Different Experiences In One Essay example essay topic

Critical Essay #1 Marion Rogers, Author of "Water Stories", successfully used the method of several short stories, one or two paragraphs each, separated by specific dates and places, to get her main point across. Using this method, she was able to weave together completely different experiences in one essay by choosing one theme, and linking all of the stories to this one constant. By using the opening introduction: "Water is as much a part of me as the stories I tell", she lets the reader know the main theme, and the way she is going to present it. Rogers organizes her life stories, and chronologically dates them by the body of water she lived near and was affected by.

She packs each paragraph with critical detail, such as this entry in the paragraph entitled: 1943-A Nameless Creek Near Amity, Oregon- "In the winter the water was high enough to pool under the wood shed. I poked pieces of bread through the knot holes to the ducks that swam under the floor". The short excerpts of her life are so different, she could have chosen to write a book, but by organizing her work into several concise paragraphs and linking them with one theme, she was able to fit them into one essay. Rogers broke up her essay, and made it interesting by her choice of experiences to tell in each separate paragraph. Some instances are funny, such as the one in 1965-"While I was away, my roommate took the Rose Festival committee's advice seriously about making the sailors feel at home". Some are disturbing: 1948 -"I heard him crying in the night, telling my mother about the body of a young woman and her unborn child that he had tried to breathe life back into".

Then there is the wistful one: 1970- "I took my toddlers down under the trees and let them play in the water. The air was cool and still, and the water played it's own quiet music". There is panic: 1987-"When only her mouth and nose remained out of water, she grabbed onto a sweater that belonged to me as it floated by, and she resigned herself to death". And peace: 1980-."..

I slipped out the back door to check on them. At the edge of the yard, I could see them in the moonlight running across the field with the horses and dogs. They were black, silent figures on a white, quiet world. The only sound was the breathing and movement of the horses. Awake, I witnessed a dream". She reinforces her main point by organizing her last paragraph with a pointed sentence that reiterates her introduction: "I know wherever I go that there will be water, and stories to tell".

Rogers did a good job of bringing all of these different, spread out experiences together in one paper. I found her presentation very interesting. I would like to pick a subject and write a paper with this type of organization, I think it would be a good thing for every writer to try.