Essay two draft one

Marcus Robinson

English 1121

Essay Two

 

I can personally describe “The Money” by Diaz” as a double crossing story between a boy and a thief. The story is about a poor, but hard working family who’s just making it. During the story the family’s house was robbed due to a so-called “friend”, that leadinding into one of the sons of the family taking the money back. During the first paragraph we are introduced to a family of seven with five kids. They are depicted as having little to no income. Diaz states “ All the Dominicans I knew in those days sent money home. My mother didn’t have a regular job besides caring for us five kids, so she scrimped the loot together from whatever came her way. My father was always losing his forklift jobs, so it wasn’t like she ever had a steady flow.”  By using that language, we begin to see that this family works hard for everything they have in their life. Diaz cleverly uses words like “broke” and “scrimped” and “lost” to illustrate how little this family has. The mother of the family has a hidden part in the house which saved up money for her family. Even the kids knew not to touch the money. Burglary is a big thing that occurs in this neighborhood, the son in the text states “see that bike again. Everybody got hit; no matter who you were, eventually it would be your turn. And this summer was ours.” At this point Diaz already set in motion the family getting robbed. “Still, we took the burglary pretty hard. When you’re a recent immigrant, it’s easy to feel targeted” said the son right after he has just been robbed. When he said “ easy to feel targeted” I can relate on the level where you feel like everyone picks on you because of your race. The way Diaz uses similes is genius when the son was comparing the robbery to a “CSI-Style investigation.” That gave the text a detailed and yet fun description on the robbery. As soon as The s figured out who took the money which were his friends,he wasted no time taking back what belongs to the family. What is most interesting is when the term “burglarizing” to describe what the cops would think of him if he was caught stealing. Because of all the crime and burglary occurring around him, he used that to say he is simply stealing. What is really unique about this text is towards the end when he thought about keeping his mother’s money for himself. It’s kind of ironic in the sense that he would want to keep it considering he just got robbed and now is about to rob his mother. Especially towards the fact his mother scrapes up whatever money she can and his dad is always losing his job. 

 

‘The Money’ can be similarly  compared to ‘The Purloined letter’  by Edgar Allen Poe. Both stories follow the idea of a double crime story.  ‘The purloined letter’ is about a letter that was stolen from the royal capital. Both stories share the same idea where an item was stolen and then later received. The story takes a more in depth robbery between political officials. Perfect of the police have a mission to find this stolen letter and take it from a thief in the minister’s apartment. Perfect proceeds to inform Duplin that someone has stolen this letter and it holds power.  Perfect then does a long and thorough search on his apartment, after finding nothing, and checks every corner no letter was to be found. Perfect was disappointed again after a second search a month later. At this point Perfect is lost in the case with no direction. Until one of his officers informed Perfect that Duplin had a plan of his own, he would provide the letter to the police for a reward. Perfect then goes to confront Duplin about his plan and offers him $50,000 as a reward, Duplin then all of a sudden has the letter for the reward. Perfect is bamboozled and Duplin explains how he made it possible. 

Two things that interest me most are the Story of Duplin and Perfect. They are both in the same story but take on two completely different roles. Perfect seems to never find his answers and he is being manipulated by Duplin. Duplin states “”Yes,” said Dupin. “The measures adopted were not only the best of their kind, but carried out to absolute perfection. Had the letter been deposited within the range of their search, these fellows would, beyond a question, have found it.” The only reason this story took place is because of Duplin’s plot for the letter and money. Just like in ‘The Money’ by Diaz, even though the son stole back the money from his ‘friend’, he considered keeping the money for himself instead of giving it back to his mom. How Duplin also uses ‘Mathematicians’ to describe how people don’t really know the truth. Just like Plato stated in “The Republic’ “art is imattive’. In the text Duplin states “As a poet and as a mathematician, he would reason well; as a mere mathematician, he could not have reasoned at all.” Meaning Perfect doesn’t really know the truth or what’s going on.

