Chapter Two: Description

If you have discussed the selections in Chapter One: Narration, you have probably already begun to talk about some of the important uses of description as well as the kinds of details writers use to convey their impressions of people, places, and things. As you begin your discussion ofChapter Two, remind students of the intimate connections between the kinds of writing we have come to call narration and description. Suggest that they skim the essays in the previous chapter for descriptive details. Then explain the role that narration plays in enriching the portraits of places and people like those described in the essays by Baldwin, Cofer Ortiz, Didion, and White.  

     One of the best ways to introduce Chapter Two, however, is by discussing the use of the five senses as vehicles for gathering information and communicating images that are concrete and recognizable. Most students understand the importance of being specific when recalling visual details, but you may want to stress the uses of taste, smell, touch, and especially hearing as sources of information that will enrich their writing.

     While relying heavily on details from the senses, each of the essays in this chapter transcends the physical to say something important about the character of its subject. As such, it helps illustrate the close connection between the processes of description and analysis.  Indeed, students often take great interest in the examination of a personality like the one of the narrator in White's "Once More to the Lake." But places and things can have "personalities," too, as in Baldwin's "Fifth Avenue, Uptown."

      In this connection, you might, once again, stress the important relationship between narration and description. Narrative techniques such as the use of anecdote and dialogue help Momaday in "The Way to Rainy Mountain" reveal the character of his grandmother. A good companion piece is Cofer Ortiz's "A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood."  

     The selections in this chapter also provide an opportunity to launch or continue a discussion of effective word choice. They are replete with vocabulary that is concrete, specific, and vivid. And many yield figures of speech that inspire students to take chances with their own language and to tackle abstractions they would never have attempted had they not seen what can result from a little ingenuity and courage. Again, the essays by Cofer Ortiz and Momaday are appropriate.

     Woolf's "The Death of the Moth" offers a greater challenge than most essays in this text, but it is well worth discussing in class even if some students may have difficulty seeing the connection the author draws between herself and what she observes. The essays by Didion and Baldwin spark lively discussion and can be compared to showhow the choice of descriptive detail serves purpose and reveals the author's voice.

 

James Baldwin: Fifth Avenue, Uptown

Questions for Discussion

Each of the items in this section can be addressed easily as long as students are willing to spend a few minutes in close analysis of the text. Most will find this a productive activity, for Baldwin's prose is very accessible and interesting. Indeed, this essay still speaks to our students quite clearly.

     Discussing each of the items under Strategy and Style usually pays big dividends. Baldwin's style makes it relatively easy to discuss illustrations of the kind of language--literal and figurative--that students can practice in their own writing.

Engaging the Text

Assigning item a will require defining the concept of tone and, perhaps, illustrating various kinds of tone found in other places in this chapter. You might want to discuss Didion in this regard. Essays by Mitford (Chapter Three) and by Parker and Steinem (Chapter Four) can also be used for this purpose.

Suggestions for Sustained Writing

Students have little trouble with these assignments. However, if you ask them to research Baldwin's life, you might remind them to focus carefully. In addition, you might have to discuss a few basic library research techniques just to get them started. In that regard, however, item b might provide an excellent opportunity to begin teaching skills that students will have to use in formal research papers.

 

Virginia Woolf: The Death of the Moth

Questions for Discussion

This is one of those rare essays for which you may want to discuss all the Questions for Discussion in class. If your time is limited, consider items a, b, and c together. Item d, on the other hand, should be handled independently. Many of the more alert students will appreciate your pointing out the relationship between the world of nature and the world within the author's imagination.

        Woolf's essay is also an excellent illustration of an author's manipulation of tone. Most students will see that the essay's tone changes after paragraph three, and they should have little difficulty picking out other differences in content and
rhetorical strategy between the first three and the last two paragraphs (items e and f). Some may even be able to explain how these shifts contribute to the author's purpose. At least they will appreciate the fact that the death of the moth has affected Woolf deeply because of what it tells her about the nature of life and
death and because it reminds her of her own impotence against the inevitability of nature.

Engaging the Text

The first item encourages close analysis of the text and stresses the importance of considering purpose and subject when writing one's own essays. The second item also prompts close analysis and gets students to experiment with style as well.

Suggestions for Sustained Writing

The first item works well, but you will have to distinguish subjective and objective description if students are to complete it successfully. Examples of subjective description abound in the essays of Didion and White (this chapter). The second writing prompt requires some sophistication, and you might want to encourage only your more advanced writers to attempt it. In any case, you should
discuss it in class at least briefly so as to help the students clarify the purpose of their own essays. The last prompt has proved popular, and most students have little trouble finding secondary sources of information. However, some students will be able to include intelligent first-hand observations as well.

 

N. Scott Momaday: The Way to Rainy Mountain

Questions for Discussion

One way to begin discussion is to ask students to compare this essay with another in which the writer has tried to construct an image of an important relative (for example, Angelou and Hong Kingston in Chapter One). Ask students to describe how each writer sees that relative and how he or she defines their relationship. Momaday's vision of his grandmother, for example, is radically different from Hong Kingston's vision of her aunt, but each relative can be said to have had similar influences on the writers. The specific questions can be tied into this general comparison. Item a is an effective place to begin because it can be asked of both the Momaday piece and of others. It can also be tailored to include
"description of culture" as well as of place and person. The Momaday essay, as well as the essays by Hong Kingston, Angelou, and Ortiz Cofer, have description of culture as a focus.

