Lights, Camera, ‘Action, Speech, Thought, and Description…’

In this blog, I will be analyzing our two most recently read memoirs, Andre Dubois’ “Tracks and Ties” along with Chang-Rae Lee’s “Coming Home Again.”

ACTION-               ”Tracks and Ties-” The action in this memoir starts off speaking of Dubois’ childhood, and follows his friend and him on the school bus, at home, and even when they’re just fooling around within society.  The action gives the reader insight into the poorly economic and poorly moral lives these boys are enveloped within.

“Coming Home Again-” The action followed in this personal essay literally takes the reader into the kitchen.  It talks quite a bit about his mother’s cooking as well as gives the reader an idea of Lee’s adulthood life.  The action follows him from childhood, to his teenage years and being shipped off to school, and ends with his adult life while he’s looking back to the past and recalling on family memories which explain the regrets Lee holds within his heart.

SPEECH-                ”Tracks and Ties-” Although grammatically correctly written now, in “Tracks and Ties” the narrator takes the reader by the hand and puts a first person perspective into his life and background.  Through quotes about the ‘screem’ door as well as using words such as ‘friggin,’ the author gives a well-written account into the type of lingo and slang he heard around him while growing up.  It presents a type of uneducated, lower class type of language even though at the time this child knew no better because that is what he grew up hearing and was surrounded by.

“Coming Home Again-” In this account, speech is used to show the gap between Lee’s immigrant parents and what he knew from being educated in America.  He writes that his mother would mostly speak Korean to him, and that she would need his help to translate her native tongue into proper English.  At the time, Lee would ridicule his mother in the same smart-alecky tone that any child uses towards their parents, but looking back once much older he shows remorse for this and wishes that he understood where his mother was coming from.  He would tell her to figure out English herself, oblivious to the fact that his parents moved here to better his life.

THOUGHT-          ”Tracks and Ties-” In this essay, thought is not one of the most predominantly included topics written about.  Whether this was on purpose or not, it exemplified the poorly educated family Dubois grew up in.  However, once an adult, the writer lets the reader within his stream of consciousness and thought processes a much greater amount.  Even though the reader was made to dislike the author as a child because of his childish behavior, towards the end the audience begins to pity and relate to the narrator because of his turn of heart when he shows that his childhood friend never defeated the neighborhood they grew up in, but rather that he grew up to realize what he’s done wrong in the past and even states that his friend deserved to be murdered by his abused spouse.

“Coming Home Again-” The thought within “Coming Home Again” focuses mainly on regrets the author holds but cannot realize until after his mother passed away.  He wishes that he could go back and not be so cruel to his mother, and understand thatin reality she was  looking out for Chang-Rae’s best interest.  Although it took him to long to express this to his mother, he feels that he should have appreciated her much more than what he did as a child.

DESCRIPTION-  ”Tracks and Ties-” The physical descriptions within this memoir focus mainly on the author’s childhood and family life.  He writes a lot about character’s appearances, putting abstract meaning deeper than what’s just skin deep.  He talks about raggedy clothing worn, poor hygiene, wear and tear caused by drug usage, and basically the overall filth that enveloped these people’s lifestyles.  One of the most vivid examples that jumped out at me was when he described the physical state of his friend’s mother including the cold sore which rested upon her lip, hinting at sexually transmitted diseases and overall uncleanliness.

“Coming Home Again-” Through written descriptions in this essay, the reader is able to acknowledge the poor state of his mother’s health as well as her pride taken in her cuisine.  He also describes in detail his attitude and actions towards his mother.  This memoir revolves around the regrets Lee holds from his youth but that it is too late to express his love for his mother.

“Coming Home Again” & “Tracks & Ties”

In “Coming Home Again,” Chang-Rae Lee writes a personal essay on his family, focusing on his mother mainly.  In this memoir, Lee seems that once his mother has passed that he realizes how much she truly meant to him, but not until then.  He resented his mother and father earlier in life for sending him off to a private school, even though it might have been what was best for him.  In this essay, he also writes thoroughly on food and uses it as a central metaphor in comparing it with the relationship between him and his mother.  All in all, this essay was not one of my favorite reads as it was lacking to keep my attention, however I will look towards it for advice when writing my personal essay because mine is about the diminishing relationship between myself and my father.