In conclusion Both texts fall in the same idea of a double crime story .  In “The Money” by Junot Diaz, the language the author uses contributed to the main plot to happen. First the family was described as poor and barely making ends meet. Because of that it led the son not only to take his money back but think about keeping the money. This style of writing is very investigative in a way. For example when the money got stolen in ‘The money’ the son thought of many people who could have done it. The same thing applies to  ‘The Purloined letter’ , When Perfect and the cops tried so hard to find the letter, he just couldn’t and just kept looking. The two short stories also have very descriptive language that help develop a double crime story. Just like when Duplin had a secret plan, when perfect went to go confront him he offered a reward for the letter. Duplin then goes to give a very investigative description on how he obtained the letter.

 

or google link. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JETokD3FiDWNrw47m2B0Y70GBcNbphfcII5p49qn-Yg/edit

 

 

 

8 thoughts on “Essay two draft one”

  1. Great essay Marcus! I really like how you described “The Money” as a double crossing story. That is an interesting way to think about it, and I think, a great way to describe it. Your essay is good. Just make sure you reread it as I noticed a couple of grammatical errors like when you wrote, “leadining” in the first paragraph. I noticed that when you are using direct quotations from the story you have not been using in text citations to cite the author’s work as theirs. This can lead the reader to think that the work is your own, which would not be fair. Try to include (Author, pg #). After the quotations that you use, and make sure that you include a references page at the end of your essay. Otherwise, I think that you are off to a great start!!

  2. Hello Marcus,
    Fascinating essay. I like the way you used comparisons throughout this essay, the comparisons between both stories “The Money” and “The Purloined Letter”, and the characters of “ Duplin” and “Perfect”. Moreover, you did a great job by merging previous readings well into this essay “Just like Plato stated in “The Republic’ “art is imattive”. Looking forward to reading your final draft. Also make sure to include in-text citation in your essay and to include a reference page at the end of your essay.

  3. Hi Marcus,

    This is a great essay. I really liked your comparisons between The Money and The Purloined Letter and even Duplin and Perfect. I never thought about how Diaz thought about taking the money for himself because he came from a family with a lower income, great job on analyzing that. You do have a few grammatical errors throughout the essay so all I would suggest is going through and correcting those. Also, remember to cite throughout the essay using MLA citations and a citation reference at the end.

  4. Marcus, hello
    I must say I enjoyed the way you were able to change the story of “The Money ” into your own narration. Yow were telling the story from the point of view of both Diaz and yourself. There was a little grammatical error that needs to be corrected. Example” leadinding” I think you were trying to say leading. I advise you that when you revise your final paper you should correct the those mistakes and add a citation like an mla citation form. Good luck on your final paper.

  5. Hi Marcus,

    We both used the same comparison and I can relate to the same perception and interpretation between the Purloined Letter and the Money as you and I appreciate how you were able to convey the messages of the previous readings of Plato and your views on their piece of literature from the prior assignments. The only piece of help I can offer would just be to cite correctly in MLA format.

  6. Hi Marcus,

    As stated above this is a really strong piece. I enjoy how you tied it in to other works we have dissected in class. As previously stated remember to quote in MLA should be “Quote” (Author,Page number). Also remember to have an updated works cited page on your final draft.

  7. Marcus,

    You have a great essay here. I like how you related Diaz’s “The Money” text to your own personal life. You also brought up good points analyzing the literary elements and techniques used in the text. It helps to do that because it shows how the author conveys his message across to readers.
    You also need a works cited page, and make your docs link accessible. Remember to include in-text citations that show the author’s name, Title of text, and page number.

  8. “I can personally describe “The Money” by Diaz” as a double crossing story between a boy and a thief.” I love the strong start here! The only thing I have to say is the citations seem to be missing. After your quote make sure you have “(Author Last name, Pg#)” and an MLA format on the last page!

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