Writing Assignment #1
1. "Ducks on a Pond" by Mark Sibley-Jones
2. I believe the main arguement of the text is that the past can't be forgotten but you can move on from it and live your life happily.
3. p. 259 halfway down the page: "I couldn't shake the image of his careening off the curb, the sight of the car swerving. I'd dreamed too many times as a child of the accident at the mill. I wondered how my father, so graceful and surefooted, had managed to fall toward the spinner. He'd have been chewed to bits if not for Mixson. Neither Dad nor Mama told me the full story, but talk circulated in the mill village. Sometimes I'd wake up in a sweat, thinking I was hearing the puncture of the eyeball and the grinding of bone in the teeth of the machine, only to race into the next room and find Mom sewing on her Singer."
4. The section where Mixson is almost run over is important, in that, while Mixson shrugs the near death experience off and goes on his way, Baxter and Carl are shaken and berate Mixson for not being careful. Carl even guides Mixson across the street showing that he's worried one of the cars might run him over despite all of them being stopped. Mixson is clearly happy to just keep moving forward while Carl and Baxter are more worried about keeping him completely safe from harm.
5. No significant rhyme, rhythm, or alliteration.
6. It contributes in that it shows that people shouldn't worry so much and that they should keep moving forward in life rather than trying to spot every danger.
Thesis: Life is to be enjoyed and experienced, and worrying about every little thing and staying focused on the past will not get you anywhere.
Writing Assignment #2
The short story "Ducks on a Pond" by Mark Sibley-Jones is a story about a grandfather and his grandson's trip to the park. However underneath all that is something far deeper. Life is to be enjoyed and experienced, and worrying about every little thing and staying focused on the past will not get you anywhere. The reader must look at how Mixson and Baxter go about their day at the park and pay attention to how different their reactions to certain things are. This story is all about moving forward in life and not letting your past drag you down.
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5 comments:
I thought this was a good analysis of the overall theme of the story. I am also writing on this story and had a similar idea to you, but not exact, so it was helpful to see what someone else thought the central theme was.
Devin,
this is a very good choice of passage. You also did a godd job articulating the main point of the whole story. However, your paper and your thesis should be focused on this particular incident: how old Mixscon’s narrow escape from being run over by a car gives the narrator flashbacks about his childhood nightmares. Why do you think it makes the narrator remember his childhood nightnares about the accident? How is it connected to what just happened to old Mixson? What kind of memory is it? What does it tell us about the role of that old accident in the narator’s life/ how does it tie back to the main idea of the story that you have identified as “Life is to be enjoyed and experienced, and worrying about every little thing and staying focused on the past will not get you anywhere”?
I agree with your ideas on the message of the story but think you should concentrate on how the passage reflects the overall meaning of the whole story. Rather than focusing on the meaning behind the entire story.
I really like your analysis about this short story. I like how you said it is important for people to enjoy life and not always focus on the past. I wrote something similar to this in my analysis as well, except focusing more on Baxter. I like how you are bringing both Baxter and Mixson into the spotlight.
I like the way you analyzed the main theme of the story. However, you may need to narrow the paper down to one important event and tie in how the other events in the story relate to that one event.
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