Yeager by Tom Wolfe
Summary:
‘Yeager’ by Tom Wolfe is an essay about a wonderful U.S airline pilot named Chuck Yeager. The essay begins with an airline emergency situation in which the airline has had trouble with its controls and its pilot Yeager handles the situation very comically and adeptly. It was hard for the passengers that they were in an emergency situation, judging by the way in which the pilot spoke. These, according to Wolfe’s descriptions, are greatness of Yeager, who with his enthralling Appalachian accent, could move mountains in a very casually seeming way. Yeager had fought during the Second World War and undertaken several missions to fight against Germany, France etc. Even at the young age of twenty two, he had the honor of thirteen and a half kills. Due to his extremely fine capabilities, he was sent on a mission to Muroc, lying in the
Mojave dessert. The mission was to test the world’s first jet fighter which travelled with the speed of sound. This was a crucial mission for the United States, entrusted to Yeager. In spite of fractured ribs, Yeager successfully flies the jetliner with the speed of sound, under extreme climatic conditions with some help given by his friend and aircraft engineer Jack Ridley.
Response:
1. Wolfe’s account of Chuck Yeager starts with humor. In the first paragraph we learn that Yeager was an airline pilot who was a very cool-handed person. He took even the most critical situations very lightly. This can be seen in the first paragraph where he tries to convince to the passengers that ht emergency situation in which they were, was nothing new for him. He was so humorous in his talk to the passengers that it was difficult for the passengers to believe that they were all in a tight situation. Nevertheless, Yeager pulled the aircraft to safety. This attitude of Yeager can also be seen in his earlier ventures when he amused people with his light, humorous talk and his conversation style. It really appealed to his listeners. Similar attitude can be seen in the remaining parts of the essay while he fought in the Second World War. He used humorous words such as ‘instability’ and ‘elevator effectiveness regained’ to show that he was calm even while undertaking such deadly missions. The author throws more light on this cool nature of Yeager during life-threatening operations such as flying the X-1 successfully and it appears from his words that such great feats were child’s play for him.
Strangers by Toni Morrison
Summary:
Strangers by Toni Morrison is an essay in which we get a peek at human nature and how we react to strangers. The author relates an incident in which she encounters a woman fishing in her neighborhood. They talk casually to each other and the author seems amused by her manly clothes and wisdom. On the woman revealing that she came there almost everyday, the author looked forward to a casual friendship between them. However, she was not to be seen in the following days. Disappointed by her absence, the author tries to find out about her whereabouts but to no avail. The author feels cheated and betrayed as are expected to do mostly. Fur6ther, the author emulates that language and image are two things which enrich our experience. They have a long-lasting impact on the human mind. These factors have been subdued greatly by external factors such as the media. Routine media interpretations narrow the human mind and make it incapable to think from different aspects. The author concludes using Robert Bergman’s pictures as a basis to portray that there is no stranger in this world. It is only those traits of one’s own self which we have not realized as yet.
Response
2. The fisherwoman’s absence first created a gloom in Morrison’s life as she looked forward to a casual and delightful friendship. Later, the gloom turned to bitter feelings which often follow absence. As time passed, the author realized that she had been too sentimental in assessing the fisherwoman’s absence. Using this sort of self-criticism, the author tells us that the qualities we try and find in strangers, is actually a reflection of our own traits. We have not been able to recognize it in us so far.
Yes, it is ethically wrong to create stories about strangers we see. Strangers are like a blank blackboard. The human mind can write anything on it pertaining to whatever he perceives. But it is important we know that what we write must be ethically right. Maybe the story we perceive is entirely the opposite of what the truth is. This is to say that people cannot be judged completely by just looking at them. An entirely different story may lie underneath a smiling woman’s face. A popular saying goes: To the jaundiced eye, everything appears yellow. We only see what we want to see. It need not necessarily be what we ought to see.
Sowers and Reapers by Jamaica Kincaid
Summary:
Jamaica Kincaid touches the very delicate topic of racial discrimination. The author give an offending speech in the tenth anniversary celebrations of Garden Conservancy and the gathering consisted of both white and colored people. She offends them by mentioning the statue of John
Caldwell Calhoun, a former U.S. vice president and ardent racial segregationist. In her speech, the author also stresses on the evil and merciless ways of Calhoun been to colored people; as Hitler was to the Jews. This speech had created unrest in the hearts of several people who were present in the event, especially of one Mr. Frank Cabot, the chairman and founder of the organization. Later on, the author left for a tour and dinner at Middleton Place; filled with most exotic flowers. The author also emulates on the documentaries of Thomas Jefferson and his love for gardens. He had vast stretches of gardens and he boasted of its beauty. But the real beauty came from the slaves who worked in his farms. The sowed the seeds while the colored people reaped its benefits. This was often unspoken of. The second part of the essay tells us about the love of the author for gardens and beautiful flowers. She builds a huge, beautiful wall around her house knowing hundreds of exotic flowers. Using excellent designs and men who did their work beautifully. She seemed to like their work as she knew that they were the true symbols of hard work. She was only reaping their benefits and lying under the sun in repose. Under this repose, lay the sweat and hard work of several men.
