Outside Reading, Week 4, Post A

Vocab
concentric (195) - having a common center, as circles or spheres

corregated (189) - to draw or bend into folds or alternate furrows and ridges

Appeals
"The rubber band was small but thick and had a good, tight fit. But it pressed down uncomfortably on my tongue, and sometimes it would pop off during the night and I'd wake up choking on it. Usually, however, it stayed on all night, and in the morning my gums would be sore from the pressure on my teeth...So I got some larger rubber bands and wore them around my whole head, pressing against my front teeth. The problem with this technique was that the rubber bands were tight...so I'd wake up with headaches and deep red marks where the rubber bands had dug into the sides of my face" (201)

This passage describes in detail the homemade braces that Jeannette wore. This made me cringe and definitely demonstrates a logical appeal. As someone who has had braces and has experienced this type of pain, I can relate to her situation and feel what she felt physically. It sounds like she used just a coat hanger and rubber bands to push her front teeth back every night and she describes the pain that it caused her. She also goes into detail about the physical results of her braces and just reading this passage makes me feel all that metal inside my mouth.

"We stood on our hands and stuck our legs out of the water, did underwater twists, and played Marco Polo and chicken with the other kids. We climbed out to do cannonballs and watermelons off the side, making big geyser like splashes intended to drench as many people sitting poolside as possible. The blue water sparkled and churned white with foam. By the time the free swim was over, my fingers and toes were completely wrinkled, and my eyes were red and stinging from the chlorine, which was so strong it wafted up from the pool in a vapor you could practically see. I'd never felt cleaner." (191-192)

Jeannette goes swimming for the first time in Welch with her black friend Dinitia in this passage. I felt that this text demonstrates both logical and emotional appeals. At first, the logical appeal is evident. Jeannette goes into detail about her day at the pool and the effect on her body. One can visualize these effects thanks to her vivid imagery. However, at the very end, there is a possible emotional appeal. When she says "I'd never felt cleaner", she could be talking about the obvious physical sense of her going swimming and showering. However, I felt that Jeannette could be also talking about her escape from her hectic household and that this provides a cleansing of her mind.

"Lucy Jo Rose, who had just graduated from Bluefield State College and was so fat she could barely squeeze behind the steering wheel of her brown Doge Dart...She refused to say much during the trip, instead playing Barbara Mandrell tapes and smoking filter-tip Kools the entire time. As soon as Mom got out of the car, Lucy Jo made a big show of spraying Mom's seat with Lysol...When Mom mentioned Jackson Pollock once, Lucy Jo said that she had Polish blood and therefore did not appreciated Mom using derogatory names for Polish people." (196)

This passage describes Jeannette's Mom daily ordeal after accepting a teaching position at the local elementary school. She is forced to ride with Lucy Jo Rose, who, from what we are told, is a positively vile and horrible woman. This demonstrates both a logical and emotional appeal. One could view this and see the logical appeal that is present when Jeannette describes her physical appearance and her behaviors in the car. This helps the reader visualize Lucy Jo Rose, which leads into being able to feel Jeannette's emotional appeal of disgust. Lucy Jo Rose treats Jeannette's mom as subhuman and shows that by acting as if Jeannette's mom is dirty and carries disease, thus the Lysol. One cannot help but feel for Jeannette's mom and see the emotional pain that she went through daily.

Quote
"Whenever I was at the Daily News, I watched the editors and reporters at work in the newsroom. They kept a police scanner on all the time, and when an accident or fire or crime was called in, an editor would send a reporter to find out what had happened...This appealed to me mightily. Until then, when I thought of writers, what first came to mind was Mom, hunched over her typewriter, clattering away on her novels and plays and philosophies of life...What the reporter wrote influenced what people thought about and talked about the next day; he knew what was really going on. I decided I wanted to be one of the people who knew what was really going on." (204)

This quote is extremely significant, both in the book and the overall life of Jeannette Walls. Up until this point, Jeannette had always done well in school, but didn't really have a goal in life or anything to shoot for. However, now she has a focus and something that she really loves. Also, the reader knows that she does eventually become a reporter, so it signifies her change to her current career, which is pretty significant.

Theme
I believe that now the theme is "Writing is a beacon of light in the life of Jeannette Walls". Before, there was definitely a theme of good in the midst of bad, but now it is more specific. Jeannette sounds so happy and so fulfilled when she is in the newspaper editing room, more so than any other time in the book. It is clear that she loves writing and reporting, which is also evident in her career later on.