Coming Home Again and Tracks and Ties

Coming Home Again

The description of action that readers can see in this piece is almost always about cooking. Whether the mother or the son is cooking, readers can follow along and feel as if they are in the kitchen too. The descriptions of how the author chops or mixes the ingredients in the food are the action of this story.

The speech aspect of this story can be seen when the author has convesations with his mother. One particular example is when the mother asked the author to help her and call the bank because her English wasn’t great. The author speaks to his mother in a cruel way and tells her to practice, which really upsets her. The speech really helps define their relationship.

Thought can be seen throughout this entire essay. When the author looks back on his life, readers can see all his thoughts about what was going on then and what it means to him now. Many times in this story, the author looks back on his actions or lack of action with regret.

The physical description of this story is seen when the author describes his mother in the first paragraph. The details aren’t exact, but after reading that paragraph, readers understand that the mother is sick with cancer and is in a very fragile state. She has trouble breathing and it is almost as if the family is expecting her to pass away at anytime.

Tracks and Ties

There is alot of action that takes place in this story. Much of the story follows the boys through their days as teenagers, when they were in and out of trouble. A good description of action is when the boys jump on to the truck and have to hang on for dear life because the truck driver is accelerating to try and throw the boys off.

There really is not a whole lot of speech in this essay. The only time readers really see anyone speaking is when the boy who later ended up being murdered, said “Shit man, the screem’s broken”. This passage really shows how the author thinks the way the boy is talking is weird, even for the kind of boys they are. It starts to show seperation of class.

The thought catergory in this essay is pretty small. The biggest example I can think of is when the author thinks about his friend being murdered by his wife. He thinks about how he grew up with his friend and thought he knew him pretty well, but when he looks back he never really did. It shows how the author didn’t think his friend would turn out to be a wife beater.

The physical description in this essay can be seen when the author describes the clothes his friend was wearing, how everyone’s hair looked, and how they needed to shave. It can also been seen when the author describes his friend’s mother. He says she was wearing sweat pants and a sweater, dyed hair, and a coldsore on her lip.

Tracks and Ties

Tracks and Ties follows young boys through their rough childhood. This memoir is harder to understand than the other one we read. I think what the boys want is to find a sense of security and peace, especially the kid who ended up being murdered later on. It seems like they didn’t have the most stable childhood, so that is how I came to that conclusion. I think that when the narrators friend is murdered, he is sad because it was his friend, but at the same time he believed that he deserved it. There are many mixed emotions and ideas in this memoir.

Coming Home Again

I think that in the memoir Coming Home Again, the author really wishes he had payed more attention to his family life. I think after his mom dies he is relieved that she doesn’t have to suffer, but at the same time he really misses her. I think he wishes he didn’t go away to school and resent his family so much because he doesn’t have a complete family anymore. I also think he wishes that he had spent more time paying attention to the details his mother brought to the family through her cooking.

Somehow Form a Family

Overall, I didn’t really like this memoir. It seemed to be written in a stream of conscience kind of style and it was really hard to keep track of what was going on. I thought the details that the writer talked about were good. It amazes me that the writer remembers every single TV show and time they were on.

The concrete sensory details provided in this memoir were really helpful to readers. The author described himself and his family in close detail so it allowed the readers to feel a connection with the author. The reader also closely described his neighbors and what they were like and where they lived so readers could picture the neighborhood.

The abstract reasoning that was presented in this essay was less than the sensory detail. When the author talked about his family and what they were like he used abstract reasoning to explain that even though they were poor they were still good, clean people. I think that someone looking back would say that, but as a child I’m not sure the author would understand that. It is easy to see when the author was using abstract reasoning because when it occurred the author was looking back on a memory and he tried to explain it instead of just telling details.