Annie Dillard’s essay “Seeing” is an essay that reminds the importance of “real seeing” in our lives; how many people don’t take the time to look around and to observe the smaller things in life. Using various examples, mostly related to the beauty of nature, Dillard shows that people are often too busy to stop and notice the many details around them in nature. The author believes if they look closely and become aware, they might be able to gain more happiness.
Dillard thinks most people notice the “natural obvious”, which is what we generally expect to see, rather than the “artificial obvious”, which is seeing what one does not expect. The case of the frog is a clear example between the “natural obvious” and “artificial obvious”. Dillard was looking for a green frog, because she had a preconceived idea that every frog must be green color. A dozen of campers were screaming at her to look for a green frog who was supposedly in front of her. When she finally spotted it, the frog was actually a color similar to “wet hickory bark”. Annie Dillard was not able to spot the frog at first because she was expecting to see a green color frog, the “natural obvious”. The wet hickory bark is the “artifical obvious” that she had to train her eyes to see. The campers who told Dillard to spot for the green frog were “lovers and acknowledgers” to the topic of frogs, therefore the color wet hickory bark was already considered the “artificial obvious”.
I agree with Dillard’s concept that many people fail to realize and appreciate all the little things around us that this wonderful world has to offer, missing many exciting opportunities and challenges. They have the privilege of sight but they prefer to walk in this world for the path of blindness and darkness. In the other side, if we take the time to see and observe the little things around us, noticing the “artificial obvious” we will get in return more happiness in our lives.
Ceremony: A Monomyth Analysis
WRITTEN IN MLA CITATION
The book Ceremony by Silko researched as a Monomyth
citation included
Ceremony: An Analysis of the Hero’s Journey
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko is about the hardships faced by Tayo, a returned Native American World War Ⅱ Veteran. Tayo struggles throughout the novel to ascertain a resolution to the internal pandemonium he experiences in the form of battle fatigue. The story exhibits the stages of the Monomyth: a protagonist’s quest in relation to culture and self growth. Tayo experiences all three stages of a monomyth; the departure, the initiation, and the return that are all constitutive fragments that make up one whole.
Stage one of a monomyth is the departure or separation. Tayo departs from his everyday life by leaving for the war. This can be deliberated as his call to adventure. The call to adventure comes when “the psychological forces of the mind become unbalanced” ( The Monomyth). The mind of Tayo becomes “unbalanced” when he decides to join the war and leaves the familiarity of his small town for the unpredictable and large world. His Native American heritage becomes lost when he is engulfed by the white culture and finally accepted by members of the white community as he goes to battle.
The next part of stage one is the refusal of the call. After arriving on the battlefield Tayo proceeded to turn his back on the call to war. A realization occurred that fighting wasn’t so much about adventure but survival for him. Whenever it came time for Tayo to have to kill out of necessity and to help his fellow soldiers “Tayo could not pull the trigger” (Silko 7).
Crossing the threshold to another world ensued when Tayo arrived back from the war. He spent time in a war veterans hospital before he was allowed to be released back into society. Being kept there under watch was like having to be approved by a threshold guardian before he was able to cross the threshold and go home.
Once Tayo got past the threshold guardian he entered the belly of the whale. Upon arriving home he was immediately bedridden, he found himself in a dark place. Tayo thought that “there was no place left for him” (Silko 32). He didn’t find any peace because “the silence and the emptiness echoed the loss” (Silko 32).”The Monomyth Cycle” called the belly of the whale, “a place of fluid dream-like forms.” This explicates the period of time Tayo spent indisposed after arrival in the threshold of the journey.
Stage two of the hero’s odyssey is initiation. On the road of trials Tayo becomes challenged when he struggles mentally and physically with multiple attempts to return to the working world. His nightmares caused problems for him especially when combined with the influences of alcohol. The beer loosened his muscles and “swelled through his blood” (Silko 62). During one of his failed attempts to socialize with old friends he became angered by what Emo said about the war. The alcohol caused loosening of “what clenched the anger and held it in place” (Silko 62). Tayo lashed out and stabbed Emo as a result.