Response
1. Race and politics could have been left out if the author had not mentioned John Caldwell Calhoun who was a racial segregationist. He had imposed several strict laws on colored people due to which life became difficult for them. The author’s mention of Calhoun had stirred up the pain that lay hidden in the hearts of several people in the event. Some garden people ignored or
suppressed colored people as they did want their skills and talents to be revealed. The white people did not encourage any development of the colored population.
2. The Charleston speech and the garden building project have one thing in common. Both speak of hard work especially hard work which is not visible to everybody. In the Charleston speech, elocutions are made about the most beautiful gardens and the variety of exotic flowers they behold. But nobody speaks of the slaves who worked really hard in growing these flowers. All credit would go to the garden owner. In the garden building project, all credit would go to the author who owns the project. Nobody would know the hard work of the four men who worked ardently to complete the project. Kincaid spends so much time on admiring the workers as she saw that the good design was only due to their hard work, just as the colored slaves worked for their masters who reaped their benefits.
Take the F by Ian Frazier
Summary:
‘Take the F’ by Ian Frazier is a descriptive essay on the features of Brooklyn City in New York. The author lives in Brooklyn with his wife and child in an apartment. He takes the ‘F’ train daily scene in Brooklyn. He goes through a subway and a canal, and has a glimpse of various topographical features of Brooklyn like bridges, hills, parks, tall buildings etc. All this indicates
that Brooklyn is a busy place. The author also details to us about the busy scene inside the train. It consisted of ladies trilling ardently, young students getting to school, boys teasing and even the intervention of a crab inside the compartment. The author also tells us how the residents of the locality were polluting the parks. The author has also been able to lay his hands on several things lying on the ground. He also tells that he liked his apartment and his neighbors who were really helpful to each other in times of need. The author seems to enjoy his stay at Brooklyn, even though it is a highly congested city. The author has got accustomed to this kind of a lifestyle in Brooklyn.
Response
1. In addition to the subway line, Frazier gives us directions to his apartment by saying that he lived very close to the LaGuardia Airport, on the left-hand side of Prospect Park, after the Green-Wood Cemetery. These give us neighborhood directions, even though Brooklyn may not as a whole.
Brooklyn is presented to its readers by Frazier in a variety of ways. Even non-residents can get clear way of Brooklyn by the ways in which the author describes it. He describes Brooklyn from the subway train, its view from an airplane, the description of its roads and sidewalks, its parks and gardens, its eateries and its apartments.
3. Home is where the heart is and the author’s heart lies in the heart of Brooklyn. These features are universal to anybody’s home. The uniqueness of Frazier’s home in Brooklyn cannot be
identified on maps due to its position; it can still be identified relative to its neighborhood in several ways. The unique and universal features both pertain to a certain locality. They both add to the greatness of a place as Brooklyn. It is unique in its references and universal in its appeal, both to residents and non-residents of Brooklyn.
Rhode Island by Jhumpa Lahiri
Summary:
Rhode Island by Jhumpa Lahiri is an essay in which the author gives us a glimpse of Rhode Island, its geographical features, its inmates and its routine happenings. It also describes the author’s attachment to the place though she had not liked it much when she had moved from Kingston. The author grew up living in Kingston with her parents who were of Indian origin. Her father worked as a librarian at the University of Rhode Island. They lived in an old-fashioned house. Kingston was a mixed population of professors, Yankees and hippies etc. who came to study during the academic season. On their leave, the place looked deserted once again. Lahiri seemed greatly attracted to books ever since she was a child. At sixteen, she worked as a page at the Kingston Free Library where she discovered that she was very comfortable with books. She found a lot of solace in them and they soon became her good friends. Later, her family moved to Biscuit City to their own house. The neighborhood was both friendly and not-so-friendly. They lived in a serene atmosphere where everybody minded their own businesses. After her parents
lived there for thirty-seven years, a drastic change had taken place in Rhode Island. It had become a mixture of both the modern and the rural. The author moves on to attend college in New York but as long as her parents lived, she would detour to Rhode Island to take a tour of the wonderful days she had spent there.
Response:
1. The author compares several states to Rhode Island so that the reader may get a true feel of Rhode Island. She compares the states of South Kingston and Vermont. Rhode Island was a hotter and a more urbanized state than Vermont. Vermont boasted of its liberalism, its culture and its homogeneity. Rhode Island was more modernized and densely populated. It was a mixture of both the rural and the urban, of both floating and fixed population. It was thickly populated and boasted of malls, arcades and beaches which attracted tourists all the year round. The author gives lucid details to the reader about the life in Rhode Island. The place had become a part of her parents. They had lived there for a long time. Her mother had carved a niche for herself and gained recognition. Several people came to her help when she had a cardiac arrest. This shows that people of Rhode Island were helpful and friendly. The description of the Scarborough beach that it was now highly congested and filled with all kinds of activities. This was in high contrast to what it was when the author was young. However, Scarborough lacked the beautiful dunes and the lonely look of Cape Cod which the author seemed to like so much.
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