Story The Readers example essay topic

As I was reading the story "The Ultimate Safari", by Nadine Gordimer, I was frustrated by the simplicity and repetitiveness by which she writes. I think it was because it was different then anything else I had read, but when I had to write a paper on a good story that story was the first one to come to mind. All stories have good and bad points by which readers judge them. Most of the time the stories people enjoy, are the ones they can identify with, either as a senioro in their own life, or in society today. In this story the readers can identify with the detail in which Gordimer describes everything, the emphasis on family and trying to keep love ones from harm. I believe the aspects make this a great story.

The author writes in a very unique style using wonderful description to very blunt and simple statements. Description is a wonderful was of getting through to an audience. By setting a senioro in which people can picture and then identify with, the author draws the reader in. AS the children are traveling through the desert the middle child says, "Cracking branches and the sound of something, parting grasses and I almost squealed because I thought it was the police". (615) Everyone has heard something rustling in the bushes or around the corner that has spooked them, therefor, it is easy for the reader to identify with. Even if the reader has never been to Africa, or been cased by the police, they understand the feeling of being spooked by something that was not really there.

People in today's society can easily identify with the sense of family and togetherness. Everyone is a part of a family, whether it is their nuclear family, the family they marry into or a adopted family. The grandmother this story is a compassionate women, but a little rough around the edges. After the children's parents had left the middle child says, "When the sun was going down our grandmother and grandfather came". (614) The statement is very simple, but speaks of family watching out for one anther.

The morals of family speak to all readers, which again, makes it very easy to identify with, and feel compassion for the characters, which makes a good story. Most great stories speak of family and friends watching out for one another. "little Women,"Jurassic Park", and Charlotte's Web", all have been put into the category of "classic's" and "The Ultimate Safari" has many of the same qualities. The lessons of family make this stories great, because everybody can relate to them. The Grandmother is determined to keep the children from as much harm as possible.

The middle child describes what his grandmother for them, "our grandmother gave her church clothes to someone in exchange for some dries mealies". (614) Their grandmother is willing to give up her clothes so her grandchildren would not go hungry.