Tayo then met temptation in the form of bliss in the arms of a lover. On one of his tasks he becomes sidetracked by a mysterious woman. He was searching for the wandering cattle and instead found and made love to the woman. The temptation from the woman could have potentially “plunged him back into the darkness” (The Monomyth); however, Tayo learned from the woman and she helped to guide him towards his goal.
The final stage of the monomyth is the return. Recrossing the threshold occurred during the ceremonies that Betonie performed with Tayo. The final ceremony that Tayo performs in the cave is like a rebirth of sort. while the first threshold crossing symbolized death.
On the return journey the hero sometimes has to be rescued from “death or a state of helplessness” (Heroes). When Tayo finally makes it onto the right path to returning he is now willing to accept help from animals and people regularly. The mountain lion’s tracks show him the way to his lost cattle. The woman helped Tayo by at first showing him the direction to find his cattle and then again when she corrals the sheep for him. This brings on the realization that he is ready to come back to the living figuratively.
When Tayo masters both worlds, home and the new world of ceremonies, he realizes nothing separates the two. He thought by going to the war he lost the people and the mountains he loved most but was proven wrong. The balance and differences “between the comfortable safety of his home and the new world” (Heroes), were restored.
Which leads to the next step in the stage of return: restoration of harmony. The reinstatement of balance between character and mind brought peace to Tayo’s life. He was able to completely return home and for the first time in his life became a full member of his families house. Their acceptance was what Tayo had been looking for his entire life.
When all these steps and stages were completed it led to freedom and enlightenment for him. When Tayo reached the “understanding that everything is interrelated” (Heroes), he is now free to live between his home and the new world. With that understanding he can cease the confusion he felt comparing dreams to reality by accepting the connections, he can continue on with his life.
The monomyth clearly fits the novel Ceremony. The journey Tayo has through the myths of his culture better him in the end. It is when Tayo finally accepts and reflects upon his journey that he is able to move on.
MLA Citation
Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: The Viking Press, 1977. Print.
“Heroes of History.” Think Quest. Oracle Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 Sept. 2013.
“The Monomyth Cycle.” The Monomyth Cycle. N.p. n.d. Web. 01 Sept. 2013.
Vogler, Christopher. “Excerpts from Myth and the Movies, Stuart Voytilla₁.”
N.p. 1 June 2003. Web. 1 Sept. 2013
What Is Exemplification Essay?
Exemplification means to provide examples about something. Writing an exemplification essay typically involves offering many examples to support a generalization about something. In this type of essay, examples act as supporting material to explain or clarify the generalization. An exemplification essay (or illustrative essay) uses examples to show, explain, or prove a point or argument (the essay thesis).
The key to a good exemplification essay is to use enough detailed and specific examples to get the point across. Examples should be carefully chosen so that they will appeal to readers and help them understand the main point of your essay.
Effective examples should enhance your writing, giving your essay vitality and intensity. Exemplification essays may contain both brief and comprehensive examples. Brief examples may occur relatively frequently within the essay, with just enough concise details to illustrate clear-cut ideas.
Comprehensive examples are used to illustrate complex ideas that can not be adequately explained using brief examples.
The examples used in your essay must be relevant; that is, they must be directly to the point. You should not necessarily expend lots of ink on a particular example just because you have found a lot of information on it.
Instead, find as many examples as possible and then be choosey about what you include, using the strongest, most representative, examples. Make every example work in your favor. The examples used in your essay must also be representative. Unless you are specifically discussing exceptions to a rule, your examples must reflect the majority (i.e., what is usually the case, or what is “on average” true). You might, for example, hear a drinker try to deny the risks of heavy drinking because he knew someone who drank every day until he was ninety.
This is not a valid example since most people could not drink a lot over an extended period without succumbing to some ill effects. The example does not represent what would usually happen to most people.