“Tracks and Ties” was definitely unlike any other homework assignment I have been told to read throughout my scholarly career.  I have never been so shocked within the first paragraph of a school reading until I venture into this one.  This memoir by Andre Dubus III speaks of his desire for a better childhood and relationship with his mother as well, along with a desire for a better life all together.  During his childhood, he was surrounded by poverty, drugs, alcohol, and terrible temptation all around him.  He never knew any better because he never really had a better example of what humankind should act like and treat each other.  However, once fully grown and looking back, the reader finds a sense of right and wrong within this man because the memoir causes the reader to pity the narrator after his friend died, and after he put no blame on the wife, but rather showed heart in the fact that he felt his friend deserved to die.  All in all, this reading definitely kept my attention, but also was not one of my favorites.

“Somehow Form a Family”

In this short story, Tony Earley recalls his childhood and writes about his family life through utilizing television shows as a central metaphor.  I neither really enjoys nor disliked reading this essay, but it did provide a good example/framework for how we as a class are supposed to use a central metaphor within our personal essays.  I thought it was amazing how vividly Earley remembered his childhood, and how he could recall what was playing on TV at almost every hour of every day.

As far as the concrete sensory details go, Earley provided his readers with very clear accounts of almost everything in this short story.  I was amazed by how when reading I could picture his house, his neighbors, their houses, and the picture I got of the town he lived within.  The precise descriptions he wrote about including the night the man landed on the moon, and what his father’s new home looked like kept the reader’s attention because it was very easy to imagine and follow.

Tony Early also used a fair amount of abstract reasoning within his essay.  Through the central metaphor of television, he uses abstract reasoning to compare his family & friends to characters on television, such as the Brady Bunch.  He ends this personal essay by talking about how Alice in real life was nothing what he believed her to be when he was an ignorant child.

Spellbound

Nupur, the one, the only…

Nupur resides with her parents Parag and Mina, as well as her brother Kunal in sunny Tampa, Florida.  During her section, she states that one of the biggest reasons she wants to win is not only for herself or her family, but because of the opportunity she was given to live in America.  She says that unlike India, this is a place of second chances where she feels she can thrive.  As far as socioeconomic obstacles, well, she didn’t go into much detail about her family’s wealth, however they live in an expensive city and in one of the scenes you can actually spot the beach out of their back window, even though it looks like they live in a highrise.  I picked to write about Nupur because she isn’t just a bookworm who lacks social skills, but rather she talks about hanging out with friends and playing sports, too.  I also picked her because I felt like either her or Neil have the best shot at winning, but I like her better so my prediction is on her.  Lastly, it also gave me a chuckle when the movie showed of all places that Hooters was the one to congratulate her on their advertising sign.

My man Teddy…

Teddy is a simple teenage boy, living in the country out in Rolla, Missouri.  He lives with his brother Tim, as well as his parents Earl and Dorothy.  When interviewed, Ted stayed calm and collected, and rarely talked about winning or what his real motivation was other than his family.  Being what looked as middle class, it didn’t seem like Ted had many socioeconomical disadvantages, although I’m sure his eyes will get wide once he leaves Missouri’s backwoods and enters the big city of Washington, D.C.  His interests are hunting, tending to his pet peacocks, and above all math which is actually his favorite subject over English/spelling.  I chose Ted because of his severe lack of hubris, and his calm and collected nature.  He almost didn’t seem excited enough to partake in the Scripp’s National Spelling Bee, but I liked him more because of it.

BONUS- Neil and Nupur in the finals with Nupur pulling out the victory and Neil’s father no longer being able to live through his son.

