⇊ Reading Response to Personal Narratives ⇊

Ah. Personal narratives. Something we have been working on in class since the beginning of school. Today, I will be responding to Us and Them from Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. This narrative took me forever to annotate because there is so much to respond to. First, I'll start how the paragraphs flow. Each paragraph has a new idea, and the story line never stays in one spot. Also, the word choice added to my understanding. "I wanted to know what this something was, and so I began peering through the Tomkey's windows." When I read this word (bolded and underlined)  along with the context, I really felt as if this was something secret, private, and something that he is not supposed to do. "I would creep into their yard and hide in the bushes beside their fence." This example makes me feel like what he is doing is childish. Peculiar word choice can really change how you interpret a situation. I also noticed some foreshadowing, at least in my opinion. "Before leaving, they had left a coffee can full of gumdrops on the front porch, alongside a sign reading DON'T BE GREEDY." This is foreshadowing the event of the main character did not want to give any of his candy to the Tomkey's so he started to fill his entire mouth with candy bars.

This narrative was very well written and I enjoyed reading it. As I was reading this narrative, I thought about To Kill a Mockingbird and how Scout and the other kids always were wondering about Boo and the Radley family. Scout was always trying to figure out what they were up to and so did the main character in this narrative, except he was trying to spy on the Tomkey's. This was well written because it had so many vivid details and personal experiences