"I" essays

The essay "Picking Plums" by Bernard Cooper tells the story, rather briefly, of the relationship between a father and son.  It is very heartfelt in the sense that, by the end of the essay, the two men bond after many years of thinking that they were both so different from one another.  Only after Cooper's father takes a fall while picking plums in his yard, are they finally able to somewhat understand eachother.  

 Cooper developed his ideas through story telling, which caused the readers to feel that they could relate to him and his family.  When he describes his father's temper, and writes about the time that he became so angry that all of his mother's clothes ended up on the lawn, the reader is brought into his childhood.  Cooper is revealing very personal stories that may be traumatic to some children, but he ironically uses these stories as a way to describe his dad.  I can't speak for other readers, but the way that Cooper described his dad did not paint a negative picture of him in my mind.  Instead, I used it as a base into their relationship as father and son.  Though he states that they were somewhat distance, especially after the death of his mother, Cooper displays a level of respect and a yearning to make his father proud.

Bernard Cooper was able to grasp the attention of his readers through telling stories about his father.  Though some were pretty unflattering, they were stories that seemed down to earth, that seemed like any other ordinary family might have experienced.  Cooper is struggling with the fact that he is gay and keeping this secret from his father, while at the same time, revealing that his dad is also hiding his personal life from him. This provides the essay with a sense of irony, and eventually, causes the father and son to tighten their relationship.

Another "I" essay that I read is "Field Trips" by Stuart Dybek.  This essay is a recollection of trips taken as a young boy on the brink of puberty.  Dybeck describes visiting county jails and correction houses.  He recalls his most memorable moments through descriptions involving prostitutes and nuns.  The most descriptive of the trips though was at the packing plant, where the kids witness a pig being slaughtered. Dybeck was sure to include the slight comedy relief of a classmate, Joey B., who seemed to relate everything to sex.  

I felt a slight connection to this essay, because it brought me back to when I was much younger, and the excitement I felt to get out of school.  Everyone had an excited energy, because, though it was just for a few hours, we were leaving the constraints of school, and felt like we were 'escaping'.  Dybeck portrays this kind of energy through his writing, by stating, "Filing from school at midmorning felt like jailbreak" (92).  I believe that every young kid who has gone on a field trip has felt like this, even if the destination is going to be boring.  Dybeck also displays a kind of innocence as well.  When he tells the story of Sylvie Perez, the young girl who 'developed' quite suddenly, it brought back a feeling of awkwardness, and often accompanied by the onsets of puberty.  I felt it, and I'm sure everyone else has too.