BONUS DOS- a little video for you all to enjoy…

Ch. 12-14

In chapter twelve through fourteen, Pollan speaks again of Polyface Farm and of its praises.  He starts off by giving the narrative of his story slaughtering the chickens.  Although at first disgusted by the process, he later goes on to say “In a way, the most morally troubling thing about killing chickens is that after a while it is no longer morally troubling.”  After this experience and seeing Polyface’s customers flock to the farm, he began to appreciate Salatin and realized why others were willing to pay almost double the supermarket price for chicken with real flavor.  From this, Pollan begins to conclude the second part of Omnivore’s Dilemma.  After following the food trail for months now, he’s found out that most food actually travels over 1,500 miles before it ever reaches its final destination.  But now instead of eating out with his family at McDonalds, he appreciates what a home-grown meal really is.  From Polyface customers, to chefs at local businesses, and even Salatin’s wife Bev all agree that Polyface food simply just tastes better.  on page 247, she quotes, “Instead of mad cow disease, we’ve got glad cows at ease.”  Lastly, he finally gets a taste of what everyone else is talking about when he gets to enjoy a taste of Polyface himself.

An area of this section that both interested me as well as something I can relate to was the slaughter.  About a year ago I went turkey hunting for the first time with a family friend.  Although some hunters never bag one throughout a whole season, I got lucky and spotted one after being out for only about an hour before the sun had risen.  I took one shot and bagged my first game.  After this, we went back to his barn to pluck the feathers, skin it, and remove the buckshot from the bird.  Just like Polyface customers enjoy their meat and eggs fresh, well it wasn’t even November but it became the best Thanksgiving ever because fresh turkey truly did taste ten times better.

Mr. Pollan, how many other books have you written?

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Ch. 9 & 11

In chapter nine, Pollan visits Whole Foods, an organic supermarket, where he tells much about the pros and cons of organic foods and organic farming.  On the surface level, organic foods are at least supposed to be much healthier for one’s body compared to most processed foods.  However, they are also much more expensive to grow, and therefore a lot more expensive on the grocery store shelves as well.  Pollan also finds that tracing the roots back to organically grown foods can be a more chalenging issue than he thought as well, and that not all organic farms should be hyped up to what they are.  In chapter eleven, Pollan goes back to focusing a lot on Polyface Farm and how the animals are the true farmers of this land.  Pollan goes more in depth into describing not only how the corn and cattle affect this acreage, but also the impact that the chickens, turkeys, pigs, and even rabbits all have as well.  On this farm its all a system that Salatin has down to an art, which is why the reason that he can still keep his farming lifestyle even though he raises very little competition to the thousand acre farms which are starting to dominate American agriculture.

One aspect of this reading that I found particularly interesting was the paragraph on page 218 that talks about hog heaven and tail docking.  I’m not particularly sure as to why, but this section stood out to me probably because it was information I have never heard before. 

One aspect of the reading that I felt pertained to my personal life was the bashing of this new generation of farming ‘simpletons.’  Pollan writes about how now farmers are more and more the D students in the classroom who never quite made it to college.  However, knowing a few farmers myself, I found this demeaning because after all these people are the ones feeding us and keeping us alive.  Ask a neurosurgeon or an astronaut about farming, and I bet they would be lost just as much as asking a farmer about health and space.  These farmers are qualified for their jobs and the best fit people for these jobs, so why bash them when we should be praising them.

What farm did Pollan like better, Polyface or Naylor?

How are everyone’s calsses going?

Ch. 8 & 10

In chapter eight, Pollan visits Joel Salatin’s farm which he names Polyface Farm.  There he raises chickens, cattle, turkeys, rabbits, and pigs, as well as makes profit from eggs, tomatoes, and sweet corn on his 550 acre property.  However even though he does all this, he prides himself most in calling himself a ‘grass farmer.’  By this, he means that everything on his farm is grown naturally, the way farmers did it centuries before, except for the addition of a few of his own inventions and techniques.  Through the inventions of a movable electric fence, a portable veal calf barn, the shademobile, and a portable chicken coop, Polyface Farm has all the bases covered.  By utilizing rotational grazing, his cows eat fresh pasture every day, with the birds right behind them.  From the manure keeping the soil healthy, to the hens spreading it and eating the grubs and larvae, Polyface keeps it allll naturaal.  He even goes as far as to refuse to ship any of his products, but rather one must pick them up from the farm to receive them.

