A child's upbringing as well as their surroundings both play a pivotal role in the child's development. The true extent of this truth is well explained in the The Beet Queen, by Louise Erdrich. In this novel, Erdrich depicts the struggles and complexities of Karl and Mary Adare. By depicting their lives vividly through literary devices such as tone, imagery, selection of detail, and a unique point of view, Erdrich uncovers the truth to the reader of how deep the effects of an environment truly goes.
Karl and Mary's story is presented vividly and lively through literary devices such as such as imagery and selection of detail. Erdrich utilizes these two devices to further enrich the experiences of Karl and Mary for the reader. Erdrich depicts the places in the novel as houses with "...a scratch of light against the gray of everything else..." and having the reader feel Karl's reaction as he was "...like a sleepwalker..." when "he buried his face in white petals." Ultimately, this is done to further support Erdrich's purpose that the environmental impact on children is monumental. Along with this, Erdrich tries to present the fact that the negative effects and the positive effects of a child's environment will most likely be equal.
The contrast Erdrich implements between Karl and Mary highlights the importance of how an environment can affect children in distinct ways. This contrast is well executed due to Erdrich's use of tone shifts when switching between Karl's responses to events and Mary's responses. The most abundant use of this can be seen when Erdrich introduces the two children and lists their characteristics through detail. Karl is depicted in a straightforward manner as "tall" and "very pale". However, as this paragraph transitions into Mary, a negative slant is placed on her as Erdrich sways from simply naming characteristics to minorly antagonizing them. This tone shift along with others later on in the chapter, such as when Mary and Karl react differently to the dog, brings to light how uniquely a child is affected by his or her own environment.
Erdrich's choice of utilizing third person point of view was an exceptional decision. By doing so, not only does she manifest on one specific character, rather broadens the book's spectrum to cover more characters and their specific individual reactions. When the dog charges after Karl, a yell of "Run!" is exclaimed. However, Mary returns home to Aunt Fritsie while Karl treks to his home at heart, the boxcar and the train. This is the perfect depiction by Erdrich that once again, the environment of the child is one of the most influential parts of childhood.
Reflection:
The task was to write a prose passage essay for which we had 40 minutes to write. The prompt was straightforward as it just asked for analysis of the author's use of certain literary devices. The passage, an excerpt from The Beet Queen,was not difficult to understand, but it was easy to miss some of the underlying complexities. And this is what I believe to be the hardest part of reading and soon after writing a prose passage essay. After re-reading my essay, I would score this essay a 5. The reasons for this score is that the analysis was present but was superficial and the relationships made to the literary devices were slight. I relied to much on textual evidence and not enough analysis to support all the quotes used from the passage. One measurable goal is to limit, but not omit, the use of quotations as the centerpiece of my essay. I should focus on lengthening my analysis. Along with this, I need to work on finding the hidden meanings within the passage by spending more time on reading the passage. This is the quickest way to get a deeper analysis for my next essay.
Blake Nissen Peer Review:
Hi Blake, I believe your essay did deserve a score of a 6. The reason for this score is that you had a fairly reasonable analysis of the impact of the environment on the children in regards to the literary devices. Also, your ideas were presented with clarity and you had control of how you used the text in your essay. I feel that if you include a couple of statements that relate everything back to the thesis, a score of 7 or higher will be easily achieved. Overall, well done!
This is a well written essay. Yash touches on everything the prompt asked of him in a detailed way that delved into the emotions of not just one sibling or some combination of them both, but touched individually on each child. Though well written I did feel the essay was a little stiff. It followed all the rules of how a good essay should be written ,but the sentence structure varied little. I do have to restate though that Yash did touch in detail of everything he was asked to touch on and individually analysed each child.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on a well-written essay Mr. Patel. There are many good things. The essay is organized well, and easy to follow. There are examples that are convincing and support your analysis, and there is a mature style that is followed throughout the essay. While good, the essay does have some flaws. The analysis is somewhat superficial, and is not extensive. I think that it's good that you mentioned the monumental impact of the environment, but you could be a little more specific as to WHAT the impact was. Also, the essay is organized but plays it safe. This is a 5 paragraph essay, and in the thesis it is clear that you stuck to the 3-pronged approach. While reliable, you don't have to stick with that, and can look more favorably to the scorers by moving to a style that flows a little better and is not so structurally rigid. Other than that, this is a well-crafted essay, and is the foundation for a fantastic essay. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteA score of 5 seems about right for this essay. As others have mentioned, the writing is informative and correct, but lacks a deeper level of interpretation. In the future, it might be useful to develop a more dynamic thesis. This would give more of an opportunity for discussion in the body paragraphs, thus making the overall essay more complete. Extensive pre-writing may help you make connections inside the text as well. Having examined your essay, it was a solid first attempt, and it's clear you have a great foundation for the future.
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