Constructed Response To Reading

In the stories “A Dark Brown Dog” by Stephen Crane and “The Day I Got Lost” by Isaac Bashevis Singer, there are few similarities. The tones are different, the point of view is different, the general idea is different- everything. Lets begin with A dark Brown Dog. In “A Dark Brown Dog, The point of view is third person omniscient. The narrator is outside of the story, but is able to tell every characters thoughts and ideas. A line in the story of when it the point of view is clear is this: “He looked so comical on his back, and holding his paws peculiarly, that the child was greatly amused and gave him little taps repeatedly, to keep him so.” (pg. 79). The narrator says he or she to tell the characters apart, and we can also use theses words to identify the point of view, which is third person omniscient.  

                The tone if this story is dark humor. We know this because the author uses words with connotations that don’t match the situation or setting. On example of this is when he states that “He came home and held carnival with the cooking utensils, the furniture and his wife.” (page 84) and he uses the word carnival, that has a positive connotation, in a negative situation, which adds humor to the story. The dark tone comes from all the sad parts in the story- when the child beats the dog, when the family beats the dog, the abusive family in general. Also, when the father throws the dog out of the window, resulting in the sad death of the dog. The point of view brings me into the story more, and helps me understand what is going on and why things are happening. We can know why the father is abusive, or why he is angry because of the third person omniscient point of view. The tone of this story makes me sad that the family is so abusive, but it helps me realize that things weren't so easy back then, being poor and all.

                In “The Day I Got Lost” by Isaac Bashevis Singer, the point of view is first person. We know this because the author uses ‘I’ , and Is the main character in the story. “As I stood in the street wondering what to do, it began to rain. "Where's my umbrella?" I said to myself. And I knew the answer at once. I'd left it - somewhere.” (pg. 75) In this quote the author uses ‘I’ plenty enough times for us to know that this text’s point of view is first person. The tone of this text is confused and humorous.  The main character is confused and forgetful about everything and everything that’s happening around him. One example of this is when he forgets his address when he needs to get home to his birthday party because all of his friends are waiting. He can remember a bunch of his friends phone numbers, but not his own, which I think is crazy. The point of view in this story makes us think a bit about other peoples thoughts and ideas on the situation, but it helps us get a better understanding of professor Shlemiel’s thoughts and understandings. The tone makes me happy, but a little confused because he is a professor, but he is so forgetful.

                As you can see, there are not that many similarities through out either of these texts. They are complete opposites almost. A Dark Brown Dog is very dark and incorporates dark humor, and The Day I got lost is light, and incorporates appropriate humor. Although sometimes you may not recognize humor when it’s there, it might be humorous to others, as I have learned through reading these texts. Always keep an open mind about humor.

                

Reading Response

In the article “Hijacked Jets Destroy Twin Towers and Hit Pentagon” by Serge Schemann, the basic structure of the text is expository and in chronological order. Schemann chose this structure because he is writing an article telling us about the events that took place on 9/11 and he is helping us understand why these people did these terrible things and the effect & reactions of people around the world. The structure of this text connects to the authors purpose because of the following reasons. He wanted to tell us about the cause and effect of 9/11, which connects to the chronologically structured text. The tone of this article is very bitter and cold, but also very tragic and frightened.  Schemann says “Hijackers reamed jetliners into each of the New York’s World Trade Center towers yesterday, toppling both in a hellish storm of ash, glass, smoke and leaping victims, while a third jetliner crashed into the pentagon in Virginia.” (first paragraph of article on page 33) which shows us the main events of 9/11 that were so tragic. Schemann also gives us an example of the frightened tone when he states “ ‘These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat, but they have failed,’ a somber president told the nation in an address from the Oval Office shortly after 8:30 p.m.” ( Third paragraph on page 36).

In the poem “The Names” by Billy Collins, the basic structure is a poem. The organization is that the last names of 25 of the 9/11 victims are in alphabetical order.  Collins chose this so that in a way he could recognize all of the 9/11 victims by placing the last names in alphabetical order, which meant he was able to name all of them, without doing that, if that makes sense. The structure of ABC naming relates to the purpose because the purpose is to remember all of the 9/11 heroes and victims as well as bringing back the horrid memories of these terrible attacks. The tone of the text is mournful. Collins is expressing the mournful tone when he says “Heavy with dew like the eyes of tears,” (Page 43).

In the poem “We Breathed You In” by Patti Tana, the text is structured as a poem. Tana chose the text structure as a poem, because people can interpret this in different ways, but they are all connected. The purpose of writing this was to remember 9/11 and the victims. The tone that this poem gives off is very sad and mournful. Tana expresses this sad tone when she says “the day you burned, you fell you flew, through new york air, in clouds of smoke, the clouds we feared...” (page 46). Tana also expresses a mournful tone when she writes “my body your body, my hand your hand, take heart dear ones, we breathe you in.” (page 46).