Organization (order of importance)
A fundamental skill in writing this essay is that of organization. Consider the order in which sub-claims are presented in the essay that supports the thesis statement. Writers call this the order of importance, and three basic methods exist: 1. Chronological
2. Ascending
3. Descending.
Chronological order of importance is mainly used in narrative/descriptive essays because events have to be told from beginning to end process-analysis essays because the sequence of steps is crucial to the understanding of the topic cause and effect essays since one thing leads to another
With ascending and descending order of importance, chronology or time sequence does not matter. What’s more important is the degree of the sub-claims.
In the ascending order of importance organizational method, arrange the paragraphs from least significant to most significant so that the reader is left with the strongest point that has to be made. The points gradually build up to a powerful, loud crescendo at the end of the essay. On the other hand, descending order of importance organization works in the opposite direction. The main body paragraphs begin with the most compelling reason or point and gradually work down to the least important point.
Above all, do not just randomly toss reasons or examples into the main body section. Careful readers will detect that this is a sloppy arrangement and give up reading if they have to struggle with the lack of organization.
Example topic:
Although faulty street lights contribute to neighborhood car thefts, pure forgetfulness gives thieves a prime opportunity to steal cars effortlessly. If this thesis sentence were in an essay on the reasons cars get stolen, it is plain to see that “driver forgetfulness” could be the biggest reason cars get stolen. Under this claim, the writer could list several concrete examples or illustrations to make this point clear: 1. drivers who leave their door unlocked
2. drivers who leave the keys in the seat while they dash into the 7-11 store for a quick candy bar
3. drivers who leave the keys in the ignition with the engine running In these 3 internal examples for this paragraph, each is an example of an increasingly more stupid mistake. The unlocked car is an invitation to steal a car, but the thief has to hotwire the vehicle. In the most severe case of forgetfulness (i.e., stupidity), the driver has practically handed the car over to the thief because the driver would never hear the sound of the engine turning over. Hence, this example shows the ascending order of importance to illustrate examples of driver forgetfulness. Clear discussion
The topic of this example essay is driver forgetfulness. But such a claim as the three example sentences about this topic above is not sufficient on its own. The writer must back it up with evidence. That is where the details of explanation come in.
The unlocked door, the keys in the seat, and the keys in the ignition are all examples of forgetfulness (and stupidity, some people might argue). Each of these examples or details need some explaining, so the writer should elaborate on what he or she means through thorough discussion.
Outline of an exemplification essay:
Consider the following diagram to help the writer visualize what a well-developed essay can look like. Keep in mind, though, paragraphs are not formulaic; however this diagram is just meant as an example:
How to Write an Exemplification Essay:
Decide on a topic. Basically, what generalization do you want to exemplify? If a topic is assigned, most likely you will already have a set of generalizations about it so you can just build your essay from that. If you choose your own topic, you will have to decide on a generalization about that topic that you can support with examples.
Determine a purpose. What angle of the generalization do you want to present to the reader? Having a clear purpose will help you choose examples and write your thesis.
Think about your audience. How do you think members of the audience feel about the generalization that you are discussing?
Make a list of examples related to your generalization. Initially list all examples that you can think of–you will narrow them down later. Include anecdotes (short stories), facts, statistics and any other types of examples as appropriate.
Choose examples from the list that are relevant to your purpose. Make sure that all of the ones that you choose support the generalization. Obviously, you do not want to choose ones that contradict your purpose.
Write a thesis statement. The thesis statement should state the generalization that you are exemplifying and make it clear that you are attempting to support it with examples.
Write an introduction that lets your reader know what to expect from your essay and states the thesis.
Write a well-developed body that supports the thesis. The body should fully support the generalization. Each paragraph should directly relate to the thesis.
Arrange your examples logically. It may be important to categorize examples if you have a lot of them so that you don’t confuse your reader.
Use transition words and phrases to guide readers through your essay.Write a conclusion that sums up the essay’s main points and restates the thesis. Remember to make it clear in the conclusion what you want readers to take away with them.