One aspect I found particularly interesting was Salatin’s methods of farming.  Nowadays, barely anyone farms as natural as Salatin does, and his techniques and farming inventions were extremely well thought out.  I myself live in the suburbs of a large, American city and have no background or prior knowledge of farming.  However, through reading Pollan’s writing, I am able to take a lot out of it.

One aspect from these chapters that I can relate to my own personal life is the agricultural beef industry.  Being an animal sciences major, we’ve been learning about the cow’s body but especially about their feed.  Recently, I visited Purdue’s beef & dairy farm and learned about the pros and cons of corn-fed beef since farmers have lately weaned away from grass-fed.  By utilizing corn feed techniques, cows are able to put on weight at a much faster, more efficient rate than if they stick to a grass-fed diet, therefore the farmers almost all take advantage of this.

How did Salatin’s father think of all these innovations and inventions to use on the farm?

How is everyone enjoying the book thus far?

MADLibs

Once upon a time there was a boy that loved chicken fingers,

The boy loved chicken fingers so much that he kept them in his pockets;

He ate the chicken fingers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

He ate them so much he turned into a chicken finger;

He walked around near Chik-fil-A and they hired him for a mascot.

All of a sudden, a random girl appears at Chik-fil-A who HATES chicken fingers,

She went up to the chicken finger boy and ripped off one of his arms.

In hate to make a point she ate the chicken finger,

But then suddenly the arm grew back.

So chicken finger Chuck kept the backhand strong and taught hating Helga a lesson she would never forget.

He taught her about the nutritional facts behind chicken and Helga gave him another chance;

The two both ordered a #5 value meal and sat down for lunch, enjoying every last corn calorie within it…

Anti-alcohol commercial

This commercial I found interesting because it shows the opposite point of view of what our commercial is trying to accomplish.  This commercial starts out with a couple at a party, dressed nicely, glowing with smiles, and simply enjoying themselves.  It then progresses into their four guy “friends” handing them shots and peer pressuring them into drinking.  However, a few drinks later and the two are both visibly drunk, and can no longer control or take care of themselves.  After the male leaves the room to get sick and make a fool of himself in front of the entire party, the four “friends” come back into the picture to take advantage of the passed out female, with nothing she can do because of her drunken state.  The demographic for this commercial is teenagers as well as people in the early twenties, so young people as a whole.  The producers are simply trying to convince people to not binge drink by creating lmost a first-person point of view and giving the audience a relatable figure to compare themselves with.  As the commercial goes on, the lights seem to get dimmer and the music more intense, creating a more convincing campaign.

Ch.6-7

In chapter six, Pollan starts off giving a background of how corn revolutionized alcohol within the United States.  With all the excess corn production during the early nineteenth century, farmers turned towards corn whiskey for a release and they did it well.  The author then transitioned into obesity statistics to get his point across, saying that three of every five Americans are overweight, and one in every five is actually obese.  From this he explained how corn is actually the root of most American’s diets and the surplus calories that go into those diets.  But yet even with corn going into all these things, the surplus wasn’t going away.  Instead, David Wallerstein came up with the “brilliant” idea of supersizing, or charging more for a single gigantic serving.  He found out that people will actually eat over 30 times more than what they otherwise would have if served in a single, supersized portion.

Chapter seven, “The Meal,” describes simply that.  In chapter seven, Pollan and his family go out to McDonald’s to eat a fast food meal in the car, where 19 percent of American meals are eaten daily.  He goes into great detail about the McNugget, and all thirty-eight ingredients that make it up.  Together, between his son’s chicken nugget meal, his wife’s salad, and his combo meal, the family consumed 4,510 calories at lunch alone.

I found the seventh chapter about the family’s lunch at Mcdonald’s was both the most interesting as well as the most relatable to my own personal life.  We never really think about the numbers when a cheeseburger hits our mouths besides what it tastes like.  I couldn’t believe the astounding numbers Pollan calculated behind this meal.  It made me realize what my food is truly made of and put me on alert to watch out for these things in the future.

I wonder what the numbers are for corn usage in gasoline for a family vacation or something of that sort, not just the numbers behind the meal…?

Does anyone in our class have Type II diabetes, and what are their struggles with that?