Fluent Essays

Discussion 6 - Two Ways of Seeing a River Purpose In Lessons 3, 4, and 5 we investigated some elements that will be important to your rough draft and final paper. This discussion is designed to allow us to recognize how a famous American writer, over 100 years ago, used these elements in a compare and contrast essay. Maybe you will gain some ideas or inspiration from his writing. Instructions There are two parts to this discussion. By Friday you will make an initial post to the discussion based on the prompt given below. Note: You will not see the submissions of your classmates until you have posted to the discussion. By Sunday you will reply to one (1) of your classmates posts. Both of these elements are graded. Answer everything in complete sentences. Part 1: Your Initial Post (due Friday) In your initial discussion post, answer only one (1) of the following questions, based on Reading 6—Two ways of seeing a river.  Write 4-8 sentences, using one direct quotation from the reading. The direct quotation should be less than 25\% of your answer.  Direct quotations are always enclosed in quotation marks. Do not answer all four of these.  Answer only one. At the top of your post, indicate whether you answered number 1, 2, 3, or 4. What are the two subjects being compared and at what point in the essay do you first understand what these two subjects are (explain)? (Do not answer by only re-writing the title—thats not good enough, because it only hints that there are two ways, but it doesnt indicate what these two ways are.) What is the thesis? In other words, what is the central assertion that Twain makes throughout the essay? See the page Writing a Thesis Statement from Lesson 5. Describe one observation that Twain makes which goes beyond the obvious to offer insights which the reader may have never considered before?  See the page Going Beyond the Obvious from Lesson 4.  How does Twain use the concluding paragraph (3) to extend his ideas beyond a summary, to give the reader something more to think about? See the page Writing Conclusions from Lesson 3.493 Two Ways of Seeing a River ■ Mark Twain Samuel L. Clemens (1835–1910), who wrote under the pen name of Mark Twain, was born in Florida, Missouri, and raised in Hannibal, Missouri. He wrote the novels Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1882), Huckleberry Finn (1884), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889), as well as many other works of fiction and nonfiction. One of America’s most popular writers, Twain is generally regarded as the most important practitioner of the realis- tic school of writing, a style that emphasizes observable details. The following passage is taken from Life on the Mississippi (1883), Twain’s study of the great river and his account of his early experiences learning to be a river steamboat pilot. As you read the passage, notice how Twain makes use of figurative lan- guage in describing two very different ways of seeing the Mississippi River. Reflecting on What You Know As we age and gain experience, our interpretation of the same memory — or how we view the same scene — can change. For example, the way we view our own appearance changes all the time, and photos from our childhood or teenage years may sur- prise us in the decades that follow. Perhaps something we found amusing in our younger days may make us feel uncomfortable or embarrassed now, or perhaps the house we grew up in later seems smaller or less appealing than it used to. Write about a memory that has changed for you over the years. How does your interpre- tation of it now contrast with how you experienced it earlier? Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost something which 1 C o p y ri g h t b y A .F . B ra d le y, N .Y ./ L ib ra r y o f C o n g re ss 21_ROS_6784_ch19_487_516.indd 49321_ROS_6784_ch19_487_516.indd 493 22/10/14 4:29 PM22/10/14 4:29 PM Reading 6 494 CHAPTER 19 – COMPARISON AND CONTRAST could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry, had gone out of the majestic river! I still kept in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steamboating was new to me. A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a soli- tary log came floating, black and conspicuous; in one place a long, slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water; in another the surface was broken by boiling, tumbling rings that were as many tinted as an opal;1 where the ruddy flush was faintest was a smooth spot that was covered with graceful circles and radiating lines, ever so delicately traced; the shore on our left was densely wooded, and the somber shadow that fell from this forest was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail that shone like silver; a