Assessing the Assessment

Maslin describes 35Up as “growing increasingly rueful with age.” (Maslin) I beg to differ, but to a certain extent. I believe it presents a more personal side of the participants. Whereas in the past prequels (i.e. 7Up, 21Up and 28Up) the participants expressed their opinion on a certain topic or answered one of Apted’s questions, by 35Up they are confessing secrets and showing a more vulnerable, human side that goes through ups and downs in life. Such was the case with Suzy, who had experienced the sickness and death of one of her parents and Tony, who confessed cheating on his wife, Debbie. However, the prior was not always the rule. We are presented cases which evidence that some of the participants are indeed (what Maslin calls) “drooping a bit”: “The study's less obvious casualties are Jackie, Lynn and Sue, three working-class women who variously married early, became single parents, took on dead-end jobs…  And Symon, the study's only black participant, had five children and a sausage-packing job at 28." (Maslin)

Maslin points out that the series has become much more than a documentary which depicts England’s social-economic disparities. It also reveals “a reality that cannot be found in nature… an astonishingly intensive view of their [the participants’] lives and evolution.” (Maslin) I could not agree more. We are presented with how socialization takes place among the participants, who are of diverse class, gender and race, with a single factor in common, age, and how such factors (or their social location) could shape their lives over times. She further argues that Apted’s original goal was “to study the effects of privilege or the lack thereof, but he leaves it to viewers to draw their own conclusions.” (Maslin) We can evidences this with Bruce, who at age 7 wanted to be missionary while attending a pre-preparatory boarding school and at age 21 was reading Math in Oxford University. Due to his family class, he was most likely to teach in one of the schools he studied in; however by age 28 Bruce was teaching in one of London’s less privileged schools at the East End and by age 35 lived and taught in Bangladesh, accomplishing the goal he described as a child. The audience might agree that although he advocates a noble cause, he did not make the most of his opportunities in contrast to other participants, such as John, who through his education and privileges became a successful barrister.

Finally, Maslin notices that the Jesuit Maxim does not apply to all participants and some “contradict it in fascinating ways”. (Maslin) Nicholas and Neil were the exceptions. While Nicholas, who was a small farm boy at age 7, “subsequently earned his Ph.D. in physics and now [at age 35] teaches at the University of Wisconsin”, Neil, who was “outstandingly winning and handsome at 7, … was by 28 a homeless derelict, mentally unstable” and at age 35 still a lost cause, regardless of being “a person of exceptional intelligence and thoughtfulness.” (Maslin)

As evidenced earlier, “many of Mr. Apted's former 7-year-olds have begun to squirm under the burden of such scrutiny”, but not all of them. 

Reference:

Maslin, Janet. "Review/Film; That '7 Up' Group Is 35 Years Old Now, And Drooping a Bit." New York Times[New York] 15 Jan 1992, n. pag. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. .

*Note: Some parts of the response may have a larger font than other. My blogger is having problems with this.

Reflection On My Sociological Essay

I believe personal essays have a greater appeal to the reader; however, I do not enjoy writing them as much as I like to write formal essays. It’s weird, I know. Each person I have told this to tends to finds such fact odd since personal essays are “easier to write”. I beg to differ. I have always had difficulties writing personal essays mainly because I do not talking much about myself. Some might say the reason is because I am a private person.  Since my essay #3, Nicholas: Just a small town boy? , was not personal I did not find it challenging. I enjoyed writing this essay because it permitted me to apply so much of what I’ve learn as a Sociology major student in a course which is not from my major. I felt excited, like a kid in Christmas or as if I was being tested on my sociological knowledge. It’s a weird feeling to explain, but hopefully as a writer you might understand me.

 If I could choose to add something to my essay it would probably be the page length. Nicholas is a very complex and interesting character and I felt that I left a lot unsaid because I did not want to write more than the maximum amount of pages or bore you to death with a bunch of sociological theories and terms.

 This essay was different than the past ones because I felt comfortable writing it, which might be noticeable in my flow of ideas (or throughout the content).  Also, I did not feel limited in my use of resources. As a formal essay, I was able to cite multiple sources! I know that I could have been able to do so in the past essays; however, because they were personal essays I think the citations would have made the content a bit odd.                                                                

 I am a strong believer that writing can improve and essay #3 is not the exception. If I had the option to improve the essay I would have infused more of my voice because I acknowledge that the reader sometimes likes to read the writer’s personal opinion rather than him or her giving insight on a topic. Regardless of the changes, I do not regret what I wrote or how the essay resulted.

