Rita Dove's Essay Loose Ends

1) Dove is not concerned that people mistake television for reality. Instead, they prefer television to their reality, as it is believed that television is more complex and interesting. Rita Dove illustrates this thought in paragraph 9 as she states, “It is not that we confuse TV with reality, but that we prefer it to reality… the sharped conflict and defined despair instead of vague anxiety and invisible enemies.” Additionally, television gives an easier tale to tell, as stated by Rita Dove in paragraph 10.

2) The thesis of the essay is that we find ourselves idolize the lifestyle displayed in television, therefore, television becomes our reality as it is a much easier story to tell.

3) The title of the essay “Loose Ends” is significant

In the essay the author is honest about peoples behaviors in life and how they idolize the lifestyle displayed on television than their own. For example, in paragraph 10 Rita Dove states, “Who isn’t tempted to ignore the inexorable fact of our insignificance on a dying planet? We all yearn for our private patch of blue.” In this quote, Rita illustrates that people are very ignorant about life and its negative significances. Rita is very straightforward and honest about such situation. In another example, in paragraph 10, Dove states, “Life, on the other hand, slithers about and runs down blind alleys and sometimes just fizzles at the climax.” Rita demonstrates that we see life experiences as boring so we prefer television as it gives the full story with every detail making it much more intriguing for the people.

5) A) Juxtaposition – “ “Life, my friends, is boring. We must not say so,” wrote John Berryman, and many years and “Dream Songs” later he leapt from a bridge in Minneapolis” (Paragraph 9) In this example of juxtaposition the author of the quote states that life is boring but we must make it fun and see the positive side. Later, however, the author commits suicide. This is significant because John Berryman who believed that we should not say life if boring is later compared to how he committed suicide. This illustrates the contrast between the two comparisons and creates