing was dates on boxes. The audience was coworkers and customers. They need to know what product is inside the box so that they sell the customers what they want. My stance toward this is indifferent. It's just part of my job. The only constraints are where to write and what. My medium is black or green sharpie on a brown box. It's very earthy. So organic in nature. Beautiful. I have no tone. But according to the book, this makes me an author. I'm so proud of myself.