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The essay to the left is entitled "Snow Day," and was written by humorist David Sedaris. It is a narrative essay, so by definition, it is light on reflection. What I want you to take away from this essay is how he uses a simple premise, a snow day, to dig into a deeper, more traumatic event--his mother's alcoholism.
It would be wise to go through the essay and pick out three or four of your favorite descriptions. For one, notice how he sets up the premise of the snow day by calling North Carolina winters "frustratingly mild". He makes us think that, finally, the students will have this great day off of school. And then there's the whole mother thing. You don't necessarily have to annotate the short piece, but pay attention to how crisp and descriptive the language is. Sedaris doesn't waste time describing scarves or describing the snow. He's documenting action, and the character's response to that action. Pay attention to that if nothing else. |