ENG1141
Creative Writing
Formal Critique
Reviewer’s Name: Angelica Salazar
Title of Piece: The First Day
Author’s Name: Edward P. Jones
Plot
What was your first day of school like in the classroom?
Characters
I like how in the Short story the author, Edward P Jones does a great job in using details and dialogue to show how his mothers personality and character. In the way she is described we can tell that she was new to being a parent in the way the documents that she was pulling out of her bag to enroll him in school were taken out. We can also tell she is a person who has faith in God.
Point of View
What makes you ashamed of your mother?
I like that this is all his recollection of the day he was first enrolled to elementary school. He gives a lot of detail to portray the story of his enrolment from the beginning till the end. I thought it was interesting to read how he portrayed his mother to be as well.
Setting & Context
I enjoyed how the author used many details to give us an image of what had occurred on the day he was first taken to enroll in school. It was interesting how he started off with the description of him getting his hair braided to finish with the sound of his mother’s shoes as she left the school. I liked how Jones was very tentative to details.
How did you feel when your mother left you that first day of classes?
Dialogue
In the dialogue aspect of the story I really enjoyed how you can tell that his mother was someone who wasn’t afraid to speak up on whatever subject. She was honest and isn’t afraid to ask for help when regarding her son. I also that when the mother is speaking to the first lady at the Seaton elementary school you can tell she may have a southern accent.
Was there anything you remember saying to your mother before she left you for school?
Hi Angelica, I agree that the author used a great amount of detail. Especially when the author wrote about the papers that the mother toke out in order to admit her daughter into the school. The author wrote specific papers that the mother needed. This shows that the author researched what type of papers are needed to admit a child into a school.
Hi Angelica, I agree with Amna as you said in your setting & context section the author was great giving the reads the amount of detailed which made it easy to following along with the story being able to understand with what was going on.Also with the characters it was like the author was allowing the readers to visual the characters