Mission Statement

My mission statement for essay #3 is to explain how the character of my choice, Nicholas, was destined to be greater than how he was portrayed in 7 Up. I want to provide insight into how his socialization was different in comparison to the rest of the Up Series’ children, and influenced his life choices. Also, I want to explain how futures tend to be predicted without taking into consideration the child or his changes, but his family. Finally, I want to prove how the Jesuit Maxim is incorrect because it undermines a child’s ability to change over time.

Finding Your Voice

On Voice and Telling the Story, Telling the Truth, Guillermoprieto and Orlean address the importance of expressing your voice when writing. As Orlean argues, “voice is -as the world tells us- the way a writer talks.” (159)  By incorporating our voice, we no longer write facts but learn to tell stories that speak to our readers.

They use their personal experiences to depict how they developed a writer’s voice. Guillermoprieto narrates that reporting news led her to find her voice, “my driving desire as a writer is to make it impossible for the U.S. reader to ignore Latin America. I do that by telling stories. Stories are the opposite of hard news…” (155) Orlean explains how reading out loud helped her hear how she told her story, “I find that sometimes when I give reading of my published work, I skip parts that seem boring to me. Then I wonder, would it have been better to edit that out in the first place? When you read aloud, extraneous material falls away.”(158)

In each of the past readings (I have done for my English course) I have disliked some of the author’s quotes or opinions. However, after rereading these pieces I found the exception to the rule: I did not dislike any of Guillermoprieto or Orlean’s views. If anything, I found admiring how much preparation and time these women put into their writings, “I do enormous amounts of reading before I begin reporting…Once I begin to write, I spend days and days working on a lede” (Guillermoprieto 156); “I have to sit at my desk and really work at finding the strongest image possible.” (Orlean 159)

I absolutely loved how Guillermoprieto quoted my favorite book and author, One Hundred Years of Solitude and Gabriel García Márquez, to exemplify how people tend to be ignorant towards people and events outside of their comfort- zone, ““He spends the rest of his life saying, “There was this massacre,” to which people respond, “You’re crazy. That never happened.” I never stopped being angry about that.” (155) Reading this made me reminiscence on how the massacre of the banana plantation workers had struck me when I read it in the book. I could easily relate the moral of the story to daily life experiences in Dominican Republic, where politicians act ignorant to the effects of their corruption on the poor.

After thinking about how much I enjoyed the writings, I asked myself, how were these pieces different from the prior (I had read)?  A single answer came to mind: I could relate to every word they said and apply advises given.  In past writing assignments I had been advised to not be robotically formal in my writing. My writing fellow encouraged me to incorporate more of my voice rather than just explaining facts. If I had read these pieces earlier, I would have prevented many headaches from thinking what I should and should not say in my essays!  Through these pieces I learned that like Guillermoprieto and Orlean, we can all struggle in finding our voice. Among some of the advises provided by them were: to be specific and hook the readers through the details, to blend information, observation and my reaction to the material or assignment in question, change the story’s pace and read your stories out loud. It may take time, but by applying these steps (or advises) and through hard work or harsh experiences we can get there.

Reflection on my writing

Personal essays have a greater appeal to the reader by narrating stories with feelings, conflicts and dramas in which the writer can become different characters at the same time.  I always enjoy writing them because feel like I can get away from all the formality and express myself as I would among family and friends. Born and Raised: Change is inevitable, my essay #2, was no different. Even though it was a simple topic to write about, it required me to recollect past experiences, which were not always the best. I drafted and redrafted the essay over and over again because I did not want to over-expound personal details of my life at ages seven and fourteen. Despite of my attempts, I still believe I was a bit too personal. If I had the opportunity, I would omit some of the things I mentioned and would infuse more analysis into (why I had) some of my thoughts and (did certain) actions at those ages. I believe that the changes would have given the essay an adequate balance of analysis and emotion, rather than conveying more of one side than of the other.  I do not regret what I wrote or how the essay resulted, but I do believe there was room for improvement.

Ethics in personal writing

Ethics in Personal Writing and Taking Liberties: The Ethics of the Truth depicts how two women of different races, background and class can be connected on a similar issue. Dickerson and Ung explain (their connection) how personal experiences have led them to make radical decisions and cross ethical boundaries. Seeking justice for her assaulted nephew, Dickerson admits, “I had to lie through my teeth to get this story.”(185) While facing a family dilemma as well, Ung claims, “in the narrative of Lucky Child, I claim my sister’s story as my own- an imaginative premise.” (Ung 187)

It would be dishonest of me to say I agreed with all of their actions. I do not. I believe both Dickerson and Ung could have used other methods rather than lies, regardless if it was for a cause.  Also, despite letting her family read her memoir drafts, I did not like how Dickerson was reluctant to let anyone read her drafts or change her family-inspired writings, “tell me what bothers you and I’ll think about it. I made no promises.”  Her family members had the write to an opinion if they believed to be portrayed incorrectly or biased in the writings. Rather than admitting the possibility of an error, Dickerson gives reasons to her defense, “I believe it’s condescending only if you think there’s something wrong with the way people talk.” (186)

I have always been family oriented. More than once I have found myself stating that nothing matters more to me than my family. I liked how this was the case with both writers, “my allegiance to them [her family] trumped my allegiance to journalism” (Dickerson 186-187); “whatever I achieve is shared with my family, Lucky Child has been, from the outset, our collective achievement.” (Ung 188)

I could easily relate to these women. I would not be human if I said my life has been all about rainbows and butterflies. I have also experienced harsh times and believe, as an old Proverb says, “desperate times call for desperate measures.” I still do not agree with their lies, but I think Dickerson and Ung had noble intentions at heart, to discover the truth behind a crime and be a voice for the forgotten Cambodian women. They were misunderstood by others, “some of my non-writer friends thought the idea of writing about the guy who had shot and paralyzed my nephew was horribly exploitative” (Dickerson 185); “Some Khmer people told me: Let the dead stay buried.” (Ung 187) 

At times, I wished I could have changed certain circumstances my family was going through, but all I could do was write documents or letters that could help ease the problem.  Although I have not faced grave experiences as the writers (which I must point out seemed like plots to Drama films), I relate the most with how their families’ experiences enabled them to go the extra mile as they could, through their writing.

Reference: Dickerson, Debra. “Ethics in Personal Writing” And Ung, Loung. “Taking Liberties: The Ethics of the Truth.”Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writer’s Guide form the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. New York: Plume, 2007. Print.

The Spirit of Vision

On The Spirit of Vision: Writing from the Inside/Outside, Chang argues the importance of accepting every aspect of who we are in order to understand our own view of the world and others’. She sets herself as an example of how rejecting her cultural past over the years had changed the understanding of her world, “I found that it was easier to keep my home culture at home and assimilate at school… I had erased my ethnicity”, and her view of others, “at school, I crinkled my little nose at the other Koreans who exposed their Korean ways to the world. I laughed at them.”  (Chang, 46)

While reading through the first paragraphs of the article I thought, “How could I possibly like or relate to the work of someone that negates part of her identity?”  I obviously disliked some of the things Chang narrated, but to my surprise I found myself liking,relating and even respecting her experience. I did not like how Chang rejected anything involving Korean heritage; however, I understood the reasons she did so. An experience, either positive or negative, can change us and, suddenly, we might never be the same. “My hand had been slapped, and my medium of expression retreated deep inside like an insecurity. This was my first experience writing.” (Chang, 46) Being scolded at her first experience writing changed Chang negatively; however, this is not always the case. Discovering my grandmother’s journal has made me passionate for writing, a positive change. 

Also, Chang found easier to silence her past and assimilate to her present. After years gone by, she realized her error during the tutor training seminars. “In the seminars… I allowed the silent part of my cultural past to unfold through reflections encouraged in the seminar.” (Chang, 46)  I did not like the attitude she assumed.  I believe that a person should not prolong the redemption of his or her problems and if Chang felt uncomfortable with her cultural background, she should have taken action or reflected on negating her heritage long before her sophomore year.

Ironically, despite not liking a couple of her initial views, I can relate to not accepting completely my cultural background. Since I was a child I have been taught to be proud of my Dominican heritage, which I am; however, I do not necessarily favor all Dominican traditions, views or attitudes. I personally find absurd to eat rice and beans every day, to applaud after your flight lands or to speak loud all the time, but I would not negate or reject my culture because of these aspects.

Chang realized the error in her ways. I absolutely liked her change, regardless of the time it took her. Accepting her cultural background influenced her greatly, “my culture wrapped me like a warm and comfortable blanket to stand up for who I am, to speak with a louder voice than I had before.” (Chang, 47) Chang’s new state aided the students she tutored that felt as she had in the past. Most importantly, her newly recovered heritage provided her with a new vision of her world, her inside, and of others’ worlds, the outside. Being able to appreciate, accept and embrace such visions was Chang’s greatest accomplishment. This I respect the most.

 *Reference : Chang, L. (2010). The spirit of vision: Writing from the inside/outside. The Writing Center Journal, 30(1), 46-47.