Journal 4

Descriptive Writing Assignment

Using Ann Hodgman’s essay as a model, write a detailed description of a recent meal that you ate. Your focus should be on describing as many aspects of your food as you can.

Important Elements: Concrete/Abstract Images

Multi-Sensory Images Simile, Metaphor, Analogy

Dominant Impression

Chicken Marsala:

Sitting in Basta Pasta, I can’t wait for my dinner to come out. The waitress came out with the hot, steaming plate of chicken marsala. My absolute favorite! The specific aroma of the chicken marsala cannot be confused with any other chicken dish. It just can’t be beat!

At first, the slimy mushrooms and the brown marsala wine are a complete turn off, but once you sink your teeth into the juicy, bursting with flavor chicken, all doubts dissipate. If you mix the chicken in with the wine and leave it there for a few seconds, delicious is simply not good enough of a description. The salty, spicy smell enters your nose and the scent is left in the memory forever. The flavorful, salty, sweet, and hearty taste leaves the taste buds yearning for more. The chicken melts in your mouth almost instantly. Chicken marsala is like the meal of a god.

Journal 3

“No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch” – Ann Hodgman

(The Norton Sampler p.77)

Read the selection and write a one paragraph response to the following questions.

1. Cite three specific examples of Hodgman’s descriptive imagery that you find to be particularly effective.

“While my dachshund, Shortie, watched in agonies or yearning, I gagged my way through can after can of stinky, white-flecked mush and bag after bag of stinky fat drenched nuggets. And now I understand why Shortie’s breath is so bad.”

“The “cheese” chews like fresh Play-Doh, whereas the “meat” chews like Play-Doh that’s been sitting out on a rug for a couple of hours.”

“Cycle-1, for puppies, is wet and soyish. Cycle-2, for adults, glistens nastily with fat, but it passably edible-a lot like canned Swedish meatballs I once got in a care package at college.”

2. What do you think Hodgman’s purpose was in writing this essay? What overall message/meaning do you take from the essay?

I think her purpose and message for writing this essay was to show that advertising can be deceitful. The true description of the dog foods does not make one want to go out and buy dog food. It makes you want to give your dog the food off your plate because it tastes so much better than what the dog food descriptions tell you. Advertising is a wonderful thing, especially when it comes to things people do not eat or use, because people won’t try the product, they will just get the one with the most appetizing description, even if it really doesn’t taste as good as the package says.

Journal 2

Journal 2 - Annie Dillard – “The Death of a Moth,” from Holy the

Firm

1. How are the moths in the essay’s opening different from the moth at the campsite? What do the different moths represent?

The moths in the beginning of the essay serve as food for the spider. Before, when they were alive, the moths dumbly fell into the trap of the spider’s web. Now, they are just hollow shells of what used to be a winged creature. The moths at the campsite go to the flame because they like the brightness. The light is a curiosity to them and they go towards it because it is attractive to them.

2. What lesson does the moth provide that Dillard takes back to her students?

3. How many references are there to fire in the essay? What’s the larger significance of fire in the essay?

There are multiple references to fire in the essay. One example would be when the big moth caught on fire in Dillard’s candle. Another would be the book she was reading, A Day On Fire. Dillard lit a candle at home and just left it burning. Her cat was burned by the little fire as well.
The larger significance is that Dillard wants to ignite a fire within herself and her students. Both fires would burn for knowledge and motivation to learn or do something important. She has the goal to become a writer and for her students to

4. Address how each of the following quotes connect to Dillard’s overall point.

a. “I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.”

-Jack London

b. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

-William Butler Yeats

c. “A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.”

-Franz Kafka

The first quote goes along with what Dillard wants to prove. She wants to have a significant impact on her students and their lives instead of just being another teacher that they will hear lectures from about school work. The second also goes along with this point. Dillard wants to educate the children and set them up for learning even more and craving to learn. Learning shouldn’t be boring like filling a pail with water. It should be enlightening and an ignition of their minds. The third quote can be used to describe when she was trying to read the book and wouldn’t stop until she got something out of it. She wanted to become motivated, or use the book as an “axe” against her mind, “the frozen sea within us”, and she wants for her students to read and pursue their passions and open up their minds to see in different perspectives, to think differently and to think more.

Journal 1

New Orlean’s Finest

Yep, that’s me. Montoine Howard. My daddy left my mama when I was just a little thing and Mama died when I was 3. So Granny had to raise me ‘til I was finally old enough to understand what happened to my parents. After that, I was headed down south to New Orleans.

I was about 8 when I started smokin’ like you saw in my picture. Had to raise myself and grow up real fast, so I guess I felt the need to start doin’ adult stuff. I’ve even got a job in this jazz band. They all real nice and gave me a place to stay. I got to shake an’ rattle a tambourine and sing my little ol’ heart out whenever we got to play. One time, Granny almost found me. I had to run off real quick and hide behind the giant speakers we have to carry around to all our gigs. I don’t think she saw me, but who knows?

Every once an’ a while, I get to dress up real pretty and go out to this things called a beauty pageant, where all these other pretty girls dress up too. Everybody always calls me “real pretty”, or “the belle of the ball” with my “sky blue eyes” and “southern brown curls”. And they all like to pinch my cheeks and talk about my “baby doll smile” like I’m not even there. This one time at the pageant thing, I got into real big trouble. One of those big dumb blonde street rats named Gwen started talkin’ ‘bout my mama and I got hot. Like hot as that pepper stuff they put on the crawfish down at Bubba’s Fish Shack. I’m guessin’ y’all want to know how it went, so here’s my story: