Do you think this is a good personal narrative essay? Why? What are its strengths in story-telling, theme, and language? Is this an education narrative (about a learning experience?) How so, or why not?
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I believe this is a good personal narrative essay because not only is the story intriguing and hits the reader with emotions, it circles back to a lesson of why this is so important to the author and what the memory means to them. A strength Anita has is her descriptive words especially in scenes like when she enters her parents room and also telling us the details of the dock she waited for her parents at. The story telling and how it is set up prepares us for sadness but I personally ended up feeling resolved due to her describing the nature of curiosity and how it will be apart of our lives forever, it is a inevitable emotion. I would also reckon this is a education narrative because of the last two paragraphs, the author describes how what they learned is having the education to understand what confuses us is what we strive for as humans. Her grandmother’s analysis of the Mona Lisa perfectly depicts this, without her knowing the context of what she is looking at she has a different view from what experts would say about the painting, she is questioning what she is looking at and without education she would never get the full answer.
I agree with you Christopher. I think it was a well prepared and delivered personal narrative essay. Not only is the story grabbing the reader’s attention, it is also sentimental, making writers emotional and maybe they can relate to an event like this one. Anita Jiang, did a good job describing and pointing out little details that help the readers have a clear picture of what they are reading. Making this one of Anita’s strengths. I would consider this essay as an education narrative, based on the end of the essay when Anita finally found the meaning of the Mona Lisa painting. Answering some of the questions she mentioned.
this is a good personal statement because it follows the ruberic of what a good personal statement needs to have. For instance, the author was able to find a moment in her life that meant a lot to her and that she can talk about. The strength in this story was she told us the time and place in which this moment was happening which was in the 70’s,in China during the Cultural Revolution and how during this time China didn’t want people to be educated. Another strength was she was able to mention people such as her grandmother, she describes her grandmother as an “enlightened teacher” even though she was illiterate, a safeguard because while the author was in a bad environment her grandmother still had a positive attitude and encouraged her, and a playmate since her grandmother was the only one she was closest to. I believe this is an education narrative because it shows us that it doesn’t take a lot of critical thinking to answer one’s own curiosity. While both the grandmother and the author had multiple questions about the Mona Lisa, mentioned during the end of the essay, they proceeded to use each other’s rs question as a stepping stone to answer and at least gather information to answer the original questions they both had.
I think this is an excellent personal narrative because it makes the reader feel the emotions in the story and see the image being explained. While reading this essay, I felt empathy and sadness for the author. The author explained the narrative with a lot of background details leading up to the memory they mention about her grandma. It was necessary to add information about her parents, education, and country because it gave us an image of the living situation which made it a strong narrative. The details were described thoughtfully when she was explaining the memory with Grandma in the room. The story was told in chronological order starting with a sad context to an education and satisfied ending. The narrative was educational because to know the whole story, curiosity will be a first step. As she mentions, when she and Grandma go to clean the room every week they always go with questions and leave with more questions but at some point, she found out the meaning of the Mona Lisa painting. This shows that this narrative essay ends in a learning experience lesson.
I think this is an inspiring story. The author wrote about a super early memory of her life and its amazing that so much detail went into it. This happened when the author was only five years old and that tells me that it has to be aspiring to still live in her mind. This time in her life had completely changed the way she saw art because she was exposed to something that wasn’t thought possible in the society they lived in. Jiang’s strengths are that she perfectly used descriptive language to paint a clear picture of the memory. This was in describing her waiting for her parents, her parents room, and their portrayal of the Mona Lisa. In addition she seamlessly writes the realization that her grandmother was shielding her from the world. She wrote about a memory from when she was 5 years old and at that age she didn’t understand their situation. It was nice to see that she jumped from her child mind to her adult mind. I think this is a learning experience because her and her grandmother were presented with something strange and even though they didn’t understand, their curiosity lead them to that room what could be countless time. In China education wasn’t a possibility for her but that painting gave her a sense of purpose.
The essay was able to properly convey the thoughts and the emotions tied with those memories of their grandmother while providing enough context and information for the reader to form an accurate image of the events that led up to this moment. It is also a core memory of the writer as this experience has played a role in the career and lifestyle of the writer. This is an educational narrative as it depicts the beginning of the writer’s passion for art and design, one closely tied with memories of their life with their grandmother. They used description and narrative to weave a story that portrayed the emotions the writer wanted the reader to feel. I feel that the best tools a writer could use would be description as it enables a writer to conjure images inside their reader’s head.
I think this is a good narrative essay because it gave me a perspective on how the narrator grew up and how it affected her past, present and future. Some strengths that i noticed was the imagery she used like for example when it came to the room which was a mystery to her until she came in with her grandmother which she noticed the room not having much in it. Another thing I noticed was how she was giving me a sort of nostalgic feeling coming from her due to describing her lifestyle when she was a kid and how some moments she still remembers and how Everday things she did as a kid and see made her feel. I think this is educational because it gives you a reminder of how people don’t get the experience to read or write not just in a single place but everywhere. This also adds on to how the narrator saw these moments with her grandmother as and how she reflects on it today and how it impacted her.
I agree with your reasons for why this is a strong narrative essay. The author was very descriptive and used imagery to help us visualize it in our heads. She was very detailed in her writing which is why a lot of us considerer this to be a strong educational essay.
I think this is a strong personal narrative essay because of how well the author was detailed and descriptive. Anita Jiang wrote about her childhood in China during the Cultural Revolution. She was very detailed in explaining her family background and at the time how her life was living with her grandmother. She wrote a very brief explanation that was very detailed and gave us a good understanding of her life which then led to memory. The part before she explained her memory was very detailed and helpful in making her essay strong and gave the readers a good visual of her writing. Especially right before she gets into the memory when she writes about her waiting desperately for her parents, it connects to the lesson of the narrative. Once she started explaining the memory of going into her parent’s room, Anita made us feel as if we were there with her in the moment. When she enters the room, she describes the setting and her thought process very vividly and how she analyses her surroundings. This essay is an educational narrative because this was the beginning of Anita’s curiosity and how far it can take her. In the last paragraph, Anita says how she realized that her curiosity and questions are what make us more knowledgeable and smarter. I consider this to be a strong education narrative essay. This essay was detailed from start to finish and used descriptive words to help the readers create a visual in their heads.