Personal Narrative: Breaking Out Of Schoolwork

When Sal thought about her mom she thought about blackberries. And she always talked and wrote about Blackberries. This shows Sal loves blackberries. The last thing Sal loved about Bybanks was the singing tree. When Sal’s mom was still with Sal they would hang out at the singing tree and it would always sing but when Sal’s mom left the tree did not sing anymore.

Merriam-Webster defines imagery as “language that causes people to imagine pictures in their mind.” When an experienced writer uses imagery, that is exactly what happens, pictures form in the reader’s mind. In her short story “The Storm”, Kate Chopin uses imagery to describe Calixta, Alcee, and the thunderstorm. To begin, let us focus on Mrs. Chopin’s description of Calixta. When Chopin introduces Calixta, she is stationed by a window “sewing furiously on a sewing machine”(6). At first, she is oblivious to the storm and trouble it may bring.

I have to squint my eyes to make out what 's in front of me. I can see my breath when I breathe out. I can hear the snow crunching underneath my thick wool boots and fuzzy socks, and can hear the sound of my own breathing. The faint howling of the wind sounds like ghosts swarming the city on Halloween. I notice an old abandoned, dilapidated house far off in the distance, in desperate need for a new paint job.

In fact, I haven’t seen much before because I have never ventured far from the house. It was like there was a infarct around the cabin. The snowy owl drifted through the air, piercing the snow just like a sword piercing a piece of paper. Faith drove me to the side of the road where two dogs came up to me. I immediately sniffed them and they smelt strangely familiar.

Her parents frantically search for her, and eventually find her cheerfully reciting Edgar Allen Poe, author of The Raven, to a group of people. In a later chapter, “Joe”, a raven comes out of Yolanda’s throat and lands on her bureau. It then attacks Dr. Payne, her doctor that she is in love with. Alvarez writes that “She tries to laugh, but instead of laughter, she feels ticklish wings unfolding like a fan at the base of her throat. [...] A huge, black bird springs out; it perches on her bureau, looking just like the etching of the raven in Yo’s first English poetry book.” (82).

An example from this expert includes, “There was a finished silence after that so that for the first time they could hear the wind picking at the pine trees. It made Pheoby think of Sam waiting for her and getting fretful. It made Janie think about the room upstairs- her bedroom. Pheoby hugged Janie real hard and cut the darkness in flight.” As one reads those words, they can truly imagine all of those events in which Hurston describes. One can picture all of the characters mentioned and what they are imagining in great detail, Janie thinking of her bedroom and the location and even Phoeby hugging Janie hard.

Crickets rub their wings in tune for anybody to listen. An inconspicuous companion hurries underneath the fallen leaves, as an owl above asks who is there. Heading back towards the house, I absorb all the magnificence of the encompassing scene. There are towering forests of trees, river beds lined with wildflowers discharging delightful scents, and dusks that astonish. Still, I walk warily.

It was early September and the autumn leaves were ripe with vibrant colors as the wind blows on that lukewarm day. While the beautiful day was taking place, I was in a windowless classroom. The curiosity within me was yearning for what would happen in this dull prison called a classroom. How did a simple flyer simply stating, “Criminal Justice Club at Jerome Hall on Tuesday” entice me away from a gorgeous day? A tall ominous woman walked the narrow aisle between the old wooden desk.

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, home to Janie is a place that has both positive and negative associations- the pear tree. Janie constantly goes to the pear tree for comfort; it is her place of happiness, peace and her love life. At the same time, Janie has the pear tree embedded in her mind. She constantly compares her partners to the pear tree and what their love should be like; so when the thought of an unwelcoming incident pops up in her head, he is tarnishing her pear tree. At sixteen, Janie’s grandmother caught her kissing Johnny Taylor; Janie spends most of her day under the pear tree in her backyard with her mind-boggling questions on virginity, love and marriage.

In the short story “Checkouts” by Cynthia Rylant the word checkout was used in many different ways in the story. An example of how “Checkouts” is used in the story was when the girl was checking out her groceries. An example of my statement is “Standing in the checkout line” (Rylant 25). This quote explains my statement because it says how the girl was in the checkout line getting ready to buy her food. The author shows the main reason the girl goes to the grocery store was because it calms her, she was apprehensive that she just moved to Cincinnati, the quote on page 24, “She loved to grocery shop.

The only way Annie found she could concentrate in class is if she were drawing; she states, “During classes all morning, I drew.” Drawing helped relieve some of her tension and anxiety. Annie would draw all over her books, in any whitespace she could find and, in a way, it annoyed her that she did it so compulsively. Annie’s teachers even tolerated her passion for art; one teacher, Miss McBride let her paint in the back of the classroom. As school ended, she began to realize that there is another world outside of her classroom, a world she glimpsed in the poetry she began reading. Annie would leave for Hollins College soon, and imagined herself like the moth her teacher had released into the world, crawling, and not flying, out of the school.

Often, children create urban legends about people, like the descriptions of the Radley Family and Miss Lottie in the stories To Kill a Mockingbird and Marigolds. The Radley Family in To Kill a Mockingbird are described as very secretive, and very secluded which causes them to not keep up with their yard, further making the legend for the children. “Rain-rotted shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak trees kept the sun away.”. Due to the setting of the Radley estate, the legend is perpetuated. Miss Lottie is a very ancient being to the children, making her origin unknown, making the legend go on.

“Caroline,” the fog whispered that night, when the lights were out, the house as quiet as a tomb. “Who said that?” Caroline asked, sitting upright in her bed. Before she could stop, her feet pressed on the cold floor. The fog opened his arms wide and welcomed her. She followed him up the street, past the harbour and down the long winding road to the graveyard.

After Jessica leaves, many students were making twisted stories of what they thought killed Anne and burned Jessica so badly. At the end of the day, Jeff asks Tom to come over after school. Tom declines and makes an excuse. Then Mrs.Tracy asks Tom to bring Jessica’s homework to her, since she lived nearby. Jeff gets upset because Tom lied about having something to do.

Everything was crazy while the wedding was being planned but I just steered my wheel away from it, avoiding it. But finally I had to embrace it because I kind of had to be at the wedding. Things get a little blurry and wild from here on but I remember a couple things. Sitting down watching my sister walk up the through the chairs in a beautiful sparkling white dress. My sister and that guy said many things up there, he even made up a cute poem for her.