Engaging the Text

Both suggestions encourage students to attempt the descriptive techniques Momaday uses. Both can be used as effective prompts for in-class writing. You might want to ask students to explain reasons behind Momaday's choosing particular details.

Suggestions for Sustained Writing

For Suggestion a, try bringing in a copy of Momaday's book so that students can see how he juxtaposes photographs and text. This assignment can be turned into a longer, researched project by having students look up their family's genealogy, interview family members, and research the history of the town, area, or country from which the family came. For the second suggestion, you will have to review
techniques relevant to comparison/contrast and to remind students about the importance of close textual analysis. The third assignment allows the students a great deal of choice. However, you should insist that they clear their topics with you in advance.

 

E.B. White: Once More to the Lake

Questions for Discussion

Some instructors focus on Strategy and Style as a way to approach this essay, especially if they don't have enough class time to cover all the discussion questions. Whatever approach you use, make sure that students realize the importance of this essay as a model for technique. Indeed, that is surely why "Once More to the Lake"--now more than sixty years old--still holds our interest
and is still so widely anthologized. You might want to concentrate most of your class discussion on questions g and h, which will help students understand the importance of using concrete and specific detail in their own writing.

Engaging the Text

The first item is effective as an in-class prompt to spur discussion.  The second can help students gather material for use in responding to one of the Suggestions for Sustained Writing.

Suggestions for Sustained Writing

The first writing prompt is probably the most popular among students. Remind them, however, that they must cite the text closely at least at the beginning of their essays. The second writing prompt requires students to practice comparison/contrast, so you might want to provide some background on appropriate techniques. The third prompt requires research, but it is not as difficult as it might first appear. The information that students will need to find
is readily available both in print and on the Internet.

 

Joan Didion: Marrying Absurd

Questions for Discussion

Questions on content are extremely important if students are going to understand what Didion is trying to accomplish here. This is more than an indictment of Las Vegas weddings. Like other works by Didion, it has to do with the superficiality of modern life, whatever the venue. You might have to spend some time introducing students to Didion's allusions to the Crosbys, Lohengrin, and Pangloss, but you can do so fairly quickly. In fact, you might want to assign selected students to research these allusions and report to the class as a way of introducing the essay. Make sure to discuss Didion's tone and her use of direct quotation as tools for description as well as elements that influence many kinds of writing.

Engaging the Text

Both of these prompts help students analyze text and to adopt the author's techniques in their own writing. You might want to use one or the other as a short in-class exercise for a change of pace during or after discussion.  The second prompt might be turned into an assignment for a full-length essay.

Suggestions for Sustained Writing

Students who choose to write to the first prompt should be reminded that both a subjective view and an objective view are required. The second item encourages students to synthesize ideas. Be sure to ask them to reference the text of both essays closely. You might want to review techniques for quoting directly, paraphrasing, and summarizing in the process. The third prompt requires a good bit of research, but you should encourage students to include their own experiences and observations as well.

         

Judith Ortiz Cofer: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood

Questions for Discussion

Content

1. Students should have little trouble seeing these stories as "instructional"

                  devices.

1. This question can also be used as a prompt for short writing. Paragraphs 3, 5,

                  9, and 11 are relevant.

1. Direct students to paragraphs 8 and 9.
2. "La Loca" of course is the "insane woman." Her being a fictitious character is 

a question that can be debated in class.

1. The discussion here has to do with how a woman should get the most out of

                  marriage and preserve her honor. It has nothing to do with right or wrong.
Mama is intent on protecting her family and its good name.
f . The phrase, although subject to various interpretations, seems to leave a
positive imprint upon the essay's conclusion.

 

 Strategy and Style

             g.   The image being projected here is one of control and authority.

1. The author wishes us to see the reactions of all of the listeners as Mama tells

her story. Waiting to report these reactions until after Mama finished would have made Ortiz Cofer's observations less poignant.

1. Mama's authority can not be separated from the cultural context from which

                   it derives. The contrast in the two cultures is significant if we are to                   
understand Mama's stories and her position in the family.

1. Clearly, this has to do with the role that Mama plays in this essay.
2. The parlor in which the action takes place almost seems like a throne room,

                   where Mama holds audiences.

Engaging the Text

Both items are designed to have students analyze the text closely. Opinions may differ depending upon the cultural contexts from which students come. You might want to discuss both of these questions in terms of the cultural image that Ortiz Cofer puts forth.

       

 

 

Suggestions for Sustained Writing

Students who choose the first prompt should be reminded that they must draw inferences from events in their stories. The second item is not as difficult as it looks. However, students should be advised to re-read both essays mentioned and to make copious notes that they might later incorporate into their comparison/contrast essays. You might also want to spend some time--in class or in during office hours--explaining the best way to organize such an essay. Students claim that this assignment, albeit somewhat challenging, is both interesting and informative.