Type of text: Essay
Summary/ Synopsis: The essay under consideration presents the author’s reminiscence about the neighborhood he used to live in. His memories take us back to a housing development (Fairfax Village) in Washington, D.C. of the 1980s and 1990s. As one reads the essay, it becomes clear how much the place has changed, because Jasper provides a comparison of different aspects of life there in the past and in the present. The dangerous Village with a high crime rate turned into a quiet and expensive neighborhood with new buildings, not affordable for African-Americans any more. Yet, Kenji Jasper does his best to keep the memories of the Village of his childhood.
Questions on the Text:
In accord with the text, the Village has become an expensive neighborhood and African-American people can’t afford living there. What was the percentage of African-Americans back in the 1980s and 90s?
One of the author’s friends went to jail when he was a teenager. What was the reason? Was this friend an African-American?
Reasons for Asking the Questions: All the questions above are connected with the topic of racism, as almost every change in the neighborhood had either influenced the demographic situation or, on the contrary, had been conditioned by the decrease in the number of African-American residents. Consequently, if the author answered the three questions, the causal relationships would become much clearer.
Quotes from the Text:
“I remember nearly running over my father when I turned the handlebars too far left as he was trying to teach me how to ride a bike” (Jasper, p.1). This line made me remember the day when I was learning to ride a bike. Just like Jasper I was doing it in the neighborhood where I used to live as a kid, so the memory is very warm and pleasant. The author provided important details to create the image and atmosphere of the precious moment and it helped me travel back in time to my own childhood.
“The bottom line for me is that there is nothing left of myself in the blocks and buildings where I went from embryo to young man.” (Jasper, p.2). This sentence is rather interesting for me from the linguistic point of view. Firstly, the author used the reflexive pronoun myself instead of the object pronoun me, which is more appropriate in the context. Secondly, the idea of growing up is excellently put. The author wanted to emphasize that he had spent the most important years of his life in the Village.
“I left my ‘hood more than a decade ago. But I’m making sure that it will never leave me.”(Jasper, p.2). In these two sentences the author expressed the preciousness of his memories. The reader instantly understands how important it is for Kenji Jasper to keep the memories of the neighborhood. I think the reason for it is that the Village is associated with his childhood, the happy time of his life.
Vocabulary Items:
‘hood (a contraction of the noun neighborhood)- “I left my ‘hood more than a decade ago.”(Jasper, p.2).
rival (an adjective) – “But it was also where kids from a rival housing development once beat my friend with bats just because he happened to be standing there.” (Jasper, p.1).
a funeral home (a noun phrase) – “Two others went to funeral homes: one was stabbed” (Jasper, p.2).
an offspring (a noun) – “I hope they will do the same for their own offspring, keeping it alive” (Jasper, p.2).
Reading Log 2
Type of text: Essay
Summary/ Synopsis: The text in hand can be called an essay only in technical sense, since it produces a very powerful effect on the reader. The author starts his essay with a sort of an instruction not to hurry while reading it. The first page is dedicated to the description of a hummingbird’s heart and its peculiar features, and then switches to the description of a whale’s heart. The first two parts are leading us to the main idea of the text – all living creatures are alike in their uniqueness. A heart is what makes us all alike, as it is not merely an organ which pumps blood, it is the chamber of every feeling and emotion that we ever have.
Questions on the Text:
Brian Doyle shares a lot of facts about the anatomy of animals and even some insects. What sources did he use to get this information?
In the final paragraph the writer creates images of scenes which are very simple, yet heartbreaking. Why did he decide to give these examples? Has the writer experienced something like this?
Reasons for Asking the Questions: As I have already said, the essay is extremely powerful. Furthermore, the beginning of the text gives no clue of its real meaning and how it is going to finish. I would like to get answers to the questions above to figure out the steps which brought Brian Doyle to such an outstanding way of expressing a very simple idea – the beauty of life can be found in trivial things, dear to our hearts.
Quotes from the Text:
“Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. You can spend them slowly, like a tortoise, and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird, and live to be two years old. ” (Doyle, p.2). As I see it, the words can be interpreted in two ways – literally and metaphorically. It is a scientific fact that the faster your heart beats the less you’ll live. Also, spending one’s heartbeats slowly or fast could be considered a metaphor for a mediocre life as opposed to an eventful, interesting life.
“and then it [a blue whale] essentially disappears from human ken, for next to nothing is known of the mating habits, travel patterns, diet, social life, language, social structure, diseases, spirituality, wars, stories, despairs, and arts of the blue whale.” (Doyle, p.2). It is rather unusual to attribute to the blue whale all the aspects of life inherent to humans. As one reads the sentence, one forgets it is about the blue whale. I would say it is a kind of a personification, bringing us closer to the idea that the author reveals further in the text.
“We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart.”(Doyle, p.2). I especially like this sentence because it is so true. No matter how hard we try to explain our beloved or friends what we feel or think, they can only imagine what is happening inside us. Every human is unique and the feeling that we experience are unique too, that is why it is very difficult to really share your feelings with somebody else.
Vocabulary Items:
elephantine (an adjective)- “their hearts hammering faster than we could clearly hear if we pressed our elephantine ears to their infinitesimal chests.”(Doyle, p.1).
race-car (a noun, but in this context it is an adjective) – “To drive those metabolisms they have race-car hearts that eat oxygen at an eye-popping rate.” (Doyle, p.1).
eternally (an adverb) – “Unicellular bacteria have no hearts at all; but even they have fluid eternally in motion” (Jasper, p.2).
impregnable (an adjective) – “You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant..” (Doyle, p.3).
Works cited
Doyle, Brian. “Joyas Voladoras”. Web. March 30, 2016.
Jasper, Kenji. “The Streets Change, but Memories Endure”. Web. March 30, 2016.
