Reading Response #1

Many features of the personal essay form are present in both Black’s “The Joy of Mud” and Hogg’s “I’m a Believer.” Both of the works are written in first person, which is the first feature of the form and is nearly required in a personal essay. This allows for the writer to express their opinion and feelings about their experiences. An essay that simply described the events of a day with no emotion or thinking tied to it would not be interesting to read. Ballenger also says that the topics of personal essays are generally humble and not extraordinary. The essay by Catherine Black is about an experience that is one of everyday life by people in her culture. It is “her thoughts about such things [that] catapult her [topic] beyond the ordinary.” I think that Ballenger’s wording is a perfect description of the way Black’s topic was transformed by her writing and the details she included. Hogg also wrote about life experiences, but I think that hers are less ordinary. Pursuing an adolescent celebrity crush during one’s middle aged years is not as common as Black describes mud harvesting in Hawaii to be. I think that both texts have a thesis which emerges later in the story. Both writers seemed to tell their story and then only in the final paragraph they began to discuss what the experience meant to them or what they learned from it. Personal essays are supposed to rely on observation and memory most of all according to Ballenger. I think that it is obvious that neither writer did any research in order to enhance their paper. “I’m a Believer” was composed mostly of things that she knew or even had learned over time by researching the man of her dreams. The research she did was actually an event in the story rather than a means to further developing her writing. It is safe to say she completed the research before she knew she would be writing a paper about it one day. “The Joy of Mud” was entirely composed of knowledge she already possessed because she grew up with those traditions surrounding her. In fact, she avoided expanding her knowledge on it due to her purposeful separation from Hawaii. The final feature of the form written by Ballenger describes the order that the story is told. The story should show and tell what happened in a logical order. “I’m a Believer” flowed in chronological order throughout. It began at a young age where her absorption with Davy Jones began and continued until she had grown up completely and finally realized that her childhood fascination with him was exactly that. She had since outgrown it and learned that she did not know him any better than any other fan and that she no longer wished for any different relationship to him than a longtime fan. “The Joy of Mud” jumped around a little because it started with the morning of the day that she realized that she loved Hawaii and then regressed back to the days when she used to travel far away and specifically avoided becoming “rooted” there. After the flashback was used to show the reader that she had never before embraced her Hawaiian heritage, she returned to the day she had begun with to finish discussing how her feelings changed that day. Both Black and Hogg finally matured and realized that the thing that they had been running towards or away from their whole life was not what they thought. Hogg would have jumped at the chance to hang out with Davy Jones when she was younger but once, as a middle aged woman, she finally had the chance right in front of her, she instantly knew that all of the magic that came from her star obsession would be ruined if she got to know him better. Black on the other hand had been running away from her background until her friend Vince brought her along a surprise adventure. She spent the day submerged in the harvesting traditions of a small Hawaiian town and then grew a deep appreciation for Hawaiian culture that she did not possess when she was younger. All in all, I think that both of the writers were consistent with the features of the form provided by Ballenger.

About Me

I am from Lake Oswego, Oregon, where my parents finally have our house to themselves. I am the youngest of 3 siblings and my sister, who is the oldest, has nine years on me. My sister moved out almost a decade ago and has since lived as far away as New York City and as close as Los Angeles. My brother, however, left me alone to be the focus of our parent’s attention when he left for Oregon State University just two years ago. I’ve been dancing my whole life and am now on the TCU Showgirl dance team. The dance team is one of the things that attracted me to TCU. I was also drawn to here by the division one football team and the small size of the engineering classes! My major is engineering and I am considering a minor in Spanish. That's all!